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Agriculture plays a central role in achieving most Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Sustainable intensification (SI) of agriculture has been proposed as a promising concept for safeguarding global food security, while simultaneously protecting the environment and promoting good quality of life. However, SI often leads to context-specific sustainability trade-offs. Operationalising SI thus needs to be supported by transparent sustainability assessments. In this article, we propose a general systematic approach to developing context-specific frameworks for integrated sustainability assessment of agricultural intensity change. Firstly, we specify a comprehensive system representation for analysing how changes in agricultural intensity lead to a multitude of sustainability outcomes affecting different societal groups across geographical scales. We then introduce a procedure for identifying the attributes that are relevant for assessment within particular contexts, and respective indicator metrics. Finally, we illustrate the proposed approach by developing an assessment framework for evaluating a wide range of intensification pathways in Europe. The application of the approach revealed processes and effects that are relevant for the European context but are rarely considered in SI assessments. These include farmers’ health, workers’ living conditions, cultural heritage and sense of place of rural communities, animal welfare, impacts on sectors not directly related to agriculture (e.g., tourism), shrinking and ageing of rural population and consumers’ health. The proposed approach addresses important gaps in SI assessments, and thus represents an important step forward in defining transparent procedures for sustainability assessments that can stimulate an informed debate about the operationalisation of SI and its contribution towards achieving SDGs., Environmental Science & Policy, 137, ISSN:1462-9011, ISSN:1873-6416

Purpose Current field emission modelling and toxicity characterisation of pesticides suffer from several shortcomings like mismatches between LCI databases and LCIA methods, missing characterisation factors, missing environmental compartments, and environmental impact pathways. The OLCA-Pest project was implemented to address these aspects and to operationalise the assessment of pesticides in LCA. Based on this effort, we propose an approach to integrate pesticide emissions into LCI databases. Methods The PestLCI Consensus Model has been developed in order to estimate emission fractions to different environmental compartments. The initial distribution fractions should be linked to the compartments air, agricultural soil, natural soil, and freshwater. Emissions to off-field surfaces are hereby distributed between agricultural soil, natural soil, and freshwater by using surface cover data. Deposition on the crop surface should be recorded in an emission compartment crop with 13 sub-compartments for crop archetypes for both food and non-food uses. Default emission fractions are provided to calculate the emission fractions for different pesticide application scenarios. Results and discussion A sensitivity analysis shows the effects of the application technique, drift reduction, crop and development stage, field width, and buffer zone on the initial distribution fractions of field-applied pesticides. Recommendations are given for the implementation of a set of default initial distribution fractions into LCI databases, for the organisation of metadata, and for the modelling of pesticide residues in food along the supply chain (processing, storage). Priorities for further research are: improving the modelling of pesticide secondary emissions, further extending emission modeling (e.g. additional application techniques, including cover crops), considering metal-based pesticides in emission models, and systematically assessing human health impacts associated with pesticide residues in food crops. Conclusions The proposed approach allows to preserve the mass balance of the pesticide emitted after application, to make a consistent assessment of ecotoxicity and human toxicity, to define a clear and consistent interface between the LCI and LCIA phases, to estimate initial emission distribution fractions based on existing data, to document metadata transparently and efficiently within crop datasets, and to model the removal of pesticide residues in food during processing.

A sample of 239 farm year observations of Swiss farms was assessed at the product group level for analyzing the relationship between environmental and economic performance and correlations between product groups (Milk, Cattle, Cereal, Beets, and Potatoes). The farms cover the production regions valley, hill and mountains and practice organic production or proof of ecological performance (PEP), the Swiss standard production. The environmental dimension was covered by nine impact categories calculated by the Swiss Agricultural Life Cycle Assessment method (SALCA). The impacts were aggregated using a data envelopment analysis (DEA). The economic dimension is assessed by the family workforce income per product group calculated from a full cost data set from the Swiss farm accountancy data network (FADN). Hereby, all indirect costs, which cannot be directly attributed to the product groups, were allocated using standard costs. We also included productivity as a third dimension in our analysis, quantified as output per area for crop products and output per animal livestock unit for the animal product groups. No trade-offs between the environmental efficiency and the economic performance were identified. On the contrary, for Cattle and Milk we found significant synergies (1.5 times more observations show synergies than no effect or trade-offs). Furthermore we found that productivity correlated positively with environmental efficiency for Milk (coefficient = 0.27), Cattle (coefficient = 0.38) and Cereals (coefficient = 0.30), but only for Cattle (coefficient = 0.17) and Potatoes (coefficient = 0.47) it correlated with economic performance. For all product groups except Cereals, the organic farming system had 5% to 10 higher environmental efficiency and 5%–26% higher economic performance than the PEP farms. Although the differences were not significant, a consistent decrease up to −20% in environmental performance and productivity was observed between the valley/hill and the mountain region. Our results show no indication that farmers maximize their productivity or economic performance at the cost of environmental efficiency. However, the large variability suggests that there is a) room for improvement in several dimension simultaneously, and b) that maximizing productivity does not seem to be a necessity for these improvements., Journal of Cleaner Production, 388, ISSN:0959-6526

In the last two decades, agricultural production intensity has become a subject of growing attention in the field of agricultural sustainability. Based on an empirical application for Swiss mountain dairy farming, the goal of our research was to better understand the relationship between agricultural production intensity, defined as the biophysical agricultural production per unit of land use area, and farm environmental performance. We thereby revisited the definition of production intensity and, more precisely, of the spatial system boundaries of its denominator. For that purpose, we analyzed the relationship between the “classical” production intensity indicator accounting only for the on-farm land use area and a cradle-to-farm gate intensity indicator encompassing off- and on-farm land use area. In a subsequent step, we investigated the relationship between farm environmental performance and the two production intensity indicator types. The analysis relied on the cradle-to-farm gate Life Cycle Assessments of 56 farm observations. Spearman's correlation analysis revealed a very strong positive correlation between on-farm and cradle-to-farm gate production intensity. The definition of production intensity did not play a crucial role in the observed relationship between production intensity and farm environmental performance. Production intensity was positively correlated with farm global environmental performance. Conversely, it was negatively correlated with both on-farm local environmental performance and cradle-to-farm gate aggregate local environmental performance. By revealing this environmental trade-off associated with agricultural intensification, our findings highlight the challenging nature of achieving sustainable intensification simultaneously on the global and local ecosystem scales.

