The environmental profile of Pecorino Romano PDO. A case study.

Despite the significant role of small ruminant sector in the global trends of livestock productions, little research has been conducted on the environmental implications of dairy sheep production systems. The main objective of this study was to define the environmental profile of a Pecorino Romano PDO, using a "from cradle to retailer" LCA approach, with the specific goals of evaluating the environmental implications of the cheese supply chain and identifying the hotspots to improve its environmental performance. The analysis was based on the functional unit of 1 kg of cheese and the IPCC (Carbon Footprint) and CML-IA evaluation methods were applied. The LCA highlighted that the farm activities played the most relevant role in the overall environmental performances, with the exception of human toxicity category. Enteric methane emissions, feed supply chain, electricity and equipment resulted the main environmental hotspots.