the environmental footprint of · carbon footprint of milk from 23 farms-0.70-0.20 0.30 0.80 1.30...
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![Page 1: The environmental footprint of · Carbon footprint of milk from 23 farms-0.70-0.20 0.30 0.80 1.30 1.80 O UK1 UK2 UK3 UK4 UK5 UK6 UK7 UK8 DK1 DK2 DK3 DK4 DK5 DK6 DK7 DK8 F1 F2 F3 F4](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022011904/5f2156acabfc4c6b132648da/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Sustainable Organic and Low Input Dairying
(SOLID)European Project n° 266367
The environmental footprint of
organic and low-input dairying
Brussel March 2016
John E Hermansen & Marie T Knudsen, AU
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Environmental impact of dairy products
Why care?
• Meat and dairy products are estimated to be responsible for around 20% of the total environmental impact originating from all human consumption in EU
• Of this, milk is estimated to be responsible for 1/3
• The dairy sector emit 190 mill t of CO2 eq.
• Responsible for around 40% of total eutrophication pressure from meat and milk
• Non-quota sectors (agriculture) are anticipated to be included in achieving the reduction goals for greenhouse gas emissions
• By 2050 agriculture will represent 1/3 of EU-emissions (pressure for further reductions)
• Increased capacity to preserve and sequester carbon may be a tool
• EU Biodiversity strategy 2020 ask for
• Halting the loss of biodiversity and the degradation of ecosystem services while stepping up the EU contribution to averting global biodiversity loss
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Increased focus on quantifying and
documenting the environmental performance
• Allow decision makers in business and among consumers to consider the environment impact of the particular products they use
• The life cycle methodology
• First, business and NGO driven initiatives like Round Table for Sustainable Consumption
• Setting methods and rules for quantification
• Now, Commission driven initiative – the Product Environmental footprint (PEF)
• Setting guidelines about dimensions to be considered and methods to estimate these, also for foods including dairy products
• Aim to set the authoritative way to declare the environmental performance in EU
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From PEF – screening report – dairy products
• Biodiversity is a key environmental issue for the dairy sector, which is only partly
addressed through current LCA methodologies
• Carbon sequestration in sustainable managed grazing dairy systems should be
considered where relevant
In this project we have made effort to operationalize these aspect to be included
in the assessment
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Which environmental impacts of milk?
Global warming Nutrient enrichment
BiodiversityCarbon sequestration
/ soil fertility
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Carbon footprint of milk from 23 farms
-0.70
-0.20
0.30
0.80
1.30
1.80
UK1 UK2 UK3 UK4 UK5 UK6 UK7 UK8 DK1 DK2 DK3 DK4 DK5 DK6 DK7 DK8 F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 DK, conv.
Car
bo
n f
oo
tpri
nt
(kg
CO
2e
q. /
kg E
CM
)
Carbon footprint (kg CO2 eq./kg ECM)
UK Denmark Finland
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Soil carbon sequestration
- should be included!
Organic farming and grassland based farming have
significantly higher soil carbon sequestration compared to
conventional.
BUT normally not included in life cycle assessments.
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Carbon footprint of milk from 23 farms
- including soil carbon sequestration+
UK Denmark Finland
-0.70
-0.20
0.30
0.80
1.30
1.80
UK1 UK2 UK3 UK4 UK5 UK6 UK7 UK8 DK1 DK2 DK3 DK4 DK5 DK6 DK7 DK8 F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 DK, conv.
Car
bo
n f
oo
tpri
nt
(kg
CO
2e
q. /
kg E
CM
)
Carbon footprint (kg CO2 eq./kg ECM)
Carbon footprint incl. soil carbon sequestration (kg CO2 eq./kg ECM)
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Biodiversity should also be included!
Organic farming have significantly higher biodiversity
compared to conventional.
BUT normally not included in life cycle assessments.
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Biodiversity impacts of milk from 23 farms
UK Denmark Finland
-0.90
-0.40
0.10
0.60
1.10
1.60
-0.90
-0.40
0.10
0.60
1.10
1.60
UK1 UK2 UK3 UK4 UK5 UK6 UK7 UK8 DK1 DK2 DK3 DK4 DK5 DK6 DK7 DK8 F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 DK, conv.
Bio
div
ers
ity
Dam
age
po
ten
tial
(P
DF/
kg E
CM
)
Car
bo
n f
oo
tpri
nt
(kg
CO
2e
q. /
kg E
CM
)
Carbon footprint (kg CO2 eq./kg ECM)
Carbon footprint incl. soil carbon sequestration (kg CO2 eq./kg ECM)
Biodiversity Damage Potential, BDP (PDF/kg ECM)
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Biodiversity vs. carbon footprint
-0,60
-0,50
-0,40
-0,30
-0,20
-0,10
0,00
0,10
0,20
0,30
0,40
0,80 0,90 1,00 1,10 1,20 1,30 1,40 1,50 1,60
Bio
div
ers
ity
dam
age
po
ten
tial
(P
DF/
kg E
CM
)
Carbon footprint incl. soil carbon sequestration (kg CO2 eq./kg ECM)
UK Denmark Finland
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Impact categories covered (PEF)
Environmental impact category
Global warming potential (kg C02 eq./kg ECM)
Acidification (mol H+ eq. /kg ECM)
Marine eutrophication (g N eq. /kg ECM)
Terrestrial eutrophication (mol N eq./kg ECM)
Fresh water ecotoxicity (CTUe/kg ECM)
Potential biodiversity damage (PDF/kg ECM)
Land use (m2/kg ECM)
Minerals, fossil and renewable energy (g Sb eq./kg ECM)
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Overall environmental assessment of
organic and conventional dairy production
Mixed systems
Grass-based systems
Mountainous systems
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Making a Life Cycle Assessment of milk
Emissions to air (N2O, NH3 etc.)
