Environmental assessment of organic soybean (Glycine max.) imported from China to Denmark: a case study
Introduction
Global trade with organic products has increased substantially during the last decade with the major markets being Europe and North America (Willer and Kilcher, 2009). The growing markets are offering good prospects for suppliers from other parts of the world (Willer and Kilcher, 2009). China was in 2006 the country with the second highest area under organic management (Willer et al., 2008) with the primary driver being trade and export of especially organic seeds, such as soybean, sunflower and pumpkin seeds (Kledal et al., 2007). From 2003 to 2007, the organic land in China increased from 0.3 to 2.3 million hectare (Willer et al., 2008, Willer and Yussefi, 2004). In the same period, the global organic market almost doubled in value (Willer and Kilcher, 2009) and the import of Chinese organic products to Denmark increased sevenfold in value (StatBank Denmark, 2009). One of the main organic products imported from China to Denmark were soybeans for the organic livestock production (pers. comm. Agnete S. Nilsson, StatBank Denmark, 2009). Soybean (Glycine max.) is a common protein component in the fodder for organic livestock, especially for dairy cattle. Since soybeans are normally not produced in Denmark, due to climatic conditions, they are imported. The environmental effect of producing soybeans has gained increasing focus since they make up a considerable part of the fodder for livestock (Clay, 2004). Soybeans are used in the animal diets as a concentrate, mainly as a supplement to maize silage for dairy cows or in composite concentrates for pig and poultry. Furthermore, soybeans are used for human consumption.
Organic farming has four main principles of health, ecology, fairness and care (Ifoam, 2009). Research has shown environmental benefits from organic farming at the farm level, with the results primarily being based in the European context (Stolze et al., 2000, Hansen et al., 2001). However, the increasing global trade and import of organic products from spatially distant sites of production e.g. for the organic livestock production raises the need to estimate the actual environmental impacts of the imported organic products. The focus should be both on the environmental impacts in the production and during the transport. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a method for integral assessment of several environmental impacts (e.g. climate change, eutrophication etc.) along the life cycle of a product. The LCA approach includes goal and scope definition, inventory analysis (LCI), impact assessment (LCIA) and interpretation of the results (ISO 14040 to 14043 standards). LCA has in recent years proven to be an internationally accepted methods also widely used in the agricultural sector for assessing the environmental impacts and for identifying a hotspot, where the environmental burden is especially high, for a product in a life cycle (Thomassen et al., 2008, Cederberg and Mattsson, 2000, Haas et al., 2001).
Few have studied the environmental impact of imported organic soybean, evaluating the whole chain from farmer to consumer. Pelletier et al. (2008) studied organic and conventional soybean produced in Canada using a life cycle impact assessment until farm gate. Likewise, Jungbluth and Frischknecht (2007) presented farm gate LCA results in a conference paper on organic and integrated soybean produced in Switzerland and conventional soybean produced in Brazil and USA, respectively. For conventional soybeans, Lehuger et al. (2009) presented LCA results of soybeans produced in Brazil and transported to France and Dalgaard et al. (2007) presented LCA results of soybeans and soybean meal produced in Argentina and transported to Denmark.
Section snippets
Goal of the study
This paper aims at assessing the environmental impacts of organic soybean produced in China and transported to Denmark using a life cycle approach. The objectives are 1) to identify the environmental hotspots in the product chain of organic soybeans from China imported to Denmark and 2) to compare the environmental impacts at the farm gate of the organic soybean production with a comparable conventional soybean production in the same region in China.
Information about environmental impacts of
Methods
A life cycle assessment (LCA) approach has been used in the study. The impact categories included in the study were global warming, eutrophication and acidification, which is relevant to Chinese conditions (Yang and Nielsen, 2001) and will have an effect both globally and locally. In addition, results on non-renewable energy use and land use will be presented. Impact categories concerning toxic aspects were not included due to methodological limitations. The EDIP97 method (Wenzel et al., 1997)
Comparison of organic and conventional soybeans at farm gate
In order to evaluate the losses from the production system, a field budget of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) for the organic and conventional soybeans was made (Table 4).
Since the field N and P balances are negative for both the organic and conventional soybean production (Table 4) it is assumed that the risk of leaching of N and P from the organic and conventional systems is negligible. Estimated emissions to the air at the farm stage are presented in Table 5.
It is apparent from this table
Methodology and sensitivity
N2O emissions during cultivation of soybeans and emissions during the transport by ship to Denmark are the two largest contributions to the GWP for organic soybeans produced in China and transported to Denmark. Thus, the estimated emissions from these contributions have a large effect on the result.
With regard to the N2O calculations, the IPCC 2000 guidelines resulted in much higher N2O estimates than when using the IPCC 2006 guidelines (Table 7). This can be explained by three main issues that
Conclusions
The organic soybeans has a lower environmental impact, with regard to non-renewable energy use, global warming, acidification and eutrophication potential per ton produced compared to the conventional soybeans. The transport stage has a major impact on the environmental profile of the imported organic soybeans to Denmark. For the GWP of organic imported soybean to Denmark, 51% came from the transport stage (especially the transport by ship) and 35% from the farm stage. The sensitivity analysis
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