Abstract
The food supply chain has become an important contributor to a number of environmental impacts, and food and drink products are accountable for a significant share of the overall environmental impacts of private consumption. In order for the whole chain to be taken into account, a life cycle approach to environmental assessment is needed; in that framework, the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology has been increasingly used to improve the environmental performance of food systems. In this chapter review papers on food LCA case studies were reviewed in terms of methodological key aspects (e.g., functional unit, system boundary, multi-functionality, data, etc.). Moreover, an attempt was made to identify the most critical impacts and life-cycle stages. In the case studies reviewed, different assumptions and methodologies were found and discussed. However, it was not possible to clearly identify one or more environmental impacts as being more important than others. Finally, no sure conclusions were drawn regarding the most impacting stage, although the agricultural one was mentioned most frequently.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The FU however must be the same when comparing two or more products. What changes is in fact the reference flow.
- 2.
What is proposed here is actually the reference flow. Peacock et al. (2011) have discussed the confusion often encountered even in the scientific literature when defining the functional unit and the reference flow.
- 3.
In the case of food products, the waste treatment refers mainly to the packaging at its end of life, but also to the agricultural phase (e.g., stems, grape skins etc., in the case of wine production).
References
Arzoumanidis I, Raggi A, Petti L (2011) Methodological and applicative state of the art of LCA in the agri-food sector: a critical review. In: Campisi B, Novelli V (eds) Proceedings of the 25th Italian Congress on Commodity Science: Il contributo delle scienze merceologiche per un mondo sostenibile. Forum edizioni, Udine
Baitz M, Albrecht S, Brauner E, Broadbent C, Castellan G, Conrath P, Fava J, Finkbeiner M, Fischer M, Fullana P, Krinke S, Leroy C, Loebel O, McKeown P, Mersiowsky I, Möginger B, Pfaadt M, Rebizter G, Rother E, Ruhland K, Schanssema A, Tikana L (2012) LCA’s theory and practice: like ebony and ivory living in perfect harmony. Int J LCA. doi:10.1007/s11367-012-0476-x
Delgado CL (2003) Rising consumption of meat and milk in developing countries has created a new food revolution. J Nutr 133:3907S–3910S
Elcock D (2007) Life-Cycle Thinking for the oil and gas exploration and production industry. Argonne National Laboratory, Chicago. http://www.evs.anl.gov/pub/doc/LCA_final_report.pdf. Accessed 5 May 2012
European Environment Agency (EEA) (2005) Household consumption and the environment. Report No 11/2005, Copenhagen
European Union (2010) International reference life cycle data system (ILCD) handbook: general guide for life cycle assessment––detailed guidance. http://lct.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pdf-directory/ILCD-Handbook-General-guide-for-LCA-DETAIL-online-12March2010.pdf. Accessed 11 Jan 2012
Eurostat (2011) Food: from farm to fork statistics. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KS-32-11-743/EN/KS-32-11-743-EN.PDF. Accessed 25 Aug 2012
Foster C, Green K, Bleda M, Dewick P, Evans B, Flynn A, Mylan J (2006) Environmental impacts of food production and consumption: a report to the department for environment, food and rural affairs. Defra, Manchester Business School, London
Fullana P, Puig R, Bala A, Baquero G, Riba J, Raugei M (2011) From life cycle assessment to life cycle management. J Ind Ecol 15:458–475
Gonzalez A, Klimchuk A, Martin M (2006) Life cycle Assessment of wine production process: Finding relevant process efficiency and comparison to eco-wine production. Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm
Hayashi K, Gaillard G, Nemecek T (2006) Life cycle assessment of agricultural production systems: current issues and future perspectives. In: Proceedings of international seminar on technology development for good agricultural practice in Asia and Oceania, Taipei
Hospido A, Davis J, Berlin J, Sonesson U (2010) A review of methodological issues affecting LCA of novel food products. Int J LCA 15:44–52
ISO (2006) ISO 14044:2006: Environmental management: life cycle assessment––requirements and guidelines. International Organization for Standardization, Geneva
