Mapping the EU tomato supply chain from farm to fork for greenhouse gas emission mitigation strategiesShow others and affiliations
2021 (English)In: Journal of Industrial Ecology, ISSN 1088-1980, E-ISSN 1530-9290, Vol. 25, no 2, p. 377-389Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Tomato and tomato products are the most consumed vegetables worldwide. However, reduction of their relatively high emission intensity can be a key to mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the agrifood sector. Using the European Union (EU) and its 28 member states as example, we mapped the mass flow and analyzed the efficiency of the entire tomato supply chain from farm to fork for the year 2016. We then explored potentials of a full spectrum of GHG emission mitigation strategies ranging from production-efficiency improvement to process optimization, food-waste reduction, trade-pattern change, and diet-structure change, both individually and in an integrated framework. The results showed that 63% of tomato loss and waste occurred at the processing and consumption stages (over half in Italy and Spain), and 54% of GHG emissions were from production (notably greenhouse based). Although the reduction of tomato products consumption (considered as the substitution by other vegetables) presented the highest potential of emissions reduction, reducing retailing and consumption waste were found to have great effect on GHG emissions reduction as well for all EU member states, especially for United Kingdom and Germany. The combined effects of different mitigation strategies with high levels of change could reduce GHG emissions by 39% compared to the current level.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Blackwell Publishing , 2021. Vol. 25, no 2, p. 377-389
Keywords [en]
energy efficiency, food waste, greenhouse gas emission mitigation, material flow analysis, resource efficiency, tomato supply chain, Efficiency, Emission control, Fruits, Gas emissions, Optimization, Supply chains, Vegetables, Agrifood sectors, Emissions reduction, Ghg emission mitigations, High emission intensity, Integrated frameworks, Mitigation strategy, Production efficiency, Structure change, Greenhouse gases
National Category
Natural Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ri:diva-50455DOI: 10.1111/jiec.13080Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85092759526OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ri-50455DiVA, id: diva2:1498791
Note
Funding details: Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, H2020, 641933; Funding text 1: This work was funded by REFRESH (Resource Efficient Food and dRink for the Entire Supply cHain), under the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme of the European Union (Grant Agreement no. 641933). Portions of this paper draw on text from the REFRESH Deliverable 5.6 report “Integration of LCC and LCA results to higher system levels: The German meat and EU tomato cases” (Liu et al., 2019 ). The views and opinions expressed in this manuscript are purely those of the authors and may not in any circumstances be regarded as stating an official position of the funding agency.
2020-11-052020-11-052023-05-23Bibliographically approved