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
822
112. Modelling Estonian field crop farm types for LCA
Sirli Pehme * , Eve Veromann
Estonian University of Life Sciences, Estonia, * Corresponding author. E-mail: Sirli.Pehme@emu.ee
Food and beverage final household consumption in EU accounts for 22–34% of total life-cycle impacts in all
environmental impact categories (except eutrophication that accounts 60%) (Tukker et al. 2006). Furthermore,
different agricultural production practices have different impacts on environment. Thus, assessment
through life cycle is needed to choose the best practises and mitigate pressure on environment.
Although, field crops have significant share in Estonian agricultural production, no agricultural LCA studies
have been done in Estonia so far. There are huge variability in resource use and environmental impact between
farms because of the variation in actual practises (Halberg 1999). Most of the LCA-s are based on data
from case studies (Pfefferli and Gaillard 2000). To ensure the representativeness and to aim more general
validity, assessment should be based on a larger sample of farm data. There are huge differences between
countries in agricultural practices, therefore country-specific inventory data about farm practises is needed.
In addition, environmental assessment through the life cycle taking account local conditions is necessary.
The aim of this paper was to create representative farm type models of Estonian arable crop farms based on
different characteristics – main product type, management type, animal density (in case of mixed farming) –
for further life cycle assessments. Different data sources were used to create inventory data of Estonian field
crop farm models: systematic statistics, farm accountancy data networks, experiments, surveys, recommendations
and expert opinion. Data of land area, energy and fertiliser use, yields and other characteristics are
presented for each farm type. Challenges on creating farm type models are discussed.
References
Halberg, N., 1999. Indicators of resource use and environmental impact for use in a decision aid for Danish
livestock farmers. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 76 17-30.
Pfefferli S., Gaillard, G., 2000. Development of a new management tool by combining LCA and FADN. In:
Weidema, BP., Meeusen MJG., (eds.), Agricultural data for life cycle assessments, Vol 2., Agricultural
Economics Research Institute, The Hague, The Netherlands, 137-144.
Tukker, A., Huppes, G., Guinee J., Heijungs, R., de Koning, A., van Oers, L., Suh, S., Geerken, T., van
Holderbeke, M., Jansen, B., Nielsen, B., 2006. Environmental impacts of products (EIPRO). European
Science and Technology Observatory and Institute for Prospective Technological Studies, Seville, Spain.
Available from: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/ipp/pdf/eipro_report.pdf