Analysis of livestock life cycle assessment (LCA) regarding environmental assessment factors and its possible application toward Korean livestock LCA

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been used to assess the environmental impact of livestock industries since it was adopted as a standard method in 2006. However, many studies have simplified the environmental assessment factor for a simple assessment. Simplified LCA cannot be used in business/policy decisions because results can be overestimated and underestimated, ignoring interactions between environmental assessment elements. Therefore, it is necessary to review literatures that apply evaluation methods that take into account various environmental assessment factors. In this study, we selected and reviewed literatures on livestock-related LCA studies over the past five years. Environmental assessment factors by literature were considered and classified. Finally, we evaluated the applicability of comprehensive LCA research in the domestic livestock industry through a literature containing a number of factors.