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Life Cycle Analysis of a Chicken Nugget

Improving people’s lives through responsible food choices

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Objectives

Identify the differences between linear and circular systems

Describe the LCA of a chicken nugget

Map a phase diagram

Identify human activities involved

Describe the jobs and conditions of the employees

Identify points of intervention

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Life Cycle Analysis

A systematic approach to assessing the

environmental, social, and economic impacts associated with all phases of a product’s life cycle from cradle to grave.

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Linear Life Cycle: From cradle to grave

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Life Cycle of a chicken nugget

How do we get from here….

to here?

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Create a Systems Diagram

Extraction of Raw Materials
Breeding and Grow-out
Processing and Packaging
Consumption
End of Life

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Water-Energy-Food Nexus

What (in the process) requires water and energy?

What happens to the water after each phase?

Could you find measurements for each?

Hot Water Scalder Conveyor

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Water-Energy-Food Nexus

What (in the process) requires water and energy?

What happens to the water after each phase?

Could you find measurements for each?

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Water-Energy-Food Nexus

What (in the process) requires water and energy?

What happens to the water after each phase?

Could you find measurements for each?

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What else can we discover?

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Life Cycle of a Chicken Nugget

The Human Impact: The face behind the phase

The History of the Nugget: How we got here

Waste to Treasure: Rethinking phases of the Life Cycle

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Human impact:

The Face Behind the Phase

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Create a narrative about the people involved:

Who is involved in your phase?
How are they affected by the system?
What are their values, concerns, and priorities?
How are they affected environmentally, socially, and economically (The three pillars)?

Add to your map: Individuals, Organizations, & Companies

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Production

Farmers

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Production

Grow Out House, Slaughter House and Processing Plant

The breeder farm is where the eggs of the chickens go to be kept at certain temperature, proper ventilation and humidity, and rotated 45 degrees every hour, much like a hen would move them in a farm setting (this keeps the embryo from sticking to the side of the shell). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4tyamXIU8M (from minute 3)
After 19 days in the Breeder, the eggs are moved to the hatching room, where in 21 days the
baby chicks will be born, and machines will separate the chicks from the shells.
Then the chicks are sent to grow out houses where they will grow for about 40 weeks, when they reach adulthood and they can be sent to the slaughter house.
In the processing plant, the dead chicken will have the feathers removed with hot water and mechanical picking devices, then the internal organs will be removed, and then the chicken is rinsed with antimicrobial to inhibit the growth of bacteria and then they will be inspected for food safety. The chicken is cut into pieces, or left whole for sale. And at the end the whole facility is washed, disinfected and sanitized. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnRYi2ukzOs&t=320s
If the chicken is going to be made into nuggets, then the nuggets are made from breast meat, rib meat, tenderloin and some skin for flavor. Then everything is grinded and mixed with the marinade. The ground meat is formed into the shapes of the nuggets, and then covered in a thin layer of batter, a thin layer of breadcrumbs, and a thin layer of tempura. Then they are fried, but just partially cooked, so they can be fried again and cooked completely at the store, then they are flash frozen, put in a bag, then a box and shipped to the stores.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbqpm1Eq8VQ (2013)

The byproducts of the chickens are used for other things, for example, the feathers can be used for making computers, diapers, shoes or boats; or can be made into a biodegradable plastic that can be molded to mostly everything. Intestines, chicken feet, and other parts of the body can be sold too, since there are some people that like eating those parts. Or they can be kept at the processing facilities and become a flavoring for stocks. Cartilage can be used for making gelatin or other thickening agent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx5OoVrOjW4 (what to do with chicken feathers)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlVSCo8b808 (composting chicken manure)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDzAy1Z2MCk (waste management recycle process, 2013)

Grow out houses

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6xlNyWPpB8

The grow out houses may be one of the most important steps in the chicken industry process because the chickens have to be taken care of, be healthy and the conditions where they are living have to be carefully measured. If a chicken is under stressed or sick, the meat cannot be used for consumption. Therefore keeping the ambience of the chicken while it grows it is very important and it involves many things and stakeholders.

First of all it involves the farmer, which is the direct person to the chickens, the farmer needs to maintain the chickens by having the right equipment, so it may ask for loans from the bank. The farmer may be working for a company, like Tyson, which has to oversee all the process, and may provide other equipment like water nipples or the feed for the chickens, and it is also keeping track of the broiler conditions, etc.

Tyson may also work with other pharmaceutical companies that provide antibiotics for the chickens so they are kept healthy, or Tyson may sell byproducts from the chicken that may be used for pharmaceutical companies.

Everything is interconnected.

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Distribution

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Use

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Waste Disposal

The 4th most

dangerous job

in the Country!

The byproducts of the chickens are used for other things, for example, the feathers can be used for making computers, diapers, shoes or boats; or can be made into a biodegradable plastic that can be molded to mostly everything. Intestines, chicken feet, and other parts of the body can be sold too, since there are some people that like eating those parts. Or they can be kept at the processing facilities and become a flavoring for stocks. Cartilage can be used for making gelatin or other thickening agent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx5OoVrOjW4 (what to do with chicken feathers)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlVSCo8b808 (composting chicken manure)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDzAy1Z2MCk (waste management recycle process, 2013)

Fishing and timber cutting #1 and #2

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16078639

90 deaths/100,000 workers annually

Impatient drivers hitting workers

52.7 Injuries/100

5-7x’s more than average: back injuries and lacerations
High levels of respiratory problems, inflamed airways, fungal infections

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3626824/

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From a Linear to a Circular Economy

https://www.government.nl/topics/circular-economy/from-a-linear-to-a-circular-economy

Traditionally linear- to partial reuse- to integrated circular

The Carbon Cycle is a continuously flowing cycle that is essential to life.

Plants absorb carbon dioxide to grow and produce food>>>animals feed on the vegetation resulting in carbon being passed along in the food chain>>> Organisms die and decompose>>> Some organisms are buried and eventually become fossil fuels, others are broken down by decomposers and carbon reinters cycle through carbon dioxide or root respiration>>> Finally, carbon returns to atmosphere through animal and plant respiration and combustion.

Left alone, the carbon cycle operates in unity with other life cycles. However, it’s when there’s too much that a perversion occurs. Humans have altered the cycle by using fossil fuels, such as coal or oil, as an energy source. This wouldn’t be all together bad if it weren’t for excessive use that results in an overabundance of carbon that alters the other cycles involved. The carbon cycle is an example of a naturally occuring circular system. It’s also an illustration of what can occur when humans disrupt circular systems.

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Where can we change this system from linear to circular?

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Find your partner!

How can this lesson be personalized to your classrooms?
What extensions could be made?
What other LCA’s could you map?

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“With our purchases we decide the future of the landscapes around us and the futures of the farmers that work the land.”

-Dr. Helda Morales

Agroecology Professor at El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Chiapas México