Opportunities and challenges of sheep milk systems towards sustainability

Abstract

Livestock has been during years and currently is an important activity in our society with strong links with our territory, our diet habits and other cultural aspects. Nevertheless, the current models of food production need to cope urgently with several aspects: the negative impact of the agricultural production on the environment, the already visible climate changes that determine the current forms of production, the increasing demand of meat products for the emerging economies, as well as the growth of the population which is estimated in 10 billion people in 2050. In addition, in Europe, the primary sector needs to be revitalized and the rural areas need special attention in terms, to avoid their abandonment and stop the desertion of the agricultural activity.For that, it is necessary to start from the criterion that the agrarian activity must be sustainable, that is to say viable in the long term. In addition, this has to be from the triple perspective of the concept of sustainable development. That means, not only from an environmental point of view, but also economically and socially.This PhD thesis has had as main aim working on the concept of the sustainability in sheep sector from two perspectives. The first one, from a holistic point of view; including economic, social and environmental variables in the evaluation of the sustainability of the sheep milk production systems in the Basque Country (Northern Spain). The second one, a more concrete point of view which relates to the climate impact sheep milk production. In this second part, the carbon footprint of the milk has been calculated through the methodology of Life Cycle Assessment.The structure of this PhD thesis is six chapters with three scientific publications. The two first chapters are an introduction and a general contextualization related to the topic, as well as the objectives of the study; chapter three approaches a sustainable assessment using the sheep sector in The Basque Country as study case; chapter four narrates the greenhouse gases linked with sheep milk production; last two chapters identify opportunities and challenges as conclusions of the results obtained during the PhD process.The first part ( Chapter 3 and Paper I), relative to sustainable assessment took its point of departure with the project RTA2010-00064-C04-04, THAT WAS FUNDED FROM THE SPANISH NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR AGRICULTURAL AND FOOD RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY (INIA).A specific methodology (NAIA 2.0) was developed based on the creation of an economic, social and environmental indicator framework. A total of 112 indicators, (qualitative and quantitative) measure aspects relative to the livestock sustainability. The indicators are integrated into attributes, and the attributes are integrated into the three dimensions of sustainability. This integration is numerical and visual in order to be useful to work with the results. The aspects relative to the development of the methodology are detailed in Paper I. In order to test the methodology, during year 2011, 12 farms in the province of ¿lava were studied. In Chapter III results from such study are shown. Three groups were identified: i) intensive farms with foreign breeds; ii) traditional farms which only produce milk; iii) traditional farms which produce cheese in the farm. The results of the assessment show differences between and within the groups. The biggest differences are identified in the social dimension. This is due to the fact that traditional farms are much linked with the territory and the familiar character of the farms. In the economic dimension, the farms which produce cheese obtained more positive values in economic terms. In the environmental dimension, the biggest differences between groups are those relative to soil management, livestock equilibrium and territorial based or landscape creation and biodiversity. Chapter three finishes with a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats) matrix of traditional sheep sector in the Basque Country.The second part of this PhD thesis (Chapter 4, Paper II and Paper III) studied in deep the greenhouse gases associated with the production of sheep milk. The carbon footprint was calculated trough a Life Cycle Assessment. The emissions derived from the enteric fermentation were the most important in quantitative terms, as well as the emissions from the production of concentrates and forages. As initial result, it appears that the quantity of milk produced per sheep influences the carbon footprint.Although carbon footprint is a well-recognized indicator and very extended, during the development of this PhD thesis some methodology aspects were studied in detail. The objective of this was looking for the inclusion of some variables which introduce someaspects to visualize positive effects of the less productive systems. The two aspects that have been worked in detail has been the inclusion of soil carbon sequestration and land used changes. In the first study (Paper II), the capacity of soil carbon sequestration during grazing was included in the carbon footprint. The results showed that with correct grazing practices, the carbon footprint of a litre of milk could be reduced to 40 % approximately. The second study (Paper III) studied was the incorporation of the land use changes to the carbon footprint. The results show that when land use changes are included the carbon footprint increases around 20%, depending on the approach used to calculate the land use changes.As final conclusions some opportunities and challenges for the sector have been proposed (Chapter 5) to achieve acceptable levels of sustainability. As highlights, the importance of multidisciplinary studies, as well as specific context and localization of the studies. From an economic perspective, farmers need to minimise risks with e.g. the diversification of the activity to get different origins of the incomes. In social terms, the primary sector needs the incorporation of young people to stop the abandonment of the activity. The traditional farms have an important cultural role and they need to be preserved. From an environmental perspective, livestock farming needs to minimise negative impact and encourage the positive ones. Some of these potential effects have been studied in this PhD thesis as the potential of soil carbon sequestration during grazing, to reduce, as much as possible, the concentrates purchased and the use of range lands which are suitable for ruminants, and to avoid the competition with other land categories.Finally, a few final general considerations (Chapter 6) are detailed for all the stakeholders involved in the sector. The agricultural sustainability is not only a problem of the supply side; it needs to be a collective action for each stakeholder.Keywords: sustainability, sustainable development, indicators, small ruminants, livestock agriculture multifunctionality, multicriteria, territory, rural development, Life Cycle Assessment,carbon footprint, IPPC, externalities, enteric fermentation, grazing, mitigation, soil carbon sequestration, land use change