Theresia Markut

Greenhouse gas emissions from selected Austrian dairy production systems—model calculations considering the effects of land use change

The aim of this study was to analyze various Austrian dairy production systems (PS) concerning their greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) in a life-cycle chain, including effects of land-use change (LUC). Models of eight PS that differ, on the one hand, in their regional location (alpine, uplands and lowlands) and, on the other hand, in their production method (conventional versus organic, including traditional and recently emerging pasture-based dairy farming) were designed. In general, the GHGE-reducing effect of a higher milk yield per cow and year in conventional dairy farming cannot compensate for the advantages of organic dairy production which requires lower inputs. This is shown both for GHGE per kg of milk and GHGE per ha and year of farmland. Especially when (imported) concentrates were fed, which had been grown on former forests or grassland, e.g. soybean meal and rapeseed cake, GHGE of conventional dairy farming rose due to the effects of LUC. GHGE per kg milk varied from 0.90 to 1.17 kg CO2-eq for conventional PS, while organic PS on average emitted 11% less greenhouse gases (GHGs), the values ranging from 0.81 to 1.02 CO2-eq per kg milk. Within each production method, PS with a higher milk output generally showed better results for GHGE per kg of milk produced than PS with a lower milk output. Nevertheless the latter showed clearly better results for GHGE per ha of land used, ranging from 5.2 to 7.6 Mg CO2-eq per ha and year for conventional PS and from 4.2 to 6.2 Mg CO2-eq per ha and year for organic PS. The results of this study emphasize the importance of a complete life-cycle assessment in the evaluation of impacts that dairy PS have on the climate.

Farm- and product-level biodiversity assessment of conventional and organic dairy production in Austria

The novel method developed for this study evaluates the impact of farming practices on farmland biodiversity, allowing for the assessment of the biodiversity potential of dairy farms at farm and product levels. We linked farming practices as pressure indicators to the species number and abundance of 11 indicator species groups (ISGs), evaluated semi-quantitatively by expert judgements. We calculated biodiversity potential based on food–web relationships between the ISGs, using Monte Carlo simulations for the analysis of uncertainty of expert assessments. We applied the assessment model to 8925 dairy farms from seven different Austrian regions, using official statistical data sets at farm level and interviews with farmers and experts. The results show that the approach can be used to identify differences in the biodiversity potential of farms and milk. Milk from organic farms received 4–79% higher biodiversity scores than milk from conventional farms in all regions. The application showed that in the case of Austrian dairy production, the approach can be used for assessments of both farms and products. However, the approach needs validation and, for product-level assessment, further development to cope with longer supply chains or compound products from different bio-geographic regions.

How a region benefits from regionally labelled cheese products in Austria: a model-based empirical assessment along different value chains

The major aim of the study is to analyse six Austrian value chains of regionally labelled cheese along the whole food value chain concerning their potential socio-economic benefit for the labelled region. Twenty-eight quantitative as well as qualitative indicators, with a potentially positive impact on the region, were used to assess these value chains. An assessment model was developed, which is based on indicators focusing on socio-economic issues concerning regional and corporate resilience, which should be understood as a complementary method to environmental accounting methods such as life cycle assessments. The analysed value chains reach 37 to 79% of the maximum possible benefit for the region. Variation is highly dependent on whether the value chain was conventional and retailed nationally or organic with direct marketing. Whereas the results of all the analysed organic value chains with retailing via supermarket are rather similar to each other (their results reach around 58% of the maximum). Interestingly, milk products, organic as well as conventional, which are sold directly, induce the highest socio-economic benefit for their production region, whereas organic value chains receive slightly more points than conventional when sold via supermarkets. The results of the value chains analysed with the method are consistent and comprehensible if the complex system of food production, processing and retailing is examined in detail. As a result, this study shows the importance of developing methods for assessing the socio-economic impact on value chains in food production. This is of increasing relevance as regionally labelled food is a globally expanding trend.