IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jagris/v12y2022i3p355-d762325.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Environmental Impacts of Egg Production from a Life Cycle Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Aurore Guillaume

    (Department of Product Ecology and Sustainability, University of Chemistry and Technology, Technická 5, 166 28 Prague, Czech Republic
    Process and Environmental Technology Lab, Department of Chemical Engineering, KU Leuven, Jan Pieter De Nayerlaan 5, B-2860 Sint-Katelijne-Waver, Belgium)

  • Anna Hubatová-Vacková

    (Department of Product Ecology and Sustainability, University of Chemistry and Technology, Technická 5, 166 28 Prague, Czech Republic)

  • Vladimír Kočí

    (Department of Product Ecology and Sustainability, University of Chemistry and Technology, Technická 5, 166 28 Prague, Czech Republic)

Abstract

The food industry represents a vast environmental burden to our planet. Most animal products are known to have greater environmental impacts than alternative plant-based sources of nutrition. One of the most consumed animal products are eggs, represented in most dietary habits both as a primary ingredient and processed. In the European Union (EU), eggs for consumption can be produced in four different laying systems: enriched cages, barns, free-range, and organic. In past years, discussions about the ethical perspective have been ongoing among the wider public, industry and academia. However, the essential comparison of environmental impacts of the laying systems has been missing in our region. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is an excellent tool for comparing environmental impacts of various scenarios. Therefore, we performed a LCA of several egg-producing subjects in the Czech Republic, representative of all four laying systems. In addition, these regulated laying systems were compared to a community garden system. Our results suggest feed conversion ratio (FCR), feed composition, and manure management to be the most important factors influencing the total environmental impacts of eggs. Moreover, environmental benefits linked to outdoor access or using organic feed over conventional were observed in our study.

Suggested Citation

  • Aurore Guillaume & Anna Hubatová-Vacková & Vladimír Kočí, 2022. "Environmental Impacts of Egg Production from a Life Cycle Perspective," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-16, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:12:y:2022:i:3:p:355-:d:762325
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/3/355/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/3/355/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Eva Polyak & Zita Breitenbach & Eszter Frank & Olivia Mate & Maria Figler & Dorottya Zsalig & Klara Simon & Mate Szijarto & Zoltan Szabo, 2023. "Food and Sustainability: Is It a Matter of Choice?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-22, April.
    2. Armando Toscano & Melissa Balzarotti & Ilaria Re, 2022. "Sustainability Practices and Greenwashing Risk in the Italian Poultry Sector: A Grounded Theory Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-16, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:12:y:2022:i:3:p:355-:d:762325. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.