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

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. e00143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham A. McAuliffe ◽  
Taro Takahashi ◽  
Michael R. F. Lee
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Nutritional Quality ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Livestock Production

scholarly journals Social Sustainability Assessment in Livestock Production: A Social Life Cycle Assessment Approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (16) ◽  
pp. 4419 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriana Rivera-Huerta ◽  
María de la Salud Rubio Lozano ◽  
Alejandro Padilla-Rivera ◽  
Leonor Patricia Güereca
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Social Performance ◽  
Livestock Production ◽  
Social Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
The Social ◽  
Significant Difference

This study evaluates the social performance of monoculture (MC), intensive silvopastoral (ISP), and native silvopastoral (NSP) livestock production systems in the tropical region of southeastern Mexico through a social life cycle assessment (SCLA) approach. The methodological framework proposed by the United Nations Environmental Program/Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (UNEP/SETAC) (2009) was employed based on a scoring approach with a performance scale ranging from 1 (very poor) to 4 (outstanding). Twelve livestock ranches for calf production were evaluated using 18 impact subcategories associated with the categories “human rights”, “working conditions”, “health and safety”, “socioeconomic repercussions”, and “governance”. The stakeholders evaluated were workers, the local community, society, and value chain actors. The ranches had performance scores between 1.78 (very poor) and 2.17 (poor). The overall average performance of the ranches by production system was 1.98, 1.96, and 1.97 for the MC, ISP, and NSP systems, respectively. The statistical analysis shows that there is no significant difference in the social performance of the livestock production systems. This assessment indicates that the cattle ranches analyzed in Mexico have poor or very poor social performance. The results show that socioeconomic and political contexts exert a greater influence on the social performance of livestock production systems than does their type of technology.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment to Highlight the Environmental Burdens of Early Potato Production

Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 879
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Timpanaro ◽  
Ferdinando Branca ◽  
Mariarita Cammarata ◽  
Giacomo Falcone ◽  
Alessandro Scuderi
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Organic Farming ◽  
Ecological Model ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Potato Production ◽  
Conventional Agriculture ◽  
Production Models ◽  
Real Performance

Climate change, food security, and the protection of the planet’s resources require the adoption of sustainable production models. Achieving sustainable development in the agri-food sector enables the creation of new opportunities for operators, guiding farmers towards more environmentally friendly practices and offering cost-effective results. Organic farming paradigms are promoted by the transformation of some harmful practices of conventional agriculture, such as the wide use of chemical products of synthesis, the deep workings that favor the erosive processes, the excessive use of nitrogenous fertilizers. There are still gaps in the knowledge of the real performance of some products that strongly support the local economic system of Sicily (Italy). The research aims to highlight the differences in environmental impact caused by the cultivation of organic early potatoes compared to the conventional regime and the same per kg of product obtained. To this end, the widely used methodology for comparing the environmental impacts of agricultural production systems is the Life Cycle Assessment, which allows us to highlight the phases in which environmental criticalities are most concentrated. An interesting agroecological picture of knowledge emerges, since organic farming is by definition an ecological model that supports the principles of the Green Deal, it often requires interventions to improve the yields obtained in order to achieve a positive result both in terms of cultivated surface and kg of product obtained.

scholarly journals A partial life cycle assessment approach to evaluate the energy intensity and related greenhouse gas emission in dairy farms

2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (2s) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lelia Murgia ◽  
Giuseppe Todde ◽  
Maria Caria ◽  
Antonio Pazzona
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Milk Production ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Greenhouse Gas Emission ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Dairy Farms ◽  
Dairy Farming ◽  
Feeding Management

Dairy farming is constantly evolving towards more intensive levels of mechanization and automation which demand more energy consumption and result in higher economic and environmental costs. The usage of fossil energy in agricultural processes contributes to climate change both with on-farm emissions from the combustion of fuels, and by off-farm emissions due to the use of grid power. As a consequence, a more efficient use of fossil resources together with an increased use of renewable energies can play a key role for the development of more sustainable production systems. The aims of this study were to evaluate the energy requirements (fuels and electricity) in dairy farms, define the distribution of the energy demands among the different farm operations, identify the critical point of the process and estimate the amount of CO2 associated with the energy consumption. The inventory of the energy uses has been outlined by a partial Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach, setting the system boundaries at the farm level, from cradle to farm gate. All the flows of materials and energy associated to milk production process, including crops cultivation for fodder production, were investigated in 20 dairy commercial farms over a period of one year. Self-produced energy from renewable sources was also accounted as it influence the overall balance of emissions. Data analysis was focused on the calculation of energy and environmental sustainability indicators (EUI, CO2-eq) referred to the functional units. The production of 1 kg of Fat and Protein Corrected Milk (FPCM) required on average 0.044 kWhel and 0.251 kWhth, corresponding to a total emission of 0.085 kg CO2-eq). The farm activities that contribute most to the electricity requirements were milk cooling, milking and slurry management, while feeding management and crop cultivation were the greatest diesel fuel consuming operation and the largest in terms of environmental impact of milk production (73% of energy CO2-eq emissions). The results of the study can assist in the development of dairy farming models based on a more efficient and profitable use of the energy resources.

scholarly journals Functional Unit for Impact Assessment in the Mining Sector—Part 1

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (22) ◽  
pp. 9313
Author(s):  
Julien Bongono ◽  
Birol Elevli ◽  
Bertrand Laratte
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Functional Unit ◽  
Multiscale Approach ◽  
Mining Sector ◽  
End Use ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Sector Part ◽  
Selection Of

More and more efforts are directed towards the standardization of the methods of determining the functional unit (FU) in a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). These efforts concern the development of theories and detailed methodological guides, but also the evaluation of the quality of the FU obtained. The objective of this article is to review this work in order to propose, using a multiscale approach, a method for defining the FU in the mining sector, which takes into account all the dimensions of the system under study. In this first part, the emphasis is on identifying the shortcomings of the FU. The absence of a precise normative framework specific to each sector of activity, as well as the complex, multifunctional and hard-to-scale nature of the systems concerned, are at the origin of the flexibility in the selection of the FU. This lack of a framework, beyond generating a heterogeneous definition of the FU for the same system, most often leads to an incomplete formulation of this sensitive concept of LCA. It has been found that key parameters such as the end-use of a product or process, as well as the interests of stakeholders, are hardly taken into account in the specification of the FU.

Assessing the eco-efficiency of different poultry production systems: an approach using life cycle assessment and economic value added

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 181-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabrielli Martinelli ◽  
Everton Vogel ◽  
Michel Decian ◽  
Maycon Jorge Ulisses Saraiva Farinha ◽  
Luciana Virginia Mario Bernardo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Economic Value ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Poultry Production ◽  
Economic Value Added
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