Thought Leadership: Scientist Profile
Like many young Brazilians, Andre Mazzetto wanted to be a professional footballer when he grew up. “That didn't work out. But my second option was a scientist. I was curious about the world.”
Dr Mazzetto’s path to the plains of Canterbury has taken him from his home in the state of São Paulo to The Netherlands to Wales and finally, here.
As a biologist with a strong background in agronomy, he was always interested in the three things needed for life to stay alive – air, water, and food.
“Air and water are kind of free, but food is not, although it was free maybe 10,000 years ago when we were hunter-gatherers chasing food. When we created agriculture, food production changed the water and the air. I was always interested in those impacts.”
Analysing resource use and environmental emissions
Enter Life Cycle Assessment or LCA for short, a tool that analyses resource use and environmental emissions associated with a product or system. It also accounts for the impacts from the extraction of raw material and all production inputs. It covers the full life cycle of a product, including processing, transport, retail, consumer, and waste.
“When referring to LCA, I use the analogy of telling a story where the food product is the main character. We work to understand and then describe where the product comes from, how it is produced, how it is used, how it is distributed, etc. Then based on all of this information, we calculate the product’s environmental burdens, such as its carbon footprint, and this becomes the products Life Cycle Assessment story.”
Andre says his broad biology background has helped with his work on the effects of farming. He likes to take a “bird’s-eye view” of food production and its consequences and has always been mindful of what the “next big thing”, the next big concern, might be.
“Life Cycle Assessment is more than just carbon footprinting. I remember when arriving here, most people were focused on nitrogen leaching or water quality.
“And then in 2019, the focus went on greenhouse gas emissions. We still talk about water quality, we still do nitrogen leaching studies, but there's a lot of focus on greenhouse gases now.
“Greenhouse gases will soon become a more normal thing, more expected, so I’m looking ahead to what’s the new one? Is it going to be land use? Or energy use? Toxicity? A lot of people are talking about biodiversity as well, which is an important one, too.
“We have been trying to prepare ourselves for that next wave, let’s call it. We will still do a lot of carbon footprinting, and I don’t think that will change in the future, but we are looking at the others because we need to get better and develop the methodology.”
When it comes to Life Cycle Assessment, a researcher needs to know a bit about pasture production, about ruminants’ physiology, and about farm systems.
“I’m not an expert on any of those, but I’m an expert on Life Cycle Assessments, on how to do that. I work closely with [internationally recognised LCA scientist] Stewart Ledgard and [Life Cycle Assessment modeller] Shelley Falconer on most projects, and we are always exchanging ideas about what should be done, and we’re always checking each other and peer-reviewing.”
LCA is more than just carbon footprinting
Andre continues: “Consumers are interested in knowing more about their impact on the environment and producers understand that it is important to be transparent and provide an environmental assessment that is accurate and certified,” he says.
“Another advantage of LCA research is providing accurate measurements to debunk myths or challenge assumptions about exported products, including those that sit behind a concept such as ‘food miles’. Even accounting for freight to overseas markets, New Zealand products often stack up favourably by environmental impact, given the way they are produced.”
As public concern about climate change, water scarcity and quality, and other environmental concerns continues to rise, demand for LCA research also rises.
“Life Cycle Assessment enables a producer to tell their product’s story in relation to multiple impacts. Right now, the focus is primarily on climate change and environmental impacts.
“But we’ve already begun working on methodologies related to ecosystem quality, toxicity, biodiversity, human health, and more. It’s an exciting space to work in.”
