Life-cycle impact assessment of organic and non-organic grass-fed beef production in Japan
Life-cycle impact assessment of organic and non-organic grass-fed beef production in Japan
复制标题
DOI：
10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.11.159
复制
发表时间：
2018-01
影响因子：
11.1
通讯作者：
M. Tsutsumi;Y. Ono;Hideki Ogasawara;M. Hojito
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
M. Tsutsumi;Y. Ono;Hideki Ogasawara;M. Hojito
牛肉生产，特别是以乳牛的小牛为基础的牛肉生产，通常在各种畜牧生产系统中对环境的影响最大。日本的传统牛肉生产使用大量进口的精饲料，这对环境造成了严重影响。八云农场位于日本北方，只使用农场种植的饲料生产草饲牛肉。过去使用农药和化肥，但最近在农场引入了有机管理。我们评估的环境影响，草饲牛肉生产在八云农场之前和之后引入有机管理（以下分别为非有机和有机），和传统的日本（以下为传统）系统使用生命周期评估（LCA）。我们构建了LCA模型的基础上收集的数据在八云农场，从文献和LCA数据库。LCA系统边界包括饲料生产、运输、加工、动物管理、肠道发酵和粪便及其管理。功能单位被定义为1公斤的冷胴体重的肉牛。每个系统的影响是根据其对全球变暖、酸化和富营养化的潜在贡献以及其能源消耗来确定的。有机和无机系统对酸化、富营养化和能源消耗的影响均小于常规系统。有机系统对全球变暖的影响与常规系统相当，而非有机系统的影响大于常规系统。一般来说，排除饲料运输过程减少了对环境的影响。化肥的使用增加了全球变暖对非有机系统的影响。因此，我们得出结论，在八云农场引入有机管理减轻了对环境的影响。我们的研究结果不仅在日本，而且在依赖进口饲料的其他国家，减轻牛肉或其他牲畜生产对环境的影响提供了启示。
Beef production, especially when based on the calves from suckler cows, typically has the greatest environmental impacts among various livestock production systems. Conventional beef production in Japan uses a large amount of imported concentrate feed, which results in substantial environmental impacts. Yakumo Farm, located in northern Japan, produces grass-fed beef using only farm-grown feed. Pesticides and chemical fertilizer were used in the past, but organic management was introduced at the farm more recently. We assessed the environmental impacts of grass-fed beef production at Yakumo Farm before and after the introduction of organic management (hereafter, non-organic and organic, respectively), and a conventional Japanese (hereafter, conventional) system using life-cycle assessment (LCA). We constructed the LCA models based on data collected at Yakumo Farm, from the literature and from LCA databases. The LCA system boundaries included feed production, transportation, processing, animal management, enteric fermentation, and manure and its management. The functional unit was defined as 1 kg of cold carcass weight of beef steers. The impact of each system was determined regarding its potential contribution to global warming, acidification, and eutrophication, as well as its energy consumption. Both the organic and non-organic systems had much smaller impacts on acidification, eutrophication, and energy consumption than the conventional system. The impact on global warming associated with the organic system was equivalent to the conventional system, whereas for the non-organic system it was greater than for the conventional system. Generally, the exclusion of the process of feed transportation reduced the environmental impacts. The use of chemical fertilizer increased the global warming-related impact in the non-organic system. Therefore, we concluded that introducing organic management to Yakumo Farm mitigated its environmental impacts. Our results provide implications for mitigating the environmental impacts caused by beef or other livestock production not only in Japan, but also in other countries depending upon imported feed.