Studies by Undergraduate Researchers

Increasing consumer awareness of the environmental impact of food production has prompted interest in locally grown food in Ontario. The research reported here had the objective of quantifying the carbon footprint of Ontario grown wheat. A spreadsheet was developed and populated with data and emission coefficients gathered through consultation of the literature. The spreadsheet expresses the carbon footprint in the life cycle of Ontario wheat in CO2 equivalent (kg CO2). The life cycle of wheat includes production, transportation, the use of machinery and application of agricultural chemicals such as pesticides and fertilizers. Since there are insufficient industrial data of manufacture of machines, they were not included in the calculations. The accuracy of this spreadsheet was examined by comparing its results with results of the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Calculator. The total farm emission of the AAFC GHG Calculator was 3960.2 Mg CO2, while the created spreadsheet had a result of 2963.1 Mg CO2. The spreadsheet has a lower emission than AAFC GHG Calculator because machine manufacture was not included in the spreadsheet. For individual categories agreement was quite close, most categories are within 90% agreement. As a conclusion, results between AAFC GHG Calculator and spreadsheets are similar hence demonstrate the accuracy of the spreadsheet created. Fertilizer production and direct emission from the soil were responsible for 89 % of the GHG emissions from Ontario grown wheat. ife-cycle analysis (LCA) is a computtional tool used t