Embedded Files
By: Sara Merritt
What is this website?
This website contains directions, advice, and an example of a semester project for Dr. Max Helmberger's Insects, Globalization, and Sustainability course (ISB 201) at Michigan State University.
Milestone 1
What meal will you focus your project on?
We will focus our project on a Cheeseburger.
Why did you choose that meal?
We chose this meal because we enjoy eating it, and it is one of my favorite meals.
Which three (natural) ingredients of that meal will you focus your project on?
Beef, Cheese, and tomatoes.
Do you have any questions or concerns about your chosen meal, your chosen ingredients, or the project in general?
Nothing comes to mind!
Welcome to My Cheeseburger Life Cycle Project!
In this project, I will be taking a deep dive into how environmental factors can impact a classic cheeseburger. For this project, I wanted to focus on where our food comes from and how the production of making it can affect the environment.
In this website, it goes over each ingredient and how each one contributes to the overall environmental footprint of our meal.
The ingredients I focused on for this were:
Beef
Cheese
Tomatoes
At the end of my ingredients page, we will deep dive in extended questions, where we can take a closer look into what part of the cheeseburger has the biggest environmental impact and why it does.
Ingredient 1- Beef
Ingredient 1- Beef
Beef:
The beef production is one of the most resource-intensive parts of making a cheeseburger. Beef production is a big contributor to green houses. especially methane from cattle digestion and also the large amounts of land and water that they have. Capper, Alexander, and Radovic found that United States beef production has a complicated supply chain that includes the following of... Supply the crop farming, raise the animals, and lastly transportation. All of these contribute to carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide emissions. Seeing this should be enough to see that their environmental assessment show that beef on its own holds a major portion of total emission in a meat based meal. In the article that I used for the beef production process the study shows that the beef system has improved significantly compared to some in earlier years. Even with advances, the environmental impact remains much higher than plant-based proteins. In short, beef patties are one of the largest environmental burdens in the cheeseburger life cycle.
Citation:
(Capper, J. L., Alexander, P., & Radovic, N. (2023). A comprehensive environmental assessment of beef production and consumption in the United States. Journal of Cleaner Production, 402, 136766.)
Ingredient 2- Cheese
Ingredient 2- Cheese
Cheese:
The cheese production surprisingly does use a lot of energy and resources to be able to create cheese production. After the milk is made it has to be cooled, processed, pasteurized, and aged. All of these steps use energy and electricity, which ultimately releases gases. Kim and colleagues used a “cradle to grave,” life cycle assessment and found out that most of the environmental burden comes from upstream processes. Cheese has less of an impact with energy than beef but still is a major contributor.
Citation:
(Kim, D., Thoma, G., Nutter, D., Milani, F., Ulrich, R., & Norris, G. (2013). Life cycle assessment of cheese and whey production in the USA. International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 18(5), 1019‑1035.)
Ingredient 4 – Tomato
Tomato:
Tomatoes can be grown in open fields or they can be grown in controlled environments. Research has found that tomatoes require more energy for heating, lighting, and water systems. Tomatoes also can use nutrients from soil in an open feild system. Studies show that controlled environments can reduce pesticides but also need electricity and heat. The tomato’s environment life factors depends on how and where the tomato is grown. it’s grown—balancing land use with energy intensity.
Citation:
(Abbas, F., Al‑Otoom, A., Al‑Naemi, S., Ashraf, A., & Mahasneh, H. (2025). Experimental and life cycle assessments of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) cultivation under controlled environment agriculture. Journal of Agriculture and Food Research, 18, 101266.)
Milestone 3:
The first ingredient I focused on was the beef in the cheeseburger. The focus of this research is Salmonella in United States beef cattle. This article dives into the dairy and beef crossbred. This article dives into how the specifics of dairy and beef cattle crossbred to native beef cattle. Researchers collected both fecal and lymph node samples from both of the cattle types in the harvest to measure how much salmonella they actually carried. Salmonella in beef is a major food-safety concern because bacteria can hide inside the cattle's lymph nodes, which may end up in ground beef during the food processing.
