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Life Cycle Assessment Perspective for Sectoral Adaptation to Climate Change: Environmental Impact Assessment of Pig Production

Author

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  • Kennedy Ndue

    (Doctoral School of Regional and Business Administration Sciences, Széchenyi István University, 9026 Győr, Hungary)

  • Goda Pál

    (Doctoral School of Regional and Business Administration Sciences, Széchenyi István University, 9026 Győr, Hungary)

Abstract

Growing demand for sustainably driven production systems, especially pork, requires a holistic or system thinking approach. Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) offers a robust methodological background as one of the approaches to achieving system analysis for a product along its lifecycle. On the other hand, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) can perform state-of-art system analysis characterising its sustainability fronts as a compelling set of tools. Pork, as the most consumed meat across Europe (circa 34 kg per capita per year), compounded with the sector’s contribution to global greenhouse gases (GHG) doubling over the past decade necessitated this research. Our objective was to map hotspots along the value chain and recommend the best available practices for realising the sectoral contribution to carbon neutrality and climate change adaptation. To achieve the objective, we compared organic and conventional production systems by basing our analysis on Recipe midpoint 2016 (H) V1.13 as implemented in OpenLCA 1.10.2 using AGRIBALYSE ® 3.0 datasets for eleven indicators. We found that producing 1 kg of pig meat under an organic production system had almost double the environmental impact of conventional systems for land use, water consumption, acidification, and ecotoxicity. Feed production and manure management are the significant hotspots accounting for over 90% of environmental impacts associated with 1 kg pig meat Liveweight (LW) production. Similarly, efficient conventional systems were less harmful to the environment in per capita unit of production and land use compared with organic ones in ten out of the eleven impacts evaluated. Implementing increased efficiency, reduced use of inputs for feed production, and innovative manure management practices with technological potential were some of the best practices the research recommended to realise minimal impacts on the identified hotspots.

Suggested Citation

  • Kennedy Ndue & Goda Pál, 2022. "Life Cycle Assessment Perspective for Sectoral Adaptation to Climate Change: Environmental Impact Assessment of Pig Production," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-17, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:11:y:2022:i:6:p:827-:d:829501
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Kinga Biró & Mária Szalmáné Csete & Bálint Németh, 2021. "Climate-Smart Agriculture: Sleeping Beauty of the Hungarian Agribusiness," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-15, September.
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    3. Handayani, Kamia & Filatova, Tatiana & Krozer, Yoram & Anugrah, Pinto, 2020. "Seeking for a climate change mitigation and adaptation nexus: Analysis of a long-term power system expansion," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 262(C).
    4. Kinga Biró & Mária Szalmáné Csete, 2021. "Corporate social responsibility in agribusiness: climate-related empirical findings from Hungary," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 5674-5694, April.
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    Cited by:

    1. Tiberiu Iancu & Valentina Constanta Tudor & Eduard Alexandru Dumitru & Cristina Maria Sterie & Marius Mihai Micu & Dragos Smedescu & Liviu Marcuta & Elena Tonea & Paula Stoicea & Catalin Vintu & Andy , 2022. "A Scientometric Analysis of Climate Change Adaptation Studies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-20, October.
    2. Lefteris Melas & Maria Batsioula & Apostolos Malamakis & Sotiris I. Patsios & Dimitris Geroliolios & Evangelos Alexandropoulos & Stamatia Skoutida & Christos Karkanias & Anna Dedousi & Maria-Zoi Krits, 2023. "Circular Bioeconomy Practices in the Greek Pig Sector: The Environmental Performance of Bakery Meal as Pig Feed Ingredient," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-26, July.
    3. Kennedy Ndue & Goda Pál, 2022. "European Green Transition Implications on Africa’s Livestock Sector Development and Resilience to Climate Change," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-29, November.
    4. Apostolos Malamakis & Sotiris I. Patsios & Lefteris Melas & Anna Dedousi & Konstantinos N. Kontogiannopoulos & Konstantinos Vamvakas & Nikos Tsotsolas & Eleni Koutsouraki & Evangelia N. Sossidou & Geo, 2023. "Demonstration of an Integrated Methodology for the Sustainable Valorisation of Bakery Former Food Products as a Pig Feed Ingredient: A Circular Bioeconomy Paradigm," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-23, September.
    5. Katarina Marić & Kristina Gvozdanović & Ivona Djurkin Kušec & Goran Kušec & Vladimir Margeta, 2025. "Smart Pig Farms: Integration and Application of Digital Technologies in Pig Production," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-18, April.
    6. Nelė Jurkėnaitė, 2023. "Analysis of the Nexus between Structural and Climate Changes in EU Pig Farming," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-19, September.

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