From Farm to Flavor: Carbon and Biodiversity Footprint of the Global Spice Market

Agriculture generates roughly one-third of global greenhouse
gas
(GHG) emissions and is the primary driver of biodiversity loss, underscoring
the need to assess the environmental impact of all crops. However,
the spice sector has received little attention, with only a few life
cycle assessment (LCA) studies available. This study evaluates the
carbon and biodiversity footprint of the global spice sector and situates
the sector within the broader agricultural system. Climate impacts
were quantified using the IPCC GWP100a method, while biodiversity
impacts were assessed using LC-IMPACT and a land-use-induced biodiversity
assessment method (the high-resolution land use intensities and fragmentation
method, LUIF). Indirect drivers of species loss were found to be significant,
highlighting the importance of biodiversity assessment beyond only
land-use-induced impacts. To capture these effects more comprehensively,
the LUIF method was integrated into the LC-IMPACT framework. Results
indicate that the global spice sector emits between 41.4 and 64.8
Mt CO2-eq annually and causes approximately 7.2 ×
10–4 PDF·yr (potentially disappeared fraction
of species), including land plants and vertebrates. Although spices
account for only 0.18% of agri-food sector turnover and 0.06% of global
crop production volume, they contribute 0.33% of agricultural GHG
emissions.