Sinstesi analitica sulla sostenibilità ambientale delle filiere della carne in Italia

The importance of animal products for global human nutrition is undoubted, but their environmental sustainability is subject to much debate. The contribution of livestock supply chains to anthropogenic environmental disturbances is the subject of numerous studies. This brief analytical summary provides some updates on: a) to the emissions of climate-altering gases (GHGs) and their effect on climate change, b) to the new metrics for estimating the contribution of the different GHGs to global warming as a function of their permanence in the atmosphere, c) to the application of these metrics to Italian livestock farming, with particular reference to the cattle sector, from which a virtuous situation results in contrast to an evaluation of the opposite sign if conducted with the old metrics; d) to the release of nitrogen, both in gaseous and solid form, into the environment by Italian cattle farming and the progress made in mitigating its impacts.