title: Carbon footprint of conventional and organic beef production systems: An Italian case study.
abstract: Beef cattle production is a widespread activity in Italy in the agricultural field and determines an important impact on environment and resources consumption. Carbon footprint evaluation is thus necessary to evaluate the contributions of the different stages and the possible improvements of the production chain. In this study, two typical Italian beef production systems, a conventional and an organic one are investigated in order to evaluate the greenhouse gas emissions from "cradle to gate farm" by a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach; the carbon footprint (CF) per 1kg of live weight meat is calculated. The contributions from feed production, enteric fermentation, and manure management are taken into account, in order to compare the life cycle of the two productions; also the carbon balance in soil is evaluated, in order to verify the impact in a life cycle perspective. The results of CF calculation of the two farms show that organic system (24.62kgCO2eq/kg live weight) produce more GHG emissions than the conventional one (18.21kgCO2eq/kg live weight) and that the enteric fermentation is the more heavy contribution, with a range of 50-54% of the global CF value. Improvements of the production chain could be realized by accurate feeding strategies, in order to obtain reduction of methane emissions from enteric digestion of cattles.
authors: CRB, Biomass Research Centre, Via G. Duranti, 63, 06125 Perugia, Italy. Electronic address: cinzia.buratti@unipg.it.
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Buratti
authors: CRB, Biomass Research Centre, Via G. Duranti, 63, 06125 Perugia, Italy.
authors: F
authors: F
authors: Fantozzi
authors: CRB, Biomass Research Centre, Via G. Duranti, 63, 06125 Perugia, Italy.
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Barbanera
authors: CRB, Biomass Research Centre, Via G. Duranti, 63, 06125 Perugia, Italy.
authors: E
authors: E
authors: Lascaro
authors: Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, University of Perugia, Borgo XX Giugno, 74, 06121 Perugia, Italy.
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Chiorri
authors: Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, University of Perugia, Borgo XX Giugno, 74, 06121 Perugia, Italy.
authors: L
authors: L
authors: Cecchini
keywords: Carbon footprint; GHG emissions; Life Cycle Assessment; Livestock; Meat production