Environmental Impact Assessment of Frozen Peas Production from Conventional and Organic Farming in Italy

Kofi Armah Boakye-Yiadom, Alessio Ilari, Valentina Bisinella, Ester Foppa Pedretti and Daniele Duca ()
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Kofi Armah Boakye-Yiadom: Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, Università Politecnica delle Marche, 60131 Ancona, Italy
Alessio Ilari: Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, Università Politecnica delle Marche, 60131 Ancona, Italy
Valentina Bisinella: Department of Environmental and Resource Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Bygningstorvet 115, Kongens, 2880 Lyngby, Denmark
Ester Foppa Pedretti: Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, Università Politecnica delle Marche, 60131 Ancona, Italy
Daniele Duca: Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, Università Politecnica delle Marche, 60131 Ancona, Italy

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 18, 1-20

Abstract: Increasing legume intake through dietary diversification confers nutritional and environmental benefits. This study used life cycle assessment to evaluate the environmental impacts of producing frozen green peas from conventional and organic farming. We explored two ways of treating farm data: modeling each farm (baseline) and using a uniform distribution of each farm parameter’s average, maximum, and minimum values (alternative). We also assessed the indirect land-use change (iLUC) impacts by applying a deterministic model and used the EF 3.0 method to estimate the midpoint environmental impacts. The results of the two scenarios for pea cultivation (including iLUC) showed notable differences in absolute terms with minor discrepancies in the contribution analysis (e.g., climate change (CC) for the baseline and alternative were 0.98 and 2.09 kg CO 2 eq./kg fresh peas, respectively). Generally, conventional peas had a higher environmental impact than organic peas, although this was not uniformly observed across all farms. When included, iLUC accounted for nearly half of the CC score. Pea cultivation was the most impactful phase due to emissions from fertilizers and field operations. The impacts of pea production can be reduced by anaerobic digestion of pea residues with energy and nutrient recycling. However, improvements in processing and nitrogen use efficiency could significantly enhance the overall environmental performance of frozen green peas. In summary, this study emphasizes the need for sustainable practices to minimize the environmental impact of frozen pea production.

Keywords: life cycle assessment; sustainability; land-use change; agro-industrial residue; anaerobic digestion; food processing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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