A Life Cycle Assessment of Phosphorous

Here I plan to use CLCA to evaluate the environmental impact (and economy by using MFA??) by changing traditional crop to AVP1 GM crop. In this study I will compare wild type (WT) and AVP1 transgenic romaine lettuce (Lactuca sativa cv. conquistador). This is a study of P fertilizer being applied on romaine lettuce from gate to grave and making a comparison between WT and AVP1 romaine lettuce. The system boundary would be commercial P fertilizers applied on all lettuce in the U.S. The lettuce includes head lettuce, leaf lettuce, and romaine lettuce. The amount of P fertilizers such as inorganic, organic, and imported, will be identified and quantified. The amount of nitrogen and potassium fertilizers will also be quantified along with P fertilizer. The amount of water will be compared between the two different lettuces as the AVP1 lettuce grows faster and the amount of days of watering would be fewer. Eutrophication will be assessed as well as N2O emission. As AVP1 lettuce has a bigger root system, I will try to quantify the extra amount of CO2 fixed into the soil via AVP1 lettuce. I will also try to project the impact of AVP1 lettuce on market price. The functional unit of LCA portion is kg usage of N and P2O5 per ton of lettuce and the functional unit of MFA is kg/ha.