Contribution of Feeding Processes to the Environmental Impact of Broiler Chicken Production

The environmental impact of broiler chicken production was evaluated in this study utilizing life cycle analysis (LCA). The research examined at 11 different impact categories (abiotic depletion potential for elements (ADPe); abiotic depletion potential of fossil fuels (ADPf); acidification potential (AP); eutrophication potential (EP); global warming potential (GWP); ozone layer depletion potential (ODP); photochemical oxidation potential (POP); human toxicity potential (HTP); fresh water aquatic ecotoxicity potential (FAETP); marine aquatic ecotoxicity potential (MAETP); terrestrial ecotoxicity potential (TETP)). The goal of the study was to determine the environmental critical points in broiler production for each impact category, as well as the contribution of feed and related processes to the environmental burden when compared to transportation, natural gas and electricity consumption, and other chicken house processes. The results show that feed and related activities were the largest contributors to the environmental burden in the case of 8 out of 11 impact categories (ADPe, AP, EP, GWP, POP, FAETP, HTP, TETP). In fact, animal feeding contributed more than 80% to five of these impact categories (AP, EP, POP, FAETP, and TETP). Natural gas consumption and transportation processes were the main contributing activities for the ADPf and ODP impact categories, whereas electricity consumption was the main contributing activity for MAETP.