Sustainability of Four Dairy Farming Scenarios in an Alpine Environment: The Case Study of Toma di Lanzo Cheese

Abstract

The dairy sector accounts for a large share of all European agricultural production, at the same time however, it is one of the most ascribed sector contributors to the environmental impact of agriculture, particularly for greenhouse gas emissions. Simultaneously, it is a strategic sector for the economy but generates increasing debate in the community regarding the social aspects mainly related to the use of resources and the food-feed competition of livestock involving the reduction of human-edible crops. In this general framework, this study aims to compare four different dairy farming scenarios characterized by different use of environmental resources in the Alpine area, considering as a case study the production of the Toma di Lanzo cheese (a traditional cheese produced in the mountainous regions of Piedmont-Northwest Italy). The study envisaged the integrated use of three methodologies: Life Cycle Assessment, Life Cycle Costing and the assessment of human-edible feed conversion efficiency to jointly analyze environmental, economic and social aspects. The main results of this research highlighted how the utilization of local breeds, which maximize the efficiency in the use of territory resources, such as grasslands in a mountain environment, allowed dairy production to reduce emissions, when compared to the high-input traditional breeding systems. Although the mountain livestock systems have several critical issues mainly linked to social factors such as low generational turnover, work schedules, modest life quality of families, it is however possible to earn more income than in lowland scenarios. At the same time, this production system allows the Toma di Lanzo cheese-making heritage to be preserved. This mountain pasture cheese, to which superior organoleptic and nutritional characteristics are attributable, when compared to cheeses from the valley floor, incorporates traditional values, a link to the territory and the transmission of knowledge. With reference to food-feed competition in livestock involving the reduction of the use of human-edible crops and feedstuffs in animal diets, we found that grazing and grass-based feeding systems were one of the most sustainable ways to produce milk.

Dairy Farms and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA): The Allocation Criterion Useful to Estimate Undesirable Products

“…The facilities were also cleaned with tap water only. Results reported values comparable with the WD estimated by other researchers [34,67], equal to 0.52 m 3 and 0.3 m 3 , respectively. Zucali et al [68], focusing on 17 dairy goat farms, also found similar results (0.39 ± 0.15 m 3 ) without specifying the distinguished contributors.…”

“…Roer et al [63], adopting as the FU 1 kg ECM, reported values ranging from 89.3 to 111 g oil -eq in the Norwegian farms previously described. Differently, Noya et al (2018) and Verduna et al (2020) [34,67] choosing as the FU 1 kg FPCM, showed low impacts for FD (41.5 and 55 g oil -eq , respectively). Knudsen et al [50] estimated as impact category mineral, fossil and renewable resource depletion (mg Sb/kg FPCM) and showed that the organic production of milk from the grassland-based and mountainous systems contributed much less to this impact category than the organic milk from the mixed system.…”

Which Factors Drive Consumer Decisions during Milk Purchase? New Individuals’ Profiles Considering Fresh Pasteurized and UHT Treated Milk

“…However, in a countertrend, “green” consumption orientations are emerging, characterized by food choices of products, including milk, which are linked to tradition and are local and sustainable [ 23 ]. The dairy sector in Italy is extremely heterogeneous in terms of territorial distribution, companies’ size, and herd management, with a good proportion of small family-run businesses based on traditional production systems [ 24 ] that are more sustainable for the environment and the territory in which they are located [ 25 ]. It is therefore important to properly communicate the value (e.g., local branding) and the higher quality of the products obtained from these local systems as differentiation tools on the market to increase transparency and create greater consumer awareness [ 1 , 26 , 27 ].…”

A Typological Classification for Assessing Farm Sustainability in the Italian Bovine Dairy Sector

“…Although one of the suggested strategies was to reduce the inputs, other views suggest enhancing the waste outputs, too. Another strand, in fact, concerns studies that have designed the possibility of transitioning to a more sustainable system through a circular economy approach [24,25], which is intended to be a system-wide approach to economic development that is designed for the benefit of businesses, society, and the environment [26]. The transition to a circular economy can result in a minimization of the use of external inputs and in the reduction of waste and emissions into the environment through the recycling and valorization of agricultural waste [27], thus avoiding the exploitation animals but using them "for what they know how to do" [28].…”