Production Efficiency or Food Miles: Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Local and Imported Peas and Lentils at Market in Western Europe

Nicole Bamber (), Denis Tremorin and Nathan Pelletier
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Nicole Bamber: Food Systems PRISM Lab, University of British Columbia, Okanagan Campus, 226-3247 University Way, Kelowna, BC V1V 1V7, Canada
Denis Tremorin: Pulse Canada, 920-220 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg, MB R3C 0A5, Canada
Nathan Pelletier: Food Systems PRISM Lab, University of British Columbia, Okanagan Campus, 226-3247 University Way, Kelowna, BC V1V 1V7, Canada

Agriculture, 2025, vol. 15, issue 22, 1-19

Abstract: A life cycle assessment was conducted to compare the impacts of peas and lentils produced in Canada, France, and Russia, transported to market in Western Europe, to assess the systems-level sustainability implications of changing production and consumption profiles of internationally traded commodity pulse crops. For all but 1–2 impact categories, imported Canadian peas and lentils outperformed those imported from Russia, due to the lower yields, higher levels of tillage, higher field-level emissions, and higher distances of truck transportation for Russian pulses. French peas had higher impacts of production than Canadian peas, for all categories but land use, due to higher levels of fertilizer inputs, irrigation, field activities, and field-level emissions. However, for 7 out of 12 impact categories, the impacts of the transportation of Canadian peas to Western Europe outweighed the higher impacts of the production of French peas. This demonstrates potential sustainability benefits of Canadian pulses, with some trade-offs from the additional impacts of transportation to market, adding nuance to the discussion around the importance of “food miles” in agricultural sustainability. Compared to previous studies, this demonstrates the importance of multi-criteria and regionalized assessments.

Keywords: pulse; pea; lentil; agriculture; life cycle assessment; cultivation; transportation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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