Methodological framework to develop life cycle thinking assessment on 4CE-MED systems

Cereal crops are relevant in many Mediterranean farming systems; however, there is a lack of alternatives. Conservation agriculture (CA) entails principles and benefits that could increase crop diversification while aiding in the reduction of soil erosion and nitrogen leaching. Camelina is well suited to CA systems, proven to be appropriate for commercial growing; therefore, the 4CE-MED project aims at developing Mediterranean innovative, diversified and resilient farming systems not competing for land with actual food chain by growing camelina as a cash cover crop or double crop. Particularly, Work Package 4 (WP4) will assess the sustainability of the local tailor-made 4CE-MED systems through a robust, consistent, and science-based analytical framework. In consequence, this deliverable aims to develop a dedicated methodological framework to perform a life cycle thinking assessment on innovative oilseed Mediterranean crops. The framework proposes an assessment based on primary data from other WPs and relevant literature or secondary data, through a Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) approach composed by Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Environmental Life Cycle Costing (E-LCC), and Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA). WP4 will select 3 countries and trials to compare the sustainability performance of current situations with the introduction of 4CE-MED crops. The cases will belong to three major camelina cropping models presented in the project: Model A introduces Camelina to replace fallow in winter cereal sole-cropping systems, in marginal areas with very dry climate, Model B considers Camelina as a double-cropping cultivation in autumn, to precede typical Mediterranean summer crops, and Model C uses Camelina as a double-cropping in late spring/early summer in colder areas to follow winter pulses (e.g. pea) or cereals harvested as fodder. The selected cases would have followed the experimental protocol presented in WP2 and will be closely linked to a Data Collection Protocol (Deliverable 4.2) to obtain first an inventory of inputs and outputs of each case. A literature review was also conducted for this deliverable, which allowed to observe there is limited LCA, E-LCC and S-LCA studies of the Camelina crop in Mediterranean regions. Most of the information found is referred to the application of Camelina as biofuel, while some articles even highlighted that camelina is not used as food. The definition of a goal and scope, defined in this framework expects to conduct a cradle-to-farm gate assessment with functionality based mostly on yield will be considered in culture succession is preferred. Functional unit is expected to be mass based, with derivations towards the environmental, economic and social impact categories of interest. The environmental dimension will refer to midpoint categories, with a consistent use as in most of the studies of Global Warming Potential, Eutrophication Potential and Terrestrial acidification Potential. Regarding the economic dimension, cost categories, income and net margin will be observed, and the social dimension will include impact categories that range from endpoint to midpoint categories, where human rights, working conditions and community are to be addressed.