ECOALIM: LCA results of feedstuffs for French livestock
Abstract
Animal feed contributes very significantly to the overall environmental impacts of animal products assessed by Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The current feed formulation only takes into account economical and nutritional constraints. The French project ECOALIM aims at improving the environmental impacts of husbandries by optimizing their feed. This will lead to select differents feedstuffs in the formulation, or to change their ways of production (crop managements, transformation processes). To perform such optimization, LCA data concerning the feedstuffs are needed. 142 LCA data of 69 different feedstuffs were produced. Several scales were treated: national average data representative for France with different poduction processes for transformed feedstuffs, and different managements for the main crops used in feed like cereals and oil seeds ((1) organic fertilization, (2) introduction of intermediate crops, (3) introduction of legumes in the rotation).The LCA were perfomed with a same methodology with a focus made on five impact indicators (Energy demand, GHG emissions, Acidification, Eutrophication, Land Occupation). Considering the weight of field emissions on environmental impacts of crops, models were preferably adapted to the French context and when possible, special developments were made to estimate more precisely emissions like nitrate leaching. These results represent a step forward to share with the agricultural sector in order to promote environmental evaluation and good farming practices. Thus, this should encourage the first processing and the feeding industries to promote better agricultural practices.
Origin | Files produced by the author(s) |
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