Periodized nutrition is necessary to optimize training and enhance performance through the season. The Athlete&rsquo, s Plate (AP) is a nutrition education tool developed to teach athletes how to design their plates depending on training load (e.g., volume &times, intensity), from easy (E), moderate (M) to hard (H). The AP was validated, confirming its recommendations according to international sports nutrition guidelines. However, the AP had significantly higher protein content than recommended (up to 2.9 &plusmn, 0.5 g&middot, kg&minus, 1&middot, d&minus, 1, p &lt, 0.001 for H male). The aim of this study was to quantify the environmental impact (EnvI) of the AP and to evaluate the influence of meal type, training load, sex and registered dietitian (RD). The nutritional contents of 216 APs created by 12 sport RDs were evaluated using Computrition Software (Hospitality Suite, v. 18.1, Chatsworth, CA, USA). The EnvI of the AP was analyzed by life cycle assessment (LCA) expressed by the total amount of food on the AP, kg, and kcal, according to the Swiss Agricultural Life Cycle Assessment (SALCA) methodology. Higher EnvI is directly associated with higher training load when the total amount of food on the plate is considered for E (5.7 &plusmn, 2.9 kg CO2 eq/day), M (6.4 &plusmn, 1.5 kg CO2 eq/day), and H (8.0 &plusmn, 2.1 kg CO2 eq/day). Global warming potential, exergy and eutrophication are driven by animal protein and mainly beef, while ecotoxicity is influenced by vegetable content on the AP. The EnvI is influenced by the amount of food, training load and sex. This study is the first to report the degree of EnvI in sports nutrition. These results not only raise the need for sustainability education in sports nutrition in general, but also the urgency to modify the AP nutrition education tool to ensure sports nutrition recommendations are met, while not compromising the environment.

Sustainable production and healthy consumption have been the topic of recent publications. Due to the high environmental impact of the current food system, significant changes in how food is produced, distributed, and consumed are needed in all sectors and groups. While most research in sustainable diets has focused on the general population, limited work has involved athletes. The purpose of this review is to summarize the current knowledge on food and sustainability in athletes. Meeting but not exceeding protein requirements through flexitarian and plant-based approaches, reducing packaged foods and food waste, and prioritizing seasonal produce were identified as possible mitigation options in athletes. There is urgency for more research on plant-centric, whole food–based strategies for post-exercise skeletal muscle and training adaptation, the effect of sustainable diets on health and performance, and behaviors to reduce packaging and food waste in athletes.

Carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide are two important greenhouse gases (GHG) released from cropping systems. Their emissions can vary substantially with climate, soil, and crop management. While different methods are available to account for GHG emissions in life cycle assessments (LCA) of crop production, there are no standard procedures. In this study, the objectives were: (i) to compare several methods of estimating CO 2 and N 2 O emissions for a LCA of cropping systems and (ii) to estimate the relative contribution of soil GHG emissions to the overall global warming potential (GWP) using results from a field experiment located in Manitoba, Canada. The methods were: (A) measurements; (B) Tier I and (C) Tier II IPCC (Intergovernmental panel on Climate Change) methodology, (D) a simple carbon model combined with Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) Tier II methodology for soil N 2 O emissions, and (E) the DNDC (DeNitrification DeComposition) agroecosystem model. The estimated GWPs (−7.2–17 Mg CO 2 eq ha −1 y −1 ; −80 to 600 kg CO 2 eq GJ −1 y −1 ) were similar to previous results in North America and no statistical difference was found between GWP based on methods D and E and GWP based on observations. The five methods gave estimates of soil CO 2 emissions that were not statistically different from each other, whereas for N 2 O emissions only DNDC estimates were similar to observations. Across crop types, all methods gave comparable CO 2 and N 2 O emission estimates for perennial and legume crops, but only DNDC gave similar results with respect to observations for both annual and cereal crops. Whilst the results should be confirmed for other locations, the agroecosystem model and method D can be used, at certainly one selected site, in place of observations for estimating GHGs in agricultural LCA.

PurposeThe focus of the life-cycle assessment (LCA) of an agricultural plant product is typically on one crop. However, isolating one crop from the cropping system that it belongs to is often challenging because the crops are often interlinked with the other crops in the cropping system. The main objectives of this discussion article are as follows: (i) to discuss the characteristics of cropping systems which might affect the LCA methodology, (ii) to discuss the advantages and the disadvantages of the current available methods for the life-cycle assessment of cropping systems, and (iii) to offer a framework to carry out LCA of crops and cropping systems.MethodsThe definition of cropping systems is provided together with a description of two types of LCA: product LCA and system LCA. The LCA issues related to cropping system characteristics have been classified as (1) crop interrelationship, (2) crop management and emissions, and (3) functional unit issues. The LCA approaches presented are as follows: cropping system, allocation approaches, crop-by-crop approach, and combined approaches. The various approaches are described together with their advantages and disadvantages, applicability, comprehensiveness, and accuracy.Results and discussionThe cropping system approach is best suited for system LCA. For product LCA, none of the methods is fully exhaustive and accurate. The crop sequence approach takes into consideration the cropping system issues, if they happen within the year or season, and cannot be applied for intercropping and agroforestry systems. The allocation approaches take into account the cropping system effects by establishing a mathematical relationship between crops present in the cropping systems. The model for integrative life-cycle assessment in agriculture (MiLA) approach considers cropping system issues if they are related to multiproduct and nutrient cycling, while the crop-by-crop approach is highly affected by assumptions and considers cropping system issues only if they are related to the analyzed crop.ConclusionsEach LCA approach presents advantages and disadvantages. For system LCA, the cropping system approach is recommended. For product LCA, environmental burdens should be attributed applying the following hierarchy: (1) attributed to the crop if based on a clear causality, (2) attributed with combined approaches and specific criteria, and (3) attributed with allocation approaches and generic criteria. These approaches should be combined with the cropping system approach..

Describing the impact of farming on soil quality is challenging, because the model should consider changes in the physical, chemical, and biological status of soils. Physical damage to soils through heavy traffic was already analyzed in several life-cycle assessment studies. However, impacts on soil structure from grazing animals were largely ignored, and physically based model approaches to describe these impacts are very rare. In this study, we developed a new modeling approach that is closely related to the stress propagation method generally applied for analyzing compaction caused by off-road vehicles. We tested our new approach for plausibility using a comprehensive multi-year dataset containing detailed information on pasture management of several hundred Swiss dairy farms. Preliminary results showed that the new approach provides plausible outcomes for the two physical soil indicators &ldquo, macropore volume&rdquo, and &ldquo, aggregate stability&rdquo

Besides producing food for humanity’s nutrition, agriculture also fulfills other functions such as providing a livelihood for farmers and preserving an attractive and biodiverse landscape. These functions of agriculture were considered in a novel eco-efficiency assessment concept applied to Austrian farms within this study. The joint application of life cycle assessment (LCA) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) was used to evaluate Austrian farms’ eco-efficiency. Data from 47 farms from different farm types (crop production, milk production, beef production, and wine production) were used to implement the concept. Cumulative exergy demand (CExD), global warming potential (GWP), normalized eutrophication potential (EP), and aquatic ecotoxicity potential (AE) were included as environmental impacts in an LCA and were consequently used as input values for the DEA. Considering multiple functions of agriculture, the farm net income (FNI), the net food production of crude protein and human-edible energy, and High Nature Value farmland (HNVf) were selected as output variables for the DEA. Results show that the purchase of resources causes a substantial share of environmental impacts, highlighting the importance of efficient utilization of on-farm resources. The results further revealed the use of high amounts of human-edible energy and protein as animal feed to cause lower eco-efficiency scores of livestock keeping farms (i.e., milk production and beef production). Overall, the eco-efficiency of farms depends on the fulfillment of different functions of agriculture, and individual strategies for improvement could be identified.

