Life cycle assessment of pig production a case study in Mexican Farm

Abstract

The porcine mexican sector has an important participation worldwide, dynamics of growth has positioned it inside the principal producing countries, in such a way that, not only competes in satisfying the needs of the market, also in the creation of social value. The answer to environmental problems is for companies an indicator of competitiveness. The aim of this study was to evaluate the environmental burdens associated with pig production in a full-cycle farm, using life cycle assessment methodology. All activities carried out in the pig farm were evaluated (breeding, lactating, weaning, rearing-start, growth, development and finishing pig). The inventory integrates data on livestock feed, water and electricity consumption, as well as manure emission factors. The inventories were processed in the OpenLCA software version 1.7. The characterization factors of the ReCiPe Midpoint method were used. The results present impacts in the categories Agricultural land occupation, Climate change, Freshwater eutrophication, Marine eutrophication, Particulate matter formation, Photochemical oxidant formation, Terrestrial acidification and Water depletion.