Assessment of environmental impacts of broiler farms using different indicators

Abstract

This study aims to evaluate environmental impacts within farm boundaries in broiler production systems in Turkey. There have been calculated on three-stage assessing environmental impacts: carbon footprint and water footprint. The objectives were evaluated by taking into account 1 kg of chicken meat of the functional unit. Using three different methods (real-time gas concentration, Tier 1 approach, and life cycle assessment) the carbon footprint was evaluated. We obtained an average of 2.9 kg CO2/functional unit for the carbon footprint using measured gas concentration data. Accordingly, with the Tier 1 method developed by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, it has been shown that 5.1 kg CO2 equivalent carbon footprint per functional unit occurs in the broiler farms. Based on the life cycle assessment, the emissions were 3 kg CO2 equivalent per functional unit. The second stage of the study was the determination of water footprints in broiler production systems. The water footprint of farms was evaluated with SimaPro 8.2 software. According to the results, 0.003 m(3) water/functional unit was obtained by considering the drinking water and using water amount in the production.