Title
Organic quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa L.) production in Peru: Environmental hotspots and food security considerations using Life Cycle Assessment
Date Issued
01 October 2018
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
journal article
Publisher(s)
Elsevier B.V.
Abstract
Quinoa is a plant that is cultivated in the Andean highlands across Peru and Bolivia. It is increasingly popular due to its high nutritive value and protein content. In particular, the cultivation of organic quinoa has grown substantially in recent years since it is the most demanded type of quinoa in the foreign market. Nevertheless, despite the interest that quinoa has generated in terms of its nutritional properties, little is known regarding the environmental profile of its production and processing. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to analyze the environmental impacts that are linked to the production and distribution of organic quinoa to the main export destinations through the application of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. An attributional LCA perspective was conducted including data from approximately 55 ha of land used for quinoa production in the regions of Huancavelica and Ayacucho, in southern-central Peru. IPCC, 2013 and ReCiPe 2008 were the two assessment methods selected to estimate the environmental impact results using the SimaPro 8.3 software. Results, which were calculated for one 500 g package of organic quinoa, showed that GHG emissions are in the upper range of other organic agricultural products. However, when compared to other high protein content food products, especially those from animal origin, considerably low environmental impacts are obtained. For instance, if 20% of the average annual beef consumption in Peru is substituted by organic quinoa, each Peruvian would mitigate 31 kg CO 2 eq/year in their diet. Moreover, when the edible protein energy return on investment (i.e., ep-EROI) is computed, a ratio of 0.38 is obtained, in the higher range of protein rich food products. However, future research should delve into the environmental and food policy implications of agricultural land expansion to produce an increasing amount of quinoa for a growing global demand.
Start page
221
End page
232
Volume
637-638
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Ingeniería de producción Alimentos y bebidas
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85046668767
PubMed ID
Source
Science of the Total Environment
ISSN of the container
00489697
Sponsor(s)
The authors wish to express their gratitude to Jorge Perea Valencia and Andrés Vílchez Melo, Executive Director and Director of Development and Regional Competitiveness, respectively, of Servicios Educativos de Promoción y Apoyo Rural (SEPAR) for facilitating data acquisition in the production areas. The authors also thank the Instituto de Ciencias de la Naturaleza, Territorio y Energías Renovables (INTE) at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú for financial support. Dr. Pedro Villanueva-Rey and BSc Gustavo Larrea-Gallegos are acknowledged for valuable scientific exchange.
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus