Comparative life cycle assessment of conventional and organic hazelnuts production systems in Central Italy.

Agricultural activity is responsible of considerable negative effects on the environment. In this context, in the last years, organic cultivation is increasing being perceived as more sustainable for the environmental. Nevertheless, this higher sustainability compared to conventional agricultural systems is debated. This applied for crops but also for livestock systems. For some of the main crops (i.e., cereals, soybean) comparative analysis were carried out but for most of the other annual and perennial crops there is a lack of information about the environmental impact related to conventional and organic cultivation In this study, the environmental impact of the conventional and organic farming systems of hazelnuts production in Viterbo province in Italy was evaluated using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach. Even if originally developed for industrial processes, LCA is more and more applied also to agriculture systems to quantify the environmental impact. Primary data were collected by the main Producer Organization and elaborated considering 1 kg of hazelnuts as functional unit and a from cradle to gate approach considering the 50-years as life cycle duration of the crop. Finally, using the Recipe characterization method, 15 midpoint impact categories were evaluated. The results show how, except than for ecotoxicity related impact categories, organic cultivation practice shows higher impact (from +5% to +285%) respect to the conventional production. For ecotoxicity related impact categories, organic hazelnut production performs better (from -42% to -81%) than the conventional one because no synthetic pesticides are applied. The sensitivity analysis carried shows how yield is the main driver of the environmental results while the uncertainty analysis performed with the Monte Carlo technique shows that the to the selection of the data source, model imprecision and data variability does not significantly affect the environmental results for the evaluated impact categories.

The value of manure - Manure as co-product in life cycle assessment.

Livestock production is important for food security, nutrition, and landscape maintenance, but it is associated with several environmental impacts. To assess the risk and benefits arising from livestock production, transparent and robust indicators are required, such as those offered by life cycle assessment. A central question in such approaches is how environmental burden is allocated to livestock products and to manure that is re-used for agricultural production. To incentivize sustainable use of manure, it should be considered as a co-product as long as it is not disposed of, or wasted, or applied in excess of crop nutrient needs, in which case it should be treated as a waste. This paper proposes a theoretical approach to define nutrient requirements based on nutrient response curves to economic and physical optima and a pragmatic approach based on crop nutrient yield adjusted for nutrient losses to atmosphere and water. Allocation of environmental burden to manure and other livestock products is then based on the nutrient value from manure for crop production using the price of fertilizer nutrients. We illustrate and discuss the proposed method with two case studies.

Environmental sustainability of integrating the organic Rankin cycle with anaerobic digestion and combined heat and power generation.

Given the growing scarcity of primary energy resources, increasing the efficiency of energy conversion is one of the key challenges for optimising energy use. For this reason, low-grade or waste heat from various processes is becoming increasingly more attractive as an energy source. This study considers anaerobic digestion (AD) coupled with a combined heat and power plant (CHP) as a source of low-grade heat for electricity generation utilising an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) system. The aim is to evaluate the environmental sustainability of such a system relative to the AD-CHP system without heat recovery. Ten real AD-CHP plants using cereal silage and animal slurry as feedstocks are considered for these purposes and their impacts have been estimated through life cycle assessment. The results suggest that systems with the ORC have lower impacts than those without it, but the average reductions are relatively small (1.6-5.8%). However, for the smaller plants fed mainly with animal slurry, climate change increases significantly (up to 27 times). The reduction in impacts is greater for the bigger plants where the surplus heat available for the ORC is higher. The impacts from the ORC plant are insignificant, with its electrical efficiency and lifespan showing little effect on the results. Small slurry-fed plants without the ORC have lower environmental impacts than the bigger silage-fed plants fitted with an ORC system for nine out of 13 categories considered; climate change is up to 32 times lower. They are only slightly worse than the bigger plants with the ORC for ozone depletion and human toxicity due to the economies of scale. Therefore, while there are clear benefits of fitting an ORC system to an AD-CHP plant, greater benefits can still be achieved by utilising waste feedstocks, such as animal slurry, instead of fitting an ORC to a plant utilising cereal silage.

Delving the environmental impact of roundwood production from poplar plantations.

