Life Cycle Assessment of Dietary Patterns in the United States: A Full Food Supply Chain Perspective

Daesoo Kim,Ranjan Parajuli,Gregory J Thoma

doi:10.3390/su12041586

Daesoo Kim, Ranjan Parajuli + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su12041586

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Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: Feb 20, 2020
Citations: 19	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Arkansas at Fayetteville

Abstract

A tiered hybrid input–output-based life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted to analyze potential environmental impacts associated with current US food consumption patterns and the recommended USDA food consumption patterns. The greenhouse gas emissions (GHGEs) in the current consumption pattern (CFP 2547 kcal) and the USDA recommended food consumption pattern (RFP 2000 kcal) were 8.80 and 9.61 tons CO2-eq per household per year, respectively. Unlike adopting a vegetarian diet (i.e., RFP 2000 kcal veg or RFP 2600 kcal veg), adoption of a RFP 2000 kcal diet has a probability of increasing GHGEs and other environmental impacts under iso-caloric analysis. The bigger environmental impacts of non-vegetarian RFP scenarios were largely attributable to supply chain activities and food losses at retail and consumer levels. However, the RFP 2000 vegetarian diet showed a significant reduction in the environmental impacts (e.g., GHGEs were 22% lower than CFP 2547). Uncertainty analysis confirmed that the RFP 2600 scenario (mean of 11.2; range 10.3–12.4 tons CO2-eq per household per year) is higher than CFP 2547 (mean of 8.81; range 7.89–9.95 tons CO2-eq per household per year) with 95% confidence. The outcomes highlight the importance of incorporating environmental sustainability into dietary guidelines through the entire life cycle of the food system with a full accounting of the effects of food loss/waste.

Highlights

Food security and sustainability has been described as an emerging challenge by researchers, policy makers, producers, manufacturing companies, retailers, and consumers
CFP contributes 8.80 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-eq) emissions per household per year. This corresponds to 9.64 kg CO2-eq per person per day. It increases to 9.61 tons CO2-eq emissions per household per year for the recommended food consumption patterns (RFP) 2000 kcal recommendation, which corresponds to 10.5 kg CO2-eq per person per day
The cumulative greenhouse gas emissions (GHGEs) of vegetables, fruit/juices, and milk/dairy groups in the CFP 2000 were 2.87 kg CO2-eq per household per year, while the emissions from these groups were responsible for 5.74 kg CO2-eq per household per year under the RFP 2000

Summary

Introduction

Food security and sustainability has been described as an emerging challenge by researchers, policy makers, producers, manufacturing companies, retailers, and consumers. According to the UN FAO reports, a third of total food produced for human consumption, about 1.3 billion tons per year, is lost globally [2]. Disagreement exists between researchers regarding the quantification of food loss, as substantial quantities of food are lost or wasted throughout the entire life cycle of the supply chain, from agricultural production to final household consumption. A better understanding of the rate and degree of food production, consumption, and loss in each supply chain stage as a function of dietary patterns, as well as the life cycle assessment (LCA) of food systems, will help us to understand the avenues that delineate opportunities to maximize the utilization of our resources, reduce environmental impacts, and support sustainably responsible commitments

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