Are Short Food Supply Chains More Environmentally Sustainable than Long Chains? A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the Eco-Efficiency of Food Chains in Selected EU Countries

Barbara Tocco,Jean-Loup Lecoeur,Anna Komerska,Edward Majewski,Adam Wąs,Kinga Pogodzińska,Jerzy Kwiatkowski,Piotr Sulewski,Marlena Gołaś,Michele Donati,Áron Török,Agata Malak-Rawlikowska,Gunnar Vittersø

doi:10.3390/en13184853

Abstract

Improving the eco-efficiency of food systems is one of the major global challenges faced by the modern world. Short food supply chains (SFSCs) are commonly regarded to be less harmful to the environment, among various reasons, due to their organizational distribution and thus the shortened physical distance between primary producers and final consumers. In this paper, we empirically test this hypothesis, by assessing and comparing the environmental impacts of short and long food supply chains. Based on the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach, we calculate eco-efficiency indicators for nine types of food distribution chains. The analysis is performed on a sample of 428 short and long food supply chains from six European countries. Our results indicate that, on average, long food supply chains may generate less negative environmental impacts than short chains (in terms of fossil fuel energy consumption, pollution, and GHG emissions) per kg of a given product. The values of eco-efficiency indicators display a large variability across analyzed chains, and especially across different types of SFSCs. The analysis shows that the environmental impacts of the food distribution process are not only determined by the geographical distance between producer and consumer, but depend on numerous factors, including the supply chain infrastructure.

Highlights

The environmental impacts of food distribution systems are primarily related to the transportation of goods
The food market today is rapidly evolving in terms of what is manifested, inter alia, by the development of new types of short supply chains
A widespread belief that short food supply chains (SFSCs) are more beneficial for the environment compared to conventional long chains is rejected by the results of our empirical testing with the use of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach

Summary

Introduction

The environmental impacts of food distribution systems are primarily related to the transportation of goods. The shortening of supply chains, which is usually associated with shortening the distance over which agri-food products “travel”, is often treated as a strategy to reduce energy consumption in transport and improve environmental performance of distribution processes in general. This is quite commonly considered a factor in reducing transportation-related negative externalities [6,7,8], but this stereotypical view is being more and more frequently questioned [9,10,11,12]. The concept of short food supply chains has been promoted in the EU in recent years, constituting an important element of the Rural

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