Production of Pig Feed under Future Atmospheric CO2 Concentrations: Changes in Crop Content and Chemical Composition, Land Use, Environmental Impact, and Socio-Economic Consequences

Abstract

With the rising atmospheric CO2, crops will assimilate more carbon. Yields will increase in terms of carbohydrates while diluting the content of protein and minerals in compound pig feed, calling for an altered formulation with more protein and less carbohydrate crops to maintain its nutritional value. Using crop response data from CO2 exposures in a linear modeling of feed formulation, we apply a consequential life cycle assessment (cLCA) to model all of the environmental impacts and socio-economic consequences that altered crop yields and chemical composition at elevated CO2 levels have on feed formulation, targeting altered amino acid contents rather than overall protein. An atmospheric CO2 of 550 µmole mole−1 gives rise to a 6% smaller demand for land use for pig feed production. However, feed produced at this CO2 must include 23% more soymeal and 5% less wheat than at present in order to keep its nutritional value. This counteracts the yield benefit. The monetized environmental cost of producing pig feed, where sunflower and soy contribute the most, equals the direct feed price in both scenarios. If external costs were internalized, honoring the Rio Declaration, feed prices would double. In contrast, the future composition of pig feed will increase the direct price by only 0.8%, while the external cost decreases by only 0.3%.

The Integrated Cropping Calendar Information System: A Coping Mechanism to Climate Variability for Sustainable Agriculture in Indonesia

“…Such changes could be triggered by global warming and increased atmospheric CO 2 concentrations. Research conducted by Saxe et al [48] shows that an increase in CO 2 will reduce the demand for land use for feed production, but at the same time would increase the need for protein from plants (soybeans), due to the reduction in the concentration of feed plant protein. This will Have considerable economic and environmental consequences.…”

Achieving Environmentally Sustainable Livestock Production

“…The feed formulation in the future may also be affected by changes in the availability and quality of certain feed ingredients, and such changes can be induced by global warming and increased atmospheric CO 2 concentration. Saxe et al [17] applied a consequential life cycle assessment to quantify the environmental impacts and socio-economic effects that altered crop yields and chemical composition of the crops at elevated CO 2 levels in the future can have on pig feed formulation. They predict that the elevated CO 2 reduces the land use demand for pig feed production, but at the same time increases the demand for protein crops (soya), due to reduced protein concentration of feed crops.…”

Sustainability practices and challenges in the meat supply chain: a systematic literature review

“…Eighty-four studies were included in this group. The majority of papers focus on “life-cycle assessment” (57), carbon footprint (22), and practices related to water management (12), as well as the related, recently adopted assessment methods, namely the life cycle inventory (Saxe et al. , 2018) and material flow analysis (Amicarelli et al ., 2021a, b).…”

“…Eighty-four studies were included in this group. The majority of papers focus on "life-cycle assessment" (57), carbon footprint ( 22), and practices related to water management (12), as well as the related, recently adopted assessment methods, namely the life cycle inventory (Saxe et al, 2018) and material flow analysis (Amicarelli et al, 2021a, b). Similarly, the life cycle costing methodology was applied in Europe to a novel slaughterhouse model with a reduced Estimate consumers' willingness to pay and examine the determining factors influencing their willingness to pay for safe pork in Vietnam Consumers' awareness of the risk of unhealthy pork, household income, and expenditure are the drivers of the willingness to pay The amount of pork consumption per month negatively affected the willingness to pay more for shoulder and rib pork Source(s): Authors' elaboration Table 4.…”

“…Carbon footprint analyses have recently been applied to beef production systems in several contexts, including Latin America (Florindo et al, 2018), North America (Verg e et al, 2018), and Africa (Gwiriri et al, 2019). Life-cycle assessment has also been associated with other analyses, such as water footprint (Bragaglio et al, 2018;Harding et al, 2017) and life-cycle inventory (Saxe et al, 2018). Table 5 illustrates the representative papers included in the proactivity category.…”