Revealing the 'carbon hoofprint' of meat consumption for American cities

Researchers mapped greenhouse gas emissions associated with producing meat for cities across contiguous US, providing clearer picture of its environmental impact and ways it can be reduced

University of Michigan

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The per capita carbon hoofprint—the greenhouse gas emissions associated with meat consumption per resident—varies greatly over cities throughout the U.S. 

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Credit: B. P. Goldstein et al. Nat. Clim. Change 2025 (DOI: 10.1038/s41558-025-02450-7). Used under a CC BY license.

Depending on where you live in the United States, the meat you eat each year could be responsible for a level of greenhouse gas emissions that's similar to what's emitted to power your house.

That's according to new research from the University of Michigan and the University of Minnesota published in the journal Nature Climate Change. The study provides a first-of-its kind, systematic analysis that digs into the environmental impacts of the sprawling supply chains that the country relies on for its beef, pork and chicken.

Supported in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the team calculated and mapped those impacts, which they've dubbed meat's "carbon hoofprint," for every city in the contiguous U.S. While the study does underscore the size of America's urban carbon hoofprint—it's larger than the entire carbon footprint of Italy—it also provides city-specific information that residents and governments can use to make positive changes.

"This has huge implications for how we gauge the environmental impact of cities, measure those impacts and ultimately develop policies to reduce those impacts," said Benjamin Goldstein, a leader of the study and assistant professor at Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability, or SEAS. 

For example, policymakers have rolled out campaigns and initiatives that help home owners reduce their carbon footprints by incentivizing and subsidizing things like installing solar panels and insulation, he said. These projects can still cost thousands, if not tens of thousands, of dollars.

"But if you just cut out half of your beef consumption and maybe switch to chicken, you can get similar amounts of greenhouse gas savings depending on where you live," Goldstein said. "If we can get people to use this type of study to think about how diets in cities impact their environmental impacts, this could have huge effects across the United States."

Chains and links

Looking at the team's maps of carbon hoofprints, one of the most apparent things is how much it varies across the country. And while that likely isn't shocking—the U.S. is a large and diverse country—the reasons why are more nuanced than people might suspect.

For instance, it'd be natural to assume cities with higher meat consumption per capita would have a higher per capita hoofprint. But the team found the correlation between those variables was actually quite low. 

Another obvious candidate are the emissions from transporting meat from the rural areas where it's produced to the cities that consume it. While that is a piece of the puzzle, the researchers found it's not a particularly big one.

"There's not a single emissions value for the meat we consume," said Rylie Pelton, a research scientist at the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment and co-leader of the study. "That's because the supply chains are different in different locations. And also the impacts of production—the ways that beef, chicken, pork and feed are produced—are different in those different locations. That all matters from an emissions standpoint."

To illustrate this point, consider how the country's second largest city, Los Angeles, gets its beef, the meat with the largest carbon hoofprint. L.A.'s beef comes from processing facilities in 10 counties. But the meat that's processed in those facilities comes from livestock raised in 469 counties by feed that's sourced from 828 counties.

Each stop and product along that supply chain has its own processes with an associated carbon footprint, such as using fertilizer for growing feed and managing manure on farms. That's combined with transporting a variety of goods across the physical extent of the full chains, which can stretch thousands of miles. The team considered these wide-ranging factors in evaluating the carbon hoofprint for more than 3,500 locations. 

"This is really the first systematic and analytical effort to map what we call urban-land teleconnections. It's understanding that cities have massive impacts beyond their borders," said Joshua Newell, a senior investigator on the study and a SEAS professor at U-M. "It is our hope that this study provides an example of how we can foster better understanding between two different places: One largely urban and one distinctly rural where our food is produced."

The team's analysis relied on the Food System Supply-Chain Sustainability, or FoodS3, platform initially developed at the University of Minnesota to study the country's corn supply chain. Over the course of eight years, the hoofprint team, led by Pelton and Goldstein, built a framework to apply the platform to a broader set of questions pertaining to meat (the team pointed out that the platform is being used to study other agricultural products could also be extended to nonagricultural commodities that cities rely on, like steel, as well).

The researchers hope that their hoofprint study provides new perspectives that can inspire more creative solutions at various points of the supply chain.

"We can start identifying linkages between cities and the rural areas that produce our food," Pelton said. "If we can identify those links, there might be opportunities for cities to engage with those distant locations, to help provide financial incentives and support in general to adopt certain practices that would ultimately help their own carbon footprint."

Jennifer Schmitt, a senior author of the study and senior research scientist who leads the FoodS3 team at Minnesota, agreed.

"We are all connected," she said, summarizing what, to her, was the take-home message of the study. By keeping that in mind, people can work toward solutions that are sustainable not just environmentally, but economically.

For example, while city residents could stop eating pork to shrink their carbon hoofprint, that puts a financial strain on hog farmers. Instead, urban residents could talk to their city government about sponsoring equipment, such as anaerobic digesters, at hog farms to reduce their environmental impact.

"My hope is that this is the beginning of an urban-rural conversation," Schmitt said. "I get that that may seem ideal, but whatever. I'm an idealist."

Dimitrios Gounaridis, assistant research scientist at Michigan, and Nathaniel Springer, research scientist at Minnesota, also contributed to the study.

Combining a variety of individual actions has the potential to shrink the country's urban carbon hoofprint by half.

Per capita meat consumption is not a good predictor of per capita carbon hoofprint. For example, 868 cities—including Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Houghton, Michigan—have an above average per capita meat consumption with a below average per capita carbon hoofprint.

In this map, the greenhouse gas emissions associated with meat consumption in each city is shown as a percentage of its emissions from energy usage.

Credit

B. P. Goldstein et al. Nat. Clim. Change 2025 (DOI: 10.1038/s41558-025-02450-7). Used under a CC BY license.

Journal

Nature Climate Change

DOI

10.1038/s41558-025-02450-7 

Article Title

The carbon hoofprint of cities is shaped by geography and production in the livestock supply chain

Article Publication Date

20-Oct-2025

 

US physician Medicare program participation and exit, 2013-2023

JAMA Network

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About The Study:

 This study characterized trends in the number of physicians participating in the Medicare program from 2013 to 2023 and identified physician- and county-level characteristics associated with program exit. Consistent with previous work, this study found a 6.3% increase in participating physicians, but physicians located in nonmetropolitan counties and full-shortage Health Professional Shortage Area counties were more likely to exit the program. The increased likelihood of Medicare program exits will likely reduce access to care for already underserved communities.

Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Christopher M. Whaley, PhD, email christopher_whaley@brown.edu.

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/

(doi:10.1001/jama.2025.15343)

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

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Embed this link to provide your readers free access to the full-text article 

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JAMA

 

Distance to care and telehealth abortion demand after Dobbs

JAMA Network Open''

About The Study:

 Overall, this study observed a doubling in monthly telehealth medication abortion requests across 18 states post-Dobbs, with most requests occurring before 6 weeks of pregnancy and the highest rates among individuals living further from in-person abortion care. These results build upon the researcher’s findings pre-Dobbs, which also demonstrated increased telehealth medication abortion requests among individuals living further from brick-and-mortar facilities.

Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Amy K. Willerford, MPH, email amykw@uw.edu.

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/

(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.38212)

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

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Embed this link to provide your readers free access to the full-text article 

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About JAMA Network Open: JAMA Network Open is an online-only open access general medical journal from the JAMA Network. On weekdays, the journal publishes peer-reviewed clinical research and commentary in more than 40 medical and health subject areas. Every article is free online from the day of publication. 

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JAMA Network Open

US National poll: 1 in 10 young children play outdoors as little as once a week

Screen time part of daily play for many toddlers and preschoolers, some may not be engaging in diverse activities

Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan

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Parental anxiety may be one barrier to more independent outdoor play, a new poll suggests.

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Credit: Sara Schultz, Michigan Medicine

ANN ARBOR, Mich. –  The physical and mental health benefits of outdoor play are well established but one in 10 parents of preschoolers and toddlers say their child plays outside just once a week or less.

Screen time is also increasingly part of the play routine, according to the University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health: Nearly a third of parents say their child engages in media play, such as video games, while three in five say their child watches TV or videos daily.

“Play is the key to how young children learn and develop. It starts in infancy, with parents playing peekaboo and as children become older, they create their own version of play,” said Mott Poll Co-Director Sarah Clark, M.P.H.

“Our report suggests that many families could support healthier development by encouraging a wider variety of play experiences.”

Physical and imaginative play still common but screens catching up

The nationally representative poll, conducted in August, includes responses from 710 parents of children ages 1 to 5.

On a typical day at home, the majority of parents report their child engages in physical play like running, jumping or climbing (88%) and pretend or make-believe play (68%).

More than half also say their child regularly plays with puzzles, blocks or other objects that help develop fine motor and problem-solving skills.

At the same time, watching TV and videos are a daily part of most children’s routines. The majority of parents of preschoolers and nearly half of parents of toddlers also admit to handing their child a phone or tablet in the car, in public places or when they need to be occupied.

“Phones and tablets are convenient, and it’s understandable that parents rely on them at times,” Clark said.

“But it’s important to be mindful of how much time is spent in media play and to create opportunities for more active, imaginative and social play.”

Outdoor play encouraged but may be limited by parental concerns

Most parents polled report their child plays outside daily or several times a week. Still, 9% say outdoor play happens once a week or less—well below expert recommendations for supporting physical and social development.

Parental anxiety may be one barrier to more independent outdoor play, with four in 10 parents admitting they feel nervous when their child goes “too far” or climbs “too high.”

Seventy-five percent of parents of 3- to 5-year-olds say their child uses swings independently while 41% report their child crosses the monkey bars alone. But nearly half of parents hold their child’s hand or stand right next to them when the child attempts a new physical challenge.

Activities like climbing a tree, riding a bike or sliding down a pole at the playground, Clark notes, are opportunities for growth.

“Parents understandably worry about safety but children need chances to test their limits,” she said. “Climbing, swinging or exploring unfamiliar areas helps build confidence, resilience and problem-solving skills.”

“Risky play isn’t about recklessness but about appropriate challenges that allow young children to explore what they’re capable of. Parents who allow a little more independence often see their child’s confidence flourish.”

She encourages parents to let their children take the lead in play and avoid making them try to play “the correct way,” which may unintentionally limit their child’s creativity and problem solving.

“Play doesn’t need to be perfect or educational to be beneficial,” Clark said. “Letting children lead their own play encourages curiosity, creativity and independence. Parents just need to create time and space for their children to play freely.”

For this senator, Trump's special ed layoffs are personal amid shutdown showdown

Zachary Schermele, 

USA TODAY
Sun, October 19, 2025 




WASHINGTON – For New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan, it felt personal watching more than 120 jobs tied to special education disappear during the U.S. government shutdown.

President Donald Trump ordered massive layoffs across the federal workforce, which critics see as part of an effort to pressure Democrats like Hassan into voting to end the ongoing budget crisis that now stretches into its third week. The firings included roughly a fifth of the U.S. Department of Education – and nearly everyone in its special education division, per court documents and the agency's union.

That's particularly painful to Hassan, a second-term lawmaker and former governor with a son, Ben, who was born almost four decades ago with cerebral palsy, a neurological condition that affects movement and posture. While in school, the senator's son needed some of the very programs she says now have an uncertain fate without people to manage them.

"This is a real blow to children and families all across the country," Hassan told USA TODAY in an interview. "I don’t have constituents asking me to shut the door on kids with disabilities."

Her concerns echo those of many families nationwide while underscoring the real-world stakes and complicated politics of a federal government shutdown. The special education layoffs, which were paused temporarily by a federal judge on Oct. 15, have prompted a wave of anxiety that washed over parents and teachers in the last week. Special education advocacy groups say they were inundated with questions.

Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-New Hampshire speaks with her son, Ben as the family gets ready to vote at Newfields Town Hall with her husband, Tom on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022.

Read more: Education Department layoffs threaten special ed system, advocates warn

"It's outrageous," Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, told USA TODAY. "I was sort of surprised they did it in such a high-profile way."

Education Secretary Linda McMahon, the Trump Cabinet secretary who in March split in half her department's ranks, has been largely quiet about the firings since they were announced. Her office didn't officially confirm the move until an Oct. 17 court filing. Two days earlier, in McMahon's first public statement on the issue, she asserted that special education funding wouldn't be impacted by any staffing changes.

Several weeks into the shutdown, "millions of American students are still going to school, teachers are getting paid, and schools are operating as normal," she said. "The Department has taken additional steps to better reach American students and families and root out the education bureaucracy that has burdened states and educators with unnecessary oversight."

Linda McMahon testifies before a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington in February.

During her confirmation hearing in February, McMahon agreed with several senators, including Hassan, about the need for special education services. While she suggested they could be better overseen by an agency other than hers, namely the Department of Health and Human Services, she still stressed that she "wanted to make sure that students with special education needs had those needs met," Hassan recalled.

McMahon continues to insist special education is a priority of hers. But Hassan said she feels lied to. "By taking the actions they have, it indicates to me that she wasn’t being truthful in her testimony," she said. "Or she didn’t understand the full scope of special education services."

Staffers in legal limbo; IDEA funding threatened

A demonstrator speaks through a megaphone during a Defend Our Schools rally to protest President Donald Trump's executive order to try to shut down the Department of Education outside its building in Washington in March.More

Between 7 million and 8 million students receive special education services in public schools, according to government data. They're eligible for those programs through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, the main federal law that protects the rights of students with disabilities.

Passed 50 years ago, IDEA doles out billions of dollars annually to states, and then to school districts, which use the money to help pay for special education services.


In the case of Hassan's son, that funding and its requirements made it possible for his school to connect him with the right resources, specifically an occupational therapist and alternative communications devices. By fifth grade, those tools helped his teachers realize he could raise his hand to respond to multiple-choice questions. Even though he couldn't speak, they finally began to better assess his learning progress.

Sen. Maggie Hassan leaves the Democratic caucus lunch at the U.S. Capitol on March 13, 2025, in Washington.

"Those are the kinds of things that allowed him to be a much more fully participating student," she said, "and really have a quality of life that he wouldn't otherwise have had."



The White House Joins BlueSky and Instantly Becomes the 2nd-Most Blocked Account — After JD Vance  Mediaite204


Though almost all of IDEA funding was already disbursed this school year, nearly everyone in charge of its oversight and administration was laid off, USA TODAY has reported. More than 120 workers were let go from the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, the Education Department stated in recently filed court documents. Should states or schools have issues in the coming weeks and months drawing down the money they need, they'll be turning to staffers whose jobs are now in legal limbo.

Same goes for schools that have questions about the technicalities of IDEA, or, in many cases, parents looking to file a civil rights complaint. Nearly 140 employees in the Office for Civil Rights were fired, too. (Most investigations in that office are about disability-related discrimination.)

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) departs after taking part in a Senate vote, hours before a partial government shutdown is set to take effect on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 30, 2025.More

"The idea that we're undercutting those people is unacceptable," Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, told USA TODAY. Sanders is a senior member of the Senate's main education committee, on which Hassan and Kaine also serve.


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Already, most of the laid-off staffers aren't doing their usual work to help schools, as is mandated by the Education Department's shutdown contingency plan. Due to the crisis, they were indefinitely furloughed, along with most of the agency, until the government reopens.

Read more: Education Department lays off roughly 20% of its workforce amid shutdown
The GOP view

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) during a business meeting of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions in Washington, D.C., on March 13, 2025.

Hassan isn't the only senator with strong personal ties to special education.

Sen. Markwayne Mullin, a Republican from Oklahoma, sits on the Senate's education panel with her. He comes from a long line of special education teachers, including his mother, his sister and his grandmother.


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He told USA TODAY he supports the latest Education Department layoffs.

"Special ed isn’t working like it should," he said. "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results."

Read more: Education Dept. layoffs by the numbers: Which staff were ousted, where cuts hit hardest

Other Republicans have emphasized similar points in recent days. Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Michigan, the chairman of the education committee in the House of Representatives, underscored that the GOP wants to remove bureaucracy from the education system.

"While the Department of Education has downsized, schools remain unaffected – proof that returning power to the states works," he said in a statement.


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Both Walberg and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, laid the blame for the layoffs on Democrats – not the White House.

“The answer to all that is to reopen the government as soon as possible," Hawley told USA TODAY.

Read more: Out-of-office emails at Education Department blame Democrats for shutdown

Yet unlike furloughs, which typically leave workers off the job without pay during shutdowns, layoffs are permanent. Though the recent firings have come under legal scrutiny, and will likely remain paused for the foreseeable future, the Supreme Court has given broad deference to Trump over federal hiring so far in his second term.


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Neither the White House nor the Education Department has specifically stated that reopening the government would prompt a change of heart about any layoffs, even in the special education office.

Read more: Their time at the Education Department may be over. The grieving isn't.
A 'long-term trend'

Senator Maggie Hassan exits following a Senate vote, hours before a partial government shutdown was set to take effect on Capitol Hill in March.

The complicated political dynamics of the shutdown have left senators like Hassan, who voted with Republicans to keep the government funded in March, in a difficult position.

The president has vowed to use the shutdown as an opportunity to eliminate programs he doesn't like, regardless of the pain for Americans who rely on them. He promised to "terminate" a long-planned multibillion-dollar commuter rail project underneath the Hudson River in New York, the home state of the two top Democrats in Congress. He's targeted infrastructure projects in other blue states and cities, too, most recently including San Francisco and Massachusetts.


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And he's ordered layoffs at the Education Department that don't just affect special education; they hit programs for homeless students, gifted and talented students, historically Black colleges and universities, tribal colleges and college access services for low-income students.

Hassan and other Senate Democrats are holding firm. They're refusing to pass a funding bill unless the GOP takes steps to improve Americans' health care. Primarily, they're concerned health insurance subsidies through the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, that are set to expire at the end of the year, raising premiums for millions.

Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-New Hampshire, votes while her son, Ben, casts his vote next to her as he sits in his wheelchair at the Newfields Town Hall Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022.

The seemingly intractable situation has resulted in one of the longest shutdowns in American history. If it lasts another three weeks, it will surpass the record set in Trump's first term. There's been no movement as of yet on either side of the aisle: Senators have failed on nearly a dozen votes to reopen the government. Though bipartisan back-channeling continues among the moderate factions of both parties, it's not clear how far those talks have progressed, or if they'll result in an agreement that can garner enough support to turn the lights back on.

In the week after the special education layoffs were revealed, Hassan stood her ground. She voted down a Republican funding bill three more times.

"Nobody should buy the administration's excuse that somehow they're doing this because the government is shut down," she said. "This is part of a long-term trend."

Zachary Schermele is a congressional reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and Bluesky at @zachschermele.bsky.social.