Emissions to soil and water (NO3- etc.)
INPUTS
Imported feed
Fertilizer
Manure
Diesel
Electricity
ect.
OUTPUTS
Milk and meatHERD FIELD
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Conventional dairy production in DK
Emissions to air (N2O, NH3 etc.)
Emissions to soil and water (NO3- etc.)
INPUTS
345 t DM imported conc.
8727 kg N-fertiliser
pesticides
15,091 l diesel
134,980 kWh electricity
OUTPUTS
168 x 9,599 kg ECM/cow
(milk)
71 cull cows
108 calves
168 cows153 young stock
Outdoor, cows: 0 days/year
DMI:23% imported concent.10% own cereals
31% maize silage
30% grass silage6% grazing
150 ha in total:
34 ha cereals (23%)49 ha maize (33%)
28 ha grass (19%)28 ha grass clover (19%)
8 ha other crops (5%)3 ha small biotopes (2%)
HERD FIELD
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Key characteristics of dairy systems
Mixed
(DK)
Grass-based
(UK)
Mountainous
(AT)
Conv. Org. Conv. Org. Conv. Low. Org.
No. of cows 168 168 118 127 12 13 10
Milk production (kg ECM/cow) 9599 8708 7411 6193 6230 5120 5500
Outdoor, cows (days/year) 0 150 172 224 20 180 80
Farm area (ha) 150 208 129 153 12 16 13
% Cereals/grain legumes 28 35 11 8 23 - 16
% Maize 33 5 9 - 16 - -
% Pasture 37 58 80 92 62 100 85
Mineral N fertilizer (kg N/ha) 58 134 49 5
Imported feed (kg DM/ha) 2437 1321 1422 695 535 470 258
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Eutrophication
(mol N eq./ kg ECM)Land use (m2/ kg ECM)
ORGANIC
CONVENTIONAL
0.07
0.004
1.5
0.9
1.0
0.03
1.06
0.06
0.002
1.00
Global warming
(kg CO2 eq/ kg ECM)
Fresh water ecotoxicity
(CTUe/ kg ECM)
Potential biodiversity damage
(PDF/ kg ECM)
Resource use
(g Sb eq./ kg ECM)
0.49
-0.07
Environmental
Impact of milk DK
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Environmental impact of organic and
conventional milk, per kg milk
Impact category Mixed (DK) Grass (UK) Mountainous (AT)
Conv. Org. Conv. Org. Conv. Low. Org.
Global warming, kg C02 eq. 1.06 1.00 0.87 0.75 0.97 0.98 0.92
Acidification, mol H+ eq . 0.016 0.013 0.012 0.011 0.020 0.017 0.018
Marine Eutrop., g N eq. 7.8 5.9 9.3 5.9 8.3 15.3 9.6
Terrestrial Eutro.,mol N eq. 0.07 0.06 0.05 0.05 0.09 0.08 0.08
FW ecotox., CTUe 0.9 0.03 0.8 0.02 0.7 0.2 0.01
Biodiversity Damage, PDF 0.5 - 0.1 0.5 - 0.5 0.4 - 0.4 - 0.5
Land Use, m2 1.0 1.5 1.7 1.9 1.4 2.1 2.0
Mineral and energy, Sb eq. 0.004 0.002 0.002 0.001 0.0006 0.0002 0.0006
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Main messages
• Carbon footprint of organic milk is reduced when soil carbon sequestration is
included in the assessment
• Carbon footprint decreases within creasing milk yield per cow, but to a lesser
extent when soil carbon is included in the assessment
• It is possible to include biodiversity in the life cycle assessment of milk through
an indicator of biodiversity damage.
• Generally milk from organic farms does not imply biodiversity damage contrary
to milk from conventional systems
• Inverse relationship between carbon footprint and biodiversity damage
• Ecotoxicity impacts are significantly lower in organic dairy systems – and
should thus be included in the overall environmental assessment
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Conclusion
• Within all types of dairy production there are improvement options in relation to environmental impact
• Organic dairy system perform generally better in terms of biodiversity, ecotoxicity and marine water eutrophication, while global warming impacts are close to conventional
• Land use are higher per kg milk in low input and organic dairy systems and thus indirect land use impact are probably higher which will increase the global warming impact if included in the assessment
• Low input systems with lower milk yield per cow can perform as good as or better than high input systems in terms of global warming
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This work was done in a collaboration with
• Aberystwyth University (Peter Dennis)
• LUKE (Sirpa Kurppa, Sanna Hietala, Sampsa Nisonen)
• ORC (Susanne Padel, Laurence Smith)
• BOKU (Werner Zollitsch, Stefan Hörtenhuber)
• AU (Teodora Preda, Nancy Peña Valbuena, Sylvestre Njakou Djomo)
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Carbon footprint
of organic and conventional milk
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
Clim
ate
can
ge (
kg C
O2
ekg
-1m
ilk)
Enteric ferm
Electricity, atdairy farm
Home feed
Transport
Imported feed
Global warming