Published: September 09, 2008 03:30 pm            

Pork Professor: What is the carbon footprint of your pork operation?

Originally published in the September 5, 2008, print edition.

One of the hot topics in our society relates to global warming, greenhouse gas emissions, carbon footprint, climate change, and the like.

There are many people on both sides of the issue. A large group of scientists, activists and policy makers are concerned about global climate change and how to stop potentially damaging human activities. However, there are other groups that do not believe global warming is a real phenomenon and there is no need to intervene.

Regardless of who is correct, there are efforts under way to determine the influence of human activities on global warming by understanding our carbon footprint and the quantity of greenhouse gas emissions generated by human activities.

This global warming discussion is now focusing on many different aspects of our society including the carbon footprint of agriculture and food production. Within the last year, researchers at the University of Arkansas embarked on a project to estimate the carbon footprint of milk production in the United States.

Some of the motivation for this project came from a large food retailer, WalMart. Evidently, WalMart wants to be able to tell its customers how the milk they buy will influence global climate change. Presumably, other food retailers and possibly food service establishments will want this information as well in the future.

European researchers have been working to document emissions of greenhouse gases and the carbon footprint of various food production systems. Typically, social issues that come to the forefront in Europe migrate across the Atlantic to North America. The issue of loose housing for sows is a classic example.

The carbon footprint is measured by quantifying the greenhouse gases that are emitted. In the United States, the carbon footprint of agriculture focuses on emissions of carbon dioxide, methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) which are all greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide has the least potential to contribute to global warming while methane is 21 and nitrous oxide is 310 times more efficient at trapping heat in the atmosphere thus contributing to global warming. To assess the overall contribution of these three greenhouse gases, all greenhouse gases are reported as CO2 equivalents. So, a given quantity of nitrous oxide would contribute 310 more CO2 equivalents than the same quantity of carbon dioxide.

An obvious question is: “How do I calculate the carbon footprint of my operation?”

Estimating the carbon footprint of an operation is a complex process. In simple terms, one calculates the carbon footprint by determining how much carbon, measured as CO2 equivalents, is released as a result of your operation’s activities. There are many potential contributors to your farm’s greenhouse gas emissions. Some of the potential sources of greenhouse gas emissions include type of feed, quantity of feed used, manure quantity and type, manure storage structures, manure application procedures, transportation of inputs and outputs, heating fuel for buildings, the pigs, and others.

Unfortunately, there is no widely accepted approach to measuring the carbon footprint of an operation. For instance, should the operation consider emissions resulting from feed and feeding practices after the feed arrives at the farm gate or should one consider the greenhouse gas emission that resulted from growing the corn, drying it and transporting it to the swine operation?

In the operation of a finishing unit, should transportation emissions resulting from hauling pigs from the sow unit to the finishing unit be added to the emissions that occur after the pigs arrive at the farm? Should the emissions created from workers traveling to the farm be considered in the carbon footprint of the operation? What about the emissions generated from harvest and processing of the hogs produced?

At this time, there is no standard procedure or policy for determining what is and is not considered in the footprint of an operation. So, any carbon footprint should be accompanied by the boundaries used to calculate that footprint.

Once the boundaries are set, how does one determine the CO2 equivalents generated from each factor in the operation? These estimations are currently being evaluated. Much of the leadership for these estimations is being provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency working with researchers around the world. More information on the EPA’s work in this area can be found at www.epa.gov/climatechange.

Recently, I attended a meeting sponsored by the National Pork Board to plan future activities of the NPB. One of the important topics discussed focused on the carbon footprint of pork production. The NPB is beginning an effort to assess the carbon footprint of U.S. pork. A longer term objective of this project is to learn how pork producers can shrink their carbon footprint and potentially generate financial profits from those improvements.

Researchers, producers and government officials are trying to learn more about the carbon footprint of livestock production. In an effort to learn more about this subject, we will have Shawn Archibeque from Colorado State University speak on “Calculating the Carbon Footprint of Livestock Production” at 7 p.m. on Sept. 16 as part of the 69th annual Minnesota Nutrition Conference.

Archibeque has worked with the EPA on the U.S. inventory of greenhouse gases as it relates to livestock production. The conference will be held at the Holiday Inn in Owatonna. The public is welcome to attend the dinner and speaker without registering for the conference. Visit the conference website, www.ansci.umn.edu/mnc.html, for more information.

The whole issue of carbon footprint for pork production is fuzzy right now. But, stay tuned. I am sure that it will become clearer in the months and years to come as our consumers continue to ask questions about how we produce food and demand diminished environmental impacts of food production.

        

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