The environmental impact of timber production from poplar plantation was evaluated by means of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) using an attributional approach. A comparison was performed between a baseline scenario and an alternative one in which different harvesting operations were identified. An economic allocation was adopted to solve the multi-functionality of the studied process, by taking into account the price of the main product and of co-products. Sensitivity analysis was performed on alternative mass allocation and yield variations that derive from using high sustainability plants or from climate stress. A different characterization method was also analyzed. Among the different field operations, crop management involves a higher impact respect to field preparation-planting and harvesting-soil restoring. Emissions related to fertilizers' applications are the main responsible for acidification, eutrophications and particular matter formation. The results show that the modelling of the environmental impact of timber production is robust. The alternative scenario resulted better than baseline for all impact categories (impact reduction ranging from 0.1% to 12.4%), except for HT-noc (+12.2%) and POF (+20.6%), due to fuel and oil consumption in the chainsaw used for harvesting. In the next years, introducing high-sustainability clones (characterized by higher yield and higher resistance to pests and drought) could be an effective way for reducing the environmental impact of poplar roundwood production.

The influence of fertiliser and pesticide emissions model on life cycle assessment of agricultural products: The case of Danish and Italian barley.

Barley is an ancient crop and a great source of nutrients. It is the third largest agricultural commodity produced in Denmark and represents a relevant crop in Italy too. Due to the increasing customers awareness of sustainability issues, it has become essential to evaluate the environmental impact and the use of resources in food production and distribution systems. However, especially in agriculture, difficulties are encountered when emissions from fertilisers and pesticides need to be modelled, due to a variety of modelling options and their dependency on the availability of site-specific information. How to address these difficulties might affect the results reliability. Hence, this study aims to evaluate, using the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology, the influence of different models for estimating emissions from fertilisers and pesticides on the environmental impacts of barley cultivation in Denmark and Italy. Two models for fertilisers and pesticides' emissions have been applied; these differ on the extent of data requirements and complexity of calculation algorithms, which might increase the results accuracy and robustness. The results show that the modelling options do affect the environmental impacts of barley production, in particular climate change, eutrophication categories, acidification and freshwater eco-toxicity. This study estimates that the variations for such categories range from 15% in the case of climate change to 89% in the case of marine eutrophication. These findings highlight the importance of the emission modelling options as well as the constraints of data requirements, critical aspects when a LCA study on agricultural products is carried out.

Life Cycle Environmental Impacts of Electricity from Biogas Produced by Anaerobic Digestion.

The aim of this study was to evaluate life cycle environmental impacts associated with the generation of electricity from biogas produced by the anaerobic digestion (AD) of agricultural products and waste. Five real plants in Italy were considered, using maize silage, slurry, and tomato waste as feedstocks and cogenerating electricity and heat; the latter is not utilized. The results suggest that maize silage and the operation of anaerobic digesters, including open storage of digestate, are the main contributors to the impacts of biogas electricity. The system that uses animal slurry is the best option, except for the marine and terrestrial ecotoxicity. The results also suggest that it is environmentally better to have smaller plants using slurry and waste rather than bigger installations, which require maize silage to operate efficiently. Electricity from biogas is environmentally more sustainable than grid electricity for seven out of 11 impacts considered. However, in comparison with natural gas, biogas electricity is worse for seven out of 11 impacts. It also has mostly higher impacts than other renewables, with a few exceptions, notably solar photovoltaics. Thus, for the AD systems and mesophilic operating conditions considered in this study, biogas electricity can help reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions relative to a fossil-intensive electricity mix; however, some other impacts increase. If mitigation of climate change is the main aim, other renewables have a greater potential to reduce GHG emissions. If, in addition to this, other impacts are considered, then hydro, wind, and geothermal power are better alternatives to biogas electricity. However, utilization of heat would improve significantly its environmental sustainability, particularly global warming potential, summer smog, and the depletion of abiotic resources and the ozone layer. Further improvements can be achieved by banning open digestate storage to prevent methane emissions and regulating digestate spreading onto land to minimize emissions of ammonia and related environmental impacts.

Mitigation strategies in the agro-food sector: The anaerobic digestion of tomato purée by-products. An Italian case study.

