Integrated environmental impact assessment of the primary production of livestock goods in greece
Authors: Ανέστης Βασίλειος 
Published: November 2021

Globally, there is an increased interest of the Food Industry, the Politicians and the consumers to be informed about the environmental impacts connected to the production and the supply of food products.In the framework of the Paris Agreement for Climate Change and the 2030 Agenda of the United Nations for Sustainable development, the European Union (EU) has set demanding targets for the years 2030 and 2050 regarding the mitigation of environmental impacts from all its economic activities. Within this legislative context, which is expected to become stricter, the Primary Sector in Greece in general and the Livestock Production Sector more specifically are and will be obliged to contribute to the accomplishment of these goals (at country and EU level).Recent studies have highlighted the increased importance of livestock production systems regarding global environmental pollution and the discussion about implementation of strategies at the farm level for mitigation of environmental impacts has already started. Evaluating such actions on the supply chain level, allows to ensure that these actions do not cause negative environmental effects (problem shifting) to other stages of the supply chain apart from the livestock farm and eventually to the supply chain in total. To this respect, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is considered and has been suggested as a suitable methodology for environmental impact assessment.It has to be noticed that differences in the supply chain systems and production practices of livestock products as well as differences in the climatic conditions that these systems occur, lead with high certainty in differences regarding their environmental performance. Τhere is also a lack of environmental LCA (ELCA) research which refers to Greek agricultural and livestock goods or the Food Industry. Implementation of ELCA further requires specialized scientific knowledge and the use of software for which special training is required. Thus, the access of Greek livestock farmers (but also other stakeholders of the livestock products’ supply chains) to the information that ELCA provides is almost impossible in the current conditions. Taking into consideration the aforementioned information, the goal of this PhD Research was to present the first estimates regarding the environmental performance of important livestock production systems in Greece (i.e. raw milk supply chains from dairy cattle farming and sheep and goat farming, animal live-weight supply chain from pig farming and broiler farming), by focusing on collecting data from commercial livestock farms and implementing the LCA methodology (adjusting the LCA methodology to case studies). Throughout the Thesis, focus was given on the compilation of life cycle inventories and models for the studied systems. In the case that more than one supply chain systems are involved, this research attempted to identify the reasons for variations in the environmental performance. This PhD Research further attempted to assess the effect of targeted modifications in livestock production practices (and more specifically in the rations of broiler chickens and fattening pigs) which are interesting for Greece but also on a global level, on the environmental performance of the respective supply chain systems. Within this Thesis, a discussion on how Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) technologies could be used in combination with the ELCA methodology in an effort to improve the environmental performance of a livestock product, was further initiated. Finally, in the framework of this PhD Research two easy-to-use tools for environmental impact assessment by using the LCA methodology (calculators for Greek intensive broiler and sheep and goat production processes) were developed.This PhD Thesis consists of 5 separate sections. In Section 1, an introduction to the legislative framework regarding environmental protection in the EU was presented, the importance of studying the environmental impacts of livestock systems was discussed, principles and important definitions of the ELCA methodology were given and the goals of this PhD Research were set. The rest of the sections constitute the core of this PhD research.The aim of Section 2 was to use a ‘cradle-to-farm-gate’ ELCA in order to estimate the environmental performance of the supply chain of the cow-milk produced in a dairy cattle farm located in the Region of Thessaly, Greece. The functional unit was equal to 1kg of Fat and Protein Corrected Milk (FPCM). This section also aimed to discuss a possible link between the ELCA methodology and Precision Livestock Farming technologies. The results of the Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) revealed that the enteric fermentation of cattle, the excretion and storage of manure and slurry application in ryegrass production were the most important contributing processes at the farm level to the total methane, nitrous oxide and ammonia emissions in this partial life-cycle of cow-milk. The Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) results suggested the following environmental hot spots for the studied supply chain and for the various impact categories studied (i.e. climate change, fossil fuel depletion, human and ecological toxicity, acidification, eutrophication, water depletion and land use): a) enteric fermentation of cattle, b) on-farm slurry handling, c) soybean cultivation in foreign countries (Argentina, Brazil and USA), d) domestic electricity production and e) domestic production of maize grain and silage. It is finally argued that the ELCA method could be used complementarily with PLF technologies in an effort