To meet the growing demand, high yielding, but environmentally sustainable agricultural plant production systems are desired. Today, life cycle assessment (LCA) is increasingly used to assess the environmental impact of these agricultural systems. However, the impact results are very diverse due to management decisions or local natural conditions. The impact of grain maize is often generalized and an average is taken. Therefore, we studied variation in production systems. Four types of drivers for variability are distinguished: policy, farm management, year-to-year weather variation and innovation. For each driver, scenarios are elaborated using ReCiPe and CEENE (Cumulative Exergy Extraction from the Natural Environment) to assess the environmental footprint. Policy limits fertilisation levels in a soil-specific way. The resource consumption is lower for non-sandy soils than for sandy soils, but entails however more eutrophication. Farm management seems to have less influence on the environmental impact when considering the CEENE only. But farm management choices such as fertiliser type have a large effect on emission-related problems (e.g. eutrophication and acidification). In contrast, year-to-year weather variation results in large differences in the environmental footprint. The difference in impact results between favourable and poor environmental conditions amounts to 19% and 17% in terms of resources and emissions respectively, and irrigation clearly is an unfavourable environmental process. The best environmental performance is obtained by innovation as plant breeding results in a steadily increasing yield over 25 years. Finally, a comparison is made between grain maize production in Flanders and a generically applied dataset, based on Swiss practices. These very different results endorse the importance of using local data to conduct LCA of plant production systems. The results of this study show decision makers and farmers how they can improve the environmental performance of agricultural systems, and LCA practitioners are alerted to challenges due to variation.

This article introduces the special issue “LCA of nutrition and food consumption” and 14 papers selected from the Ninth LCA Food Conference in San Francisco in October 2014. The scientific literature in the field of food LCA has increased more than ten times during the last 15 years. Nutrition has a high contribution to the total environmental impacts of consumption. Agricultural production often dominates the impacts, but its importance depends on the type of product, its production mode, transport, and processing. Local or domestic products reduce transports, but this advantage can be lost if the impacts of the raw material production are substantially increased. Diets containing less meat tend to be more environmentally friendly. Several studies concluded that respecting the dietary recommendations for a healthy diet would reduce the overall environmental impacts in the developed countries, although this is not a universal conclusion. Eight papers analyze the environmental impacts of catering and in-house food consumption and impacts on sectoral and national levels; four papers presents tools and methods to better assess the impacts of nutrition and to implement the results in practical decision-making. Finally, two contributions analyze the impacts of food waste and reduction options. (i) Comprehensive assessment. Most studies only analyze climate impacts, although data, methods, and tools are readily available for a more comprehensive analysis. (ii) Assessment of sustainability. The social dimension remains the weakest pillar. (iii) Data availability is still an obstacle, but significant progress has been made in recent years. (iv) Lack of harmonization of methodologies makes comparisons among studies difficult. (v) Land use. Enhanced consideration of land use impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services is required in LCA. (vi) Defining the functional unit including nutritional aspects, food security, and health needs further work. (vii) Consumer behavior. Its impacts are still little assessed. (viii) Communication of the environmental impact assessment results to stakeholders including policy-makers and consumers needs additional efforts. (i) Development of holistic approaches for the assessment of sustainable food systems, (ii) assessment of land use related impacts and inclusion of ecosystem services, (iii) exploration of LCA results for policy support and decision-making, (iv) investigation of food consumption patterns in developing and emerging countries, and (v) harmonization of databases.

LCA studies reveal emission hotspots along the whole product value chain allowing the researcher to identify opportunities for improvements. Its combination with integrative design offers an opportunity to substantially improve the eco-efficiency. We describe the multi-stakeholder design process that was followed to provide reductions in resource use and emissions from two alternative bread supply chains in France. Case studies of alternative bread were selected because of strong motivation to improve environmental performance and the limited number of actors along the supply chain: farmers are also processors, distributors and retailers. The structured process of integrative design was supported by the use of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) as an evaluation and information support tool. To avoid any potential burden shifting, environmental impacts were tracked for 13 impact categories. Results of LCA with highlights of processes responsible for the largest share of environmental impacts were disclosed to experts during the collaborative design workshop. Stakeholders included sustainability experts, plant breeders, agronomists and representatives of farmers associations. In the next step, generated improvement scenarios were consulted with farmers on a feedback loop basis. Despite the low acceptance of expert suggestions, the supply of environmental information allowed farmers to find some innovative design solutions. Conservative modelling of approved improvement scenarios revealed 47% potential reduction in the global warming potential in one of the value chains and 40% for aquatic eutrophication potential in the other one. Results of these case studies suggest that in addition to biophysical limitations, some producers may suffer from the lack of innovation, suboptimal management and the lack of access to reliable environmental information. Integrative approaches coupled with systematic, science based assessment tools such as LCA can be effective in overcoming some of these barriers and improving eco-efficiency. More research is needed to understand the social factors driving the life-cycle based eco-innovation on farms.

This study is an original environmental assessment of the Brazilian cashew, a perennial tree cultivated in 30 tropical countries that yields four products: nuts, apples, gum and wood. While economic and agronomic data regarding cashew are available worldwide, the environmental issues related to the main production systems and products commercialized by Brazilian farms have not been discussed consistently. This environmental assessment is important to guide the efforts of researchers and farmers for improving the environmental performance of cashew cropping systems and products. Life cycle assessment is applied to assess the environmental impacts of cashew systems and products, considering multi-cropping systems, agriculture functions and allocation procedures. Two cashew cropping systems are compared: (i) a high-input system, or reference system, developed through 20 years of research, and (ii) a low input system, as defined by a sample of farms practicing multi-cropping systems. Aspects and impacts of these systems are reported via the following production stages: nursery, establishment, and low and full production. Two agriculture functions are adopted to analyze the cropping systems: land management (impacts per hectare) and financial (impact per US$ from total sales receipts). The impacts of cashew products are evaluated using the crop production function (per kilogram of product). The impacts of products are measured using both mass and economic allocation. This study shows that the low and full production stages account for the majority of impact in both cropping systems, but land transformation for the establishment of cashew orchards is the main contributor of climate change. The analysis of multiple agriculture function shows different results for the study of cashew production systems and products. Considering the land management function (impacts per hectare), the low-input system causes less significant environmental impact, when compared to the high-input system, in all categories but toxicity. When the financial function is analyzed (impacts per US$ from total sales receipts from one ha), the low-input system achieves better performance for only eutrophication and water depletion impact categories. The analysis of the crop production function (impacts per kilogram of product) shows that the choice of allocation procedure also affects the results when comparing the impact values of products from different cropping systems. If the choice is for mass allocation, products from the low-input system achieve better environmental performance, but if economic allocation is chosen, products from the high-input system perform equal or better than when produced in the low-input system. From the joint analysis of agriculture functions, the conclusion is that the best option to improve the environmental performance of the Brazilian cashew production is to adjust the high-input system with modifications regarding fertilization and pest management. From this case study, the benefits of considering multi-agriculture functions and accounting for all production stages in the study of perennial crops are highlighted. The importance of developing emission and characterization factors to reduce uncertainty when estimating pollutant loads and evaluating impacts of perennial crops cultivated in tropical regions is also discussed. This study advances the knowledge base on the environmental assessment of perennial crops in general, and on cashew crops specifically.

