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

GROUP 4, SESSION B: CROP PRODUCTION SYSTEMS 8 th Int. Conference on LCA in the
Agri-Food Sector, 1-4 Oct 2012
95. Assessing environmental sustainability of apple ancient varieties in
Northern Italy
Alessandro K. Cerutti 1,* , Daniela Galizia 1 , Sander Bruun 2 , Dario Donno 1 , Gabriele L. Beccaro 1 , Giancarlo
Bounous 1
1 Department of Arboriculture, University of Torino, Via Leonardo da Vinci, 44 – 10095 Grugliasco (TO),
Italy, 2 Department of Agriculture and Ecology, University of Copenhagen, Thorvaldsensvej 40, 1871
Frederiksberg, Copenhagen, Denmark, Corresponding author. E-mail: alessandro.cerutti@unito.it
Until the middle of the last century, hundreds of different cultivars of apples were grown in Italy, as in many
other fruit producing countries. However in the Sixties, with increasing orchard commercialisation, the use
of commercial varieties became more common. Ancient cultivars were gradually replaced by commercial
varieties and Italian fruit-growing practices underwent significant changes. Indeed more than 70% of the
orchards in the Piedmont Region (Northern Italy) only have one cultivar, the commercial variety Golden
Delicious. In this region alone, ancient apple germplasm actually consists of about 350 cultivars, 130 of
which were recently noted for their qualitative, morphologic and agronomic traits. Ancient varieties are
characterised by very unconventional quality traits, such as alternative fruit shapes, skin colour, nutritional
values and organoleptic traits (such as crispness, juiciness and flavour). Because of this, they constitute a
well defined niche market.
The commercial appeal of such products (and the following marketing) is based both on uncommon quality
traits and claimed smaller environmental impacts due to the original vocation of the agronomic properties of
the land. Nevertheless specific environmental assessment of the varieties have not been conducted yet.
Therefore, the aim of this research is to conduct a life cycle assessment (LCA) that compares the production
of a representative ancient apple cultivar with Golden Delicious production, in order to evaluate significant
differences in the environmental impacts. In particular, the objectives of this research are (I) to qualify and
quantify the main environmental aspects of ancient apple varieties in Piedmont in order to establish parameters
for the sustainability of that product; (II) to evaluate any significant differences with the environmental
impact of the Golden Delicious supply chain and (III) to highlight where such differences are located along
the supply chain.
The assessment covers the whole supply chain, including agricultural production and its inputs: processing,
cooling, storage and transportation up to the consumer’s phase. Storage and consumption within the consumer’s
house have not been included because they are considered to be the same regardless the supply
chain. The functional unit was 1 kg of apples delivered to the consumer. The study was performed in accordance
with the guidelines and requirements of the ISO 14040 standard series and with the cradle-to-gate
approach as the basis for the Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) of the study. Data regarding agricultural inputs,
consumption and agrotechnique have been obtained directly from the growers, who filled in a questionnaire
for the season 2010-2011, and by consultation of Italian production protocols. The environmental aspects of
the production of fertilisers and pesticides have been included within the boundaries. Data regarding resource
use and supply chain properties have been obtained from retailers through interviews and field surveys.
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