to improve the quality of environmental impact assessment results of the supply chains of livestock products.In the context of Section 3, an experimental study was conducted to examine the combined effects of adding a dietary protease, reducing the levels of soybean meal (SBM) and introducing corn gluten meal (CGM) in the ration of a group of broilers reared on a commercial Greek farm (Region of Central Macedonia). Five hundred forty chicks were divided into three dietary treatments with six replicates of thirty birds each. The first group (Control) was fed a conventional diet based on corn and soybean meal, containing 21% w/w crude protein (CP). The second group (Soy-Prot) was supplied a corn and SBM-based diet containing a lower level of CP (20% w/w) and 200 mg of the protease RONOZYME® Proact per kg of feed. The third group (Gluten-Prot) was fed a diet without soybean-related constituents which was based on corn and CGM and with CP and protease contents identical to those of the diet of the Soy-Prot group. Body weight, feed intake and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were evaluated. Furthermore, a partial ELCA was performed in order to assess the potential environmental performance of the systems defined by these three dietary treatments and identify their environmental hot-spots. The growth performance of the broilers supplied the Soy-Prot diet was similar to the broilers supplied the Control diet. However, the broilers which were fed the Gluten-Prot diet at the end of the trial showed a tendency (P≤0.010) for lower weight gain and feed intake compared to those of the Control diet. The ELCA suggested that the ammonia and nitrous oxide emissions due to litter handling constitute the farm level hot-spots for the Acidification and Eutrophication Potentials of the Control and Soy-Prot systems and the Global Warming Potential of the Gluten-Prot system, respectively. The Latin American soybean production and domestic corn production and lignite mining are important off-farm polluting processes for the studied life cycles. The Soy-Prot and Gluten-Prot systems both performed better than the Control system in nine of Environmental Impact Category Indicators assessed, with the respective differences being generally larger for the Gluten-Prot system. The environmental impact estimates are regarded as initial, indicative figures due to their inherent uncertainty. Overall, the results could be considered as positive indications in the effort to replace the conventional, soybean-dependent control diet in the specific broiler production system in an environmentally friendly way. In Section 3, an environmental footprint calculator appropriate for the intensive broiler live-weight supply chains in Greece was further developed, based on an attributional ‘cradle-to-farm-gate’ ELCA methodology. It consists of an MS excel workbook whose user is invited to provide a number of inputs concerning the animal capital grown, its nutrition, the bedding material used, transport distances and fuel and electricity consumption. As a result, ten environmental impact category indicators (EICI’s) are estimated, among which the Acidification Potential (AP), the Eutrophication Potential (EP), the Cumulative Energy Demand (CED) and the Global Warming Potential (GWP100).In Section 4, an in situ experimental procedure was performed in order to investigate the effect of supplementing the conventional diet (CNVD) supplied to the fattening pigs of a commercial pig farm in Greece (located in Epirus Region) (based on maize, barley, wheat bran and soybean meal) with 0.4% w/w attapulgite and 0.5% w/w benzoic acid at the expense of maize (ATTBAD diet) on their feed efficiency and growth performance. The results suggested a significant increase (p≤0.05) in the weight gain (TWG) and the slaughter live-weight and a significant decrease (p≤0.05) in the feed intake (FI) and feed conversion ratio per fattening pig when supplied the ATTBAD. These results were further used as an input to a ‘cradle-to-farm-gate’ environmental Life Cycle Assessment (ELCA). The functional unit (FU) was 1 kg of sold pig live-weight and the environmental impact categories (EICs) assessed were climate change (CC) and CC from direct land use change, acidification, eutrophication, land use, water use and fossil energy use. The indicators for all EICs (EICIs) were connected with lower potential estimates per FU in the ATTBAD system, suggesting an improvement of the environmental performance when the ATTBAD is supplied to the fattening pigs of the farm. The contribution analysis highlighted the importance of the decreased FI and the increased TWG of the fatteners on the improved environmental performance of the ATTBAD system. The reasonable differences between the EICI estimates of this study and relevant literature as well as the fair LCI data quality which was achieved, further support the argument of the ATTBAD system’s improved environmental performance. Therefore, the use of the ATTBAD instead of the CNVD could potentially offer environmental benefits to the studied supply chain.In Section 5, the first goal was to develop a carbon footprint (CF) and energy use calculator for the ewe and doe milk produced in Greek intensive sheep and goat dairy farms, based on an attributional ‘cradle-to-farm-gate’ LCA methodology. This tool is a MS Excel file whose user is invited to provide information regarding the animal capital and its diet, the bedding material used, the transport distances and the electricity and fuels consumed, for the farm of interest. Potential, annual values for the Cumulative Energy Demand (CED) and Global Warming Potential (GWP100) per kg Energy Corrected Milk (ECM) produced at the farm gate, are received as a result. The second goal of Section 5 was to apply an attributional ‘cradle-to-farm-gate’ ELCA