2022 – Sustainability assessment of commercial Brazilian organic and conventional broiler production systems under an Emergy analysis perspective

Resumo (EN)

This study aimed at assessing and comparing the sustainability of a Brazilian production unit representing the production of broilers reared in an organic system with a handling unit for the production of broilers reared in a conventional system based on Emergy analysis. The analysis was carried following four steps: (i) definition, location, and data collection of broiler production units; (ii) Emergy diagram drawing; (iii) Emergy table construction; and (iv) result assessment according to the Emergy indicators in the graphical tools. According to the results, showed better environmental performance than while showed better productive efficiency. However, the Emergy Sustainability Index results indicated that is sustainable in the short term, while is unsustainable. Also, it is possible that the best environmental performance by is at the limit for systems specialized in the broiler production with a high-intensification degree. Since the corn and soybean meal were the inputs that most contributed to the total Emergy for both systems, and the yield comes from less concentrated sources of energy, the decision-making should be focused on to improve the environmental performance of the commercial broiler production systems being directed towards the reduction of the environmental load, from the use of ingredients with higher renewability i.e. organic corn and soybean feed usage.