11. Sugar
It’s well known sugar has a host of negative impacts on your health, but fewer know the toll sugar production takes on the environment. Not only does sugar require a large amount of water to produce (88 gallons is needed to produce just five pounds of sugar), the fertilizer-heavy cultivation often results in chemicals leaching into freshwater rivers and streams.
12. Dairy
The dairy industry poses many of the same environmental problems as beef does, since it comes from the same source. But because you can get milk on an ongoing basis from a dairy cow, the carbon footprint is much lower. Milk can be as low as 2.6 pounds of CO2 per pound of food. Meanwhile, butter is at the high end, producing up to 26.5 pounds!