A. Arrigoni, D. Marveggio, F. Allievi, G. Dotelli, G. Scaccabarozzi
Science of the Total Environment, 869, 161773 (2023)
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.161773
This work aims at filling the literature gap concerning the external costs of food consumption. Environmental and health-related impacts generated by the life-cycle of meat are evalutated and translated into external costs via monetization, considering meat consumption in Italy as a case study. Attributional life cycle assessment (LCA) was used to estimate the potential external costs, considering: i) the ReCiPe method for the analysis of environmental impact (fourteen impact categories), ii) the population attributional fractions to assess the health damage from meat ingestion, and iii) the CE Delft environmental prices for monetization. The results show that beef and processed pork generate the highest social costs, with an external cost of about 2€ per 100 g, followed by poultry and fresh pork, with a cost of 0.5€ and 1€ per 100 g, respectively. For the sake of comparison, a plant-based alternative to meat, such as legumes, are estimated to have external costs from eight to twenty times lower than meat (about 0.05€ per 100 g of legumes). In 2018, the potential social cost of meat consumption in Italy was about 36.6 bn€, due to impacts generated before (emissions from farming) and after (potential diseases) meat ingestion. Nevertheless, a sensitivity analysis revealed a significant uncertainty on the final annual cost, ranging between 19 and 93 bn€, thus requiring more research to improve the accuracy of the models used in the study (e.g., human health impact assessment, monetization). Moreover, potential external costs currently unaccounted for (e.g., water use, occupational health, animal welfare), could be included as well.