Tomato processing involves a significant production of residues, mainly constituted by discarded tomatoes, skins, seeds and pulp. Often, these residues are not valorized and represent an added cost for manufacturing companies because of disposal processes, with environmental issues due to the difficult management. The exploitation of these residual materials results complex as their availability is mainly concentrated in few months. A possible solution is the production of biogas employed in a Combine Heat and Power engine for energy production, in line with the 2020 targets of European Union in terms of promotion of energy from renewable resources and greenhouse gas emission reduction. The tomato by-product utilization for energy production as a strategy to reduce the environmental load of tomato purée was evaluated by means of Life Cycle Assessment. Two scenarios were considered: Baseline Scenario - tomato by-products are sent back to the tomato fields as organic fertilizers; Alternative Scenario - tomato by-products are employed in a nearby biogas plant for energy production. Methane production of tomato by-products was assessed by means of specific laboratory tests. The comparison between the two scenarios highlighted reductions for all the impact categories with the Alternative Scenario. The most important reductions are related to particulate matter (-5.3%), climate change (-6.4%) and ozone depletion (-13.4%). Although small, the reduction of the environmental impact cannot be neglected; for example for climate change, the anaerobic digestion of by-products allows a saving of GHG emissions that, over the whole year, is equal to 1.567 tons of CO2 eq. The results of this study could be up-scaled to the food industries with high heat demand producing considerable amounts of fermentable by-products employable as feedstock for biogas production.

Environmental profile of paddy rice cultivation with different straw management.

Italy is the most important European country in terms of paddy rice production. North Italian districts such as Vercelli, Pavia, Novara, and Milano are known as some of the world's most advanced rice cultivation sites. In 2013 Italian rice cultivation represented about 50% of all European rice production by area, and paddy fields extended for over 216,000 ha. Cultivation of rice involves different agricultural activities which have environmental impacts mainly due to fossil fuels and agrochemical requirements as well as the methane emission associated with the fermentation of organic material in the flooded rice fields. In order to assess the environmental consequences of rice production in the District of Vercelli, the cultivation practices most frequently carried out were inventoried and evaluated. The general approach of this study was not only to gather the inventory data for rice production and quantify their environmental impacts, but also to identify the key environmental factors where special attention must be paid. Life Cycle Assessment methodology was applied in this study from a cradle-to-farm gate perspective. The environmental profile was analyzed in terms of seven different impact categories: climate change, ozone depletion, human toxicity, terrestrial acidification, freshwater eutrophication, marine eutrophication, and fossil depletion. Regarding straw management, two different scenarios (burial into the soil of the straw versus harvesting) were compared. The analysis showed that the environmental impact was mainly due to field emissions, the fuel consumption needed for the mechanization of field operations, and the drying of the paddy rice. The comparison between the two scenarios highlighted that the collection of the straw improves the environmental performance of rice production except that for freshwater eutrophication. To improve the environmental performance of rice production, solutions to save fossil fuel and reduce the emissions from fertilizers (leaching, volatilization) as well as methane emissions should be implemented.

Environmental assessment of two different crop systems in terms of biomethane potential production.

The interest in renewable energy sources has gained great importance in Europe due to the need to reduce fossil energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, as required by the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) of the European Parliament. The production of energy from energy crops appears to be consistent with RED. The environmental impact related to this kind of energy primarily originates from crop cultivation. This research aimed to evaluate the environmental impact of different crop systems for biomass production: single and double crop. The environmental performances of maize and maize plus wheat were assessed from a life cycle perspective. Two alternative scenarios considering different yields, crop management, and climatic conditions, were also addressed. One normal cubic metre of potential methane was chosen as a functional unit. Methane potential production data were obtained through lab experimental tests. For both of the crop systems, the factors that have the greatest influence on the overall environmental burden are: fertilizer emissions, diesel fuel emissions, diesel fuel production, and pesticide production. Notwithstanding the greater level of methane potential production, the double crop system appears to have the worse environmental performance with respect to its single crop counterpart. This result is due to the bigger quantity of inputs needed for the double crop system. Therefore, the greater amount of biomass (silage) obtained through the double crop system is less than proportional to the environmental burden that results from the bigger quantity of inputs requested for double crop.

Delving into the environmental aspect of a Sardinian white wine: from partial to total life cycle assessment.

