Abstract
We conducted a life cycle assessment (LCA) to compare environmental impacts of conventional (CNV) broiler chicken production in Japan with those of three mitigation options: a low-protein diet supplemented with more crystalline amino acids (LP), incineration of broiler litter (IC), and their combination (LP + IC). Feed production, feed transport, broiler housing, and manure management were included in the LCA, with 1 kg of liveweight of broiler chicken as the functional unit. The CNV environmental impacts were: climate change, 1.86 kg CO2e; acidification, 52.6 g SO2e; eutrophication, 18.3 g PO4e; energy consumption, 18.8 MJ. Since broiler manure management has a lower N2O emission factor, the LP diet’s effects on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were limited. Because a large amount of ammonia is emitted from broiler-litter composting and the LP diet reduced nitrogen excretion and consequent NH3 emission, the LP showed lower acidification and eutrophication potentials than CNV. The IC system reduced fuel consumption by utilizing the generated heat for broiler-house heating and thus had lower GHG emissions and energy consumption; it reduced ammonia emission from the manure-management process by incineration and thus had lower acidification and eutrophication potentials even when including NOX generation by litter incineration. The LP + IC system had lower environmental impacts than CNV: for climate change (by 16%), acidification (48%), eutrophication (24%), and energy consumption (15%). Mitigation opportunities for broiler chickens remain, and broiler production systems with mitigation options help produce chickens more sustainably.
Highlights
The global production of chicken meat in 2019 was 118 million tonnes (Mt), and it has increased by about tenfold in the last five decades, while the production of cattle meat and that of pig meat has increased by 1.8 and 3.2 times in the same period, respectively [1]
The goal of the present analysis was to evaluate the environmental impacts of four types of broiler chicken production systems in Japan: (1) a conventional system (CNV), (2) a system that uses low-protein diet supplemented with more crystalline amino acids (CAAs) (LP), (3) a system that includes the incineration of broiler litter (IC), and (4) a system that combines LP and IC (LP + IC)
The IC and LP + IC systems had 14% and 16% lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than the CNV system, respectively, and the reduction of CO2 emissions derived from fossil fuels in the broiler housing process contributed to the lower GHG emissions in these two systems
Summary
The global production of chicken meat in 2019 was 118 million tonnes (Mt) (accounting for ~35% of the global meat production), and it has increased by about tenfold in the last five decades, while the production of cattle meat and that of pig meat has increased by 1.8 and 3.2 times in the same period, respectively [1]. By 2029, chicken meat production is predicted to increase by approx. 20 Mt from the 2017–2019 average, accounting for about half of the increase in global meat production during that period [2]. Chicken meat has several advantages in human nutrition, as it is relatively inexpensive, involves no major religious taboos, and has high nutritional value with high protein content and relatively less fat content [3]. Compared to livestock meat production, the production of chicken meat has relatively low environmental impacts [4,5]. The environmental impacts of broiler chicken production are still higher than those of plant protein sources such as soybean, and these impacts need to be reduced. In addition to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, poultry production has a high ammonia (NH3) emission factor among livestock species [6,7], and the NH3 emission contributes to acidification
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