Ökobilanz von Rind-, Schweine- und Geflügelfleisch aus konventionellen, tierfreundlichen und biologischen Produktionssystemen

The study compared the environmental impacts of different production systems (conventional, increased animal welfare label and organic) for beef, pork and chicken meat at the farm gate using model farms based on Swiss real farm data. Results showed that feeding and feed production had a high influence, particularly for monogastric animals. Organic farming had lower mineral resource use and ecotoxicity due to the ban of mineral fertilisers and pesticides but had a lower productivity per area, which influenced several impact categories such as eutrophication and land use negatively when expressed per kg live weight. Fundamentally, most of the decisive parameters for the environmental impacts of a production system turned out to be generally valid for both conventional and organic production.