Application of LCA in Australia agriculture: a review

This paper reviewed past LCA studies of Australian agriculture-based processes, products and supply chains to determine what has been achieved over the past decade and to identify the gaps and opportunities for future investment. Around 75 published LCA studies undertaken between 2003 and 2013 were identified, and 63 underwent a structured review to identify the coverage and comprehensiveness (system boundaries, impact categories) of past assessments. The review found that around 80% of Australia’s key agricultural commodities have received some level of LCA investigation, with the most coverage being achieved for livestock sector (beef, dairy, sheep, and poultry), wheat and sugarcane. For many other commodities, there have been case studies or regional assessments that provide some insights to these production processes. Some gaps in coverage were identified (cereal crops other than wheat, pasture, legumes and oilseed crops, orchard fruits and nuts, and horticulture crops). It is expected that insights gained about Australian agricultural processes to date mostly relate to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy use, as these were the environmental aspect considered most commonly. However there have been recent efforts to also examine water use impacts particularly in livestock systems. Other important impact categories (eutrophication, eco-toxicity and land use) have generally been under-reported. Most (70%) of agri-food studies focused on primary production or extended into primary processing or up to a bulk distribution point, and only 30% considered the full supply chain. The review concluded that considerable advancements have been made in understanding ‘cradle to farm gate’ GHG hotspots across a wide range of agricultural commodities and in establishing a framework for making high-quality life cycle inventory datasets available. However we may still only have a partial picture of the full environmental profile of Australian agricultural commodities, in the context of their supply chains. Opportunities for extending our understanding of Australia agriculture-based supply chains are proposed. A listing of the studies reviewed is provided in the appendix as a resource for practitioners.