Aubin Payne makes a presentation at the NABEC 2023 conference on social life cycle assessment in livestock production
July 31, 2023
Aubin traveled with the whole Sustainable Food Systems Engineering Lab to Guelph, Ontario for the 2023
Northeast Agricultural/Biological Engineering Conference, hosted by the University of Guelph.
In the ballroom of the Delta Hotel, Aubin presented the findings of his review of the literature surrounding
the previous uses of social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) in the agriculture and agri-food sectors.
The discussion involved lessons learned from these previous studies regarding data collection and assessment methods.
It also included a review of the current gaps in research and areas where future projects can improve on S-LCA
methodologies.
While social life cycle assessment has been used in many agricultural scenarios, there was a noted lack of
consistency between the studies. Some studies used Additionally, there is no consistent metric for incorporating
animal welfare into S-LCA calculations, despite the fact that many studies revolved around animal production systems.
Additionally, methods for disseminating results of the studies to stakeholders were underdeveloped. While the findings of the research could help farmers, community members, and policy makers along the value chain make more informed decisions, researchers must develop better strategies to communicate their results.
Following the presentation of these results, Aubin and the rest of the lab members watched several other
interesting presentations from students and researchers representing universities across
the northeastern US and southeastern Canada.
Overall the conference provided opportunities to
develop knowledge through interacting with other researchers, and to develop a sense of community between members of the lab.