Front page

Linking environmentally friendly production and sustainable consumption Bygholm Park Hotel, Horsens, Denmark, October 6-8, 2003 Welcome to the LCA conference web-site where you may study the background, objectives and key topics.

Pictures from the LCA-conference

Please find the presentations from the conference under each title in the programme


Focus on sustainable (agricultural) production should go hand in hand with the quest for sustainable (food) consumption. The regulation of agri-environmental problems has focused on improvements in farm production systems in relation to local effects. This approach does not take into consideration the developments in food processing and consumer choices as well as more global environmental effects. There is a need for a complementary focus on the environmental impact per unit of food produced. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a tool for an aggregated description of emissions, waste and the resource use from soil to kitchen per unit of different food items. Food consumption is one of the major causes for resource use and environmental impact by modern households. But the importance of these burdens in the primary production, industrial food processing and kitchen preparation differ among products. It is, however, not easy to define and compare the environmental burden from different choices of food. The added value of LCA for decision making: Life Cycle Assessment may be used by food companies internally to improve their production chain and to evaluate potential new products or externally for communicating and documenting environmental advantages or improvements. Consumer groups, farmers and political decision makers may use LCA to compare the environmental impact of different consumer choices and production methods.
		Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences and The Directorate for Food, Fisheries and Agri Business

		2.-0 LCA consultants

		Flemish Institute of Technological Research

		The Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology

		United Nations Environment Programme

Objectives

Bygholm Park Hotel, Horsens, Denmark, October 6-8, 2003

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a tool for an aggregated description of emissions, waste and the resource use from soil to kitchen per unit of different food items.