Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment (Di3A), University of Catania, Via S. Sofia, 100-95123 Catania, Italy.
Department of Economics and Business, University of Catania, Corso Italia, 55-95129 Catania, Italy.
Sci Total Environ. 2022 Oct 20;844:157230. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.157230. Epub 2022 Jul 6.
It is recognised today that the global food system does not always deliver good nutrition for all human beings, and, additionally, dramatically contributes to climate change, environmental degradation, and biodiversity loss. In particular, the cereal sector threatens biodiversity and ecosystem functions, due to environmentally harmful farming activities, that critically alter climate conditions, along with energy, land, and water resources. According to this paper's authors' opinion, this supports the rationale of conducting a systematic literature review of Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) in the durum wheat (DW) sector, to highlight environmental hotspots and improvement potentials in the phases of cultivation and processing into finished products like pasta and bread. Methodological aspects were also discussed in this paper, to provide useful insights on how to best perform LCA in such agri-food supply chains. Given the findings from the papers reviewed, the authors could document that the cultivation phase is the primary environmental hotspot of DW-derived food products and suggested several mitigation and improvements solution including, organic farming practices, diversified cropping systems, reduction of N fertilisers and pesticides application, and irrigation optimisation strategies. Furthermore, the review highlighted that there exist two main gaps in the literature, mainly related to the scarce attention on the organic farming sector and DW landraces, and the lack of nutritional-property accounting in LCAs. Finally, although specific, the review may be of interest to researchers, LCA practitioners, farmers and producers, policy- and decision-makers, and other stakeholders, and could support the promotion of environmental sustainability in the DW sector.
如今人们认识到，全球粮食系统并不总能为所有人提供良好的营养，而且还严重加剧了气候变化、环境恶化和生物多样性丧失。特别是谷物部门由于对环境有害的农业活动威胁到生物多样性和生态系统功能，这些活动严重改变了气候条件，同时还消耗了能源、土地和水资源。本文作者认为，这支持了对杜伦小麦（DW）部门进行生命周期评估（LCA）的系统文献综述的基本原理，以突出在种植和加工成面食和面包等成品的阶段中的环境热点和改进潜力。本文还讨论了方法学方面，以就如何在这种农业食品供应链中最好地进行 LCA 提供有用的见解。鉴于所审查文件的结果，作者可以证明，种植阶段是 DW 衍生食品的主要环境热点，并提出了一些缓解和改进措施，包括有机农业实践、多样化的种植系统、减少氮肥和农药的应用以及灌溉优化策略。此外，审查还强调了文献中的两个主要差距，主要与有机农业部门和 DW 地方品种关注度低以及 LCA 中缺乏营养特性核算有关。最后，尽管具体，但该综述可能会引起研究人员、LCA 从业者、农民和生产商、政策制定者和决策者以及其他利益相关者的兴趣，并有助于促进 DW 部门的环境可持续性。
