Environmental impact assessment of chicken meat production using life cycle assessment

The present study was conducted in Varamin city of Tehran province, Iran. The environmental impact of broiler production at farm gate and chicken meat production at slaughterhouse gate per mass-based functional unit in summer and winter seasons were evaluated using life-cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. Environmental impact categories including abiotic depletion potential, acidification potential, eutrophication potential, global warming potential, ozone depletion potential, human toxicity potential, freshwater and marine aquatic ecotoxicity potential, terrestrial ecotoxicity potential, and photochemical oxidation potential were assessed via CML 2 baseline 2000 v2.04/world, 1990 method. According to the results, the global warming potential, acidification and eutrophication for production of 1 ton packed meat were estimated to be 2931.91 kg CO2-eq, 41.75 kg SO2-eq and 14.69 kg PO4-eq, in summer and 5357.61 kg CO2-eq, 61.9 kg SO2-eq and 19.34 kg PO4-eq in winter, respectively. The evaluations revealed that the broiler production stage was the main source of environmental impacts principally due to production and transportation of feed and on-farm emissions in the life cycle of chicken meat production. Broiler production farms, slaughterhouse and transportation account for 56%, 31% and 13% of total energy consumption, respectively.