Environmental impact of the production of food of animal origin in the opinion of the surveyed group of polish consumers

Background. The livestock sector is nowadays considered one of those areas of human activity that has a significant impact on the environment, due to, among other things, large water footprint, greenhouse gas emissions, as well as the over-exploitation and changed utilization of natural areas. Reducing the consumption of products of animal origin, especially beef, is therefore widely regarded as an important step that humanity should take to reduce the environmental footprint of food. This study aimed to analyze the opinion of consumers on the environmental impact of livestock production ( particularly, meat in general, milk and eggs), and their motives for limiting the consumption of such food. The survey covered 163 respondents, strongly represented by women (85 %), people with higher education or students (89 %), aged 21 ÷ 30 (74 %). Results and conclusions. More than half of the respondents expressed the opinion that meat produc tion exerted a negative impact on the environment, while less than a half had a similar opinion about dairy and egg production. They most often perceived water and carbon footprint as important issues, while only a limited percentage paid attention to the problem of the exploitation and transformation of land for animal production purposes. A half of the respondents declared that they limited or excluded meat and/or other products of animal origin from their diet. Among the motives for such a restriction, they mentioned pri marily health (44 %) and ethical (30 %) reasons. Only 11 % indicated care for the environment as the reason. The study points to the need to educate consumers about the impact of livestock production on the environment, including the key indicators. Such education should take into account divergencies in the environmental footprint of specific raw materials and food of animal origin, and of various livestock rearing systems.