Emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero de la carne de cordero en España a lo largo de su ciclo de vida: una comparación de tres sistemas productivos

Abstract

The livestock sector increasingly competes for scarce resources and has a severe impact on air, water and soil. There are few studies that compare the environmental impacts of different sheep production systems, in particular in terms of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. We used Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to evaluate GHG emissions of three contrasting meat-sheep farming systems in Spain, which differ in their degree of intensification (reproduction rate, land use and grazing management) and location. The GHG emissions of these systems varied from 19.5 to 28.4 kg CO2eq per kg live-animal, or 38.9 to 56.7 kg CO2eq per kg lamb-meat. The lowest value corresponded to the most intensive system and the highest to the less intensive pasture-based livestock system, which however also provided several ecosystems services that should be considered when assessing the environmental impact of livestock production in a holistic manner