Journal of Animal Science and Technology
Korean Society of Animal Science and Technology
Article

A case study of CO2 emissions from beef and pork production in South Korea

Dawoon Jeong1, Young Soon Kim2, Soohyun Cho3, Inho Hwang1,*
1Department of Animal Science, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju 54896, Korea.
2Institute of Carbon Technology, Jeonju University, Jeonju 55069, Korea.
3Quality Control and Utilization of Animal Products Division, National Institute of Animal Science, Rural Development Administration (RDA), Wanju 55369, Korea.
*Corresponding Author: Inho Hwang, Department of Animal Science, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju 54896, Korea, Republic of. Phone: +82-63-270-2605. E-mail: inho.hwang@jbnu.ac.kr.

© Copyright 2022 Korean Society of Animal Science and Technology. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Received: Oct 27, 2022; Revised: Nov 07, 2022; Accepted: Nov 19, 2022

Published Online: Dec 20, 2022

Abstract

  The current study evaluated carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>) emissions from beef and pork production and distribution chains in the South Korean meat industry. Data from industrial example farms and slaughterhouses were assessed on the basis of both the guidelines from the United Kingdom's PAS 2050:2011 and the Korea Environmental Industry &amp; Technology Institute carbon footprint calculation. The main factors for our estimations were animal feeds, manure waste, transportation, energy and water, refrigerants, and package data. Our analyses show that 16.55 kg CO<sub>2</sub> equivalent (eq) was emitted during the production of 1 kg of live cattle. When retail yields and packing processes were considered, the CO<sub>2</sub>-eq of 1 kg of packaged Hanwoo beef was 27.86 kg. As for pigs, emissions from 1 kg of live pigs and packaged pork meat were 2.62 and 12.75 kg CO<sub>2</sub>-eq, respectively. While we gathered data from only two farms and slaughterhouses and our findings can therefore not be extrapolated to all meats produced in the South Korean meat industry, they indicate that manure waste is the greatest factor affecting ultimate CO<sub>2</sub> emissions of packaged meats.

Keywords: Life cycle assessment; Beef; Pork; Carbon emissions; Imported meat