Environmental impacts of different dairy farming systems in the Po Valley

The results of this LCA also indicated that marine eutrophication, freshwater eutrophication, non-renewable energy use, land occupation and total biodiversity loss decreased as the level of intensification of the production system increased. Conversely, local biodiversity loss, instead, increased if the milk yield per cow increased. We can conclude that, in the specific context analysed, the increase in productivity may lead to a trade-off between global impacts (such as GHG emissions) and local impacts (e.g. local biodiversity and eutrophication).