Integrating Life Cycle Thinking in a policy decision tool: Its application in the pineapple production in Dominican Republic

Abstract

The tropical fruit sector plays a crucial role in global agriculture due to its growth and contribution to food security. However, this sector has been identified as the source of several environmental externalities, attracting researchers, policy-makers and sectoral actors to promote alternative practices within food systems that would aid in moving towards sustainability according to Agenda 2030) of the United Nations. Central America and the Caribbean Region is among the leading fruit producers, and pineapple is the second most-consumed tropical fruit globally, with the Dominican Republic as the fourth largest producer in the region. This work aims to test with policy-makers how the Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) approach applied to the pineapple production of the Dominican Republic could be integrated into policy decision tools. It began with a context analysis focused on the country's agriculture, stakeholders, and policy setting. Then a Life Cycle Assessment and Environmental Life Cycle Costing were performed to evaluate the sustainability of agri-food products. Data collection was carried out in two groups of farms. The functional unit was the serving of fruit per hectare with system boundaries from cradle-to-gate, including land preparation, production, and harvesting up to the gate of the farm. The environmental analysis entailed impact categories, such as climate change, freshwater eutrophication, human toxicity and fossil resource scarcity, while the costing analysis included the US dollars spent to produce a serving of pineapple. Finally, a two-stage Delphi was applied to obtain the view of experts in regards to the use of LCT in the policies of this productive sector. The results showed that the main environmental and cost hotspots were located at the production stage, primarily due to the use of fertilizers. Consulted experts considered LCT was useful as input for monitoring, addressing hotspots and guiding decision-making processes for the sustainability of the sector; hence it would be an asset if integrated into policy decision tools. The integration of methods for this analysis represents an innovative approach for the study and policy-making of agri-food products as pineapple, with the utmost purpose of reaching improved sustainability within the supply chain of agri-food products in similar conditions as the ones present in the studied case.