Environmental impact of the broiler production chain under conventional systems

Abstract

Introduction. Broiler production is an activity of growing economic importance worldwide, but it entails a significant environmental impact. Objective. To assess the environmental impact of the broiler production chain under conventional systems. Material and methods. Assessment was performed through a “cradle to gate” Life Cycle Analysis (LCA). Base parameters were obtained from a poultry farm located in San Ramón, Alajuela, Costa Rica, between January and December 2021. The functional unit of the LCA was a metric ton of chicken meat (MT CM) and the impact categories included were established based on the ReCiPe 2016 v.1.1 system, with characterization factors evaluated at the midpoint level under a hierarchical perspective. Results. The estimated environmental impacts, in equivalent units per MT CM, were the following: global warming: 5208 kg CO2-eq, terrestrial acidification: 52.6 kg SO2-eq, marine eutrophication: 4.19 kg Neq, freshwater eutrophication: 2.47 kg P, land use: 5238 m2 crop year, water consumption: 3962 m3, terrestrial ecotoxicity: 1831 kg 1,4-DCB, marine ecotoxicity: 2.79 kg 1,4-DCB, freshwater ecotoxicity: 8.49 kg 1,4-DCB, human toxicity (carcinogenic): 1.13 kg 1,4-DCB, human toxicity (non-carcinogenic): 84.4 kg 1,4-DCB, fine particulate matter formation: 8.15 kg PM2.5, fossil resource depletion: 246.1 kg oil, ozone formation (ecosystem health): 10.8 kg NOx, ozone formation (human health): 10.7 kg NOx, and stratospheric ozone depletion: 0.043 kg CFC11. Conclusions. The processes with the greatest contribution to the environmental impacts evaluated in this study were the production of feed, fertilizers and fuels, as well as the management of farm waste. Most of the environmental impact attributable to the broiler production chain occurs outside of Costa Rica.