In the U.S., the Applied Sustainability Center at the University of Arkansas is completing a GHG life cycle assessment (LCA) of fluid milk for the U.S. dairy industry. The LCA provides the U.S. dairy industry with a scientific baseline of the carbon footprint of fluid milk in each part of the supply chain so that we can measure improvements against our goals.

The data also will serve as the foundation for the creation of best practices and decision-support tools for farmers, processors and others throughout the dairy supply chain.

Based on this data, in conjunction with secondary sources, the University of Arkansas attributes an estimated 2 percent of total U.S. GHG emissions to U.S. dairy.

The scope of this LCA is unparalleled. It measures the GHG emissions of fluid milk from farm to table, which includes everything from what is fed to cows through how a consumer disposes of a milk container. This comprehensive effort gathered data from more than 500 farms and 50 processing plants across the U.S., while analyzing 150,000 round trips transporting milk from farm to processor.

This LCA is already being recognized as an important contribution to LCA science.

• The U.S. dairy industry LCA is following ISO (International Organization for Standardization) standards, which are widely supported by environmental scientists.
• The critical review has been conducted by leading experts in LCA science from the University of Michigan, the University of Iowa, and Sylvatica, an LCA research and consulting firm.
• A series of articles based on the detailed findings of the LCA will be submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals in 2010, with publication expected in 2011.