Agri-food production systems are major drivers of global sustainability challenges including climate change, freshwater scarcity, micronutrient deficiencies, and cardiovascular disease. There is an urgent need for more robust methods (e.g., life cycle assessment, system-based modelling) and metrics (e.g., Disability-Adjusted Life Years, nutrient diversity indicators) to quantitatively assess the sustainability of these production systems on a joint nutritional, health, and environmental basis. Creating a sustainable future will require actors to co-develop and co-implement interventions across these groups; presently, however, these fields are misaligned. Current methods are siloed, qualitative, and calorie- or food- based, and they should be developed in a more holistic, quantitative, and nutritionally-focused manner. Developing data-driven and interdisciplinary approaches can help to alleviate food security and sustainability challenges., Global Food Security, 26, ISSN:2211-9124

Soil carbon sequestration, a climate change mitigation option for agriculture, can either increase or decrease as a result of land management change (LMC) and land use change (LUC). To estimate all greenhouse gas (GHG) exchanges associated with various agricultural systems, life cycle assessments (LCAs) are frequently undertaken. To date LCA practitioners have not had a well-defined procedure to account for soil C in their assessments and as a consequence it is often not included. In this study, various methods used to estimate soil C changes due to (i) LMC and (ii) LUC are examined to assess soil C accounting methodologies in the life cycle inventory (LCI) of agricultural LCAs. A compromise between accuracy and completeness in LCA methods is necessary. A ranking of the preference of soil C accounting methods is suggested based on user expertise and data quality. For large scale assessment, the timing of soil CO2 emissions should be taken into account. If indirect LUC is relevant, a sensitivity analysis of assessment methods should be conducted because the methods highly affect assessment results. A common soil C accounting method that can be easily applied in agricultural LCA needs to be established and an agreement on indirect LUC methods will facilitate the assessment of LMC and LUC within agricultural LCAs.

Intensive arable crop production has major impacts on the environment and solutions for their reduction are needed. Diversification of crop rotations together with improved nitrogen management is an option for more eco-efficient cropping systems. The potentials for reducing the environmental impacts cropping systems were investigated by means of life cycle assessment (LCA) in three regions in France (Beauce, Burgundy and Moselle). The crop management data were compiled by the Chambers of Agriculture in the three regions based on field survey data (2002–2009 in Burgundy and Moselle and 2004–2008 in Beauce) and completed by experts. The LCA calculations were carried out by the SALCA-crop tool, using the ecoinvent and SALCA inventory databases and SALCA emission models. The LCAs were calculated for crop combinations, which were an efficient way to analyse a large number of crop rotations. A crop combination is defined as the inventory of a given crop, with a defined preceding crop and eventually including a catch crop. Nitrogen management revealed to be a key driver for the environmental impacts. It dominated the non-renewable energy demand, the global warming potential, the ozone formation potential, the acidification potential, and the eutrophication potential. Strong correlations between N fertilisation and these environmental impacts were found. The introduction of pea allowed to reduce the total eutrophication over the whole crop rotation. The mitigation of environmental impacts was not only possible per hectare, but also per € gross margin II. The eco-efficiency can thus be improved by reducing the level of N fertilisation. A reduction of N fertilisation could be achieved also by a reduction of the fertiliser doses to the non-legume crops, in addition to the introduction of legumes. Both ways proved to be effective and the combination of both was the most promising. However, trade-off between environmental and economic goals was identified. Diversification of cereal intensive crop rotations proved to be generally favourable from an environmental point of view. Catch crops had favourable effects on nutrient leaching a slightly favourable effects on biodiversity and soil quality. The ecotoxicity potentials were dominated by a few active ingredients only; the diversification did not lead to generally reduced ecotoxicity potentials. Diverse crop rotations with reduced N input are a promising way to reduce the environmental impacts of intensive arable crop rotations.

There is a great demand for high-protein materials for livestock feed in Europe and European agriculture has a deficit of about 70% high-protein materials of which 87% is met by imported soybean and soy meal. This reflects the fact that grain legumes are currently under represented in European agriculture and produced on only 1.5% of the arable land in Europe compared with 14.5% on a worldwide basis. Several grain legumes have the potential to replace at least some of the soya currently used in the diets of monogastric animals, ruminants, and fish. There are also opportunities for greater use of legumes in new foods. Here we review the contribution of ecosystem services by grain legumes in European agriculture starting with provisioning services in terms of food and feed and moving on to the contribution they make to both regulating and supporting services which are in part due to the diversity which these crops bring to cropping systems. We explore the need to understand grain legume production on the time scale of a rotation rather than a cropping season in order to value and manage the agronomic challenges of weed, pests, and diseases alongside the maintenance or improvement of soil structure, soil organic matter, and nutrient cycling. A review of policy interventions to support grain legumes reveals that until very recently these have failed to make a difference in Europe. We contrast the European picture with the interventions that have allowed the development of grain legume production in both Canada and Australia. Whether farmers choose to grow more legumes will depend on market opportunities, the development of supply chains, and policy support as well as technical improvements of grain legume production such as breeding of new varieties and management development to improve yield stability. However, to really increase the production of grain legumes in Europe, the issues are far more wide reaching than agronomy or subsidy and require a fundamental rethinking of value chains to move grain legumes from being niche products to mainstream commodities.

Purpose Inclusion of biodiversity as an indicator in the land use impact pathway of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is essential to assess the effects of human activities on the environment. Numerous models have been applied, but validations that use actual data, collected in the field, are scarce. Methods The expert system SALCA-BD (Swiss Agricultural LCA-Biodiversity), assigns coefficients for land use class suitability and impact of agricultural practices on species diversity at field and farm scale. We used data on land use classes and agricultural practices from 132 farms located in eight European regions to complete the life cycle inventory. SALCA-BD species diversity scores were calculated for individual fields, aggregated to the farm scale, and compared to field records of arable crop flora, grassland flora, spiders, and wild bees. Results and discussion Overall, species diversity scores from SALCA-BD were positively related to the observed species richness from field survey data. The extent of the relationship diminished from arable crop flora and grassland flora to spiders and to wild bees, and from field to farm scale. Conclusions Validation of a LCA biodiversity assessment tool with data from field surveys revealed the benefit of considering multiple aspects of biodiversity. The appropriate scale for species diversity assessment (as a proxy for biodiversity) is the respective species habitat. Extension of scale increases uncertainty, which should be addressed by developing characterization factors for as detailed a land use classification as possible.

Purpose The emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) is a key criterion in the environmental assessment of biofuels. Life cycle inventories taking into account the latest methodological developments are an essential prerequisite for this assessment. In the last years, substantial progresses in the modelling of nitrogen emissions relevant for the climate as well as in modelling the emissions from land use change (LUC) have been achieved. Therefore, the biomass production inventories in the ecoinvent database were revised to take into account these developments.