This study has found that while fecal salmonella levels were different between the two different cattles, lymph node and salmonella levels were both similar between the two. This means that neither cattle is more likely to get it, but the reaserch did show that environmental factors do have a big impact on salmonella whether the cattle were dairy crossbred or native beef cattle. Overall, the research highlights that managing salmonella in beef depends more on production practices than on the cattle.
Source: Assessing Differences in Salmonella Carriage between Dairy×Beef and Native Finished Cattle
Picture: https://www.dairyglobal.net/app/uploads/2021/09/001_956_rb-image-2786621-1024x683.jpeg
In the united states beef industry, both dairy×beef crossbred cattle and native beef cattle are both raised in large feedlots. According to the study cattle are monitored from the time that the cattle are in the feedlots to when they are old and weigh enough to be let go. During this time slot, researchers had collected fecal and lymph node samples to see how much salmonella these animals really carried.
There are several ways producers work to manage Salmonella risk. Good feedlot management practices to create such as controlling moisture, improving pen hygiene, and reducing stress, help limit bacterial spread. Another important approach is monitoring cattle at different stages, including arrival and harvest, to identify when Salmonella levels spike. Because the study found that feedlot environment plays a bigger role than cattle type, strategies often focus on improving housing, cleanliness, and handling, rather than targeting specific breeds. Antibiotic use is limited and regulated, so prevention through better management remains the primary method for reducing Salmonella in beef cattle.
Source: Assessing Differences in Salmonella Carriage between Dairy×Beef and Native Finished Cattle
Picture: https://agsci.oregonstate.edu/sites/agscid7/files/media/mullinkis-cow2000.jpg
The production of beef cattle can cause conditions that will increase the spread of salmonella in several ways. The cattle are raised in large feedlots that is shared with thousands of other animals in the same pen. This ultimentaly makes bacteria easier to eat away at the cattle. The bacteria will spread in these feedlots in the manure, soil, and shared water. These conditions allow salmonella to survive longer than most bacteria's, which increases the chance of the cattle being carriers in their feces or lymph nodes. Since lymph nodes can end up in ground beef, this creates potential food safety risks.
Milestone 3:
Cheese production begins with milk that comes from cows. The milk is pasteurized adn then has to be mixed with enzymes some call them starters which causes the milk to then curdle. These curds are then separated from if they are whey, pressed, and aged, to then determine what the falvor and texture will end up being. The result is a dairy product used around the world.
One major issue that affects cheese production comes from pests and pathogens that impact cows. One main bacterium is Mastitis. Mastitis is an infection in a cow’s udder and causes very harmful issues to the cow which then causes issues through the dairy industry because it lowers milk quality and reduces the amount of milk a cow can actually produce. When a cow has mastitis any of the milk that the cow produces cannot be used for the cheese production because it contains somatic cells, less protein, and lower overall quality.
Another common environmental bacteria, is Listeria or Salmonella. These organisms can enter milk through dirty equipment, unsanitary barn conditions, or improper storage. If this happens then those dairy products are unable to be used.
One way that pests and bacteria can be controlled is by keeping cows and their environment clean. Farmers check cows regularly to catch infections early on so they are more treatable. They wash and sanitize all milking equipment, and make sure barns stay clean with dry bedding. Another way is reducing stress for the cows keep them more healthy.
Cheese production can contribute to greenhouse gas emissions because dairy cows produce methane (CH4) during digestion, a process called enteric fermentation (USDA ERS, 2025). Methane is a very potent greenhouse gas with greater global warming potential than carbon dioxide. Although dairy farming can be environmentally harmful, there are ways to reduce these impacts. Also, improving manure management by composting captures methane that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere.
Milestone 3:
The next ingredient we have is tomatoes. Tomatoes (Solanum Lycopersicon) can be grown in either open fields or in greenhouses Open field tomatoes rely on natural sunlight and rainfall, greenhouses use heating, lighting, and water systems to maintain the tomatoes. Controlled environments can reduce the need for pesticides, but they require more energy to operate.