Kearney J (2010) Food consumption trends and drivers. Phil Trans R Soc B 365:2793–2807
Lomborg B (2001) The skeptical environmentalist: measuring the real state of the world. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Mogensen L, Hermansen JE, Halberg N, Dalgaard R, Vis JC, Smith BG (2009) Life cycle assessment across the food supply chain. In: Baldwin CJ (ed) Sustainability in the food industry. Wiley, Ames
Mueller ND, Gerber JS, Johnson M, Ray DK, Ramankutty N, Foley JA (2012) Closing yield gaps through nutrient and water management. Nature 490:254–257
Mungkung R, Gheewala S (2007) Use of life cycle assessment (LCA) to compare the environmental impacts of aquaculture and agri-food products. Paper presented at the FAO/WFT expert workshop. FAO fisheries proceedings, Vancouver, 24–28 April 2006
Notarnicola B (2008) Rete Italiana di LCA: Attività del Gruppo di Lavoro Alimentare e Agroindustriale. Paper presented at the 2nd workshop of the Italian LCA Network “Sviluppi dell’LCA in Italia: Percorsi a confronto”, Pescara
Notarnicola B, Hayashi K, Curran MA, Huisingh D (2012) Progress in working towards a more sustainable agri-food industry. J Clean Prod 28:1–8
Peacock N, De Camillis C, Pennington D, Aichinger H, Parenti A, Rennaud JP, Raggi A, Brentrup F, Sàra B, Schenker U, Ziegler F (2011) Towards a harmonised framework methodology for the environmental assessment of food and drink products. Int J LCA 16:189–197
Petti L, Ardente F, Bosco S, De Camillis C, Masotti P, Pattara C, Raggi A, Tassielli G (2010) State of the art of life cycle assessment (LCA) in the wine industry. In: Proceedings of the 7th international conference on LCA in the Agri-Food Sector, Bari
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. Food Eng 90:1–10
Salomone R, Cappelletti GM, Ioppolo G, Mistretta M, Nicoletti G, Notarnicola B, Olivieri G, Pattara C, Russo C, Scimìa E (2010) Italian experiences in life cycle assessment of olive oil: a survey and critical review. In: Proceedings of the 7th international conference on LCA in the Agri-Food Sector, Bari
Salomone R, Clasadonte MT, Proto M, Raggi A, Arzoumanidis I, Ioppolo G, Lo Giudice A, Malandrino O, Matarazzo A, Petti L, Saija G, Supino S, Zamagni A (2011) Product-oriented environmental management system (POEMS): a sustainable management framework for the food industry. Paper presented at the life cycle management conference 2011, Berlin, August 28–31. http://www.lcm2011.org/papers.html?file=tl_files/pdf/poster/day1/Salomone-Product-Oriented_Environmental_Management_System-651_b.pdf. Accessed 1 June 2012
Schau E, Fet A (2008) LCA studies of food products as background for environmental product declarations. Int J LCA 13:255–264
SETAC (2012) Life cycle assessment. http://www.setac.org/node/32. Accessed 10 July 2012
Tatti E, Bellotto S, Bischoff Y, Loerincik Y, Jolliet O (2008) Revue bibliographique des études « Analyse de Cycle de Vie des produits agricoles » - Rapport de synthèse: ECOINTESYS, ADEME
Tillman AM (2000) Significance of decision-making for LCA methodology. Environ Impact Assess 20:113–123
Tukker A, Jansen B (2006) Environmental impacts of products. A detailed review of studies. J In < d Ecol 10:159–182
Usva K, Saarinen M, Katajajuuri JM, Kurppa S (2009) Supply chain integrated LCA approach to assess environmental impacts of food production in Finland. Agr Food Sci 18:460–476
van Kernebeek H, Dolman M, Westerhof E (2010) Review of methodological choices in LCA literature. In: Proceedings of the 7th international conference on LCA in the Agri-Food Sector, Bari
Woods J, Williams A, Hughes JK, Black M, Murphy R (2010) Energy and the food system. Phil Trans R Soc B 365:2991–3006
Zamagni A, Masoni P, Buttol P, Raggi A, Buonamici R (2012) Finding life cycle assessment research direction with the aid of meta-analysis. J Ind Ecol 16:S39–S52
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Dr Camillo De Camillis for his collaboration in performing the review of the case studies.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Arzoumanidis, I., Petti, L., Raggi, A., Zamagni, A. (2013). Life Cycle Assessment for the Agri-Food Sector. In: Salomone, R., Clasadonte, M., Proto, M., Raggi, A. (eds) Product-Oriented Environmental Management Systems (POEMS). Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6116-2_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6116-2_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-6115-5
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-6116-2
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsBusiness and Management (R0)