Food production systems can contribute to the degradation of the environment; thereby endangering the very resource, they depend on. However, while overall large, the environmental impacts of individual agricultural products are disparate. Therefore, in order to gain a better understanding of the impact different food production systems have on the environment, we should start at the produce level. In this study, we combine life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology and data envelopment analysis to calculate environmental efficiency scores (i.e., agricultural output divided by environmental impacts) for eight product groups (Milk, Cattle, Pig fattening, Cereals, Beets, Potatoes, Vegetables, Fruits) in Switzerland. First, LCA is used to calculate “cradle to farm-gate” environmental impacts. These impacts are then used as inputs in a data envelopment analysis, with the amount of produced agricultural products as outputs. The resulting environmental efficiency scores reflect the relative efficiency (i.e., related to the best-observed performance) of the observed product groups. We find large differences in environmental impacts and environmental efficiency score distribution between the product groups. While we find some variability of environmental efficiency between farming systems (Organic and Proof of Ecological Performance) within a product group (difference in coefficient of variation between farming systems: Fruits = 48%, Vegetables = 13%, Cereals, Potatoes = 8%), we did not find any significant differences in environmental efficiency between organic and integrated farming systems for any of the considered product groups. Furthermore, we did not find a negative effect of multifunctionality of Swiss farms (i.e., multiple simultaneously produced product groups), but found a small positive effect for Milk in the presence of other product groups. However, the high within product group variance of environmental efficiency suggests the potential for improvements (notably >40% for Fruits and >30% for Cattle and Potatoes).

中文翻译：

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使用生命周期评估和数据包络分析评估瑞士农业产品组之间和产品组内环境效率的差异

粮食生产系统会导致环境退化；从而危及他们所依赖的资源。然而，虽然总体上很大，但个别农产品对环境的影响是不同的。因此，为了更好地了解不同食品生产系统对环境的影响，我们应该从农产品层面入手。在本研究中，我们结合生命周期评估 (LCA) 方法和数据包络分析来计算八个产品组（牛奶、牛、猪育肥、谷物、甜菜、马铃薯、蔬菜、水果）在瑞士。首先，LCA 用于计算“从摇篮到农场大门”的环境影响。然后将这些影响用作数据包络分析的输入，生产的农产品数量作为输出。由此产生的环境效率得分反映了观察到的产品组的相对效率（即与最佳观察性能相关）。我们发现产品组之间的环境影响和环境效率得分分布存在很大差异。虽然我们发现一个产品组内的耕作系统（有机和生态性能证明）之间的环境效率存在一些差异（耕作系统之间的变异系数差异：水果 = 48%，蔬菜 = 13%，谷物，土豆 = 8%） ，我们没有发现任何考虑的产品组的有机和综合农业系统之间的环境效率有任何显着差异。此外，我们没有发现瑞士农场的多功能性（即多个同时生产的产品组）的负面影响，但发现在存在其他产品组的情况下，牛奶有小的积极影响。然而，产品组内环境效率的高差异表明存在改进潜力（特别是水果 >40%，牛和马铃薯 >30%）。