Carbon footprint: an ecological indicator in food production

Decreasing energy resources, world population growth, and the development of societies based on the principle of sustainable development are the main factors increasing the importance of ecological aspects of production and consumption. One of the proposals taking into account the ecological aspect is the introduction of an ecological indicator – carbon footprint – characterized by all kinds of products and services. The proposed methodology for determining the value of carbon footprint does not include some important elements. Identified problems in this work are an unreliable estimation of greenhouse gas emissions and differences in the value of the carbon footprint (depending on the farming techniques used and the manner of its expression). The aim of our study was to analyze the available literature data on the size of its carbon footprint during the production of animal materials. The tool used to determine the CFP value was life cycle analysis (LCA). A study of the literature showed that the CFP value in the production of pork in various agricultural systems ranges from the 2.06 kg CO₂ eq/kg (good agricultural practice) to 3.97 kg CO₂ eq/kg (organic agricultural production).