Low-input cropping systems were introduced in Western Europe to reduce the environmental impacts of intensive farming, but some of their benefits are offset by lower yields. In this paper, we review studies that used Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to investigate the effects of reducing external inputs on the eco-efficiency of cropping systems, measured as the ratio of production to environmental impacts. We also review various cropping system interventions that can improve this ratio. Depending on the initial situation and the impacts considered, reducing inputs will in itself either reduce or increase environmental impacts per product unit—highly eco-efficient cropping systems require application of optimum instead of minimum quantities of external inputs. These optimum rates can be lowered by utilizing positive synergies between crops to minimise waste of nutrients and water and by utilizing locally produced organic waste; both from within the farm as well as well as from the surrounding sociotechnical environment. Eco-efficiency can also be improved by increasing yields in a sustainable matter. Strategies such as breeding, increasing diversity, no-tillage or intercropping will not be effective under all conditions. LCA provides a useful framework to identify environmentally optimum levels of inputs and trade-offs between various intensification scenarios. ISSN:2071-1050

Complying with the carrying capacity of local and global ecosystems is a prerequisite to ensure environmental sustainability. Based on the example of Swiss mountain dairy farms, the goal of our research was firstly to investigate the relationship between farm global and local environmental performance. Secondly, we aimed to analyse the relationship between farm environmental and economic performance. The analysis relied on a sample of 56 Swiss alpine dairy farms. For each farm, the cradle-to-farm-gate life cycle assessment was calculated, and the quantified environmental impacts were decomposed into their on- and off-farm parts. We measured global environmental performance as the digestible energy produced by the farm per unit of global environmental impact generated from cradle-to-farm-gate. We assessed local environmental performance by dividing farm-usable agricultural area by on-farm environmental impact generation. Farm economic performance was measured by work income per family work unit, return on equity and output/input ratio. Spearman’s correlation analysis revealed no significant relationship, trade-offs or synergies between global and local environmental performance indicators. Interestingly, trade-offs were observed far more frequently than synergies. Furthermore, we found synergies between global environmental and economic performance and mostly no significant relationship between local environmental and economic performance. The observed trade-offs between global and local environmental performance mean that, for several environmental issues, any improvement in global environmental performance will result in deterioration of local environmental performance and vice versa. This finding calls for systematic consideration of both dimensions when carrying out farm environmental performance assessments.

The agri-food sector, and specifically agricultural production, is a major contributor to climate change. In order to manage the impact on the climate, a better understanding of the variability of global warming potential in agriculture is needed. This study assesses the variability in global warming potential of 27 crops using the modular extrapolation of agricultural life cycle assessment (MEXALCA) method, a modular, geographical extrapolation method for crop life cycle assessment. The global warming potential results, excluding land use change, were validated with crop data from the ecoinvent database and from the literature. The production weighted worldwide mean values of global warming potential for the 27 crops varied in a wide range (factor of 20 in impact per ha; factor of 100 in impact per kg). The global warming potential values per kg of fresh mass were lowest for sugar crops (

The relationships between energy use in food systems, food system productivity, and energy resource constraints are complex. Moreover, ongoing changes in food production and consumption norms concurrent with urbanization, globalization, and demographic changes underscore the importance of energy use in food systems as a food security concern. Here, we review the current state of knowledge with respect to the energy intensity of agriculture and food systems. We highlight key drivers and trends in food system energy use along with opportunities for and constraints on improved efficiencies. In particular, we point toward a current dearth of research with respect to the energy performance of food systems in developing countries and provide a cautionary note vis-à-vis increasing food system energy dependencies in the light of energy price volatility and concerns as to long-term fossil energy availabilities.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was applied to two smallholder milk production systems in Peru in order to evaluate the environmental burden of milk produced in each. An Andean highland milk production system where livestock feeding is restricted to permanent pastures supplemented with on farm grown ryegrass-clover was opposed to a coastal system with dairy cows fed a diet consisting of fodder maize and purchased concentrate. Milk production levels (kg/cow day) differed considerably with 2.57 for the highland and 19.54 for the coastal system. A Life Cycle Inventory was calculated for the functional unit of 1 kg energy corrected milk (ECM) and the environmental impacts global warming, acidification and eutrophication were estimated for 1 kg ECM, 1 ha and 1 animal, considering the multi-functionality of the system. The highland system was characterized by a high land use (23.1 m 2 a/kg ECM vs. 1.71 m 2 a/kg ECM at the coast). Irrigation water and energy were on the other hand used to a much higher amount at the coast (7291 l/kg ECM and 8791 MJ/kg ECM, respectively) than in the highlands (848 l/kg ECM and 0.20 MJ/kg ECM). Global warming potential, acidification and eutrophication were higher for 1 kg ECM produced in the highlands than at the coast by 10.6 kg CO 2 equivalents, 6.58 g sulfur dioxide equivalents and 10.63 g phosphate equivalents, respectively. Nevertheless, 5220 kg CO 2 equivalents more were emitted per animal at the coast than in the highlands. Also acidification and eutrophication were estimated to be on average 6 and 4 times higher at the coast compared to the highlands when expressed for the functional units of 1 ha and 1 animal. Results Whereas livestock is mainly responsible for impacts on the environment in the highlands, at the coast both livestock related emissions and forage cultivation play an important role. Furthermore CO 2 releases from soybean cultivations heavily contribute to total emissions. Sensitivity analysis indicates that for dairy systems relying on crop by-products as feed the choice of the allocation method is a crucial point in a LCA study. Based on the results of this study, strategies in order to reduce the environmental burden of milk production should focus on an increase of production levels and a reduction of methane emissions from enteric fermentation in the highlands and a modification of the concentrate components replacing soya as the protein source at the coast.

The agricultural sector fulfils several functions such as the production of food energy and landscape conservation. An equilibrium between economic development and environmental protection should be found and research should aid political decision-making. In recent years, great efforts have been made to assess the environmental and economic implications of changes in both environmental and agricultural policies. Life cycle assessment (LCA) has been extended by cost functions and social parameters. The validation of suggestions for political measures can be improved by combining existing environmental and economic models. This approach is applied in this paper in order to compare an increased support for organic farming with specific environmental policy measures, focusing on the resulting impacts and socioeconomic indicators. The LCA tool Swiss Agricultural Life Cycle Assessment (SALCA) has been linked with the economic optimisation model Swiss Agricultural Sector Forecasting System (SILAS). Since the focus lies on agricultural production, the farm gate represents the system boundary of the LCA. By linking SALCA with SILAS, the classic LCA impact categories have been extended by socioeconomic indicators. A reference scenario representing the assumed development of economic conditions between 2008 and 2015 was varied by a support for organic farming and four specific policy measures (support for ecological compensation areas and a tax on energy, fertiliser and concentrates, respectively). To remain comparable, the changes in total payments were set to the same amount in all scenarios (100 million CHF). A support for organic farming would have favourable effects on several environmental and socioeconomic indicators, but the differences compared to a combination of the four specific measures are small. However, some of these single measures could reach parts of the targets more efficiently: an energy tax would stimulate the application of available energy-saving measures, and a tax on concentrates would lead to a shift from intensive animal husbandry to crop production, reducing imports of concentrates and emissions of ammonia. Overall, the predicted developments in product and factor prices combined with the assumed reductions of public payments until 2015, as represented by the reference scenario, have the greatest effect on environmental impacts. Theoretically, specific policy measures are more efficient than measures directed towards multiple goals. Especially in the case of agriculture, however, a specific measure not only has an impact on the associated target but affects all agricultural functions. The results of the model combination suggest that a support for organic farming lowers the risk of undesirable side effects on environmental and socioeconomic indicators. Before implementing more specific measures, their impacts on the different functions should be estimated. For this purpose, a combination of decision-support models with LCA may be an appropriate instrument.

