The Carbon and Land Footprint of Certified Food Products

Valentin Bellassen (), Marion Drut (), Federico Antonioli, Ružica Brečić, Michele Donati, Hugo Ferrer-Pérez, Lisa Gauvrit, Viet Hoang, Kamilla Knutsen Steinnes, Apichaya Lilavanichakul, Edward Majewski, Agata Malak-Rawlikowska, Konstadinos Mattas, An Nguyen, Ioannis Papadopoulos, Jack Peerlings, Bojan Ristic, Marina Tomić Maksan, Aron Torok, Gunnar Vittersø and Abdoul Diallo ()
Additional contact information
Valentin Bellassen: CESAER - Centre d'Economie et de Sociologie Rurales Appliquées à l'Agriculture et aux Espaces Ruraux - AgroSup Dijon - Institut National Supérieur des Sciences Agronomiques, de l'Alimentation et de l'Environnement - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement
Marion Drut: CESAER - Centre d'Economie et de Sociologie Rurales Appliquées à l'Agriculture et aux Espaces Ruraux - AgroSup Dijon - Institut National Supérieur des Sciences Agronomiques, de l'Alimentation et de l'Environnement - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement
Federico Antonioli: UNIPR - Università degli studi di Parma = University of Parma
Ružica Brečić: Faculty of Economics [Zagreb] - University of Zagreb
Michele Donati: UNIPR - Università degli studi di Parma = University of Parma
Hugo Ferrer-Pérez: CREDA - Centre for Agro-Food Economy & Development, UPC-IRTA, Castelldefels, Spain - UPC - Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya = Université polytechnique de Catalogne [Barcelona]
Lisa Gauvrit: Ecozept - Partenaires INRAE
Viet Hoang: School of Economics [University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City] - UEH - University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City
Kamilla Knutsen Steinnes: OsloMet - Oslo Metropolitan University
Apichaya Lilavanichakul: KU - Kasetsart University [Bangkok, Thailand]
Edward Majewski: Faculty of Biology [Warsaw] - UW - Uniwersytet Warszawski [Polska] = University of Warsaw [Poland] = Université de Varsovie [Pologne]
Agata Malak-Rawlikowska: Faculty of Biology [Warsaw] - UW - Uniwersytet Warszawski [Polska] = University of Warsaw [Poland] = Université de Varsovie [Pologne]
Konstadinos Mattas: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
An Nguyen: School of Economics [University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City] - UEH - University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City
Ioannis Papadopoulos: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Jack Peerlings: WUR - Wageningen University and Research [Wageningen]
Bojan Ristic: University of Belgrade [Belgrade]
Marina Tomić Maksan: Faculty of Economics [Zagreb] - University of Zagreb
Gunnar Vittersø: SIFO - National Institute for Consumer Research - National Institute for ConsumerResearch
Abdoul Diallo: CESAER - Centre d'Economie et de Sociologie Rurales Appliquées à l'Agriculture et aux Espaces Ruraux - AgroSup Dijon - Institut National Supérieur des Sciences Agronomiques, de l'Alimentation et de l'Environnement - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Hugo Ferrer Pérez

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: Abstract The carbon and land footprint of 26 certified food products – geographical indications and organic products and their conventional references are assessed. This assessment goes beyond existing literature by (1) designing a calculation method fit for the comparison between certified food and conventional production, (2) using the same calculation method and parameters for 52 products – 26 Food Quality Schemes and their reference products – to allow for a meaningful comparison, (3) transparently documenting this calculation method and opening access to the detailed results and the underlying data, and (4) providing the first assessment of the carbon and land footprint of geographical indications. The method used is Life Cycle Assessment, largely relying on the Cool Farm Tool for the impact assessment. The most common indicator of climate impact, the carbon footprint expressed per ton of product, is not significantly different between certified foods and their reference products. The only exception to this pattern are vegetal organic products, whose carbon footprint is 16% lower. This is because the decrease in greenhouse gas emissions from the absence of mineral fertilizers is never fully offset by the associated lower yield. The climate impact of certified food per hectare is however 26% than their reference and their land footprint is logically 24% higher. Technical specifications directly or indirectly inducing a lower use of mineral fertilizers are a key driver of this pattern. So is yield, which depends both on terroir and farming practices. Overall, this assessment reinforces the quality policy of the European Union: promoting certified food is not inconsistent with mitigating climate change.

Keywords: certified food; carbon footprint; land footprint; organic farming; geographical indications (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-05-13
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-ene, nep-env, nep-isf and nep-sea
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-03265997v1
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization, 2021, 19 (2), pp.113-126. ⟨10.1515/jafio-2019-0037⟩

Downloads: (external link)
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-03265997v1/document (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The Carbon and Land Footprint of Certified Food Products (2021)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03265997

DOI: 10.1515/jafio-2019-0037

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().