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Environmental Assessment of Agricultural Products
Summary and conclusions
This project has made it possible to carry out environmental assessment of products from individual agricultural holdings on the basis of data from environmental accounts. A tool for
calculation of potential environmental impacts and emissions from production of agricultural products has been established. The tool consists of a spreadsheet and instructions.
It was estimated that the most important environmental impacts from agriculture are global warming, acidification, nutrient enrichment and land use. An environmental assessment shows
the emissions withpotential environmental effects. Key figures per product unit can be used for bench-marking between individual holdings and provide the basis for a product-oriented
environmental policy for agricultural production.
The primary objective of this project was to promote a product-oriented environmental effort in agriculture by creating a basis for environmental assessment of products from agricultural
holdings. The project was conducted by the Danish Agricultural Advisory Centre, LCA consultants, the Danish Institute of Agricultural Science. The project is based on results and data
from another project called Life Cycle Assessment of Basic Food. A major task in this project was to implement – and to some extent adjust for practical use – the calculation principles
used in the project Life Cycle Assessment of Basic Food.
Results from calculating key figures per product unit for 16 individual holdings show that the delimitation of the environmental assessment is important, and that it can be difficult in
practice. The calculations should only include the main product and co-products produced as a consequence of the main product. Milk is in general the main product on dairy farms.
Meat from cast cows is a co-product. The production of roughage is normally an integrated part of milk production and should also be included in the environmental assessment of
milkIn this connection production of cash crops on dairy farms has nothing to do with the milk production and should not be included in the calculations.
Environmental assessment of pig meat shall be delimited to the pig production itself, because crops on a pig farm are not grown as a consequence of the pig production. Even though
some of the crops are used for feed on the farm, they should not be included, because the crops could be sold instead.
When more than one product is produced in the same process system expansion is used to calculate the emissions and the environmental impact figures for the main product. Allocation
of resource consumption and the emissions are not used.
Environmental assessment of pig meat is carried out on eight farms with pig production (table 1).
Table 1. Average figures for potential environmental impact from production of pig meat (ex farm) 0n eight farms in 2002. Min. and max. values are shown in brackets.
| Farm type |
Global warming
g CO2-eq./kg
|
Acidification
g SO2-eq./kg
|
Nutrient enrichment
g NO3-eq./kg
|
Land use
m2/kg
|
| Farms with sows and fatteners(3) |
2,964
(2.819-3.039)
|
40
(35-45)
|
165
(157-173)
|
5,9
(5.5-6.2)
|
| Farms with fatteners (5) |
2.928
(2,638-3,192)
|
39
(37-47)
|
175
(167-193)
|
5,7
(5.5-6.2)
|
Reference
(Basis project)
|
3.010 |
40 |
214 |
6.8 |
Environmental assessment of milk is carried out on six dairy farms (table 2).
Table 2. Average figures for potential environmental impact from production of milk (ex farm) on six dairy farms in 2002. Min. and max. values are shown in brackets.
| Farm type |
Global warming
g CO2-eq./kg
|
Acidification
g SO2-eq./kg
|
Nutrient enrichment
g NO3-eq./kg
|
Land use
m2/kg
|
| Dairy farms (6) |
594
(130-795)
|
9
(6-13)
|
33
(-4-60)
|
0.9
(0.7-1.1)
|
| Reference (Basis project) |
1,180 |
10 |
52 |
1.4 |
Nitrate and ammonia are the most important emissions contributing to nutrient enrichment. Emissions taking place on the farm contribute far more to the total environmental impact than
emissions taking place in connection with production and transport of input materials used in the production on the farm.
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Version 1.0 Oktober 2004, © Miljøstyrelsen.
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