Avaliação do ciclo de vida na bovinocultura leiteira e as oportunidades ao Brasil

Abstract

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a tool able to estimate the potential environmental emissions and point out the critical stages of a product or process throughout its life cycle. The aim of this study was to summarize the main results of national and international LCA dairy cattle researches and case of studies, from 2008 to 2014, and critically analyze the most frequent impact category addressed in literature: climate change, acidification, eutrophication, land use and energy demand. Of all stages, dairy farm holds the majority of emissions. The results show that the critical points of cattle milk production are the enteric emissions, production and use of synthetic fertilizers, manure application, production and transport of concentrate, and the low animal productivity. In general, climate change had a trade-off with the other impact categories, reason why it should not be taken into consideration by itself in environmental impact assessments. In Brazil, the intensification in grass-based production should be the most effective strategy in decreasing impacts, once it can reduce the necessity of non-renewable inputs and increase carbon sequestration via photosynthesis.