for the estimation of the carbon footprint (CF) of 4 commercial sheep and goat farming systems (Dairy sheep farms: DSF1, DSF2, dairy goat farm: DGF and mixed sheep and goat farm: DMF) in Greece which supplied with raw milk the same dairy industry, whose major production line was Feta cheese PDO. The functional unit (FU) was defined equal to 1 kg of Fat and Protein Corrected Milk (FPCM). The IPCC 2013 v. 1.03 method was used for the CF estimation with Global Warming Potential (GWP100) being the relevant indicator and separately presented for direct land use change (GWP100, dLUC). The results suggested that the raw-milk delivered by the most intensive sheep farm (i.e. DSF2) was associated with the highest Carbon Footprint (CF) indicators’ estimates from the sheep rearing systems while DGF with the highest from the goat rearing systems. Direct land use change (dLUC) was found to contribute less to the total Climate Change (CC) potential in all the supply chains and its contribution was mainly dependent on the existence of soybean meal in the sheep and goats’ diets. In all the studied systems, the ruminants’ enteric fermentation process was the most important contributor to the total GWP100. Emissions of CH4 from the on-farm manure management system (OFMM) and sheep enteric fermentation were the major factors for the differentiation between the total GWP100 estimates of the ewe milk supply chains. The supply of agrochemicals (for the on-fam feed crop cultivation processes) in the DGF system was the main responsible factor for the respective differentiation between the doe milk supply chains as well as between the supply chains with the highest CC potential (i.e. DGF, DSF2).In the near future, it is important to further investigate by using ΕLCA the effects of existing practices for reducing enteric methane from cattle and small ruminants (e.g. alternating the rations’ composition, use of precision feeding) and methane from manure treatment at the farm level (e.g. biogas production). Moreover, the possibility of reducing/replacing soybean meal in livestock diets could also be further investigated for all the studied supply chains by using ELCA, except for the broiler production system in Section 3 (for this system, the potential benefits of reducing/replacing soybean meal in chicken diets for the environmental performance were discussed). Technologies for the reduction of the dependence of the farming systems studied on the current electricity grid mix (e.g. installation of photovoltaic panels) could further be tested with ELCA with respect to their potential environmental benefit for the respective supply chain.Completion of LCA research involving larger samples of commercial livestock farms on a regional and country basis and in the framework of larger research projects/initiatives should be a major priority in order to identify and examine environmental impact mitigation strategies on a regional/country scale. Such research is also expected to lead to reference livestock products’ supply chains and environmental performances in the service of the Agricultural and Food Industry in Greece.In addition, specifically designed ELCAs regarding the domestic feed components’ supply chains (focusing on domestic crop production and feed industry) must also be a major research interest, in order to enhance the quality and credibility of the LCA results for Greek livestock production chains. To this respect, country-specific methodologies (e.g. emission factors) for emissions’ estimation at the plant production and livestock farm level (in compliance to the guidelines from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the European Environment Agency) are needed and suggested to be developed.Detection and handling of uncertainty issues regarding the environmental impacts of Greek livestock production systems should also be an important research priority for the near future, in order to enhance the credibility of the relevant LCA research.Regarding the combined LCA and experimental dietary modification research, the identification of livestock diets based on alternative to soybean meal protein sources but also on minerals and organic acids’ supplements, with positive effects on livestock health and growth characteristics and on economic and environmental performance is an issue of increased interest.The developed calculators can be regarded as simple tools which directly provide initial, indicative figures on the annual environmental impact of the supply chains they consider. There is great potential in modifying these tools in order to further improve their representativeness for Greek conditions and enhance the credibility of their results by embedding data quality and uncertainty considerations.It is estimated that this PhD Research has the potential to attract the interest of all the livestock products’ supply chains stakeholders e.g. livestock farmers, feed crop producers and the Feed Industry but also the Food Processing Industry due to its goal for sustainable development. This PhD Research could further provide the initial step for applying strategies for the improvement of the environmental performance of livestock product supply chain systems in Greece. This PhD Research has finally the potential to become the start of a broader initiative for the development of a unified, public Life Cycle Inventory database with focus on Greek livestock products’ supply chains whose datasets will provide the ability: a) of obtaining the required information for a modern, future environmental labeling procedure of food products of animal origin in Greece, b) of reference environmental performances for the Agricultural and Food Industries and c) of national policies’ development with the goal of the improvement of the environmental sustainability of the domestic food production.