Life Cycle Assessment Method - Tool for Evaluation of Greenhouse Gases Emissions from Agriculture and Food Processing

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F60076658%3A12220%2F16%3A43891845" target="_blank" >RIV/60076658:12220/16:43891845 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

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DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Life Cycle Assessment Method - Tool for Evaluation of Greenhouse Gases Emissions from Agriculture and Food Processing

Original language description

The chapter focuses on the use of the Life Cycle Assessment method to monitor the emission load of foods from different systems of farming production. The products of the conventional and organic farming production intended for public catering are compared within the SUKI and UMBESA international projects. Besides the comparison of agricultural production, processed and unprocessed foods, local and imported foods and fresh and stored foods were compared as well. The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), which is used to assess environmental impacts of products and services throughout their entire life cycle, was used to quantify the emission load. About 20 most frequently used foods for school catering facilities were compared. The results of the project confirm the general assumption about the less emission load of unprocessed, fresh and local products. It may not clearly state that products from organic farming produce less emissions when comparing agricultural systems. It always depends on the particular crop. The absence of synthetic substances such as fertilizers and pesticides reduces the emission load of organic farming, on the other hand, a higher number of mechanical operations and especially the lower income clearly increase the emission burden, therefore, in several cases, lower emission loads of crops were achieved using the conventional farming system. The situation is different regarding the following phases of food production, processing and transport. The transport phase significantly worsens the environmental profile of organic foods, because transport distances are too far due to insufficient processing capacity and underdeveloped market networks, and often exceed the emission savings from the agricultural phase. On the contrary, conventional foods are carried within relatively short distances, therefore the final emission load of conventional foods is in many cases fewer than the load of organic foods.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

C - Chapter in a specialist book

CEP classification

GC - Plant growing, crop rotation

OECD FORD branch

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Project

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Continuities

S - Specificky vyzkum na vysokych skolach

Publication year

2016

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Book/collection name

Greenhouse Gases

ISBN

978-953-51-4323-9

Number of pages of the result

23

Pages from-to

261 - 283

Number of pages of the book

314

Publisher name

InTech

Place of publication

Rijeka

UT code for WoS chapter

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