LCA4FARMS – carbon and water knowledge for the farms in Satakunta

How much individual farm is producing environmental burdens? From which processes are these environmental burdens from? LCA4FARMS aims to answer these questions so farmers in Satakunta region could respond to increasing demand for environmentally sustainable food production. The main goal of the LCA4FARMS is to increase operational preconditions, commercial viability and growth in the constantly developing environmental requirements from different actors in the food sector.

Agriculture is responsible for 7 % of the total Finnish greenhouse gas emissions, but it is responsible for 11 % of the total methane emissions and 54 % of the total nitrous oxide emissions. Among the greenhouse gases, agriculture is releasing nutrients to the water resources, and these nutrients are causing eutrophication. In addition, agriculture is having a significant role in biodiversity losses. LCA4FARMS aims to find, from which processes these environmental burdens are occurring, to make it possible for farmers in Satakunta region to efficiently reduce these burdens and emissions.

Environmental burdens of the food production will be studied by using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The Life Cycle Assessment will be carried out in 60 farms in Satakunta, including bovine, pig, poultry, grain, and special plant farms. In this project, the climate change, eutrophication, and biodiversity effects will be studied.

After this project the farmers who participated this project will be familiar with the environmental burdens of their farms, and more importantly they will know, which processes are causing these burdens and emissions. With these results, it is possible to estimate the environmental burdens and emissions of the food production in whole Satakunta region within different food production types, and in the wider perspective as well.