Life-cycle impact assessment of organic and non-organic grass-fed beef production in Japan. (20th January 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Tsutsumi, Michio; Ono, Yutaka; Ogasawara, Hideki; Hojito, Masayuki
• Is Part Of: Journal of cleaner production. Volume 172(2018)
• Page Start: 2513
• Page End: 2520
• Publication Date: 2018-01-20
• Subjects: Beef production -- Environmental impact -- Feed transportation -- Life-cycle assessment -- Livestock production -- Organic farming; Factory and trade waste -- Management -- Periodicals; Manufactures -- Environmental aspects -- Periodicals; Déchets industriels -- Gestion -- Périodiques; Usines -- Aspect de l'environnement -- Périodiques; 628.5
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.11.159
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0959-6526

Abstract

Abstract: Beef production, especially when based on the calves from suckler cows, typically has the greatest environmental impacts among various livestock production systems. Conventional beef production in Japan uses a large amount of imported concentrate feed, which results in substantial environmental impacts. Yakumo Farm, located in northern Japan, produces grass-fed beef using only farm-grown feed. Pesticides and chemical fertilizer were used in the past, but organic management was introduced at the farm more recently. We assessed the environmental impacts of grass-fed beef production at Yakumo Farm before and after the introduction of organic management (hereafter, non-organic and organic, respectively), and a conventional Japanese (hereafter, conventional) system using life-cycle assessment (LCA). We constructed the LCA models based on data collected at Yakumo Farm, from the literature and from LCA databases. The LCA system boundaries included feed production, transportation, processing, animal management, enteric fermentation, and manure and its management. The functional unit was defined as 1 kg of cold carcass weight of beef steers. The impact of each system was determined regarding its potential contribution to global warming, acidification, and eutrophication, as well as its energy consumption. Both the organic and non-organic systems had much smaller impacts on acidification, eutrophication, and energy consumption than the conventional system. The impact on global warming associated with the organic system was equivalent to the conventional system, whereas for the non-organic system it was greater than for the conventional system. Generally, the exclusion of the process of feed transportation reduced the environmental impacts. The use of chemical fertilizer increased the global warming-related impact in the non-organic system. Therefore, we concluded that introducing organic management to Yakumo Farm mitigated its environmental impacts. Our results provide implications for mitigating the environmental impacts caused by beef or other livestock production not only in Japan, but also in other countries depending upon imported feed. Highlights: Beef production systems in Japan were compared by life-cycle assessment. Targets were organic and non-organic grass-fed beef, and conventional system. Organic grass-fed beef had smaller environmental impacts than conventional beef. Non-organic grass-fed beef had greater global warming impact than conventional beef. Organic management mitigated environmental impacts of grass-fed beef production.