w w w. a g r o p a r i s t e c h. f r séminaire filières courtes 19 novembre 2009 1 environmental...

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Séminaire Filières Courtes 19 Novembre 2009 1

Environmental impact indicators and potential applications to food supply

chains

Benoît GABRIELLE

INRA - AgroParisTech Environment and Arable Crops Research Unit

Grignon, France

[email protected]

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Outline of talk

• Environmental impacts: what do we want to assess and why?

• A host of available methods • Applications to production systems and

food chains • Conclusion and challenges ahead

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The world as a bio-refinery ?

Seeking synergies between the biosphere and technosphere to:

• 'Loop the loops'

• Reduce waste outputs

• Minimize adverse environmental impacts

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Environnemental labelling

Proposal for product labelling according to the 'Grenelle' Environment round table in France(Erns & Young, 2009)

Overall score

Wildlife

Natural resources

Climate

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What is environmental performance ?

• One of the sustainability criteria for agricultural systems and food supply chains

• May be achieved by minimizing impacts per 'unit function' of a given system:– Biomass (food) output ? – Hectare of cultivated land ?– Number of employees ?– Other ecosystem services ? (eg, landscape

quality, biodiversity)

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Example: energy optimum for wheat yields

Here, the performance indicator is the amount of fossile energy expended per ton of wheat grains.

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From management practices to environmental impacts

Practices StateEmissions Impacts

Fertilizer N inputs

Catch crop

Manure management

Nitrate leaching

NH3 emissions

N2O emissions

Groundwater pollution ,

Atmospheric N deposition

Enhanced greenhouse effect

Human health

Eutrophication

Biodiversity loss

Climate change

Depletion of natural resources

Source: C. Bockstaller

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The 'indicator industry' (Y. Rydin, LSE)

CASDAR PLAGE

Source: F. Vertès, INRA Rennes

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A typology based on the systems and functions assessed

• Chains/end-products: life-cycle assessment, ecological footprint, food-miles

• Production site (incl. Agricultural farm): 'Carbon Budget' (ADEME), PLANETE, DEAG...

• Field/landcape-scale: agri-environmental indicators, biophysical models, monitoring of proximate impact variables

• … and all possible combinations depending on the particular objectives at hand!

Life Cycle Assessment for biofuel (or food) chainsLife Cycle Assessment for biofuel (or food) chains

Goal and scope Goal and scope definitiondefinition

Inventory of Inventory of extractions and extractions and

emissionsemissions

Impact assessmentImpact assessment

Uncertaintyanalysis

Interpre-tation

Agricultural inputs

agricultural production conversiondistribution/storage combustion

system boundary

IndicatorIndicatori i ==ΣΣjj(substance(substance j j xx factor factori,ji,j))

Source: C. Bessou

(ISO standards 14040)

Environment

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Main purposes of LCA

• Chain optimization – Detection of 'hot-spots', and mitigation– Eco-design

• Strategic planning • Decision support in public policies• Marketing (labelling)

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Application to agricultural products

A broad range of environmental impacts :

CO2

Water bodies

NO3P

Fertilizers PesticidesManure

Soil

Soil organicmatter

N2O, CH

4,

NH3, NO,Pesticides

Eutrophication

Global warming

Air pollution

Pesticides,Trace contaminants

Acidification

Human health

Ecotoxicity

Depletion of resources

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Outline of talk

• Environmental impacts: what do we want to assess and why?

• A host of available methods • Applications to production systems and

food chains • Conclusion and challenges ahead

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Past examples(not comprehensive!)

• Whole-chain approaches– Bio-energy chains, green chemistry products

– Management of organic waste (urban waste composts)

– Food supply chains (organic bread)

• 'Step-by-step' approach– Changes in pesticide products, fertilizer management

• Systems approach– Cropping systems (organic, integrated pest management –

FAL Agroscope, Switzerland)

– Cattle and swine farming, aquaculture (eg, INRA Rennes)

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Example 1: Production of pig meat

(C. Basset-Mens and H. van der Werf, INRA Rennes)

• 1. Good agricultural practices (GAP) (aka conventional)

• 2. Red Label (RL) (« Porc fermier Label Rouge »)

• 3. Organic Farming (OA)

Overall goal: comparison of 3 production scenarios:

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The pig production systemAnimal feed, pig meat

Fertilizers, machinery, pesticides

Production of soybean, sunflower, sugarcane (overseas)

Fuel and electricity

Production of oilseed rape and

sugar-beet (France)

wheat, corn, barley, pea, and

triticale (Brittany)

Production fo pulps et cakes

Production of feed

Mineral supplements

Storage of manure

Production of piglets

Production of piglets

Production de charcutiers

Hogs End-product

Production of cakes and molasses

Fuel and electricity

Diapo: Hayo van der Werf

Atelier 'animal'

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Contribution of system components, hectare basis

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

B L A B L A B L A B L A B L A

Production de litière

Construction desbâtiments

Production cultures etaliments

Compostage

Productionsevrage/vente

Production porcelets

B= Bonnes pratiques agricoles; L= Label Rouge; A=Agriculture Biologique

Eutrophi-sation

Changement climatique

Acidifica-tion

Toxicité terrestre

Utilisation d'énergie

B: Good agric. Practices L: Red Label A: Organic farming

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Normalized impacts (per kg of meat)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

