A thematic review of life cycle assessment (LCA) applied to pig production

McAuliffe, Graham A.; Chapman, David C.; Sage, Colin

doi:10.1016/j.eiar.2015.08.008

Cited by 159 publications

(86 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…Studies employing agri‐food LCA typically estimate pollution–production ratios as their primary outputs, for example kg CO 2 ‐eq per unit of food produced, whereby systems represented by lower scores are judged to be socially more desirable. In the context of livestock production systems, the denominator depicting the quantity of production, or the functional unit, generally takes the form of output mass, such as 1 kg of liveweight, cold carcass weight, or deboned meat (McAuliffe, Chapman, & Sage, 2016; McAuliffe, Takahashi, Mogensen et al., 2017; de Vries, van Middelaar, & de Boer, 2015). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Framework for life cycle assessment of livestock production systems to account for the nutritional quality of final products

McAuliffe

Takahashi

Lee

2018

Food and Energy Security

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Life cycle assessment (LCA) is widely regarded as a useful tool for comparing the environmental impacts of multiple livestock production systems. While LCA results are typically communicated in the form of environmental burdens per mass unit of the end product, it is increasingly becoming recognized that the product quality also needs to be accounted for to truly understand the value of a farming system to society. To date, a number of studies have examined environmental consequences of different food consumption patterns at the diet level; however, few have addressed nutritional variations of a single commodity attributable to production systems, leaving limited insight into how on‐farm practices can be improved to better balance environment and human nutrition. Using data from seven livestock production systems encompassing cattle, sheep, pigs, and poultry, this paper proposes a novel framework to incorporate nutritional value of meat products into livestock LCA. The results of quantitative case studies demonstrate that relative emissions intensities associated with different systems can be dramatically altered when the nutrient content of meat replaces the mass of meat as the functional unit, with cattle systems outperforming pig and poultry systems in some cases. This finding suggests that the performance of livestock systems should be evaluated under a whole supply chain approach, whereby end products originating from different farm management strategies are treated as competing but separate commodities.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Framework for life cycle assessment of livestock production systems to account for the nutritional quality of final products

McAuliffe

Takahashi

Lee

2018

Food and Energy Security

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“…Reducing the dietary CP also modifies the rate of incorporation of the different feed ingredients, especially protein sources, affecting the impacts of several stages in the pig production system. To effectively evaluate the environmental impacts of food production systems, life cycle assessment (LCA) has been widely used in agriculture (GUINÉE et al, 2002) and several studies of swine production chains have been conducted (Table 1), as reviewed by McAULIFFE et al (2016).…”

Section: Nutritional Strategies As a Tool For Sustainable Pork Producmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Life cycle assessment (LCA) has been widely used in agriculture (GUINÉE et al, 2002) and pig production (McAULIFFE et al, 2016), to evaluate environmental impacts at global scale, such as global warming potential (GWP), resources depletion and ozone depletion, or at regional and local scale, such as Monteiro et al terrestrial ecotoxicity, acidification potential (AP) and eutrophication potential (EP) (GUINÉE et al, 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The pig supply chain involves a complex system, starting with the production of resources such as fertilizers and pesticides, until the disposal of animal waste including their reuse as fertilizers (McAULIFFE et al, 2016). Pig production system is responsible for air methane (CH 4 ), ammonia (NH 3 ) and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emissions, as well as risks of water and soil contamination resulting from inefficient manure management practices (McAULIFFE et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Pig production system is responsible for air methane (CH 4 ), ammonia (NH 3 ) and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emissions, as well as risks of water and soil contamination resulting from inefficient manure management practices (McAULIFFE et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Life cycle assessment as a tool to evaluate the impact of reducing crude protein in pig diets

Monteiro

Dourmad²,

Pozza

2017

Cienc. Rural

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Environmental impacts of livestock systems, especially pig production, have come under increasing debate in recent years. The challenge is in meeting the growing demand for food at an affordable cost, without compromising environmental integrity. Previous studies have shown that feed production is responsible for the majority of CO2-eq. emission resulting from pig farming systems. This seems to indicate that feed strategies could be an effective tool to achieve the sustainability of the pork chain. Therefore, dietary crude protein reduction, through the addition of industrial amino acids, lessens the nitrogen excretion by pigs and, consequently, could mitigate the effects on the environment of pig production. In this sense, to effectively evaluate the environmental impacts of pig production systems, life cycle assessment has been widely used in agriculture, but the effects of feed are still understudied in Brazilian conditions. Owing to the importance and the great concern in this research area, we presented in this paper an updated review focusing on the nutritional techniques and their potential to reduce the global warming potential of pig production, considering both the direct effects, related to the choice of feed ingredients and the indirect effects, related to changes in the efficiency of use of nutrient by the animals.

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Greenhouse gas emissions associated with four types of fertilization for corn crops in a Mediterranean basin

Abrahão

Carvalho

Causapé

2021

Env Prog and Sustain Energy

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The environmental impacts associated with the intensification of agricultural practices have become an emerging issue, and new techniques are being developed to satisfy public demands. The application of fertilizers is a crucial step for agriculture practices. Building upon previous studies at a Mediterranean basin, the objective of the research presented herein was to quantify the greenhouse gas emissions associated with four different types of fertilization in the production of corn: traditional (NPK 8-15-15 and urea), controlled-release (NPK 8-15-15, and a combination of urea and encapsulated urea), and two types of fertilization with pig slurry (NPK 8-15-15, pig slurry and different amounts of urea). The Life Cycle Assessment methodology was employed, with the Ecoinvent database and the IPCC 2013 GWP 100y impact assessment method. The results revealed that traditional fertilization emitted 3251 kg CO 2 -eq/haÁyear, against 2191 kg CO 2 -eq/haÁyear for controlled-release fertilization. Pig slurry fertilization emitted 2160 kg CO 2 -eq/haÁyear, and its alternative with less urea, only 1030 kg CO 2 -eq/haÁyear. The utilization of pig slurry solves the issue of its disposal and entails lower costs (commercial fertilizer prices follow the prices of oil and gas). The results demonstrated the potential of controlled-release fertilization and pig slurry to contribute to climate change mitigation.

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A thematic review of life cycle assessment (LCA) applied to pig production

Cited by 159 publications

References 64 publications

Framework for life cycle assessment of livestock production systems to account for the nutritional quality of final products

Framework for life cycle assessment of livestock production systems to account for the nutritional quality of final products

Life cycle assessment as a tool to evaluate the impact of reducing crude protein in pig diets

Greenhouse gas emissions associated with four types of fertilization for corn crops in a Mediterranean basin

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