A Paraguayan cattle farm was evaluated to explore the environmental performance of beef production in a semi-intensive system. The LCA method was applied with a “cradle-to-farm gate” perspective and 1 kg of Live Weight as the functional unit selected. Primary data referring to cropping and livestock systems’ inputs and outputs for the three-years from 2016 to 2018 were collected on site. Twelve different impact categories were evaluated. Cattle farming confirmed to be responsible for intensive GHG emissions (24.8 kg CO2 eq/kg LW), especially when it occurs predominantly on pasture. A trade-off has been identified between impact categories strongly affected by animal-related emissions (including climate change, acidification potential and eutrophication), occurring mostly on pasture, and others (toxicity-related categories, ozone and resources depletion) by feed production, despite its limited inclusion in the overall rearing cycle, almost exclusively during the finishing feedlot phase.
Environmental impact assessment of beef production in a semi-intensive in Paraguay / M. Costantini, D. Lovarelli, I. Vázquez-Rowe, J. Bacenetti - In: Towards sustainable agri-food systems / [a cura di] U. Eberle, S. Smetana, U. Bos. - Berlin : LCAFOOD, 2020. - ISBN 9783000676048. - pp. 49-53 (( Intervento presentato al 12. convegno International Conference on Life Cycle Assessment of Food tenutosi a Berlin nel 2020.
Environmental impact assessment of beef production in a semi-intensive in Paraguay
M. CostantiniPrimo
;D. Lovarelli;J. Bacenetti
Ultimo
2020
Abstract
A Paraguayan cattle farm was evaluated to explore the environmental performance of beef production in a semi-intensive system. The LCA method was applied with a “cradle-to-farm gate” perspective and 1 kg of Live Weight as the functional unit selected. Primary data referring to cropping and livestock systems’ inputs and outputs for the three-years from 2016 to 2018 were collected on site. Twelve different impact categories were evaluated. Cattle farming confirmed to be responsible for intensive GHG emissions (24.8 kg CO2 eq/kg LW), especially when it occurs predominantly on pasture. A trade-off has been identified between impact categories strongly affected by animal-related emissions (including climate change, acidification potential and eutrophication), occurring mostly on pasture, and others (toxicity-related categories, ozone and resources depletion) by feed production, despite its limited inclusion in the overall rearing cycle, almost exclusively during the finishing feedlot phase.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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