Eutrophication

Climate change

Acidification

Terrestria

l Toxicity

Energy use

Land use

in %

GAP

RL

OA

Y =Impact/54,4 kg porc

Impact/european inhabitant

X 100

GAP: Good agric. Practices RL: Red Label OA: Organic farming

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Example 2: bread supply 1/3

Source: G. Reinhardt

Organic or conventional

Industrial or domestic milling

Industrial, bakery or home baking

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Baking

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Filière courte Colza

Crop Production Transformation Cattle Production

Oilseed rape (OSR)Pays de Loire,

Centre

SOYBEANBRAZIL

Farm crushing

Industrial crushing

OSRRation

SOYBEAN Ration

Inpu

tsIn

puts

Transport Transport

Transport Transport

Filière longue SojaComparison of locally-produced rapeseed cake vs soy cake as protein concentrate

in dairy farms in Pays de Loire (Western France).Lehuger et al., J. Cleaner Prod., 2009

33.3 kg milk/d

29.6 kg milk/d

Example 3: local vs global feed supply chains

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Relative impacts of the two rations (per kg milk)

Le colza consomme plus d'engrais de synthèse – et l'écart avec le sojan'est pas compensé par les transports transatlantiques.

Resou

rces

Global

war

min

g

Ozone

laye

r

Human

Tox

.

Aquatic

Ecot

ox.

Mar

ine

Exoc

ox.

Terre

stria

l Eco

tox.

Ozone

pollu

tion

Acidifica

tion

Eutro

phicatio

n

Land-u

se0

20

40

60

80

100

SOYBEANOSR

Rel

ativ

e im

pact

s (%

)

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Breakdown of the Acidification impact(per kg milk)

0

0,0005

0,001

0,0015

0,002

0,0025

SOJA COLZA

kg S

O2

eq

Autre

Transportpar route

Production engrais

Transportpar mer

Mécanisationagricole

Culture

Possible improvement: using rapeseed oil as biofuel in tractors (which reverses the trend between soybean and oilseed rape rations).

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Conclusion on the application of LCA

• Ranking of systems varies across impact categories.

• Thus, there is often no fully optimal system.• There is a trade-off between global and local

impacts, and land-use.• Indicators are more contrasted for supply chains

than agricultural production systems.• Few examples of use in decision-making as yet (but

certification and labelling offer rapid prospects).• Despite its advantages in principle, the

methodology faces a series of limitations.

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Pros & cons of LCA

• LCA is a relatively complex method

• Some of its components are highly uncertaint (eg field emissions)

• Its indicators are usually not normalized

• It is not suitable to score 'qualitative' impacts (eg soil quality or biodiversity)

• The method is transparent and repeatable

• LCA can respond to system management scenarios (inasmuch as emissions may be predicted)

• It is one of the most comprehensive methods

• It is increasingly used in environmental management (industry, also in the agricultural and food sectors)

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How to improve the reliability of LCA

Kaiser et al., 2000

Compilation of N2O

emissions data across crops,

locations, and climatic years

in Germany, in relation to

fertilizer N rates.

LCAs carry uncertainties on the emissions fluxes, and their variability in relation to soil/climate conditions and management practices (and their interactions within cropping systems).

Envelope of the 'IPCC (1996)' relationship

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Consequences of uncertainties on emissions

Uncertainty in the CO2 emissions of biofuels

Fossil fuelsuncertainty

4g CO2eq/MJ

Biofuelsuncertainty

10-40g CO2eq/MJ

=> due to N2O

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Diesel Gasoline RME EtOH

g C

O2

/MJ

JRC/EUCAR/CONCAWE 2008

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Future research on environmental assessment

(and food supply chains)• Taking into account local characteristics in:

– Environmental emissions (farm scale)– Fate and damage of pollutants (regional scale)

• Applying LCA to real farm systems (internalizing the decision components when exploring scenarios)

• Using LCA as an eco-design tool (reverse engineering?)

• Combining LCA with socio-economic assessment (and foresight scenarios)

• How do we assess multi-functional systems ?

• Transferring evalution methods to stakeholders

– Construction of (open-access) data bases – Develop simplified, screening tools

Life Cycle Assessment for biofuel (or food) chainsLife Cycle Assessment for biofuel (or food) chains

Goal and scope Goal and scope definitiondefinition

Inventory of Inventory of extractions and extractions and

emissionsemissions

Impact assessmentImpact assessment

Uncertaintyanalysis

Interpre-tation

inputs agricultural production conversiondistribution/storage combustion

system boundary

IndicatorIndicatori i ==ΣΣjj(substance(substance j j xx factor factori,ji,j))

Impact categories:Impact categories:- Global warmingGlobal warming- Consumption of non-renewable Consumption of non-renewable

ressourcesressources- Eutrophication of ecosystemsEutrophication of ecosystems- Air quality (ozone)Air quality (ozone)- Toxicity, ecotoxicityToxicity, ecotoxicity- .... ....

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