LCA Food 2008

Agriculture and the food sector are responsible for a large share of the environmental impacts and resource use caused by human activity. For certain environmental issues such as the conservation of biodiversity, agriculture is the key driver.

For about 15 years now, the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method has successfully been used to analyse agricultural production systems and food chains. A variety of inventories, tools and methodical approaches for analysing different food chains have also been developed over this period.

The three main objectives of the meeting are:

• to show recent developments in terms of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology, approaches, databases and tools related to the agri-food sector;
• to present applications of the LCA methodology in new case studies or case studies showing new aspects in various food- and raw material- chains (crop production, animal husbandry, fish farming, feedstuff, bio energy, etc.);
• to present successful examples of communication of LCA results to stakeholders and their use in decision making in the agri-food sector.

Topics:

1. Methods, Tools and Communication
• Inventory, database and LCA tools
• Impact assessment, with particular reference to land use, biodiversity,
• Climate change, carbon cycle, toxicity, soil quality, water use and regionalisation
• Systems analysis, conceptual frameworks, attributional and consequential
2. LCA, system expansion, allocation
• Incorporation of LCA into sustainability assessment tools (with economic / social aspects), eco-efficiency
• Interpretation schemes, communication, interaction with stakeholders, application in decision making
3. Use and Application
•  Plant production, arable cropping systems, fruit growing, vegetables, fodder and grassland production
• Animal husbandry, fisheries and aquaculture
• Non-food crops (for bioenergy, fibre use)
• Food processing, distribution, transport and consumption
• Food-chain management, LCM in the agri-food sector, global and local food-supply chains
• Agri-Food LCA in emerging countries 

Timetable:

30 April 2008: Submission of abstracts

July 2008: Publication of programme

30 September 2008: Submission of full papers

12 November 2008, at noon: Conference begins

14 November 2008, at noon: Conference ends

 

Conference mail address (operable from mid-November on):

lcafood08@art.admin.ch