Environmental sustainability and economic matters of commercial types of common wheat

Abstract

Common wheat, a fundamental commodity on international markets, is increasingly differentiated into commercial types on domestic markets to meet the demand of processing companies. Improver wheat, biscuit wheat, ordinary and superior bread-making wheat are commercial varieties with specific technological characteristics. Wheat farming systems are constantly evolving, and as a result, related environmental issues emerge. We applied an LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) analysis, where the functional unit was 1 tonne of grain for each typology and system boundaries were from cradle to farm gate. Primary data were used in the study, and special attention was paid to fertiliser use. From an LCA perspective, our findings show that nitrogen (N) plays an essential role in plant production although producing different waterborne and airborne emissions and nitrate leaching, for the 4 commercial typologies studied. Furthermore, the impact can be differentiated based on the technological features of the commercial types. Our results led us to observe that the four wheat types show contrasting economic and environmental performances.

Life cycle assessment of autochthonous varieties of wheat and artisanal bread production in Galicia, Spain

“…About 95% of the world production is common wheat, also called bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) and the remaining 5% is durum wheat (Triticum durum), mainly for the production of pasta and couscous (Taylor, 2017). Milling and baking industries evaluate wheat composition (e.g., starch and protein content) and other specifications (e.g., bulk density and shape) to meet their demand (Mancuso et al, 2019).…”

Harmful Compounds and Willingness to Buy for Reduced-Additives Salami. An Outlook on Italian Consumers

“…An increase in health issues linked to food consumption has been observed over recent years, and several authors have argued that consumers are conscious of the health risks associated with excessive meat consumption [1,2,3]. This change in consumer awareness has prompted processed meat companies to undertake various adaptive and innovative measures to satisfy the expectations of demand [4,5].…”

Performance and environmental accounting of nutrient cycling models to estimate nitrogen emissions in agriculture and their sensitivity in life cycle assessment

“…Tier 2 models, such as SALCA, are an excellent alternative for reducing complexity and improving precision for NH 3 volatilization. Tier 2 models were used in Mancuso et al (2019), Romero-Gámez et al (2014 and Wu et al (2018), but a validation such as that carried out in this study is necessary.…”