Investigation of environmental impact of cattle beef production (Case study: Mazandaran province)

Meat is an important source of protein and energy, which contains large amounts of essential amino acids and fats along with vitamins and minerals. The livestock industry is one of the most important sources of pollutants due to its high consumption of energy and water, as well as the production of excrement. In the present study, the environmental impact of cattle beef production in three industrial, semi-industrial and traditional breeding methods were evaluated using Life cycle assessment method in Mazandaran province. The environmental impacts of producing one ton of cattle beef were evaluated by IMPCAT 2002+ methods in the form of 15 midpoint environmental indicators and 4 endpoint environmental indicators. The results showed that in the industrial and semi-industrial production method, direct pollutants from livestock farm and in the traditional production method, the use of concentrate has the highest impact on creating intermediate environmental indicators. In different production methods, human health in the range of 1.72 to 1.92 Pt, ecosystem quality in the range of 13.36 to 17.5 Pt, climate change in the range of 1.41 to 1.62 Pt and the resources in the range of 0.31 to 0.46 Pt were changed. Also the final environmental indicator showed that the highest and lowest final environmental indicator occurs in the industrial and traditional production methods at the rate of 21.58 and Pt 16.81 per ton of live weight.