An Integrated Analysis of Dairy Farming: Direct and Indirect Environmental Interactions in Challenging Bio-Physical Conditions

The demand for milk and its products is growing worldwide. The need to find more efficient ways to produce milk while reducing pressure on the local and global environment has been identified. The Israeli dairy system operates in a challenging environment (limited land, water, and a harsh climate). This paper embraces a life cycle assessment (LCA) framework to analyze various local and global direct and indirect environmental interactions of milk production in Israel. The results show that the production of 1 kg of fat and protein-corrected milk (FPCM) in the systems that were analyzed requires on average 0.5 m² of land, 52 L of water, and 3.3 MJ of energy. The emissions that were generated over the life cycle averaged 1.03 kg CO₂-eq (GWP), 0.0095 kg SO₂-eq (AP) and 0.003 kg PO₄-eq (EP). The research findings point to several ‘pollution hotspots’ that are relevant also to dairy systems in other regions, including feed supply, GHG emissions that are related to enteric fermentation, manure management, and the use of water, and discuss some potential directions to advance more efficient, less polluting system.