Environmental trade-offs of pig production systems under varied operational efficiencies
| dc.contributor.author | McAuliffe, G. A. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Takahashi, T. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Mogensen, L. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Hermansen, J. E. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Sage, Colin | |
| dc.contributor.author | Chapman, Deborah V. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Lee, M. R. F. | |
| dc.contributor.funder | Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board | |
| dc.contributor.funder | Utrecht-Network | |
| dc.contributor.funder | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2017-10-18T09:40:13Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2017-10-18T09:40:13Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2017 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Production of pork, the most consumed meat globally, is estimated to emit 668 m tonnes CO2-eq of greenhouse gases each year. Amongst various production systems that comprise the pig industry, grainbased intensive production is widely regarded as the largest polluter of the environment, and thus it is imperative to develop alternative systems that can provide the right balance between sustainability and food security. Using an original dataset from the Republic of Ireland, this paper examines the life-cycle environmental impacts of representative pig farms operating under varying production efficiencies. For the baseline farm with an average production efficiency, global warming potential (GWP), acidifi- cation potential (AP) and eutrophication potential (EP) per kg carcass weight departing the slaughterhouse were estimated to be 3.5 kg CO2-eq, 43.8 g SO2-eq and 32.1 g PO4-eq, respectively. For herds with a higher production efficiency, a 9% improvement in feed conversion ratio was met by 6%, 15% and 12% decreases in GWP, EP, AP, respectively. Scenario and sensitivity analyses also revealed that (a) a switch to high-protein diets results in lower GWP and higher AP and EP, and (b) reducing transportation distances by sourcing domestically produced wheat and barley does not lower environmental impacts in any notable manner. To improve cross-study comparability of these findings, results based on an auxiliary functional unit, kg liveweight departing the farm gate, are also reported. | en |
| dc.description.sponsorship | Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (7795); Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/P01268X/1); Utrecht-Network (Young Researcher's Mobility Grant) | en |
| dc.description.status | Peer reviewed | en |
| dc.description.version | Published Version | en |
| dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | en |
| dc.identifier.citation | McAuliffe, G. A., Takahashi, T., Mogensen, L., Hermansen, J. E., Sage, C. L., Chapman, D. V. and Lee, M. R. F. (2017) 'Environmental trade-offs of pig production systems under varied operational efficiencies', Journal of Cleaner Production, 165, pp. 1163-1173. doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.07.191 | en |
| dc.identifier.doi | 10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.07.191 | |
| dc.identifier.endpage | 1173 | |
| dc.identifier.issn | 0959-6526 | |
| dc.identifier.issn | 1879-1786 | |
| dc.identifier.journaltitle | Journal of Cleaner Production | en |
| dc.identifier.startpage | 1163 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10468/4886 | |
| dc.identifier.volume | 165 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en |
| dc.publisher | Elsevier | en |
| dc.relation.uri | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652617316451 | |
| dc.rights | © 2017, the Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). | en |
| dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ | |
| dc.subject | Pig production | en |
| dc.subject | Environmental footprint | en |
| dc.subject | Life cycle assessment | en |
| dc.subject | Feed composition | en |
| dc.subject | Feed conversion ratio | en |
| dc.title | Environmental trade-offs of pig production systems under varied operational efficiencies | en |
| dc.type | Article (peer-reviewed) | en |