Prioritizing the systemic impacts of a crisis situation: example of the difficulties of the French pork value-chain
Résumé
In type II social LCA the evaluated impacts are not precised before conducting the study. They are indeed adapted to the problem encountered and to the needs of project sponsors. Until now, social LCA was used to evaluate health impacts of changes in existing and new value-chains as well as the effects of a certain public policy on a value-chain. However, no study ever evaluated the impacts of a crisis. By « crisis » we mean an unstable situation that might completely disturb the value-chain before it re-stabilizes in another totally different configuration. Using social LCA, we evaluate the impacts of a crisis which reaches its term (in the case where stakeholders let the value-chain evolve without interfering much, also known as the ‘business-as-usual’ scenario). To do so, hierarching the impacts seems crucial.
To prioritize the impacts, we: 1.Choose the stakeholder categories to interview. 2.Choose the target stakeholders. 3.Interview the chosen actors: they are asked what will be the impacts of the crisis on the value-chain. 4.Analyse the interviews using the « argumentation » method. It is based on contradictions between arguments which allow different but robust points of view to be identified. 5.Identify the major challenges which the value-chain will have to face.
Considering the uncertain situation of the french pork value-chain, 12 semi-directive interviews were conducted with stakeholders. The discussions revolved around the factors of evolution which will highly impact the future of the value-chain in the 3-5 years to come. With the current results obtained from the analysis of 2 interviews, it seems that the social criteria are the most contradictory and thus are key to the evolution of the value-chain. In fact, one of the reasons why the pork sector is facing hard times is that it is socially rejected: people view pig farms as dangerous for the environment and their health, as a consequence, they no longer support the installation of farms nearby.