In quest of reducing the environmental impacts of food production and consumption
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Author
Sala, Serenella
McLaren, Sarah J.
Notarnicola, Bruno
Saouter, Erwan
Sonesson, Ulf
Publication date
2016-09-09ISSN
0959-6526
Abstract
Food supply chains are increasingly associated with environmental and socio-economic impacts. An
increasing global population, an evolution in consumers' needs, and changes in consumption models
pose serious challenges to the overall sustainability of food production and consumption. Life cycle
thinking (LCT) and assessment (LCA) are key elements in identifying more sustainable solutions for
global food challenges. In defining solutions to major global challenges, it is fundamentally important to
avoid burden shifting amongst supply chain stages and amongst typologies of impacts, and LCA should,
therefore, be regarded as a reference method for the assessment of agri-food supply chains. Hence, this
special volume has been prepared to present the role of life cycle thinking and life cycle assessment in: i)
the identification of hotspots of impacts along food supply chains with a focus on major global challenges; ii) food supply chain optimisation (e.g. productivity increase, food loss reduction, etc.) that delivers sustainable solutions; and iii) assessment of future scenarios arising from both technological improvements and behavioural changes, and under different environmental conditions (e.g. climate
change). This special volume consists of a collection of papers from a conference organized within the
last Universal Exposition (EXPO2015) “LCA for Feeding the planet and energy for life” in Milan (Italy) in
2015 as well as other contributions that were submitted in the year after the conference that addressed
the same key challenges presented at the conference. The papers in the special volume address some of
the key challenges for optimizing food-related supply chains by using LCA as a reference method for
environmental impact assessment. Beyond specific methodological improvements to better tailor LCA
studies to food systems, there is a clear need for the LCA community to “think outside the box”, exploring
complementarity with other methods and domains. The concepts and the case studies presented in this
special volume demonstrate how cross-fertilization among difference science domains (such as envi-
ronmental, technological, social and economic ones) may be key elements of a sustainable “today and
tomorrow” for feeding the planet.
Document Type
Article
Document version
Published version
Language
English
Subject (CDU)
663/664 - Food and nutrition. Enology. Oils. Fat
Pages
12
Publisher
Elsevier
Is part of
Journal of Cleaner Production
Citation
Sala, Serenella, Assumpcio’ Anton, Sarah J. McLaren, Bruno Notarnicola, Erwan Saouter, and Ulf Sonesson. 2017. "In Quest Of Reducing The Environmental Impacts Of Food Production And Consumption". Journal Of Cleaner Production 140: 387-398. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.09.054.
Grant agreement number
EC/ / /EU/Indicators and assessment of the environmental impact of EU consumption/
Program
Sostenibilitat en Biosistemes
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
- ARTICLES CIENTÍFICS [2845]
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/