Details

Agriculture and especially animal husbandry are currently facing major challenges, such as ensuring food quality and enabling sustainable value chains. To address these challenges, regional and global food security, animal welfare, efficient use of raw materials, climate and environmental protection and their interactions play a prominent role.

In order to address the challenges of product quality and sustainability, the digitalization of food value chains seems necessary so that relevant data can be generated and analyzed. Within the research project SPECK (Systemic optimization of the meat value chain using the example of pig farming by developing and embedding digital tools), the research group Sustainable Value Chains is working together with the University of Kassel, the research group critical information infrastrucures (cii) of the AIFB at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and partners from industry.

The aim of the research project is to optimize the meat value chain by developing and embedding digital tools as well as the process analysis of the technological status quo of market participants along the value chain and, based on this, the ecological assessment of the value chain using life cycle assessment methodology.

The scope of the IIP includes the preparation of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) along the value chain. Further, the development of animal welfare and meat quality indicators based on the LCA methodology is aimed at. The approach of the IIP is based on the following sub-objectives:

• Identification of the value chain links of pork production and inventory analysis of the data necessary for LCA
• Balancing (LCA and LCC) of the value chain links in the context of the LCA methodology on the one hand considering the industry partners, on the other hand a "standard" case in Germany mapped through case studies
• Sensitivity analysis of different parameters within LCA/LCC
• Increasing the transparency of ecological burdens in the context of pig production in Germany
• Discuss possibilities of transparent and uniform presentation of meat quality and animal welfare aspects