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Life Cycle Assessment in the Fruit Sector

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Life Cycle Assessment in the Agri-food Sector

Abstract

Fruit products are generally considered to be some of the less environmentally damaging foods in occidental diets. In fact studies investigating the carbon footprint of different food choices have reported that fruit is the category with the least environmental impact. However, these studies use data from environmental assessments of generic fruit production, which take no account of specific issues within orchard systems and fruit supply chains. Indeed, modern food production is very diverse, with high levels of specialisation and complexity. These features inevitably affect methodologies in the application of LCA to food products and agro-systems. It is therefore important to study what has already been done regarding standardisation of application protocols in order to make appropriate comparisons between products. In the present chapter, a review of LCA application in fruit systems is presented: papers from international journals, national journals, and conference proceedings have been reviewed. In particular, it can be assumed that mainstream research on the LCA applied to fruit production systems began around 2005; most of the papers were published in 2010 and 2012 in conjunction with international conferences on LCA in the agri-food sector. The review covers all the main criteria for conducting an LCA in fruit production systems. Specific issues considered are: aims and scopes, system boundaries, product considered, functional unit, data origin, life cycle-based methodology adopted, and environmental impact assessment method used. Furthermore this chapter investigates two aspects that are rarely considered in LCA studies of fruit systems: the role of nurseries in determine environmental impacts and the carbon storage properties of orchards.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Science, University of Turin, Via Leonardo da Vinci 44, 10095, Grugliasco, Turin, Italy

    Alessandro K. Cerutti & Gabriele L. Beccaro

  2. Institute of Life Sciences, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, via S. Cecilia, 3 56127, Pisa, Italy

    Simona Bosco

  3. Department of Agriculture, Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria, Feo di Vito, 89122, Reggio Calabria, Italy

    Anna I. De Luca, Giacomo Falcone, Nathalie Iofrida & Alfio Strano

  4. Department of Science, International Doctoral School in Bioecosystems and Biotechnology, University of Basilicata, Viale dell’Ateneo Lucano 10, 85100, Potenza, Italy

    Angela Fiore

  5. Ionian Department of Law, Economics and Environment, University of Bari, Via Lago Maggiore angolo via Ancona, 74121, Taranto, Italy

    Agata Lo Giudice

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  1. Alessandro K. Cerutti
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  2. Gabriele L. Beccaro
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  4. Anna I. De Luca
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  9. Alfio Strano
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Correspondence to Alessandro K. Cerutti .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Ionian Department of Law, Economics and Environment, University of Bari, Bari, Italy

    Bruno Notarnicola

  2. Department SEA, University of Messina, Messina, Italy

    Roberta Salomone

  3. Department of Economics, University of Chieti-Pescara, Pescara, Italy

    Luigia Petti

  4. Ionian Department of Law, Economics and Environment, University of Bari, Bari, Italy

    Pietro A. Renzulli

  5. Department of Agro-Environmental Science, University of Bari, Bari, Italy

    Rocco Roma

  6. Dept. Agricultural Sciences Forestry and Food, University of Turin, Grugliasco, Italy

    Alessandro K. Cerutti

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Cerutti, A. et al. (2015). Life Cycle Assessment in the Fruit Sector. In: Notarnicola, B., Salomone, R., Petti, L., Renzulli, P., Roma, R., Cerutti, A. (eds) Life Cycle Assessment in the Agri-food Sector. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11940-3_6

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