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
97. Life cycle assessment combined with eMergy for the evaluation of
an organic apple production system
Francesca Rossetti 1,* , Benedetto Rugani 2 , Elena Neri 1 , Nicoletta Patrizi 1 , Simone Bastianoni 1
1 Ecodynamics Group, Dipartimento di Chimica, Università degli Studi di Siena, via A. Moro, 2 - 53100
Siena, Italy, 2 Public Research Centre Henri Tudor (CRPHT) - Resource Centre for Environmental Technologies
(CRTE), 66, rue de Luxembourg - P.B. 144, L-4002, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg, * Corresponding
author. E-mail: francesca.rossetti@unisi.it
Traditionally organic farms aim to limit as much as possible external inputs to concentrate the production
towards more sustainable systems. Organic systems aim to favouring the preservation of ecosystems and the
conservation of the landscape and of local complexity. But the management of a farm by means of organic
practices does not always assure its sustainability. In this work we combined Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
and eMergy to study the sustainability and environmental performance of an organic farm producing fresh
apples and apple-juice. The parallel application of these two methodologies allows obtaining more significative
and comprehensive results and it emphasises the necessity of a link between ecological and economic
analyses in agricultural systems (Odum, 1996). The farm examined is situated in the south of Tuscany (Italy),
with an annual yield of 34 ton/ha. The farm is managed in conformity to organic farming rules, paying
particular attention to the preservation of biodiversity and to the respect of natural resources. The use of
drinking water is almost completely substituted by the capture of rainwater and by the renewable use of well
water. The farm is equipped with a photovoltaic system that satisfies the own electricity demand. For the
analysis, the production process was divided in three phases: in Phase 1 apples are cultivated and collected;
in Phase 2 apples are washed and selected, a part is destined to the fresh market and a part is transformed in
apples-juice (Phase 3). LCA analysis was performed using SimaPro 7.3 (PRè Consultants); for the characterisation
we have selected impact categories from CML 2 Baseline Method 2000 (Guinèe et al., 2001):
Acidification (AC), Eutrophication (EU), Global Warming Potential (GWP100) and Photochemical Oxidation
(PO). Despite what is usually observed in literature for conventional farms (Milà-i-Canals et al., 2006),
LCA results showed that Phase 1 is the less critical of the system (AC 7%, GWP 7%, EU 17% and PO 6%).
These results are justified by the fact that the farm, according to regulations, reduces at minimum the use of
fertilisers and pesticides, decreasing the generation of an important relevant share of many impact categories
considered in LCA for this process. Phase 2 and 3 represent the most detrimental (Phase 2: AC 24%, GWP
30%, EU 21% and PO 17%, Phase 3: AC 68%, GWP 64%, EU 62% and PO 76%). In Phase 2 machineries,
transport and fuels represent the major impacts, while in Phase 3 the most critical input corresponds to the
glass packaging phase. Emergy results highlight a quasi-self-sufficiency of the considered system. In fact the
imported flows (F) are very low and it is remarked also by the EIR indicator. The% renewability (%R) is
nearly 80%. Transports have a considerable weight in the amount of impacts due to the purchase of apples
from other regions that the farm sells as fresh market. The transport of fruits through long distances has usually
a relevant impact, and the farm should limit or totally eliminate this unsustainable scenario. Finally,
glass represents another major input of the farm and probably the use of a lighter type of glass would decrease
impacts related to the bottling phase. Results obtained from the two methodologies provide a wide
range of useful information to better identify environmental hotspots of production systems and also to
communicate to producers the opportunities to improve their sustainability.
References
Guinèe, J. B., Gorreèe, M., Heijungs, R., Huppes, G., Kleijn, R., de Koning, A., van Oers, L., Wegener
Sleeswijk, A., Suh, S., Udo de Haes, H. A., de Bruijn, H., van Duin, R., Huijbregts, M. A., 2001. Handbook
on Life Cycle Assessment. Operational Guide to the ISO standards, Kluwer Academic Publisher:
Dordrecht, The Netherlands
Milà i Canals, L., Burnip, G.M., Cowell, S.J., 2006. Evaluation of the environmental impacts of apple production
using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA): Case study in New Zealand. Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment
114, 226-238.
Odum, H.T. 1996. Environmental Accounting: Emergy and Environmental Policy Making. John Wiley and
Sons, New York. 370 pp.
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