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Promoting the Use of Life Cycle Assessment for a Sus-tainable Agri-Food Industry
Citation:
CURRAN, M. A. AND D. Huisingh. Promoting the Use of Life Cycle Assessment for a Sus-tainable Agri-Food Industry. Presented at VII International Conference on LCA in the Agri-Food Sector, Bari, ITALY, September 22 - 24, 2010.
Impact/Purpose:
To inform the public.
Description:
The number of studies that address the holistic human health and environmental impacts related to food, feed, and bio-based fuel roduction has steadily increased in recent years. Studies on agricultural systems have identified environmental issues ranging from greenhouse gas emissions and energy use to land use, water use (availability), soil quality, water quality, biodiversity, and human health. However, threats that stem from other issues, including the development of genetically-modified organisms (GMO's), global climate change, desertification, pesticide exposure, antibiotic-resistant strains of microorganisms, growth hormone residues in food, are not adequately addressed by Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) systems or their users. In addition, the increased production of bio-based materials and biofuels potentially increases risk of famine as valuable agricultural lands are diverted to produce fuel. The ISO standard for LCA provides the basic template to capture the holistic environmental impacts related to food production and consumption. However, LCA practitioners and researchers need to further develop LCA tools so that they evolve dynamically to address the diverse environmental, economic and social impacts related specifically to food/feed and other bio-based products. Research is needed to develop an approach to integrate the entire suite of potential trade-offs in the decision making process as well as to elevate the consideration of food systems to the forefront in the current literature. A special issue in the Journal of Cleaner Production will be developed with selected papers from the lcafood 2010 conference and by invitation from other sources. This special issue will present new and novel solutions to sustainable food production regarding methodology, approaches, and data development.
