Life Cycle Assessment

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
   1. Objectives
   2. Learning goals
   3. Teacher page
2. Course content: Life cycle assessment (LCA) of pork chains
   1. What are the environmental impact of food production?
   2. Global warming
   3. GWP of different foods
   4. Nutrient enrichment (eutrophication)
   5. Acidification
3. How to access environmental impact of pork?
   1. LCA of 1 kg Danish Pork
   2. What is included in a LCA?
   3. Phase 1
   4. Phase 2
   5. Phase 3
   6. Phase 4
   7. System expansion and allocation
4. LCA for different production Systems
   1. The Danish standard system
   2. The Danish organic system
   3. The French standard system
   4. The Alternative French system: Porc Basque
   5. Summary of performance and LCA in the four systems
5. Completion
   1. Comments
   2. Self-assessment
   3. Key messages
   4. Further reading and references
   5. Evaluation
   6. Acknowledgement

Summary of performance and LCA in the four systems

Table 6. Performances from four pig production systems

	Danish standard system	>Danish organic system	French standard system	>French Porc Basque system
Farm size (nb sows)	522	205	>254	34
Farm size (nb fattening pigs/year)	5519	2836	6403	95
Piglets weaned/sow/year	27.2	20.8	27.8	11.8
Weight at weaning (kg)	7.4	11.8	7.4	9.1
Feed conversion rate post-weaning (kg / kg)	1.73	2.10	1.70	2.47
Fattening, weight at entry (kg)	31.7	30	>31.9	>28.9
Feed conversion rate fattening (kg / kg)	2.69	2.92	2.84	5.86
Weight at slaughter (kg)	107.4	108.7	115.3	149.9
Age at slaughter (days)	163	188	180	447
Carcass weight (kg)	82	83	87.9	110.8

Based on the above system description choose the answer which you think is correct in following assertions:

1

The environmental impact in terms of Global warming potential (GWP), Acidification potential (AP) and Eutrophication potential (EP) is higher in the Danish standard system than in the Danish organic system a) Yes, the standard system has a little higher GWP, AP and EP b) No, the organic system has a little higher GWP, AP and EP c) Almost the same The organic system has a little higher GWP, AP and EP due to higher feed consumption per kg pork produced and N emissions on the fields.This is not correct! Try again.Your answer has been saved.

2

The environmental impact in terms of GWP, AP and EP is higher in the French 'Porc Basque' system than in the French standard system a) Yes, the Porc Basque system has a higher GWP, AP and EP b) No, the French standard system has a higher GWP, AP and EP c) Almost the same The Porc Basque system has a higher GWP, AP and EP due to higher feed consumption per kg pork produced and N emissions on the fields.This is not correct! Try again.Your answer has been saved.

3

The environmental impact in terms of GWP, AP and EP is almost the same for the French and the Danish standard systems a) Yes, only small differences can be expected b) No, the French standard system has a higher GWP, AP and EP c) No, the Danish standard system has a higher GWP, AP and EP Yes, only small differences can be expected due to very small differences in the productivity between these two systems.This is not correct! Try again.Your answer has been saved.

4

The Global warming potential (GWP) is almost the same for the French ' Porc Basque' system and the Danish organic system a) Yes, only small differences can be expected b) No, the Porc Basque system has a higher GWP c) No, the Danish organic system has a higher GWP The Porc Basque system has a higher GWP because of much higher feed consumption per kg pork produced in the Porc Basque system.This is not correct! Try again.Your answer has been saved.