Assessment of the greenhouse gas emissions from aeroponic lettuce cultivation in Greece
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(2020) 5:29
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Assessment of the greenhouse gas emissions from aeroponic lettuce cultivation in Greece Sofia‑Anna Barla1 · Georgios Salachas2 · Konstadinos Abeliotis1 Received: 30 November 2019 / Accepted: 26 May 2020 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract Soilless agricultural techniques such as aeroponics are considered innovative agricultural strategies that can help to mitigate global warming. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the greenhouse gas emissions from aeroponic lettuce cultivation in an automatic greenhouse in Greece utilizing the life cycle assessment methodology. Three aeroponic cultivations of lettuce were grown at different times of the year. The field inventory data collected during cultivation included the consumption of water, nutrients, and energy in the form of electricity. The results indicated that the greenhouse gas emissions ranged between 2.17 and 3.55 kg CO2 eq. per kg of lettuce produced. The cultivation performed during winter required more materials and energy for growth than the other cultivations and had the highest carbon footprint (3.55 kg C O2 eq. per kg of lettuce produced). Compared with the results from studies of lettuce cultivation in soil, the CO2 eq. emissions per kg of lettuce in the present work were higher. However, the emissions generated by aeroponic cultivation were comparable to or even lower than those from cultivation methods that require the recirculation of water and/or nutrients using equipment that runs on electricity. It seems that energy is the price that society has to pay if soil is to be replaced as a key natural resource for the production of food. Keywords Aeroponics · Lettuce · GHG · Life cycle assessment · Greece
Introduction It is well documented that global warming is significantly enhanced by the greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted during the production of human foods (Carlsson-Kanyama 1998; Geeraert 2013; Saxe et al. 2013; Tukker et al. 2011). Moreover, the United Nations reports that the global human population is expected to reach 10.9 billion by 2100 (United Nations 2019), so the impact of food-related GHG emissions is projected to increase in the near future (Geeraert 2013). The development of appropriate strategies for mitigating the climate change associated with food production Communicated by Konstantinos Moustakas, Guest Editor. * Konstadinos Abeliotis [email protected] 1
School of Environment, Geography and Applied Economics, Harokopio University, El. Venizelou 70, 17676 Kallithea, Greece
Department of Agriculture, University of Patras, Patras, Greece
2
requires adequate and accurate measurements of the GHG emissions resulting from the production and consumption of food products (Amani and Schiefer 2011). Aeroponics is the science of growing plants without using soil or any other substrate. In aeroponics, the roots of the plants are enclosed in a dark container made of polystyrene. The bottom part of the roots is left to hang in the open air. Nutrient solution is sprayed through nozzles onto
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