Life Cycle of Pork Products – scoping study
R-and- D » R-and- D » LCA »
Industrial partners: Environmental Research Management (ERM)
Sponsors: BPEX
Duration: December 08 – March 09
To assist BPEX to understand and communicate the environmental impacts of pork production Environmental Resources Management Limited (ERM) was commissioned to conduct a Life Cycle Assessment Scoping Study (LCA). This technique can be used to make comparisons between production systems and provide an understanding of impacts, their scale and where they arise. This information can then be used to target improvements and quantify what can be achieved. The modelling study quantified impacts on: climate change, eutrophication, acidification, and abiotic resource depletion associated with pork production to farmgate.
Pig production (feed production, pig rearing, slurry and manure management) is the life cycle phase that contributes the most to the environmental profile of pork products. Of this phase, feed production is the element that makes the largest contribution; feed contributes 78% of the total carbon footprint of pork production.
Comparing data provided by two producers (Producer A and Producer B) showed that a number of general farming efficiency factors can reduce the environmental profile of pork production considerably. Producer A and B achieve carbon footprints that are 7% and 11% lower than those of average British pork production. Producer B uses a liquid co-product as part of the finisher diet which contributes to the reduced environmental burden.
The industry can achieve improvements by: achieving more pigs per litter, improving feed conversion ratio, reducing sow feed consumption, improving mortality rates and reducing sow culls. Producers are already working to improve these areas of production.
A further reduction in impact is seen from pigs produced from Producer B as a result of the anaerobic digestion of slurry from the finishing herd, before it is spread on land. Anaerobic digestion of slurry leads to significant savings with regard to climate change, eutrophication and acidification. These savings result from the generation of electricity, and thus the avoidance of using electricity produced from fossil fuels. It must be highlighted that the anaerobic digestion model is based on a number of assumptions. Despite these uncertainties, the figure demonstrates the benefit of recovering the energy held in the slurry before its application to land.
In addition to the benchmarking exercise, “what if?” scenarios were developed. These were used to assess the environmental gains that could be achieved if the average producer achieved the same performance results as the top third of producers, as presented in the Pig Year Book 2009. Such improvements would deliver benefits of around a 3.1% improvement in acidification, 3.8% improvement in eutrophication, 3.9% improvement in non-renewable energy consumption, and a 4.2% reduction in contributions to climate change.
The results show that the main areas in which improvements to the environmental impact of British pork production can be achieved are:
1. Using feed as efficiently as possible
2. Achieving higher numbers of pigs per litter
3. Managing the slurry/manure in ways that reduce its impacts
PAge last updated on 08 June 2010