3. Producción
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Item type:Publication, Environmental footprint of critical agro-export products in the Peruvian hyper-arid coast: a case study for green asparagus and avocado(Elsevier, 2021-11-19)Peru has become one of the world's main agricultural hubs for a wide range of fruits and vegetables. Two of these products, avocado and green asparagus, have raised attention in recent years in the international scene from an environmental perspective due to the high amounts of water they require, as well as the long air and marine freighting distances to export these products to Europe, Asia or the US. Consequently, the aim of the current study was to perform an environmental assessment of these two products using two life-cycle methods: carbon and water footprint. For the latter, water scarcity, acidification, eco-toxicity and eutrophication impact categories have been selected for assessment. Inventory data were gathered from six different companies located in different regions of the hyper-arid Peruvian coast. The results report that the products are not carbon intensive and are in line with other similar plant-based products. Conversely, the hyper-arid conditions of the cultivation sites require a large volume of groundwater to fulfill the needs of the crops. Interestingly, even though this may lead to overexploitation of groundwater resources in the absence of appropriate management policies, the low mobility of pollutants, namely pesticides, constitutes a natural barrier to protect the degradation of natural water bodies. Similarly, highly technified irrigation systems have allowed minimizing the amounts of water used per hectare. In conclusion, results from this study may be useful in more concise environmental assessment studies on food products and diets, considering the consumption of these Peruvian products in many countries in the world. Furthermore, results are also important at regional level since they depict the carbon and water performance of these products and can also be accompanied by cross-cutting certification schemes, including Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules Guidance. - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, Environmental performance of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) production in Galicia-Spain: A life cycle assessment approach(Elsevier BV, 2022-09-24)Aquaculture is an increasingly important supplier of food worldwide. However, due to its high dependence on agricultural and fishing resources, its growth is constantly constrained by environmental impacts beyond aquaculture production systems. Within the European Union, Spain accounts for approximately 25 % of total aquaculture production, which implies that environmental impacts in rivers and marine ecosystems must be monitored to understand the role of aquaculture systems. While studies on the environmental performance of mussels or turbot production have been reported in the literature, Spanish rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) has not received much attention despite its relative importance. In this sense, a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study of rainbow trout produced in a medium-sized plant in Galicia (NW Spain) was carried out in the present study. The study considered the production of round weight trout, as well as some commonly produced processed products, including filleting. The life cycle modelling included a high level of primary data in the foreground system. In addition to the widely considered environmental impact categories for this activity (e.g., global warming potential, terrestrial acidification and freshwater eutrophication), the recent proposed antibiotic resistance (ABR) enrichment impact category was included to explore the potential impact of antibiotic release in freshwater microbiota. The results highlighted the high contribution of aquafeed to most impact categories, due to upstream agricultural and fishing processes, whereas farm operation was responsible for the larger part of the impact in freshwater eutrophication, mainly due to direct emissions of nutrients from fish feeding. Amoxicillin release to recipient water bodies was the main driver to the ABR enrichment category. In contrast, the processing phase (i.e., gutting, freezing and packaging) showed low environmental burdens. In order to improve the environmental performance of the rainbow trout production system, decreasing the feed conversion ratio (FCR), shifting to renewable energy, using low environmental burden ingredients in aquafeed, and alternatives to control diseases without antibiotics could be considered.