Environmental Impacts of Products of Animal Origin
Products from animal husbandry such as milk and meat have a major impact on our environment. Life cycle assessments help to improve these production systems so that they are as efficient and environmentally friendly as possible.
Livestock production not only leads to high greenhouse gas emissions, but also to the pollution of ecosystems through the nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus, or to high land use with major implications for biodiversity. Consequently, the ongoing improvement of these systems is a major concern. In this context, both the emissions on the farm as well as those generated by purchased feed and livestock are of importance. Feed conversion, composition of the ration and the way in which feed is produced as well as the system’s design (e.g. combined dairy and meat production vs. suckler cow production) all greatly influence the environmental impacts of the animal production systems.
...pollute our environment. LCA shows the extent of this environmental pollution and how it can be reduced.
The aim of the ‘Ecological Assessment of Beef, Pork and Poultry’ research initiative was to create an LCA of beef, pork and poultry (i.e. chicken) production in Switzerland and in selected import countries, and to compare the environmental impacts of the different production systems. In all of the systems studied agricultural production dominated the environmental impacts, with the design of cropping and production practices rather than origin being key here. Agroscope also carried out product LCAs of specific production systems for poultry, pork and beef and compared their environmental impacts with typical Swiss and foreign systems, identifying strengths and weaknesses and highlighting potential for improvement.
...product of the Swiss farming sector. Various milk production systems were compared to highlight their strengths, weaknesses and potential for improvement.
Using LCA, the ‘Hohenrain Comparison of Milk Production Systems’ project compared various milk production systems:
intensive milk production with total mixed ration, high concentrate use and high milk yield;
partial mixed ration with fresh-grass harvesting, high concentrate use and high milk yield;
full grazing with lower milk yield; and
fresh-grass harvesting with low concentrate use and lower milk yield.
Each system had advantages and disadvantages and the variability between farms within a production system was large. It was therefore possible to achieve relatively low environmental impacts in all production systems.
