The objective of this study was to quantify the emission of global warming gasses associated with pig production during the breeding and fattening stages using the Life Cycle Assessment method for a Japanese farm producing approximately 3000 pigs/year. Emissions were investigated for the processes related to feed production and transport, animal management of the breeding and fattening stages, and the treatment of livestock waste. The functional unit was taken as one kilogram of pig meat. Emissions of CO2, N2O and CH4 amounted to 4.07, 0.93 and 0.56 kg-CO2 eq./kg meat, respectively, giving a total for these gases of 5.57 kg-CO2 eq./kg meat. The emissions associated with the pig-fattening stage were 5.02 kg-CO2 eq./kg meat, which accounted for 90% of total emissions in the pig production system. Interestingly, 70% of emissions could be attributed to feed production and transport processes, while only 8.6% of emissions could be attributed to activities related to animal management.
