Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions from Honey Production: Two-Year Survey in Italian Beekeeping Farms

SIMPLE SUMMARY: A life cycle assessment (based on ISO 14040 and 14044) considering the climate change (CC) impact category on beekeeping was performed. To this aim, for two consecutive years, data from beekeeping farms were collected, including data on annual honey production, other hive products, geographical locations of the apiaries, the processing infrastructure, technologies used, and the fuel and energy consumption. The overall LCA result was estimated at 1.44 kg CO(2)e/kg honey, with transport and supplement feeding as main contributors to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Migratory beekeeping systems were found to be more impactful than nonmigratory ones. Results of a climate index indicated that the scarcity of rainfall seems to negatively affect the honey yield, as well as increase the provision of supplemental feeding and the amount of GHG emissions. Despite the study limitations, the results obtained provide interesting insight to improve the sustainability of beekeeping practices in light of the EU Green Deal and Farm to Fork strategies. ABSTRACT: The objective of this study was to quantify the climate change (CC) impact of the honey supply chain in different beekeeping systems and farms, over two consecutive years. The CC impact category is quantified as kg CO(2) equivalent and it evaluates the GHG emissions, mainly CO(2), N(2)O, and CH(4). The results ranged from 0.44 to 3.18 (p = 0.039) kg CO(2)e/kg honey with higher values in 2021 than 2020. The main contributors to climate change of the honey supply chain are represented by transport and supplemental feeding inputs. The beekeeping system (migratory or stationary) influenced CC: the contribution to CC for stationary farms was estimated at 0.58 kg CO(2)e/kg honey and 2.48 for migratory ones (p < 0.001). Given the close connection between honey yield and LCA results due to the unit of measurement of impact, i.e., kg of honey produced, an index was developed (wildflower honey climate index) as a simple benchmark tool for prediction of honey yield in the survey context. Using the data from the present study, we found that the index is positively related to honey yield (r = 0.504; p < 0.05) but negatively related to supplemental feeding (r = −0.918; p < 0.01) and overall carbon footprint (r = −0.657; p < 0.05). Further studies are needed to better explain the effects of weather on honey production, as well as environmental impact.