Environmental impacts of organic and conventional tobacco agricultural production in south Brazil

Authors

  • Priscila Fernandes de Oliveira Universidade de Santa Cruz do Sul (UNISC) https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8334-8771
  • Ana Letícia Zappe Universidade de Santa Cruz do Sul (UNISC)
  • Ricardo Boethcher Universidade de Santa Cruz do Sul (UNISC)
  • Diosnel Antonio Rodriguez Lopez Universidade de Santa Cruz do Sul (UNISC)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14488/1676-1901.v20i3.3793

Keywords:

Life cycle, Environmental impacts, Organic, Tobacco, Production

Abstract

A Life Cycle Analysis of organic and conventional tobacco production in southern Brazil was carried out to evaluate the environmental impacts associated with the stages of seedling production, tillage, curing and transportation. The data used for the characterization were obtained by applying questionnaires to producers and transporters and also used production data from 12,000 tobacco pro-ducers, provided by a beneficiary company in the region. Impact assessment was performed through Life Cycle Analysis. The reference unit was the production of one ton of dry tobacco. Six impact cate-gories were analyzed: Global Warming Potential, Terrestrial Acidification, Terrestrial Ecotoxicity, Fresh-water Eutrophication, Land Use and Fossil Resource Shortages. The results were able to show the stages of greatest impact on both forms of production. Comparing the results between the planting systems in each impact category it was possible to verify that the organic planting presents larger im-pacts for the terrestrial acidification, global warming potential and land use categories. In turn, conven-tional planting had higher total impact values for the categories of freshwater eutrophication potential and scarcity of fossil resources.

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Published

2020-09-30

How to Cite

Fernandes de Oliveira, P., Zappe, A. L., Boethcher, R., & Rodriguez Lopez, D. A. (2020). Environmental impacts of organic and conventional tobacco agricultural production in south Brazil. Revista Produção Online, 20(3), 903–922. https://doi.org/10.14488/1676-1901.v20i3.3793

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Papers