Environmental impacts of the Australian poultry industry. 1. Chicken meat production

Abstract

Context Steadily increasing consumption of chicken meat (Australia’s most consumed meat protein) has resulted in expanded production. With societal expectations that industries improve sustainability, understanding baseline impacts is vital. Aims This study determined carbon footprint (kg CO2-e), fossil energy (MJ), fresh water consumption (L), stress (L H2O-e) and scarcity (m3), and land-occupation (m2) impacts for conventional (C) and free-range (FR) production systems, identified hotspots and the implications of changes in production over the past decade, to establish targets for future improvement. Methods In the largest study of its kind, attributional life-cycle assessment with data collected for ~50% of birds processed was used, reporting impacts per kilogram of the typical market mix of chicken products, and boneless chicken. Uncertainty was assessed through Monte Carlo analysis, and results are presented as the means and standard deviation. Key results Slightly lower impacts per kilogram of chicken meat product were observed for C production (2.1 ± 0.03 kg CO2-e, 18.0 ± 0.3 MJ, 178.6 ± 22.4 L, and 10.2 ± 0.1 m2) than for FR (2.2 ± 0.03 kg CO2-e, 18.5 ± 0.3 MJ, 189.6 ± 24.6 L, and 10.6 ± 0.1 m2). Feed production was the major hotspot, followed by grow-out and meat processing. Land use (LU) and direct land use-change (dLUC) impacts associated with imported soymeal added 1.7 ± 0.3 and 1.8 ± 0.3 kg CO2-e to C and FR respectively. FR carbon footprint and land occupation were significantly (P < 0.05) higher. Since 2010, fossil energy, arable land, and greenhouse-gas emissions have declined. One countertrend was LU and dLUC emissions, which increased due to changed soy imports, resulting in a slightly higher C carbon footprint. Conclusions Multi-indicator analysis is fundamental to understanding, communicating, and improving performance, and distinguishing between short-term fluctuations and long-term trends. Since 2010, feed-production impacts have increased (due to imported soymeal in poultry diets), indicating that alternative feed protein sources are a priority. Efficiency improvements reduced per-kilogram impacts across other indicators, demonstrating a positive trend in producing more food from fewer inputs. Implications Australian chicken meat is a low-impact animal protein. Future improvements require alternative feed proteins, technology adoption and practice change to maintain or reduce impacts as production expands alongside consumer demand.