Organic farming (OF) is considered a promising solution for reducing environmental burdens related to intensive agricultural management practices. The question arises whether OF really reduces the environmental impacts once lower yields and all the changes in farming methods are taken into consideration. This question is addressed in a comprehensive study of Swiss arable cropping and forage production systems comparing OF to integrated production (IP) systems by means of the life cycle assessment (LCA) method. The LCA study investigated the environmental impacts of two long-term farming system experiments: the DOC experiment comparing bio-dynamic, bio-organic and conventional/integrated farming and the “Burgrain” experiment encompassing integrated intensive, integrated extensive and organic production. All treatments received similar amounts of farmyard manure. The system boundary encompasses the plant production system; storage and application of farmyard manure is included in the system boundary, the animal husbandry is not included. The Swiss Agricultural Life Cycle Assessment method (SALCA) was used to analyse the environmental impacts. In the overall assessment OF was revealed to be either superior or similar to IP in environmental terms. OF has its main strengths in better resource conservation, since the farming system relies mainly on farm-internal resources and limits the input of external auxiliary materials. This results in less fossil and mineral resources being consumed. Moreover the greatly restricted use of pesticides makes it possible to markedly reduce ecotoxicity potentials on the one hand, and to achieve a higher biodiversity potential on the other. This overall positive assessment is not valid for all organic products: some products such as potatoes had higher environmental burdens than their counterparts from IP. The main drawbacks identified for Swiss OF systems are lower yields. As a consequence some production factors are used less efficiently, thus partly negating the advantages of OF. Furthermore, the different manure management strategy leads to relatively high nutrient losses in relation to yield. These two points were shown to be the main priorities for the environmental optimisation of OF systems. The differences between the bio-organic and the bio-dynamic farming systems consisted in a slightly higher input of organic matter, a few applications of mineral fertilisers and copper applications in the former. The eco-efficiency analysis led to the conclusion that the optimisation of OF is mainly output-driven, i.e. that higher yields of good quality should be achieved with the available (limited) resources. On the contrary, optimisation of IP was found to be input-driven; the inputs should be used in a quantity and manner which minimise the environmental burdens per unit produced. The study showed that despite the efforts of recent years, there is still considerable room for the environmental optimisation of Swiss farming systems.

Extensive or low-input farming is considered a way of remedying many problems associated with intensive farming practices. But do extensive farming systems really result in a clear reduction in environmental impacts, especially if their lower productivity is taken into account? This question is studied for Swiss arable cropping and forage production systems in a comprehensive life cycle assessment (LCA) study. Three long-term experiments (DOC experiment comparing bio-dynamic, bio-organic and conventional farming, the “Burgrain” experiment including integrated intensive, integrated extensive and organic systems and the “Oberacker” experiment with conventional ploughing and no-till soil cultivation, are considered in the LCA study. Furthermore, model systems for arable crops and forage production for feeding livestock are investigated by using the Swiss Agricultural Life Cycle Assessment method (SALCA). The analysis covers an overall extensification of cropping systems and forage production on the one hand and a partial extensification of fertiliser use, plant protection and soil cultivation on the other. The overall extensification of an intensively managed system reduced environmental impacts in general, both per area unit and per product unit. In arable cropping systems medium production intensity gave the best results for the environment, and the intensity should not fall below the environmental optimum in order to avoid a deterioration of eco-efficiency. In grassland systems, on the contrary, a combination of both intensively and extensively managed plots was preferable to medium intensity practices on the whole area. The differences in yield, production intensity and environmental impact were much more pronounced in grassland than in arable cropping systems. Partial extensification of a farming system should be conceived in the context of the whole system in order to be successful. For example, the extensification solely of fertiliser use and soil cultivation resulted in a general improvement in the environmental performance of the farming system, whereas a reduction in plant protection intensity by banning certain pesticide categories reduced negative impacts on ecotoxicity and biodiversity only, while increasing other burdens such as global warming, ozone formation, eutrophication and acidification per product unit. The replacement of mineral fertilisers by farmyard manure as a special form of extensification reduced resource use and improved soil quality, while slightly increasing nutrient losses. These results show that a considerable environmental improvement potential exists in Swiss farming systems and that a detailed eco-efficiency analysis could help to target a further reduction in their environmental impacts.

The animal food chain contributes significantly to emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs). We explored studies that addressed options to mitigate GHG emissions in the animal production chain and concluded that most studies focused on production systems in developed countries and on a single GHG. They did not account for the complex interrelated effects on other GHGs or their relation with other aspects of sustainability, such as eutrophication, animal welfare, land use or food security. Current decisions on GHG mitigation in animal production, therefore, are hindered by the complexity and uncertainty of the combined effect of GHG mitigation options on climate change and their relation with other aspects of sustainability. There is an urgent need to integrate simulation models at animal, crop and farm level with a consequential life cycle sustainability assessment to gain insight into the multidimensional and sometimes conflicting consequences of GHG mitigation options. Highlights ¿ Most studies that address options to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the animal production focus on systems in developed countries and on a single GHG. ¿ Current decisions on GHG mitigation in animal production are hindered by the complexity and uncertainty of the combined effect of GHG mitigation options on climate change and their relation with other aspects of sustainability. ¿ There is an urgent need to integrate simulation models at animal, crop and farm level with a consequential life cycle sustainability assessment to gain insight into the multidimensional and sometimes conflicting consequences of GHG mitigation options.

Simplification has been a clear trend in the composition of French crop rotations in the past decades, whereas agronomic knowledge proves the interest of diversification in order to benefit from the so called “preceding effects” and “cumulative effects”. It is needed to study the possible input of crops such as rape seed or pea for the cereal-based rotations in agronomic terms but also in economic and environmental terms. The first step is to quantify the impacts specifically due to the change in crop succession composition, and afterwards to allocate an objective economic value to them so that they are easy to integrate into comparisons of production systems. The regional case studies of a current multi-partner project enable to illustrate the economic and environmental evaluation of alternatives to the rotation “Oilseed rape – Wheat – Barley”. In addition, the recent field experiment data of this project (farm tests or experimental trials) provide technical and scientific elements on technical feasibility and the economic performance of the innovative succession “pea before rape seed”, but also on the interest of the introduction of symbiotically fixed nitrogen in crop rotations in order to decrease the negative environmental impacts of mineral fertilisers-based systems. Diversification of crops and nitrogen fixation appear to be two key elements for (i) competitiveness, when at least the agronomic effects are taken into account, and (ii) sustainable systems, when one considers the preservation of farm potential and of the environment.

