“what kind of public data is available?” -...

Data sources on environmental impacts of food

Virpi Vorne & Yrjö Virtanen

MTT Agrifood Research Finland

“What kind of public data is available?”

What to eat?

• We make decisions based on taste, health and price

But also seeking eco-friendly food

• What is the environmental impact?

• Climate change? Eutrophigation?

• Is it better to buy locally produced foods?

• Transportation?

• Too much packing?

• Organic or conventional?

0,08/ 2,76/ 0,68 kg CO2 eq.???

© MTT Agrifood Research Finland 2

Photo: Lila Patrikainen

10.10.2012

Life-Cycle Analysis/Assessment (LCA)

• ”studies the environmental aspects and potential impacts

throughout a product’s life (i.e. cradle-to-grave) from raw

material acquisition through production, use, and

disposal” (ISO 1997)

• To conduct an LCA, a flow model of the technical system

is constructed using data on the inputs and outputs of

the interlinked processes to produce a specific, desired

final output

• Typically, inputs comprise raw materials, intermediate

products, fuels and energy. Outputs include products,

by-products, wastes and emissions to air, water and soil.

3 © MTT Agrifood Research Finland 10.10.2012

Land use

Input industry Feed production

Feed industry

Milk farm

Dairy factory

Trade

Consumers

Energy

Toxic waste

Solid waste

Liquid waste

and nutrients

Landscape Stakeholders

administrative

Local people

Public media

NGOs

Zitizens

Product owners

Transport

How ecological footprint is being formed.

Graph: Pasi Voutilainen

Water

Surface water


• Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-eq, carbon footprint) describes the

potential for global warming of a given amount of a greenhouse gas.

The primary greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide CO2, methane

CH4 and nitrous oxide N2O. When calculating the CO2-equivalent, the

amounts of CH4 and N2O are multiplied by coefficients 25 and 298

respectively.

• Eutrophication potential is described by phosphate equivalents

(PO4-eq). Fertiliser runoffs from plant cultivation are the main sources

of nutrient emissions in the food chain. When calculating PO4-eq, N

(water), P (water), NH4+ (water), NH3 (air) and NOx (air) releases are

taken into account by multiplying by the equivalent coefficients of

0.42, 3.06, 0.18375, 0.04025 and 0.01495 respectively.

5 10.10.2012 © MTT Agrifood Research Finland

Collecting the relevant data for each event:

the emissions from each process and the resources

(back to raw materials) used

The data should include all inputs and outputs from the processes. Inputs are

use of energy, water and materials. Outputs are the products, co-products and

emissions. Emissions can be divided into four categories: emissions to air,

water and soil, and solid waste.

• Field Data Bank data (crop yields, field/fallow area, fertilizer use)

• use of machines, including their production, transport, maintenance and the

buildings required for their shelter

• energy carriers: diesel, fuel, and electricity

• production and transport of mineral fertilisers

• (production of pesticides)

• seed cultivation

• application of liquid and solid manure in the field

• supply at basic prices, use at purchasers' prices

• Input/ output - at current prices

6 © MTT Agrifood Research Finland

Photo: Eila Jylänki

10.10.2012

Data Sources

Primary

• Research databases

• Scientific publications

• Software and Databases

• Trade companies

An LCA is only as valid

as the data it uses


Tuuli Kaskinen, Outi Kuittinen, Saija-Riitta Sadeoja, Anna

Talasnielmi: Kausiruokaa ilmastonystäville ja herkuttelijoille, 2011

Mike Berners-Lee: How Bad Are Bananas? The carbon footprint

of everything, 2010

Metadata

•Books and reports

•Websites

10.10.2012

8 10.10.2012 © MTT Agrifood Research Finland

The food plate model

• Informing consumers how to plan their meals in

a healthy and tasty way

• The model plate is divided into three parts:

one half of the plate is filled with non-starchy

vegetables,

one quarter with a serving of protein, i.e. meat

or meat substitute, and

one quarter with a serving of a carbohydrate

source, such as potatoes, pasta or beans.

• The meal is completed by adding a serving of

milk and a serving of bread and fruits as side

dishes.

• The example lunch represent a nutritional whole

according to the recommendations for 1/3 of the

energy need and nutrients for daily food

consumption. © MTT Agrifood Research Finland 9

Source: Valtion

ravitsemusneuvottelukunta,

National Nutrition Council.

10.10.2012

Rainbow-trout- casserole lunch

© MTT Agrifood Research Finland 10 10.10.2012


Disease protection

Pesticide

Fertilizing

Delivery to storage

Harvesting

Preparation of seedbed

Planting

Plowing

Potato segment

Storage

Germination

Cultivation

Delivery of commercial seed Commercial seed potato

1 kg potato

Fallowing

Own potato

Dung

Fuel preparation and delivery

Use of fuel

LimeLime production

NPK 18-8-16

Photo: Virpi Vorne

LCA flow chart for potato production

10.10.2012

12

Milk Dairy

Salt

Grocery

Rye

Margarine

Sugar beet

Packaging

Logistics

Rainbow trout

Cooking

Storage

Shopping

Rye bread

Sugar

Margarine

Butter bread serving

Rapeseed oil

Oat

Sugar beet

Cream

Sugar

Potato

Onion

Casserole

vegetables

Rainbow-trout-casserole

Cucumber

Tomato

Salad

vegetables

Lettuce

Carrot

Salad

Rainbow-trout-

casserole lunch

Rainbow-trout-casserole plate

Milkserving

Casserole fish

Rapeseed oil

10.10.2012 © MTT Agrifood Research Finland


An example of how various food portions can be compared with each other

The reason for the high impact of rainbow trout casserole is that rainbow trout is a farmed fish.

