Browsing by Subject "High Nature Value farming"
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(2023)Previous research has shown that beef have higher environmental impacts of land use (LU) and global warming potential (GWP) than the legumes, though the production type of beef makes a difference in its environmental impacts. Beef as a protein source produced within High Nature Value (HNV) farming systems has not yet been compared to other protein sources in terms of nutritional and environmental impact. HNV farmland is defined as farmland areas in Europe “where agriculture is a major land use and where that agriculture supports or is associated with, either a high species and habitat diversity or the presence of species of European conservation concern or both” (Andersen et al. 2003). Though beef has higher environmental impacts, it can provide an important nutrient source, especially if the bioavailability (BA) of protein is taken into account. It is known that legumes have lower BA for protein than beef, which means that the beef protein and some nutrients are made more available for the human body. It remains unknown to what degree this could affect the required mass of foods consumed to meet nutrition requirements, which could in turn effect the environmental impacts of food consumption. The aim is to assess if HNV beef and plant-based protein-rich alternatives differ in environmental impacts when BA of proteins is considered. The objectives are i) to compare HNV beef in relation to its nutritional content and environmental impact to three alternative protein sources (red kidney beans, chickpeas, and fava beans) and ii) to assess the difference in environmental impacts when BA of these protein sources is and is not considered. The results showed that taking into account protein BA affects the available nutritional value of the protein and the environmental impacts of HNV beef and the other protein sources. The impacts of GWP and LU are highest for HNV and conventional beef even when the impacts were corrected for BA. This means that the inclusion of beef produced on HNV farmland in a sustainable diet is more environmentally impactful than protein intake from legumes when considering the chosen environmental categories. Future studies should include environmental impacts such as water use, carbon sequestration, biodiversity and also different socio-cultural metrics in order to justly assess HNV farming system and HNV products.
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(2024)Agriculture is known to have major environmental impacts through intense use of resources and occupation of land, and it is a significant contributor to climate change and biodiversity loss. Extensive agriculture, as High Nature Value (HNV) farming, benefits biodiversity while providing food and other ecosystem services (ESS). The environmental impacts of HNV ruminant production systems utilizing semi-natural grasslands (SNG) have until now been unknown for Finland and Estonia. SNGs are characterized by high biodiversity and a need for constant management. As livestock production, especially ruminant production, HNV farming on SNGs in the respective countries has potentially considerable environmental impacts whilst simultaneously supporting biodiversity through maintenance of the endangered SNGs. This thesis aims at quantifying and comparing the environmental parameters of global warming potential (GWP), land occupation (LO), and biodiversity, through life cycle assessment (LCA) of HNV livestock production systems in the two neighboring countries of Finland and Estonia and disentangling the drivers for the environmental parameters in both countries. In addition, a GWP for production output (meat) is quantified, and the environmental parameters are considered in relation to the production output of the farms. The results indicate that the HNV ruminant farming systems of Estonia are more extensive and self-sufficient to their production than their Finnish counterparts. Enteric fermentation drives the GWP on the farming system as well as on the product level, while the impact of imported inputs is observed in GWP and LO of Finnish HNV farms. Future research shall focus on determining the environmental impacts of water use and carbon sequestration, as well as the effect of HNV farming on below ground biodiversity. In addition, future research shall include animal welfare aspects to gain a comprehensive understanding of the sustainability of HNV ruminant farming systems.
Now showing items 1-2 of 2