The production of food protein has a considerable impact on the environment. This paper investigates the potential environmental benefits of introducing more grain legumes in human nutrition. Four meals with different amounts of soybeans or peas (either used as feed for production of pork or directly consumed) were analysed using life cycle assessment methodology. The results of this analysis demonstrate that it is environmentally favourable to replace meat with peas. In particular, the addition of more legumes to human nutrition potentially aids in the reduction of global warming, eutrophication, acidification, and land use; however, in terms of energy use, a completely vegetarian pea burger meal requires the same amount of energy as other meat-containing meals. Feeding pigs with European-produced peas instead of imported soybeans, in addition to partial replacement (10%) of meat protein with pea protein, failed to reduce the environmental impact of the meal. In summary, peas can be considered ‘green’, but there remains a significant need for more energy-efficient processing of vegetarian products.

Purpose Life cycle assessment (LCA) is widely used for the environmental assessment of food products, but difficulties arise when evaluating large portfolios of food products or when faced with a diversity of sources of ingredients and/or frequent changes of suppliers. In such situations, a specific, in-depth assessment of each ingredient is not feasible, and screening approaches using a few LCIA (Life Cycle Impact Assessment) results are not recommended. The goal of this paper is to propose an intermediate solution between a screening assessment using limited data and specific LCA for all products considering all sources of ingredients.

The key environmental benefits of faba bean are its ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen symbiotically under a broad spectrum of environmental conditions and making this renewable resource available to show positive precrop effects in diversified crop rotations. Non-nitrogen precrop effects entail potential benefits via increased availability of soil phosphorus to the subsequent crops. Faba bean acts as a break crop in intensive cereal-dominated crop rotations. Faba bean enables diversification of the agroecosystem, i.e. planned biodiversity in time via diversified crop rotations and in space via intercrops, indirectly enhancing associated diversity of wild flora, wild fauna and soil microbes that may affect the sustainability of agricultural systems. Nevertheless, most effects are indirect effects on soil fertility, productivity, and system stability, as well as resilience of the entire agroecosystems, effects that can seldom be attributed solely to this crop. The environmental impacts of grain legumes have been studied at different levels by means of life cycle assessment (LCA). Considering the individual crops, it can be shown that faba bean enables savings of energy and reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, but it is difficult to assess all precrop effects at the individual crop level. First, comparisons of whole crop rotations with and without grain legumes show reductions of energy consumption, global warming, ozone formation, and acidification and ecotoxicity in intensive cereal-rich crop rotations. Eutrophication was at a similar level, with a tendency for increased nitrate leaching and a decrease of other N emissions. Replacement of imported soybean meal by locally produced pulses could have a favourable effect, particularly for pulses produced and used on-farm. However, depending on the raw materials used to replace soybean meal, the effects can also be unfavourable. Finally, shifting the human diet toward less reliance on meat has the potential to reduce environmental burdens, but care must be taken that the plant products are not too highly processed.

Raw materials for animal feeding are highly deficient in Europe, which results in massive imports of soya beans from North and South America. These imports are connected with a number of environmental problems. Increasing the grain legume production in Europe could be a promising alternative. The impacts of introducing grain legumes into existing European crop rotations are investigated in this article. The environmental impacts are evaluated by using the SALCA (Swiss Agricultural Life Cycle Assessment) life cycle assessment method and the ecoinvent life cycle inventory database. Four regions with potential for increasing their grain legume area were chosen for this study: Saxony-Anhalt (Germany), Barrois (France), Canton Vaud (Switzerland) and Castilla y Leon (Spain). In each of these regions, two crop rotations were defined: a typical cereal-based rotation without grain legumes and an alternative rotation including grain legumes. The production data were collected by the local project partners from statistics, surveys, literature, documents from extension services and using expert knowledge. The impacts of these two crop rotations were compared relative to three functional units representing different functions of agriculture: hectare per year as a measure of the land management function, € gross margin 1 for the financial function and GJ gross energy of the harvested biomass for the productive function. The following environmental impacts were analysed: demand for non-renewable energy resources, global warming potential, ozone formation, eutrophication, acidification, terrestrial and aquatic ecotoxicity as well as human toxicity. For Canton Vaud, the impacts on biodiversity and soil quality were assessed in addition. Analysed per unit of cultivated area, the introduction of grain legumes into intensive crop rotations with a high proportion of cereals and intensive N-fertilisation leads to a reduced energy use, global warming potential, ozone formation and acidification as well as eco- and human toxicity. The main reasons for this are a reduced application of N-fertilisers (no N to the grain legume and less N to the following crop), improved possibilities for using reduced tillage techniques and greater diversification of the crop rotation, which helps to reduce problems caused by weeds and pathogens (and therefore pesticide applications). The nitrate leaching potential tends to be higher in general, but can be reduced by including catch crops or early sowing of winter grain legumes, where possible. No differences were found for the impacts of crop management on soil quality and biodiversity (studied in Canton Vaud only). In the low-input crop rotation in Spain, the introduction of peas had no favourable environmental effect, mainly because little or no N-fertiliser can be saved. The analysis per € gross margin 1 (financial function) leads to slightly more favourable results for the grain legume crop rotations compared to the analysis per ha and year. Due to the lower yields of grain legumes compared with cereals, the advantages of grain legumes are smaller when considered per GJ gross energy of the harvested products (productive function). However, the energy efficiency is higher in crop rotations with grain legumes. On the whole, introducing grain legumes into European crop rotations offers interesting options for reducing environmental burdens, especially in a context of depleted fossil energy resources and climate change.

