Biology and Environment: Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy

ABSTRACT:

Recently, there has been an increase in the number of supply chain Life Cycle Assessments, from local cultivation to the final product and its disposal. Globally, the soybean supply chain has expanded. In the 2019/20 season, Brazil was the largest producer and exporter of this commodity worldwide. Currently, LCA publications addressing the environmental impacts of the Brazilian soybean supply chain are scarce, and a review with multiple results is necessary. In the current paper, we performed a search on the 'Web of Knowledge' database using the following search strings: 'Soybean Life Cycle Assessment' and 'Soybean Supply Chain Brazil Assessment'. The search initially retrieved 335 papers. Screening of the identified studies eventually reduced the sample down to 27 relevant papers. We then extracted data that included diverse system boundaries, functional units, life cycle inventories, allocation, impact assessments, and LCA interpretations from each of the studies. Interestingly, the results showed that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change method and the environmental impact of greenhouse gas emissions appeared most (13 times each). Additionally, the SimaPro software was used in nine studies, and the cradle-to-grave concept was addressed in 15 publications. Furthermore, due to the use of various inputs, the agricultural phase has the most significant environmental impact on the soybean supply chain, followed by the transport phase.