What we eat every day leaves a significant footprint on our planet. This visual journey breaks down the Austrian food matrix: from our country's macroscopic production volumes to the hidden ecological costs of seemingly simple foods like cheese, all the way to the complex biochemical networks embedded in our food. Explore the invisible connections between consumption, nature, and biology.
Learn more ﹀Austria is a country known for its wines and beer, as well as for other cuisines such as beef soup, apple strudel, and, of course, schnitzel. These are just a few among many great dishes Austrians enjoy on a day-to-day basis. However, this is only true from the perspective of the consumer, because when viewed under the lens of Austria's industry, the picture changes quite drastically.
So, let's start of by comparing Austria's annual food production with the average consumption of an Austrian.
This chart is interactive, click on the arrow symbols or their labels to change a metric's ordering!
Next ﹀Creating dairy products requires a staggering amount of resources. To produce just 1 kg of hard cheese, Austrian dairies process roughly 10 liters of raw milk, leaving behind 9 liters of liquid whey and water loss.
While this physical mass balance looks straightforward, the true environmental toll remains hidden beneath the surface.
Different foods require different means of productions; our food originates from many diverse environments, with each product needing its own unique procedure before it can end up on our plate. The following visualization shows a plethora of food products and their impact on the environment.
One glance at the scatter plot, and you will quickly notice that some products have a small, far less noticeable freshwater withdrawal foodprint than, for example, cheese. This is why we have given you the option to interact with and explore this data yourself!
These are the controls:
Food is a complex, interconnected matrix of chemical compounds. This interactive sandbox below maps the direct pathways from whole foods to their underlying micronutrients and biological impacts. Go ahead - explore the network and let the connections surprise you!
How to explore:Our data exploration reveals that food is fundamentally interconnected, serving as a bridge between global resources and biochemistry. A simple choice like buying cheese carries a heavy ecological burden, hiding a complex footprint of land use and emissions beneath the surface. To make sustainable choices, we must understand the profound link between a food's nutritional value and its environmental cost. Every choice matters, for our bodies, and our planet.
The datasets that were used are from the following sources: