The food system is a major contributor to different environmental pressures, such as water and land use, and impacts, including land-use change and water stress1,2. Accounting for the land and water resources used by the food system is key to defining sustainable food system policies. The European Green Deal and its Farm to Fork Strategy3 aim at a sustainable food system along the whole value chain, from primary production to final consumption4. The quantification of the land footprint (LF) and the water footprint (WF) of food consumption in the European Union (EU), and the setting of reduction targets, are key topics for this strategy.

Environmental footprints can be calculated using different methodological approaches5,6,7, yielding different results for the same geographical region8,9,10,11. These methods range from process-based approaches to environmentally extended multi-regional input–output (EE-MRIO) approaches6. In addition, specific calculation assumptions can yield very different results. While it is common in WF assessments to only account for grass eaten by grazing livestock12, land-use accounting often attributes all grazing land to the LF of the livestock13.