In this study, we used LCA to test the influence of practicing low-input farming, on-farm processing and direct distribution on the environmental impact of bread consumption. Primary data were collected from four commercially active producers (two in France, one in Italy and one in Portugal) who cultivate cereals under low levels of inputs, process grains on farm and distribute their products directly to end consumers. Environmental impacts of products were compared to equivalents from supermarkets, characterised by higher rates of applied inputs at the agricultural stage, industrial processing and centralised distribution. The scope of LCA was from cradle to the consumer. The study revealed a high variability of results between individual cases. At the agricultural stage, products from a low-input cropping system integrated with livestock production in France and from a small-scale labour intensive production in Portugal showed similar or better performance on most impact categories to those from high-input agriculture, while horse farming in France and a stockless cultivation of ancient wheat cultivars in Italy revealed mostly higher environmental burdens. Decentralised processing and distribution in France had similar or slightly higher impacts to conventional supply chains, while Italian and Portuguese cases revealed clearly higher environmental burdens for most impact categories. Results demonstrate that while there might be a positive relationship between the scale and eco-efficiency of processing and distribution, the level of agricultural inputs, yields and transport distances cannot be used as proxies of environmental performance. Products of low-input systems can have much higher, similar or lower impacts to their high-input counterparts due to the influence of site conditions and the management. More research assessing the effectiveness of context-specific management systems is needed as oppose to the generic comparisons between labelling schemes (i.e. organic and conventional farming). (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Purpose Pesticides are applied to agricultural fields to optimise crop yield and their global use is substantial. Their consideration in life cycle assessment (LCA) is affected by important inconsistencies between the emission inventory and impact assessment phases of LCA. A clear definition of the delineation between the product system model (life cycle inventory—LCI, technosphere) and the natural environment (life cycle impact assessment—LCIA, ecosphere) is missing and could be established via consensus building. Methods A workshop held in 2013 in Glasgow, UK, had the goal of establishing consensus and creating clear guidelines in the following topics: (1) boundary between emission inventory and impact characterisation model, (2) spatial dimensions and the time periods assumed for the application of substances to open agricultural fields or in greenhouses and (3) emissions to the natural environment and their potential impacts. More than 30 specialists in agrifood LCI, LCIA, risk assessment and ecotoxicology, representing industry, government and academia from 15 countries and four continents, met to discuss and reach consensus. The resulting guidelines target LCA practitioners, data (base) and characterisation method developers, and decision makers. Results and discussion The focus was on defining a clear interface between LCI and LCIA, capable of supporting any goal and scope requirements while avoiding double counting or exclusion of important emission flows/impacts. Consensus was reached accordingly on distinct sets of recommendations for LCI and LCIA, respectively, recommending, for example, that buffer zones should be considered as part of the crop production system and the change in yield be considered. While the spatial dimensions of the field were not fixed, the temporal boundary between dynamic LCI fate modelling and steady-state LCIA fate modelling needs to be defined. Conclusions and recommendations For pesticide application, the inventory should report pesticide identification, crop, mass applied per active ingredient, application method or formulation type, presence of buffer zones, location/country, application time before harvest and crop growth stage during application, adherence with Good Agricultural Practice, and whether the field is considered part of the technosphere or the ecosphere. Additionally, emission fractions to environmental media on-field and off-field should be reported. For LCIA, the directly concerned impact categories and a list of relevant fate and exposure processes were identified. Next steps were identified: (1) establishing default emission fractions to environmental media for integration into LCI databases and (2) interaction among impact model developers to extend current methods with new elements/processes mentioned in the recommendations.

In this study we assessed to what extent management of apple-growing within a well defined farming system affects environmental impacts. A four-year data set of 12 fruit farms from eastern Switzerland was analyzed using the life cycle assessment (LCA) method to evaluate the variability of different environmental impacts. For the total of 445 annual data sets of apple orchards eight impact categories were assessed. A principal component analysis (PCA) was performed to group the eight impact categories according to their correlation. A three component solution turned out to be adequate. It indicated that the three impact categories energy use, aquatic ecotoxicity and aquatic eutrophication were influenced independently of each other to a high degree. These three key impacts can be managed by keeping the inputs of machinery, pesticides and fertilizers low. Production constraints were highly homogeneous within the sample. Because of this, we were able to define the management influence on environmental impacts as the ratio of the maximum and minimum observed. On a per hectare basis, the effect of management for energy use was factor 2, for aquatic ecotoxicity factor 4 and for aquatic eutrophication factor 1.1. In contrast, when measured per receipts, the management influence was greater than per hectare, indicated by a range of factor 6 for each of the three key impact categories. Further insight into the effect of management was attained by statistical risk assessment. A positive and significant correlation between mean value (M) and the coefficient of variance (CV) indicated that the expected risk could be reduced by a low level of variability. Such a M-CV correlation was found for the two key impact categories energy use and aquatic eutrophication if calculated per receipts. No M-CV correlation was found for aquatic ecotoxicity. It was on the other hand observed that farms with low aquatic ecotoxicity also practiced low energy use and low eutrophication on a per receipt basis. We conclude that the promotion of environmentally sound apple-growing is not only a question of choosing one or the other farming system (e.g. organic versus integrated farming) but that an understanding of the system specific management influence is crucial.

Integrated fruit production (IFP) has been practiced in Switzerland on a large scale basis since the late 1980s, with the aim of improving sustainable farming. The guidelines of IFP emphasise an ecosystem approach that is based on scientific knowledge about self-regulatory mechanisms at the tree and orchard level. Empirical studies at the farm level are rare. An understanding of the relationship between income and environmental impacts at the farm level is a prerequisite for devising a robust system for orchard portfolio management. An income analysis based on full cost principle and environmental life cycle assessment were applied to 445 annual data sets of apple orchards, recorded on 12 specialised fruit farms over a period of 4 years. The main result was that environmental impacts such as ecotoxicity, eutrophication and non-renewable energy use did not necessarily increase when farms increased their income. A higher input level of pesticides, fertilisers and machinery did not lead to increased yields and receipts. In contrast, the choice of apple cultivars and high investment in pre-harvest labour hours were significantly correlated with high eco-efficiency and high farm income. The results of this study were summarised in a pyramid-shaped management model, providing key issues of successful orchard farming and attributing management rules to master them. The management pyramid indicates that cognitive competences such as distributional, conditional and non-linear thinking are crucial when knowledge from tree and orchard management is integrated at the farm level. A main recommendation is that more attention should be paid to improving management competence in order to contribute to sustainable farming.

Introduction: This paper provides an overview on the content of the ecoinvent database and of selected metholodogical issues applied on the life cycle inventories implemented in the ecoinvent database. Goal, Scope and Background: In the year 2000, several Swiss Federal Offices and research institutes of the ETH domain agreed to a joint effort to harmonise and update life cycle inventory (LCI) data for its use in life cycle assessment (LCA). With the ecoinvent data-base and its actual data v1.1, a consistent set of more than 2'500 product and service LCIs is now available. Method: Nearly all process datasets are transparently documented on the level of unit process inputs and outputs. Methodological approaches have been applied consistently throughout the entire database content and thus guarantee for a coherent set of LCI data. This is particularly true for market and trade modelling (see, for example, electricity modelling), for the treatment of multi-out-put and of recycling processes, but also for the recording and reporting of elementary flows. The differentiation of diameter size for particulate matter emissions, for instance, allows for a more comprehensive impact assessment of human health effects. Data quality is quantitatively reported in terms of standard deviations of the amounts of input and output flows. In many cases qualitative indicators are reported additionally on the level of each individual input and output. The information sources used vary from extensive statistical works to individual (point) measurements or assumptions derived from process descriptions. However, all datasets passed the same quality control procedure and all information relevant and necessary to judge the suitability of a dataset in a certain context are provided in the database. Data documentation and exchange is based on the EcoSpold data format, which complies with the technical specification ISO/TS 14048. Free access to process information via the Internet helps the user to judge the appropriateness of a dataset. Concluding Remarks: The existence of the ecoinvent database proves that it is possible and feasible to build up a large interlinked system of LCI unit processes. The project work proved to be demanding in terms of co-ordination efforts required and consent identification. One main characteristic of the database is its transparency in reporting to enable individual assessment of data appropriateness and to support the plurality in methodological approaches. Outlook: Further work on the ecoinvent database may comprise work on the database content (new or more detailed data-sets covering existing or new economic sectors), LCI (modelling) methodology, the structure and features of the data-base system (e.g. extension of Monte Carlo simulation to the impact assessment phase) or improvements in eco-invent data supply and data query. Furthermore, the deepening and building up of international co-operations in LCI data collection and supply is in the focus of future activities