DefinePK

Abstract

Carbon is an important element for humans because it is the primary element of both plants and animals and it cycles through living and non-living components. Pigs are energy using animals that are raised for their meat, and produce emissions of CO2. The carbon footprint is also the alternative for consumers to choose products with the least release of greenhouse gases into the environment. Therefore it is important to study and understand the relationship between the carbon emissions and carbon transfer to pig’ energy use to develop carbon footprints for meat production. The focus of this study was to develop carbon footprints for pig meat production. To accomplish this we studied the rate of the carbon emissions from electricity, petroleum, LPG used during meat production. The results shown that the carbon emission were 0.21±0.05, 1.22±0.13 and 0.24±0.05 kg.C/head/day from the using of electricity energy, transportation energy, and LPG, respectively. The carbon emission from the using of transportation energy was quite high in terms of energy using but low in the using of electricity and LPG activities. The results also shown that the carbon emission of the energy using from farms and slaughterhouses were 1.98±0.17 and 1.11±0.04 kg.C/head/day, respectively. The carbon footprint from energy using were 26.33±0.33 kg.CO2.eq./1 kg.meat. Therefore, farmers should reduce emissions from energy consumption such as reduce electricity utilization in farms, slaughterhouses and reduce distance for animal feed transportation to farms, animals to farms and slaughterhouses. It is suggested that the use of fuel for transportation should be reduced because it creates the highest carbon emission.