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

GROUP 5, SESSION B: FOOD PRODUCTS 8 th Int. Conference on LCA in the
Agri-Food Sector, 1-4 Oct 2012
127. Environmental impact of animal food products and their
substitutes
Trudy Rood 1 , Durk Nijdam, Henk Westhoek, A. Leip 2 , J.P. Lesschen 3
1 PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, Bilthoven, The Netherlands, 2 European Commission
- Joint Research Centre, Institute for Environment and Sustainability, Ispra, Italy, 3 Alterra, Wageningen-UR,
Wageningen, The Netherlands, Corresponding author. E-mail: trudy.rood@pbl.nl
Land use, greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and nitrogen (N) emissions are the main causes of global loss of
biodiversity and damage to ecosystems (Rockstrom et al., 2009). Major impacts on the environment, and
thus also on biodiversity, are caused by the production of meat, dairy and fish. In this study, different protein
sources, such as meat, dairy, fish, eggs and meat substitutes, are compared for their environmental impacts.
In order to identify the range of impacts, their most important related factors, as well as the main causes of
the differences between products, 44 life-cycle assessment (LCA) studies were analysed, containing 96
LCAs of animal and vegetal sources of protein. Moreover, the results for agricultural products were compared
to results from the model Miterra-Europe. The Miterra-Europe model was used to calculate greenhouse
gas and nitrogen emissions from agriculture, following a life-cycle approach that reached 'up to the farm
gate' (Lesschen et al., 2011).
Compared to other review studies, such as De Vries and De Boer (2010), Yan (2011), Roy et al. (2009), Flachowsky
and Hachenberg (2009), and González et al.(2011) containing a selection of LCA studies on animal
products and mainly focused on greenhouse gases, our review study presents a broader view.
There are very large differences in carbon footprints and land requirements between the various protein
sources in the human diet. Greenhouse gas emission levels from the most climate-friendly protein sources
are up to 100 times lower than those from the most climate-unfriendly protein sources. For land use, comprising
both arable land and grasslands, this varies even more strongly. In the case of grasslands, there are
also large differences in the quality of land use in terms of biodiversity. Vegetal sources, poultry products
and certain seafood have well below average environmental impacts, while those of ruminant meat and some
other types of seafood are well above the average.
The impact differences between the various products were found mainly to be due to differences in production
systems. In the life cycle of protein sources, in general, the farm phase is the most important. Further
processing, transportation and packaging are of less importance.
The differences in scores, both between and within the various product categories, offer chances for lowering
the environmental impact of our protein consumption. Shifting consumption towards other sources of protein
has a large potential for reducing the impacts on biodiversity and climate change.
References
De Vries, M., de Boer, I.J.M., 2010. Comparing environmental impacts for livestock products: A review of
life cycle assessments. Livestock Science 128, 1-11.
Flachowsky, G., Hachenberg, S., 2009. CO2 Footprints for Food of Animal Origin – Present Stage and Open
Questions. Journal für Verbraucherschutz und Lebensmittelsicherheit 4, 190-198.
González, A.D., Frostell, B., Carlsson-Kanyama, A., 2011. Protein efficiency per unit energy and per unit
greenhouse gas emissions. Food Policy, In Press.
Lesschen, J.P., van den Berg, M., Westhoek, H.J., Witzke, H.P. and Oenema, O., 2011. Greenhouse gas
emission profiles of European livestock sectors. Animal Feed Science & Technology 166-167, 16-28.
Rockstrom, J., Steffen, W., Noone, K., Persson, A., Chapin, F.S., Lambin, E.F., Lenton, T.M., Scheffer, M.,
Folke, C., Schellnhuber, H.J., Nykvist, B., de Wit, C.A., Hughes, T., van der Leeuw, S., Rodhe, H., Sorlin,
S., Snyder, P.K., Costanza, R., Svedin, U., Falkenmark, M., Karlberg, L., Corell, R.W., Fabry, V.J.,
Hansen, J., Walker, B., Liverman, D., Richardson, K., Crutzen, P., Foley, J.A., 2009. A safe operating
space for humanity. Nature 461, 472-475.
Roy, P., Nei, D., Orikasa, T., Xu, Q., Okadome, H., Nakamura, N., Shiina, T., 2009. A review of life cycle
assessment (LCA) on some food products. Journal of Food Engineering 90, 1-10.
Yan, M.J., Humphreys, J, Holden, N. M., 2011. An evaluation of life cycle assessment of European milk
production. Journal of Environmental Management 92, 372-379.
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