Sustainable assessment and resource recycling opportunities identification for China's pig industry: Integrating environmental, economic and social perspectives

Abstract

Livestock plays a vital role in the livelihoods and nutritional security of people worldwide and leads to significant environmental challenges. Manure management is a major hurdle for sustainable livestock development and serves as a critical source of natural fertilizer and green energy. Given that pork accounts for the highest meat production and consumption share, this study systematically evaluates China's pig production and main manure resource utilization scenarios from life-cycle environmental, economic, and social perspectives. Results show that China's pig production poses considerable potential environmental risks, primarily in the categories of fossil depletion, freshwater ecotoxicity, particulates formation, global warming, and water depletion. Feed production coupled with traditional manure treatment scenario contributes to 94.4 %–98.4 % of the key environmental impact categories and socioeconomic impact, with 32.0 % to 38.3 % of the economic costs also stemming from feed costs. In the energy utilization scenario, the potential benefits of fossil depletion and global warming categories resulting from the replacement of synthetic fertilizers with manure-based organic fertilizers in the traditional pig manure treatment scenario could be expanded by 89.6 % and 39.2 %, respectively. China's pig production contributed 0.72 % of the national carbon emissions in 2020. Fully utilizing energy potential and organic fertilizer from pig manure would achieve 0.63 % of national carbon reduction potential, as well as an economic benefit of $1.45 × 1012 and a social benefit of $8.89 × 109. Precision feeding technology, rebuilding the spatial connection between pig farms and arable land, and internalizing external costs were recommended to ensure the sustainable development of China's pig industry.