Environmental life cycle assessment of Mediterranean tomato: case study of a Tunisian soilless geothermal multi-tunnel greenhouse

Maaoui, Mariem; Boukchina, Rachid; Hajjaji, Noureddine

doi:10.1007/s10668-020-00618-z

Cited by 21 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 32 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The production of the water tank was not regarded due to lack of data, but the energy needed for its operation was included. The functional unit was 1 t −1 (ton) of packed marketable fruit at the EU (European Union) gate, a very common functional unit (e.g., Almeida et al, 2014;Bojacá et al, 2014;Dias et al, 2017;Maaoui et al, 2020;Deepa et al, 2021;Torres Pineda et al, 2021).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A significant body of environmental research has examined fresh and processed tomato-based products (Clune et al, 2017;Deepa et al, 2021). Some studies have taken a broad systematic approach using research methods, such as life cycle assessment (LCA) and the footprint family indicators (e.g., Page et al, 2012;Clavreul et al, 2017;Garofalo et al, 2017;Lam et al, 2018;Ronga et al, 2019;Canaj et al, 2020;Maaoui et al, 2020). However, meta-analyses of global studies on the environmental impacts of tomato production (Clune et al, 2017;Bjørn et al, 2020;Torres Pineda et al, 2021) showed that most studies, were conducted in Europe and the Americas.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Tomatoes from the desert: Environmental footprints and sustainability potential in a changing world

Wyngaard

Kissinger

2022

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Worldwide growing demand for food, alongside limited resources and accelerating environmental changes, suggests that future global food security may rely at least partially on unconventional land and production systems, such as built infrastructure located in desert areas. This paper analyses the environmental footprints (water, soil, carbon, material, solid waste, and ecological) of a tomato production system in passive greenhouses, a low-tech growing structure with no artificial heating or cooling. We collected data from 10 farms in the hyper-arid region of the Central Arava, Israel. Our analysis covers the four stages of production up to the overseas export destination and investigates the system's direct and indirect biophysical interactions. The average footprint of a ton of tomatoes is 1,040 kg/t (Material footprint), 94 m3/t (Water footprint), 72 m2/t (Land footprint), 952 kgCO2eq/t (Carbon footprint), 442 kg/t solid waste (SWF) and 243 gha/t (Ecological footprint). Our results indicate that the environmental hotspots can be attributed to universal factors–water production, fossil energy, fertilizers, structures, and road transport, alongside case-specific elements–soil, evaporation, location and the human-factor. Some differences were found when examining the full range of footprints within farms. No correlation was found between the farm's yields and materials inputs or carbon footprint, pointing to the human factor. We discuss the advantages and limitations of the local production system and proposed some improvement strategies.

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tomatoes from the desert: Environmental footprints and sustainability potential in a changing world

Wyngaard

Kissinger

2022

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Primary data/Ecoinvent v3 CML baseline 2000 Tunisia [195] Agricultural practices 1 ha/1 dinar Primary data/Existing literature/Ecoinvent ReCiPe2016 Tunisia [196] Ground water irrigation Area of land cropped over 1 year Primary data/Existing literature ReCiPe 1.07 Tunisia [197] Tomatoes 1 ton of soilless cherry tomato produced.…”

Section: Articless Published Per Yearmentioning

confidence: 99%

Status of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in Africa

et al. 2021

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Life cycle assessment (LCA) has received attention as a tool to evaluate the environmental impacts of products and services. In the last 20 years, research on the topic has increased, and now more than 25,000 articles are related to LCA in scientific journals databases such as the Scopus database; however, the concept is relatively new in Africa, where the number of networks has been highlighted to be very low when compared to the other regions. This paper focuses on a review of life cycle assessments conducted in Africa over the last 20 years. It aims at highlighting the current research gap for African LCA. A total of 199 papers were found for the whole continent; this number is lower than that for both Japan and Germany (more than 400 articles each) and nearly equal to developing countries such as Thailand. Agriculture is the sector which received the most attention, representing 53 articles, followed by electricity and energy (60 articles for the two sectors). South Africa (43), Egypt (23), and Tunisia (19) were the countries where most of the research was conducted. Even if the number of articles related to LCA have increased in recent years, many steps still remain. For example, establishing a specific life cycle inventory (LCI) database for African countries or a targeted ideal life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) method. Several African key sectors could also be assessed further.

show abstract

“…In order to optimize the indicators, models were used, according to which the use of modern irrigation systems, as well as the abandonment of artificial fertilizers and plant protection products in favor of natural, could reduce the carbon footprint by up to 43% with a slight increase in energy consumption. The environmental footprint of cherry tomato production in Tunisia, including energy consumption, fertilization, pesticides, transport, greenhouse maintenance, and waste management, was 0.954 kg CO 2 •(kg −1 ), of which about 80% was due to the use of large amounts of energy [75].…”

Section: Carbon Footprint Of Plant and Animal Productsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable Development in the Agri-Food Sector in Terms of the Carbon Footprint: A Review

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The concept of sustainable development is increasingly important in the agri-food sector and global economy. International activities are undertaken to improve the efficiency of industry by reducing its negative impact on the environment. To help determine harmful human activity, the environmental footprints of products and services are calculated using the LCA (life cycle assessment) method. The purpose of this article was to explain topics of sustainable development and environmental footprints, especially the carbon footprint in the agri-food sector, based on the latest literature. The agri-food industry consumes around 30% of global energy demand. It is also a source of emissions of a significant part of greenhouse gases released into the environment. The carbon footprint of food products is determined by many factors associated with their production. Food of animal origin is more harmful and has higher carbon footprints than plant-based products. GHG emission reduction is possible due to the use of renewable energy sources and the abandonment of the use of artificial fertilizers and plant protection products.

show abstract

Environmental life cycle assessment of Mediterranean tomato: case study of a Tunisian soilless geothermal multi-tunnel greenhouse

Cited by 21 publications

References 32 publications

Tomatoes from the desert: Environmental footprints and sustainability potential in a changing world

Tomatoes from the desert: Environmental footprints and sustainability potential in a changing world

Status of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in Africa

Sustainable Development in the Agri-Food Sector in Terms of the Carbon Footprint: A Review

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About