The aim of this study was to deepen the assessment of the environmental impacts of a white wine produced in Sardinia (FU 750 ml), performing an attributional LCA. The system boundaries were extended, from 'cradle to gate' (partial LCA) of a previous study, to 'cradle to grave' (total LCA), in order to identify the environmental impacts occurring along the wine life cycle stages (vine planting, grape production, wine production, bottling and packaging, distribution, final disposal of the glass bottle). Some assumptions were made in order to quantify the environmental impact of the transportation phase, regarding the few data which were available. Inventory data were mainly collected through direct communication with the Company involved in the study. Results showed that the environmental performance of wine was mostly determined by the glass bottle production (for all impact categories except ozone layer depletion). The second contributor was the agricultural phase, which included two sub-phases: vine planting and grape production. Results showed that the vine planting sub-phase was not negligible given its contribution to the agricultural phase, mainly due to diesel fuel consumption. Transportation impact was found to be relevant for long distance distribution (USA); the impact categories more affected by transport were acidification, eutrophication, photochemical oxidation and global warming potential. Suggested opportunities to reduce the overall environmental impact were the introduction of a lighter glass bottle or the substitution of the glass bottle with a polylaminate container.

Probiotics reduce gut microbial translocation and improve adult atopic dermatitis.

BACKGROUND: It has been suggested that probiotics modulate atopic dermatitis (AD) progression, but no data are actually available on their mechanisms of action and on their ability to act as immunomodulators in this pathology. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this randomized double-blinded active treatment versus placebo study was to evaluate clinical efficacy of an intake of a combination of 2 probiotics (Lactobacillus salivarius LS01 and Bifidobacterium breve BR03) for the treatment of adult AD patients. METHODS: Forty-eight patients were enrolled in the study (randomization ratio 2:1) and treated with a combination (LS01 and BR03) or placebo (maltodextrin) for 12 weeks. Clinical efficacy was assessed from baseline by changes in the SCORAD index and DLQ index improvement. Analysis on the gut permeability barrier, immunologic parameters, and changes in fecal microbiota and recovery of probiotics were performed at baseline, at the end of therapy, and 2 months later. RESULTS: Patients receiving probiotics showed a significant improvement in clinical parameters (SCORAD, P<0.0001 and DLQ index, P=0.021) from baseline. The probiotics reduced microbial translocation (P=0.050), immune activation (P<0.001), improved T-helper cell (Th)17/regulatory T cell (Treg) (P=0.029) and Th1/Th2 (P=0.028) ratios. None of these changes were observed in the placebo group. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that this specific mixture of probiotics (LS01 and BR03 strains) may induce beneficial effects for clinical and immunologic alterations in adult AD. This combination could be considered as adjuvant therapy for the treatment of AD in adult patients.

Effects of specific immunotherapy on the B7 family of costimulatory molecules in allergic inflammation.

The effect of allergen-specific immunotherapy (IT) on Ag presentation and T lymphocyte stimulation was evaluated by verifying the expression of costimulatory molecules in allergic patients. Thus, CD28 and CTLA-4, B7, and B7-H molecules on immune cells, as well as cytokine production, were analyzed in and out of the pollination period in 30 patients allergic to Betulaceae that had or had nor undergone specific IT. Results showed that IT attenuated the increase in the percentage of CD28(+)CD4 T cells and the decrease in the percentage of CTLA-4(+)CD4(+) T cells seen in untreated individuals. CD19(+)/CD80, CD19(+)/CD86(+), and CD14(+)/CD80(+) APCs were significantly augmented during pollination in unvaccinated individuals. B7-H1-expressing monocytes (CD14(+)) and B lymphocytes (CD19) as well as CD14 and CD19 B7-H1(+)/IL-10(+) APC were augmented in Betulaceae Ag-stimulated cell cultures of vaccinated patients independently of pollination, and were further increased in these individuals during pollination. As a result, the IL-10-IFN-gamma ratio in CD4(+), CD14(+), and CD19(+) cells increased in vaccinated patients, but decreased in unvaccinated individuals during pollination. These data clarify the cellular and molecular basis underlying the recent observation that peripheral expansion of IL-10-producing cells is associated with successful IT. B7-H1 could be an optimal target for IT of allergic diseases using mAbs.