Evaluation of the environmental sustainability of different European pig production systems using life cycle assessment
Year: 2011
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: The environmental sustainability of 15 European pig production systems has been evaluated within the EU Q-PorkChains project,using life cycle assessment (LCA). One conventional and two differentiated systems were evaluated from each of five countries :Denmark, Netherlands, Spain, France and Germany. The information needed for the calculations was obtained from an enquiry conductedon 5 to 10 farms from each system. The different systems were categorized among conventional (C), adapted conventional(AC), traditional (T) and organic (O). Compared to conventional, the differentiation was rather limited for AC systems with onlysome changes in order to improve meat quality, animal welfare or environmental impact. The difference was much more marked forthe traditional systems with the use of fat slow-growing traditional breeds and generally the outdoor raising of the fattening pigs. Theenvironmental impacts were calculated at farm gate, including the inputs, and expressed per kg live pig and per ha land use. For theconventional systems, the impact per kg live pig on climate change, acidification, eutrophication, energy use, and land occupationwere 2.25 kg CO2-eq, 44.0 g SO2-eq, 18,5 g PO4-eq, 16.2 MJ and 4.13 m2, respectively. Compared to C, the corresponding valueswere on average 13, 5, 0, 2 and 16% higher for AC; 54, 79, 23, 50 and 156% higher for T, and 4, -16, 29, 11 and 121% higher for O.Conversely, when expressed per ha of land use, the impacts were lower for T and O differentiated systems, by 10 to 60% on average,depending on the impact category. This was mainly due to larger land occupation per kg pig produced as well for feed productionand for the outdoor raising of sows and/or fattening pigs. The use of litter bedding tended to increase climate change impact per kgpig. The use of traditional local breeds, with reduced productivity and feed efficiency, resulted in higher impacts per kg pig produced,for all categories. Differentiated T systems with extensive outdoor raising of pigs resulted in markedly reduced impact per ha landuse. Eutrophication potential per ha was substantially lower for O systems. Conventional systems were generally better for globalimpacts, expressed per kg pig, whereas differentiated systems were better for local impacts, expressed per ha land use.
Source: HAL
Authors: Dourmad, Jean-Yves, Ryschawy, Julie, Trousson, Tiphaine, Bonneau, Michel, Gonzalez, J., Houwers, H W J, Hviid, Marchen, Zimmer, Christoph, Nguyen, T.L.T., Morgensen, L.
Language: English
Subfield: Agronomy and Crop Science
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4298299943