PSXI-1 - A case study of the environmental footprint of dairy-beef production in Catalonia: A tool to improve sustainability

Abstract: This study aims to assess the environmental impact of the dairy beef meat value chain in Catalonia, north-eastern Spain, from cradle to distribution, using the methodology recommended by the European Commission’s in its Product Environmental Footprint, PEF (EC, 2021) initiative. Case studies and the construction of regionalized databases are needed, together with addressing the challenges when utilising the PEF methodology in real-world applications, to address primary sector large variability. For that, the PEF methodology was applied in 2 beef farms which grow calves from 120kg to 410kg fed with 2 different feed compounds each (growing and finishing). Data gathering was performed at distribution gate including the following stages: raw milk production at farm, transport to dairy centrals, milk processing and packaging, and transport to market and supermarket centrals. The contribution analysis showed that the farm was the life cycle stage with the major contribution to the environmental impact (65% or more in all 16 PEF indicators). Results at farm gate showed the overall importance of the feed production impact (between 30% and 90% of the impact at farm gate in all indicators). Looking specifically at climate change (CC), emissions produced at farm from manure management and enteric fermentation (IPCC & EMEP/EEA, 2019) were a major contributor to the impact: 19 and 36% contribution to CC respectively. Results of this study showed an average final carbon footprint of 6.62 kg CO₂ eq per kg live weight at farm gate, what corresponds to 12.00 kg CO₂ eq per kg carcass at farm gate (55% carcass dressing). This value increases slightly to 12.7 kg CO₂ eq per kg carcass meat at distribution gate. These results are considerably below the benchmark value found in literature of 32.5 kg CO₂ eq per kg carcass meat sold to retailers (TS Red meat FCR, 2019). This benchmark is calculated considering an average mix of production systems and technologies using both dairy and beef enterprises (TS Red meat FCR, 2019). Currently, different feed alternatives are being studied with the aim to improve beef production sustainability, without compromising animal performance and wellbeing. These might include assessing alternative ingredients that are nutritionally equivalent to the major impact contributors, additives that reduce emissions, research for optimizing crop production rates, and assessing different geographical origin of ingredients where improved agronomic practices are used or where crop production is located in ecosystems with lower susceptibility to environmental impact.