The 2009 ASHS Annual Conference

Objective(s):
From presentations at the Colloquium, ASHS members would understand the utilization of LCA in their respective fields as a means of evaluating systems, technologies, production, storage and processing sustainability

Measuring the sustainability of an agriculture enterprise and the impacts of the production system from “farm to fork” is difficult, but is becoming important.  Many retail operations and governmental regulation agencies are requesting or requiring production, processing, and packaging vendors to provide measurements of the sustainability and impact of the inclusive production system.  One of the methods used to assess the inputs, outputs and impacts of the agricultural production system is life cycle analysis or assessment (LCA).  LCA has been used in industrial as well as agriculture applications during the past 10 years.  The use of LCA has both scientific as well as practical applications in the development and evaluation of production techniques.  Although becoming a standard for measuring inputs and impacts of production systems with many uses in animal production and food processing systems, the application to American horticulture production has been limited.  It appears that there is an information gap on the use of LCA to evaluate the inputs and impacts of horticulture production and processing systems in a farm-to-fork manner.  Because of the value of LCA to research and  the importance that LCA may have as a means for producers to document the inputs and impacts of their production system, this colloquium is presented to introduce the concept to horticulturists in order to stimulate validated research on horticulture crop production systems in the US with implications for use worldwide.

Participation by speakers listed below has not been confirmed pending the approval of this colloquium and appropriate funding required.

Program

1.      Introduction to the Colloquium: A brief  review of LCA and its implication for sustainable horticulture. 

Speakers:  Curt R. Rom, Paolo Sambo

2.      Assessing Sustainability:

Speaker:  Dr Marty Matlock, Professor of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Arkansas.  Chair, USDA Task Force for the Development of National Standards for Sustainable Agriculture

3.      The basis of Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) as a means of evaluating and supporting system sustainability:  Lessons from the Field

Speaker:  Nathan Pelletier, Dalhouse Univ Nova Scotia

4.      Use and impact of LCA in Crop Research and Production

Speaker:  Dr. Stefan Bona, Professor Department of Environmental Agronomy and Vegetable Production, University of Padova, Italy

5.      LCA in the Market Place: 

Speaker:  Amy Zettlemoyer-Lazar, Sams Club/Walmart.  Co-manager of the Wal-Mart Sustainability Value Network;  Director of scorecard and LCA development and use by vendors

6.  Case Study and Example:  LCA and Food Miles of Fruit Crops 

Speaker:  Professor  Michael M. Blanke, of Sciences and Resource Conservation – INRES, Department of Horticulture, Bonn