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

PLENARY SESSION 2: METHODOLOGICAL CHALLENGES FOR ANIMAL PRODUCTION SYSTEMS 8 th Int. Conference on
LCA in the
Agri-Food Sector, 1-4 Oct 2012
tries (£2931 million), and forward linkages in the supply chain into the retail industry (£14884 million). It is
worth noting that whilst we have viewed labour as a positive impact of the livestock sector here, because of
its importance for livelihoods, from an individual farmer’s perspective, this is a cost, in which case, the profitability
of the livestock sector is reduced substantially to £2794 million.
Cultural benefits based on current willingness to pay estimates were significant (£748 million), although
substantially lower than provisioning benefits, and were associated primarily with beef and sheep systems,
with the majority associated with hill and upland areas.
Major ecosystem costs were associated with impacts on regulating services, namely GHG (£2063 million)
and ammonia (£379 million) emissions. Emissions to water were of less significance, and mainly linked to
the cost associated with nitrate leaching in terms of reduced environmental water quality and removal of
nitrates from drinking water (£113 million) and the cost associated with soil erosion (£84 million) in terms of
flood damage and prevention. The majority of these costs are associated with grazing systems in western
and northern England and Wales and non-grazing livestock in eastern England.
Table 10. Modelled valuation impact of the livestock sector
BAU ‡ Sheep Pigs Suckler
beef
Eggs Chicken Dairy
&
dairy
beef
Arable
subs a
£M £M £M £M £M £M £M £M
A. Ecosystem benefits
Production Total product value 8268 826 843 828 592 1376 3802 3398
Inputs -2931 -161 -407 -373 -325 -596 -1068 -1863
Labour -2543 -526 -420 -294 -84 -331 -888 -371
Production (less inputs) 5337 665 436 455 267 780 2734 1535
Production (less inputs & labour) 2794 139 16 161 183 449 1846 1163
Regulation Total -2701 -321 -215 -571 -96 -279 -1219 -1811
Soil erosion -84 -51 -3 -14 -2 -5 -10 -511
Pesticide -12 0 -2 -1 -1 -4 -3 -29
Eutrophication -4 0 0 -1 0 0 -1 -2
N leaching -113 -16 -8 -29 -4 -15 -42 -78
Greenhouse gas emissions -2063 -230 -145 -422 -65 -207 -993 -1114
Ammonia -379 -21 -56 -81 -23 -47 -151 -77
Faecal contamination -10 -1 0 -4 0 0 -5 0
Chryptosporidium -35 -1 0 -20 0 0 -14 0
Cultural Cultural 748 403 9 190 5 13 128 160
B. Linked impacts
System inputs 2931 161 407 373 325 596 1068 1863
System labour (as above) 2543 526 420 294 84 331 888 371
Linked labour 1220 252 201 141 41 159 426 178
Downstream impact 14984 733 1265 828 1449 2246 8463 N/A
C. Total areas used
UK arable (Mha) 1.64 0.06 0.29 0.13 0.15 0.44 0.57 1.64
Overseas arable (Mha) 1.10 0.02 0.26 0.04 0.13 0.52 0.14 0.00
Grassland (Mha) 4.23 1.10 0.00 1.27 0.00 0.00 1.86 3.72
Hill (Mha equivalent) 2.68 2.16 0.00 0.52 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Total UK land (Mha) 8.55 3.32 0.29 1.92 0.15 0.44 2.43 5.36
‡ Business As Usual
a “Arable substitution” examines the potential for arable production to substitute livestock production on current livestock land that is
considered to be at least marginally suitable for arable production.
The analysis also considered the possible implications of reducing or entirely withdrawing livestock production
in the UK and substituting it where possible, with arable production. From a spatial analysis of soil
suitability for agriculture, an estimate was derived of the degree to which arable production might replace
particular types of livestock production in the UK. The level of substitution from livestock land to arable
land was limited: of the total modelled land area required for livestock production in the UK (ca. 6.89 Mha),
about 21% was estimated to be well-suited to arable production, with 48% entirely unsuited, and therefore
likely to be abandoned from agricultural use. This would result in the loss of current biodiversity, landscape
features and probably have negative effects on the tourism and recreational opportunities associated with
managed landscapes.
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