Tomatoes are typically harvested during the months, from late June through September. When the tomatoe reaches the right color and ripeness the farmers will begin to look over the plants to make sure that all the tomatoes are developed properly. In open field production tomatoes are supported with staking and pruning to promote healthy growth and maximize yields. Harvesters often pick tomatoes daily during peak summer to ensure the fruit is ripe and undamaged. The tomatoes are carefully harvested by hand and sorted for size and quality before being packed for market .
Weed control can be achieved with herbicides, plastic mulch, and a good crop rotation system. Several preplant are available for tomatoes, differing on the specific weed problem and tomato growth stage that they are in. If the infestation levels are mild and not too bad, early cultivation can help minimize these weed problems further.
Insects, in Colorado, the potato beetles, can be a big problem in tomato production. Spring beetle populations generally will not feed on the tomato plants, but they will mate and lay thousands of eggs per. Early control of adult Colorado potato beetles can prevent crop losses.
There are several risk management strategies that farmers may use when managing your farm. Farmers should insure their buildings and equipment are all clean well. Farmers will also make sure that their crops are looking right and nothing sticks out to them during the growing process.
Tomato production in greenhouses environments, can produce substantially more greenhouse gas emissions rather than open field cultivation. Studies have found that tomatoes grown in heated, climate controlled greenhouses are 1709 kilograms CO₂‑equivalent per metric ton. Greenhouse systems rely heavily on energy for heating, lighting, and ventilation.
Deep Dive Questions!!
The ingredient we are focusing on is beef. This ingredient is in cattle which are attacked by pests called horn fly's (Haematobium irritants). The horn fly is originally from Europe. The horn fly is a blood feeding fly that belongs to order Diptera (the true flies) and the family Muscidae, which also includes houseflies and stable flies. The horn fly's will bite the cows up to 20 to 40 times a day, sucking blood out of them creating the cows to be very irritated and restless. Horn flies can also carry bacteria and other illnesses. Horn flies were mistakenly introduced to North America in the 1800s, through cattle shipments by Europe. In the 1900s, they had spread rapidly across the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Central America.
Unlike many other bacteria, Salmonella is a pathogen that can live in the intestines of cattle without always causing illness. In beef cattle, it can spread through fecal contamination, feed, water, or contact with other animals. Infected cattle may show some symptoms, but the bacteria can contaminate meat during slaughter, posing a food safety risk to humans. Farmers make sure that the barn, cows, exquitment are all clean and well. They make sure that the water for the cows is well cleaned and there food is safe to eat. Some farms even use vaccines and check the cows regularly to catch infections early.
Works Cited Page!!
Abbas, F., Al‑Otoom, A., Al‑Naemi, S., Ashraf, A., and H. Mahasneh. “Experimental and Life Cycle Assessments of Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) Cultivation under Controlled Environment Agriculture.” Journal of Agriculture and Food Research, vol. 18, 2025, p. 101266. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jafr.2025.101266.
American Meat Institute. “Assessing Differences in Salmonella Carriage between Dairy×Beef and Native Finished Cattle.” Beef Research, 2021–present, https://www.beefresearch.org/resources/beef-safety/project-summaries/2021-present/assessing-differences-in-salmonella-carriage-between-dairybeef-a.
Capper, J. L., Alexander, P., and N. Radovic. “A Comprehensive Environmental Assessment of Beef Production and Consumption in the United States.” Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 402, 2023, p. 136766. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.136766.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. “Livestock and Enteric Methane.” FAO, n.d., https://www.fao.org/in-action/enteric-methane/en/.
Kim, D., Thoma, G., Nutter, D., Milani, F., Ulrich, R., and G. Norris. “Life Cycle Assessment of Cheese and Whey Production in the USA.” International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, vol. 18, no. 5, 2013, pp. 1019–1035. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-013-0553-9.
Merck Animal Health. “SenseHub Dairy – Monitoring Solutions / Youngstock Monitoring.” Merck Animal Health USA, 2024, https://www.merck-animal-health-usa.com/hub/sensehub/sensehub-dairy/monitoring-solutions/youngstock-monitoring.
Penn State Extension. Tomato Production. extension.psu.edu, 21 Sept. 2006, https://extension.psu.edu/tomato-production.
U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service. Dairy Data. USDA–ERS, 2025, https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/dairy-data.
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