LCA Food 2012 in Saint Malo, France! - Manifestations et colloques ...

PARALLEL SESSION 1B: TOWARDS LIFE CYCLE SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENT 8 th Int. Conference on LCA in the
Agri-Food Sector, 1-4 Oct 2012
On-farm soil and water quality indicators
To quantify site-specific impacts, we determined on-farm AP and EP per hectare and measured on-farm
field parameters, i.e., soil organic matter (0-10 cm (%)), soil phosphorus content (P-Al, mg/100 gram soil)
and soil nitrogen supply (kg/ha). Moreover, phosphate and nitrate concentrations in the upper groundwater
(mg/l) were monitored. Soil organic matter has a positive effect on water supply, soil structure and nutrient
availability. The P-Al number is a measure of the capacity of the soil to supply phosphorus (P) and gives a
rough indication of the level of P-saturation and thus the amount of P that potentially may be lost to the environment.
The soil nitrogen supply is a measure of the N-supply in an unfertilised situation.
2.4. Societal performance
We quantified societal performance using three indicators: payments for ecosystem services (Euro/ha),
grazing (hours/cow) and penalties for aberrant milk composition (%). Data on working conditions and landscape
quality are not available in FADN, and, therefore, not included (Van der Veen et al., 2006). Payment
for ecosystem services is regarded here as a proxy for the farmers’ investment (time or money), for nature
conservation or bird protection. The number of penalty cases is provided as a measure of food safety. Farmers
get a penalty when the milk contains high somatic cell, or bacterial counts. The number of hours grazing
is included as an indicator for welfare and social perception. We acknowledge that pasture hours is a simple
indicator for welfare. Current FADN does not have the potential to assess animal welfare using preferred
animal-based indicators, such as, the Welfare Quality Protocol (De Vries et al., 2011; Welfare quality, 2009).
3. Results
3.1. Descriptive
Both groups of farms were comparable in terms of farm size, intensity and milk production (Table 1). The
proportion of grassland for INC farms was significantly higher (P< 0.05) than for conventional farms. The
conventional farms only had sandy and clay soils, INC farms had a small proportion of peat soil as well
(P