Aggestam Vivianne, Buick Jon
Institute of Systems Sciences,Innovation and Sustainability Research,University of Graz,Austria;AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH,Wien,Austria.
Graduate School of the Environment Centre for Alternative Technologies,University of East London,London,UK.
J Dairy Res. 2017 Aug;84(3):360-369. doi: 10.1017/S0022029917000322.
Agricultural industrialisation and globalisation have steadily increased the transportation of food across the world. In efforts to promote sustainability and self-sufficiency, organic milk producers in Sweden are required to produce a higher level of cattle feed on-farm in the hope that increased self-sufficiency will reduce reliance on external inputs and reduce transport-related greenhouse gas emissions. Using data collected from 20 conventional and 20 organic milk producers in Sweden this paper aims to assess the global warming impact of farmyard vehicles and the transportation of feed produced 'off-farm' in order to compare the impact of vehicle-related emissions from the different production methods. The findings show organic and conventional production methods have different vehicle-related emission outputs that vary according to a reliance on either road transportation or increased farmyard machinery use. Mechanical weeding is more fuel demanding than conventional agrichemical sprayers. However, artificial fertilising is one of the highest farmyard vehicle-related emitters. The general findings show organic milk production emits higher levels of farm vehicle-related emissions that fail to be offset by reduced emissions occurring from international transport emissions. This paper does not propose to cover a comprehensive supply chain carbon footprint for milk production or attempt to determine which method of production has the largest climatic impact. However, it does demonstrate that Sweden's legal requirements for organic producers to produce more feed on-farm to reduce transport emissions have brought emissions back within Sweden's greenhouse gas inventory and raises questions around the effectiveness of policies to reduce vehicle-related emissions. Further research is needed into the effectiveness of climate change mitigation on food production policies, in particular looking at various trade-offs that affects the entire food supply chain.
农业工业化和全球化使全球范围内的食品运输稳步增加。为了促进可持续性和自给自足，瑞典的有机牛奶生产商被要求在农场生产更高水平的牛饲料，希望提高自给自足程度能减少对外部投入的依赖，并减少与运输相关的温室气体排放。本文利用从瑞典20家传统牛奶生产商和20家有机牛奶生产商收集的数据，旨在评估农用车辆以及“农场外”生产的饲料运输对全球变暖的影响，以便比较不同生产方式下与车辆相关的排放影响。研究结果表明，有机和传统生产方式具有不同的与车辆相关的排放产出，这取决于对公路运输或增加农用机械使用的依赖程度。机械除草比传统化学喷雾器更耗油。然而，人工施肥是与农用车辆相关的最高排放源之一。总体研究结果表明，有机牛奶生产产生的与农用车辆相关的排放量更高，而这并未被国际运输排放减少所抵消。本文并不打算涵盖牛奶生产的全面供应链碳足迹，也不试图确定哪种生产方式对气候影响最大。然而，它确实表明，瑞典对有机生产商在农场生产更多饲料以减少运输排放的法律要求，已使排放回到瑞典的温室气体清单范围内，并引发了有关减少与车辆相关排放政策有效性的问题。需要进一步研究气候变化缓解对粮食生产政策的有效性，特别是研究影响整个食品供应链的各种权衡取舍。
