Life Cycle Assessment for Environmental Impact Reduction and Evaluation of the Energy Indices in Lettuce Production

Abstract

Since the supply of basic needs, especially food, is among the strategic priorities of each country and conventional food production methods no longer suffice, food production methods are now transforming into industrial approaches. Industrialization, however, requires higher energy usage. Greater energy demand brings about the issue of energy sustainability. In particular, the depletion of fossil fuels results in serious challenges in food production processes. On the other hand, the utilization of energy carriers is accompanied by environmental contamination. In this regard, evaluating energy consumption and environmental pollution in the production systems can be a proper approach to finding the energy consumption and pollution centers for presenting applicable solutions to decrease pollution. In this study, energy indices of ER, EP, SE, and NEG were assessed to evaluate the energy consumption of lettuce production. The results showed values of 0.4, 17.28 kg/MJ, 0.06 MJ/kg, and 29,922 MG/ha for ER, EP, SE, and NEG, respectively. Among the consumption inputs, diesel fuel and nitrogen fertilizer had the highest consumption rate. Pollutants were also explored by the life cycle assessment method. Accordingly, chemicals and agricultural machinery led to the highest contaminating emissions. To reduce environmental contaminants, lowering the application of chemical pesticides, using biological approaches to combat pests, determining the proper amount of chemical fertilizers, using animal fertilizers, and using the proper agricultural machines should be considered.