Abstract
Concerns about climate change have forced countries to strengthen regulations, standards, and certifications related to greenhouse gas emissions. Various policies targeting farm products, such as carbon labeling and the Environmentally-Friendly Agricultural Product Certification (EFAPC) for agricultural products, have been implemented in South Korea to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the agricultural sector. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the implications of the various certification systems for rice farming, including organic farming, non-pesticide farming, and low-pesticide farming. For this study, we constructed a life cycle inventory (LCI) of rice farming systems including conventional, low-pesticide, non-pesticide, and organic farming systems in South Korea. Finally, we compared international farming systems in South Korea, the U.S., and the EU. The rice farming systems with eco-labeling certifications have reduced the environmental impacts. The environmental impacts of rice farming by country were highest in the U.S. (100.0), followed by the EU (53.7), and Korea’s conventional (48.6), low-pesticide (35.8), non-pesticide (28.9), and organic (16.7) farming practices. These results may be useful in proliferating and improving the methodology to evaluate eco-labeling and carbon labeling systems.
Highlights
Concerns about climate change have driven countries to strengthen their greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction regulations, guidelines, standards, and certifications [1,2,3,4]
The findings of this study indicate that the climate change potential (CCP) of conventionally farmed rice is 1.01 kg carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalents per 1 kg of rice, which is a larger value than the CCP of environmentally-friendly rice
This study evaluated the environmental implications of eco-labeling for rice farming systems, including conventional, low-pesticide, non-pesticide, and organic rice farming
Summary
Concerns about climate change have driven countries to strengthen their greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction regulations, guidelines, standards, and certifications [1,2,3,4]. The Paris Agreement is a representative policy on climate change aimed at the mitigation of GHG emissions [5]. This is an agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Unlike the Kyoto Protocol, which obliged only developed countries to reduce GHG, the Paris Climate Change Accord demands that each of the 195 participating nations adopt the reduction objectives, which accounts for over 90 percent of global GHG emissions. The agricultural sector produces greenhouse gases that account for about 10–20% of global GHG emissions [7,8,9]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
