Life cycle assessment
Author Maartje Sevenster
Key points
- Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a powerful framework for quantifying environmental and other impacts of producing and consuming goods and services.
- The results of product LCA are often overinterpreted to make incorrect inferences about the food system as a whole.
- If a product is currently produced at lower environmental cost than alternatives, there is no guarantee that a future shift in consumption to that product will improve overall food system sustainability.
- To inform decision making for food system sustainability, tailor-made assessments can take into account effects of large-scale shifts.