Saarinen et al. 2011 .

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4

Horse bean burgers and mashed potatoes

Beetroot burgers and pearl

barley

Sausages and mashed potatoes

Rainbow trout casserole

Broiler and pasta

Minced meat and macaroni

g PO 4 - eq.

Main course Salad Bread and drink

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Rainbow-trout- casserole lunch


Others: transport, packaging, energy, fuels, storage, cooking etc. Data: Helena Hyvärinen, MTT

10.10.2012


Salmon (catch fish) casserole

10.10.2012

The contributions of the food chain to the

domestic environmental impacts of the Finnish

economy


0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Formation oftropospheric ozone

Acidification Climate change Eutrophication

Other economy

Food chain

Source: Virtanen et al. 2009. Elintarvikeketjun ympäristövastuun taustaraportti. Laatuketju. Available at:

http://www.laatuketju.fi/laatuketju/www/fi/julkaisut/Ketjuvastuu_kokonaisuus_15_12_2009.pdf

10.10.2012

Finnish food chain impacts

allocated into sectors.

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Ozoneproduction

Acidification Climatechange

Eutrophication

Egg production

Chicken production

Other animal husbandry

Pork production

Beef production

Milk production

Plant production for feed

Horticulture

Plant production for food


Breakdown of the eutrophication impact of the

food chain by product groups for Finland, 2005. Stock changes are ignored. Note that the contribution of the transports of the

imports is very small and thus indistinguishable.


0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

16000G

rain

Ca

teri

ng

an

db

ar

serv

ices

Be

er

an

db

ev

era

ges

Milk

Me

at

Ve

ge

tab

les

Fis

h

Fru

its

an

db

err

ies

Alc

oh

ol

Oth

er

10

00

kg

PO

4-

eq

Importtransport

Importmanufacture

Domestic

Source: Virtanen et al. 2009

10.10.2012

Breakdown of the domestic eutrophication

impact of the main animal production chains

by activities, 2005. Stock changes are ignored.


Source: Virtanen et al. 2009

95,5%

4,1%

0,5%

94,8%

4,7%

0,6%

86,1%

13,1%

0,8%

93,0%

6,5%

0,6%

96,2%

3,3%

0,5%

0 % 50 % 100 %

Feed rawmaterial

production

Animalproduction

Other activities

Beef

Pork

Poultry

Eggs

Milk

10.10.2012

Formation of the Finnish eutrophication impact of raw

material production in 2005 (Virtanen 2009) and estimated

eutrophication intensities for Estonian and Latvian plant

and animal raw material production


Raw

material

Eutrophication impact intensity,

g PO4- eq/kg

Finland Estonia Latvia

Beef 51.5 61.9 60.5

Pork 15.4 17.5 12.7

Poultry 7.1 8.0 6.0

Eggs 16.1 18.3 13.3

Milk 3.3 3.9 3.9

Cereals 5.0 5.7 4.0

Potato 0.7 0.7 0.8

More specific data is needed from Estonia and Latvia

10.10.2012

More information

Vorne, V., Patrikainen, L., Virtanen, Y., Jäälinoja, M., Aho, H.,

Kovero, M., Hyvärinen, H., Vieraankivi, M.-L., Kurppa, S.,

Mattila, T., Porvari, P., Munne, P., Verta, M., Lang, L., Pai, K.,

Aan, A., Laumets, L., Runnel, V., Puura, T., Līce, E., Brizga, J.,

Ernšteins, R. and Kuršinska, S.

The Baltic environment, food and health: from habits to

awareness. Feasibility study.

MTT Report series 34, 2011.

Available at www.mtt.fi/mttraportti.

Silvenius, Frans, Mäkinen, Timo, Grönroos, Juha, Kurppa,

Sirpa, Tahvonen, Raija, Kankainen, Markus, Vielma, Jouni,

Silvennoinen, Kirsi, Setälä, Jari, Kaustell, Salla, Hartikainen,

Hanna, Kirjolohen ympäristövaikutukset Suomessa . MTT

Raportti 48 (2012). 48 s.

The environmental impacts of rainbow trout produced in

Finland (Summary in English)


To be taken into account

• Packed food is not necessarily worse than unpacked

food if the prevention of losses is considered in the LCA

• Local vs. global food is always better in those cases

where transport by aircraft is used

• Distant production can explore environmental benefits

like production efficiency compensating transportation

• Using seasonal food seems to reduce environmental

effects


Photo: Marika Tervahartiala

10.10.2012

Missing data

• Organic vs. conventionally-

grown food

• Local vs. global

• Fresh vs. preserved

• Significance of transport

• Significance of packing

• LCA studies for foodservice sector

• LCA studies for different food

logistics systems

• Comparative studies in different

countries


Photo: Marika Tervahartiala

10.10.2012

Eco-friendly food

• Choose more vegetarian food

• Local and seasonal vegetables and fruits

• Locally captured fish

• Less dairy product

• Eat less meat

• No food waste

• Eat according to the official food recommendations

© MTT Agrifood Research Finland 24 Photos: Marika Tervahartiala

10.10.2012

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