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

GROUP 1, SESSION A: ANIMAL PRODUCTION SYSTEMS 8 th Int. Conference on LCA in the
Agri-Food Sector, 1-4 Oct 2012
29. Comparing environmental impacts of wild-caught and farmed fish
products - a review of life cycle assessments
E.A. Groen * , T.C. Viets, E.A.M. Bokkers, I.J.M. De Boer
Animal Production Systems Group, Wageningen University, Corresponding author. E-mail: Evelyne.Groen@wur.nl
Many discuss the differences between fish products originating from aquaculture and fisheries. However, no
systematic literature overview has been made yet. Most seafood LCA studies so far are limited to impact
categories like energy use or global warming, or assess products on a national scale. We came up with a
more extensive literature overview of the differences in environmental impact between aquaculture and fisheries,
based on the same methodology.
The objective of this study was to compare environmental impact assessments of wild-caught and farmed
fish products. We reviewed life cycle assessments (LCAs) of wild-caught plaice and cod, and farmed
salmon, tilapia and pangasius, as these species are studied most often. Seven peer-reviewed studies were
found that performed an LCA of these species, addressing diverse production systems. The following environmental
impacts were discussed: energy use (EU), global warming potential (GWP), acidification potential
(AP), eutrophication potential (EP) and land use.
To enable a comparison of EU and GWP among studies, we recalculated outcomes using the same functional
unit (i.e. 1 kg of fresh fillet), allocation method (i.e. mass allocation) and similar characterisation factors.
Most articles, however, did not address AP, EP, or land use. We estimated the AP, EP, and land use of the
seven studies, using published technical parameters, complemented with data from ecoinvent v2.2 and FAO.
Next, the two systems were compared for GWP, EU, AP, EP, and land use using Wilcoxon rank-sum test.
Energy use (for wild-caught and farmed fish) varied between 11 to 273 MJ/kg of fresh fillet, whereas GWP
varied between 0.7 and 22.9 kg CO2-eq/kg of fresh fillet. Results of EU and GWP showed a similar pattern
across studies, as especially in fisheries GWP is dominated by CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion.
The GWP from processing varied between 0.03 and 0.93 kg CO2-eq/kg of fresh fillet (the fish with the highest
value included freezing), the GWP due to transport between 0.05 and 3.36 kg CO2-eq/kg of fresh fillet
(the highest value comprised air transport).
Global warming potential, EU, and AP of farmed fish products were not different compared to wild-caught
fish products (P>0.05; Fig. 1 shows GWP). However, EP and landuse were higher for farmed fish products
(P