Abstract
Improving the sustainability of the dairy food chain requires a simultaneous improvement in global and local environmental performance, as well as in the economic performance of dairy farms. We investigated the effect of different structural, farm management, socio-demographic, technological and natural-environment-related factors on the economic and environmental performance of dairying. Our analysis relied on a case study of 56 Swiss alpine dairy farm observations, for which cradle-to-farm gate life cycle assessments and farm accountancy data were combined. The data refer to the years 2006 to 2008. The effect of the selected factors on farms’ economic and environmental performance was analysed by means of non-parametric statistical approaches. The results revealed the existence of some factors presenting synergies and several factors showing trade-offs in the enhancement of farm global environmental, local environmental and economic performance. More generally, the promotion of farm global environmental performance and farm economic performance was shown to be synergetic whereas the enhancement of farm global and local environmental performance turned out to be mostly antinomic. However, some factors, namely organic farming, higher agricultural education, silage-free milk production, and also, to a weaker extent, full-time farming, larger farm size and lower intensity of cattle concentrates use, showed a potential to bring simultaneous improvements in the global and local environmental performance as well as the economic performance of dairy farming. Policy-makers should be aware of the complexity of the joint improvement of farm economic and environmental performance and only promote factors capable of synergistically enhancing the environmental and economic performance of dairy farming.
Highlights
Dairy products are of high relevance in terms of environmental sustainability of final consumption
Higher agricultural education level, silage-free milk production, farm size, concentrates use intensity and part-time farming belong to the first group of factors defined as those that simultaneously influenced all three performance dimensions in the same direction
The results found by Arsenault at al. [37] for Canadian dairy farms in Nova Scotia province suggested that a decrease in the use of concentrates had the potential to improve the global environmental performance of dairy farming
Summary
Dairy products are of high relevance in terms of environmental sustainability of final consumption. A few studies have assessed the relative contribution of each phase in the life cycle of milk to milk’s total environmental impact over its whole life cycle from production through consumption to disposal (see, e.g., Hospido et al [2], Eide [3], Thoma et al [4] and Bystricky et al [5]). The farming stage was shown to be the most important contributor for the impact categories (i) global warming potential; (ii) eutrophication potential and (iii) acidification potential across different studies ([2,3,5]) It was responsible for 72% of greenhouse gas emissions associated with the consumption of fluid milk in the United States [4]. A thorough understanding of the factors affecting the environmental impact of farming is a prerequisite if we wish to improve the environmental sustainability of the dairy food chain and reduce its contribution to the environmental impacts generation related to the final consumption of products by private households and the public sector
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