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
of labour and input costs), while removing livestock production completely and substituting with arable
where possible would lead to more than a 90% reduction in the value of ecosystems services from current
livestock land if labour is viewed as a benefit and about 60% when labour is viewed as a cost.
The analysis clearly shows the significant trade-offs between provisioning of livestock products and regulating
services, especially regarding impacts on air and water. These impacts, which constitute real costs
borne by others without compensation, reduce the overall economic efficiency of the sector. They reflect a
failure of markets and governance to adequately pass environmental costs to polluters. This is a generic failure,
and the livestock industry should not be picked out a special case.
It is important to note that while these scenarios demonstrate how the model can be used to optimise the
net flow of ecosystem benefit from the livestock sector, they have not incorporated the social acceptability of
losing whole sectors of the livestock industry. This can be built into the scenarios as constraints, so that, for
example, the model would optimise net ecosystem benefits by not reducing production from any sector by
more than a given level. Furthermore, the systems-based nature of the model means that it also provides
extensive outputs on how management and physical impacts within each of the livestock sectors change.
5. Conclusion
The model enabled trade-offs between provisioning, cultural and regulating services to be analysed, confirming,
for example, the important role of livestock systems in providing cultural services, particularly the
contribution of less intensive systems to landscape and biodiversity, and additionally the significant tradeoffs
between provisioning and regulating services, especially regarding impacts on air and water. The results
show the importance of the use of a systems based-LCA approach in identifying the trade-offs between the
cultural benefits of extensive systems and the potential efficiencies of more intensive systems. Taking an
ecosystem-services viewpoint shows the substantial influence that livestock systems have on wider assets
such as cultural services that are not incorporated into normal accounting processes. Furthermore, attempting
to assign a landscape value to hill and upland livestock, combined with a land suitability analysis, shows the
proportion of land that would become abandoned under a “no livestock” scenario, combined with a significant
loss in cultural value of the land, and highlights the trade-offs and potential losses arising from radical
changes to the livestock sector in the UK.
6. References
Defra, 2007. An introductory guide to valuing ecosystem services. Report published by the Department for Environment, Food and
Rural Affairs. London, UK. 68pp. Available at www.defra.gov.uk
Defra, 2009. Agriculture in the United Kingdom 2009. 146pp. Available at www.defra.gov.uk
HM Treasury, 2011. GDP deflators. Available from: http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/data_gdp_fig.htm
Edina, 2010. AgCensus data. Available from: http://edina.ac.uk/agcensus/
Jacobs, 2008. Environmental Accounts for Agriculture. Final report submitted to Defra. 175 pp.
Magic, 2011. Available from: http://magic.defra.gov.uk/
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005. Available from: http://www.milleniumassessment.org/en/index.asp
Morgan, RPC, Morgan, DDV, Finney, HJ, 1984. A Predictive Model for the Assessment of Soil-Erosion Risk. Journal of Agricultural
Engineering Research, 30 (3), 243-253
UNEP-UK NEA, 2010. UK National Ecosystem Assessment. Available from: http://uknea.unep-wcmc.org
Williams, A.G., Audsley, E. and Sandars, D.L., 2006. Determining the environmental burdens and resource use in the production of
agricultural and horticultural commodities. Main Report. Defra Research Project IS0205. Bedford: Cranfield University and Defra.
Available at www.agrilca.org, and www.defra.gov.uk
Williams, A.G., Audsley, E., Sandars, D.L., 2007. Environmental burdens of livestock production systems derived from life cycle
assessment (LCA). In: Garnsworthy, P. (Ed), 41st University of Nottingham Feed Conference, Sutton Bonington, Nottingham,
Nottingham: Nottingham University, 171-200.
215