Environmental Impacts of Organic and Biodynamic Wine Produced in Northeast Italy

Paola Masotti, Andrea Zattera, Mario Malagoli and Paolo Bogoni
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Paola Masotti: Department of Economics and Management, University of Trento, 38122 Trento, Italy
Andrea Zattera: Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural Resources, Animals and Environment, University of Padova, Agripolis, 35020 Legnaro, Italy
Mario Malagoli: Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural Resources, Animals and Environment, University of Padova, Agripolis, 35020 Legnaro, Italy
Paolo Bogoni: Department of Economics, Business, Mathematics and Statistics, University of Trieste, 34127 Trieste, Italy

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 10, 1-16

Abstract: Increasing awareness of sustainability in the agri-food sector is leading to a gradual transition toward lower-impact farming systems, such as organic and biodynamic farming. The environmental performance of organic wines has largely been compared to that of conventional wines, and few researchers have investigated the differences between organic and biodynamic wine production from an environmental point of view. Therefore, in this study, the environmental profiles of two organic and two biodynamic wines produced in two areas in Northeast Italy were assessed by performing a “cradle-to-gate” analysis according to the life-cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. Results were used both to compare organic and biodynamic vitiviniculture and to draw overall conclusions on the environmental performance of each of the analyzed wines in order to identify environmental hotspots and provide recommendations to stakeholders. Production of the glass bottles was identified as the main source of environmental burden in all four systems, followed either by the production and use of fertilizers and pesticides, or the use of agricultural machinery. Results also showed that biodynamic wines seem to be responsible for lesser environmental impacts than organic ones.

Keywords: agri-food; organic; biodynamic; wine; life-cycle assessment (LCA); environmental (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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