Abstract
The environmental sustainability of food production systems, including net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, is of increasing importance. In Norwegian pork production, animal performance is high in terms of reproduction, growth, and health. The development and use of an IPCC methodology-based model for estimating GHG emissions from pork production could be helpful in identifying the effects of progress in genetics and management. The objective was to investigate whether an IPCC methodology-based model was able to reflect the effects of the progress in genetics and management in pork production on the GHG emissions per kg carcass weight (CW). It is hypothesized that this progress has led to low GHG emissions intensities in Norwegian pork compared to global levels and that expected improvements will give a lasting reduction in GHG emissions intensities. A model ‘HolosNorPork’ for estimating net farm gate GHG emissions intensities was developed, including allocation procedures, at the pig production unit level. The model was run with pig production data from in average 632 farms from 2014 to 2019. The estimates include emissions of enteric and manure storage methane, manure storage nitrous oxide emissions, as well as GHG emissions from production and transportation of purchased feeds, and direct and indirect GHG emissions caused by energy use in pig-barns. The model was able to estimate the effects on net GHG emissions intensities from pork production on the basis of production characteristics. The estimated net GHG emissions intensity was found to have decreased from on average 2.49 to 2.34 kg CO2 eq. kg−1 CW over the investigated period. For 2019 the net GHG emission for the one-third lower performing farms was estimated to 2.56 kg CO2 eq. kg−1 CW, whereas for the one-third medium and one-third best performing farms the estimates were 2.36 and 2.16 kg CO2 eq. kg−1 CW, respectively. The net GHG emissions intensity for pork carcasses from boars was estimated to be 2.07 kg CO2 eq. kg−1 CW. For the health regimes investigated, Conventional and Specific-Pathogen Free (SPF), the estimated GHG emissions intensities for 2019 were 2.37 and 2.24 kg CO2 eq. kg−1 CW, respectively. The effects on net GHG emissions intensities of breeding and management measures were estimated to be profound, and this progress in pig production systems contributes to an on-going strengthening of pork as a sustainable source for human food supply.
Highlights
The environmental sustainability of food production systems, including net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, is of increasing impor tance for diet recommendations (e.g. Willett et al, 2019)
The GHG emissions per kg pork carcass weight (CW) produced in Norway in 2019 were estimated to be 2.34 kg CO2 eq kg− 1 CW for pork from finishers and 2.47 kg CO2 eq kg− 1 CW for pork from sows based on animal and management data from 632 farms (Table 8)
For pork CW from sows the estimated emissions were 3.5% lower for the lower performance farms and 1% higher for the higher performance farms compared with the one-third of farms with medium performance
Summary
The environmental sustainability of food production systems, including net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, is of increasing impor tance for diet recommendations (e.g. Willett et al, 2019). The environmental sustainability of food production systems, including net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, is of increasing impor tance for diet recommendations The production of 1.6 million finishers is organized within a hierarchical pyramid of approx imately 2000 herds, with 70 genetic nucleus and multiplier herds at the top level. This has spread the high genetic basis and the good health status to pig farms at all levels. From 2016, the aim has been that by 2024 all nucleus farms will have converted to a specific pathogen free (SPF) health regime as a first step towards further improvement of the animal health status for the entire national pig population (Animalia, 2020). It is expected that by introducing the SPF health regime, animal losses due to health issues will be minimized
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