Quantifying the environmental impacts of alfalfa production in different farming systems

With an expanding population and changing dynamics in global food markets, it is important to find solutions for more resilient food production methods closer to urban environments. Recently, vertical farming systems have emerged as a potential solution for urban farming. However, although there is an increasing body of literature reviewing the potential of urban and vertical farming systems, only a limited number of studies have reviewed the sustainability of these systems. The aim of this article was to understand the environmental impacts of vertical hydroponic farming in urban environments applied to a case study vertical hydroponic farm in Stockholm, Sweden. This was carried out by evaluating environmental performance using a life cycle perspective to assess the environmental impacts and comparing to potential scenarios for improvement options. The results suggest that important aspects for the vertical hydroponic system include the growing medium, pots, electricity demand, the transportation of raw materials and product deliveries. By replacing plastic pots with paper pots, large reductions in GHG emissions, acidification impacts, and abiotic resource depletion are possible. Replacing conventional gardening soil as the growing medium with coir also leads to large environmental impact reductions. However, in order to further reduce the impacts from the system, more resource-efficient steps will be needed to improve impacts from electricity demand, and there is potential to develop more symbiotic exchanges to employ urban wastes and by-products.

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Indicators: Tools to Evaluate the Environmental Impacts of Farming Systems

Journal of Sustainable Agriculture ◽

10.1300/j064v13n04_03 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 13 (4) ◽

pp. 5-21 ◽

Cited By ~ 105

Author(s):

Philippe Girardin ◽

Christian Bockstaller ◽

Hayo Van der Werf

Keyword(s):

Environmental Impacts ◽

Farming Systems

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Conclusions and recommendations for the future.

Nutrition and feeding of organic cattle ◽

10.1079/9781789245554.0007 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 218-220

Author(s):

Robert Blair

Keyword(s):

Animal Welfare ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

Milk Production ◽

Farming Systems ◽

Feed Quality ◽

The Future ◽

Cattle Farming ◽

Breed Selection

Abstract This chapter describes some recommendations for improving animal welfare, breed selection, feed quality, beef and milk production and quality and reducing environmental impacts in organic cattle farming systems.

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Life cycle assessment as a tool to evaluate the impact of reducing crude protein in pig diets

Ciência Rural ◽

10.1590/0103-8478cr20161029 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 47 (6) ◽

Author(s):

Alessandra Nardina Trícia Rigo Monteiro ◽

Jean-Yves Dourmad ◽

Paulo Cesar Pozza

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

Crude Protein ◽

Production Systems ◽

Farming Systems ◽

Research Area ◽

Nitrogen Excretion ◽

Pig Production ◽

The Impact

ABSTRACT: Environmental impacts of livestock systems, especially pig production, have come under increasing debate in recent years. The challenge is in meeting the growing demand for food at an affordable cost, without compromising environmental integrity. Previous studies have shown that feed production is responsible for the majority of CO2-eq. emission resulting from pig farming systems. This seems to indicate that feed strategies could be an effective tool to achieve the sustainability of the pork chain. Therefore, dietary crude protein reduction, through the addition of industrial amino acids, lessens the nitrogen excretion by pigs and, consequently, could mitigate the effects on the environment of pig production. In this sense, to effectively evaluate the environmental impacts of pig production systems, life cycle assessment has been widely used in agriculture, but the effects of feed are still understudied in Brazilian conditions. Owing to the importance and the great concern in this research area, we presented in this paper an updated review focusing on the nutritional techniques and their potential to reduce the global warming potential of pig production, considering both the direct effects, related to the choice of feed ingredients and the indirect effects, related to changes in the efficiency of use of nutrient by the animals.

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Assessing between and within Product Group Variance of Environmental Efficiency of Swiss Agriculture Using Life Cycle Assessment and Data Envelopment Analysis

Agronomy ◽

10.3390/agronomy11091862 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (9) ◽

pp. 1862

Author(s):

Dario Pedolin ◽

Johan Six ◽

Thomas Nemecek

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Data Envelopment Analysis ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

Food Production ◽

Production Systems ◽

Farming Systems ◽

Environmental Efficiency ◽

Agricultural Products ◽

Data Envelopment ◽

Product Group

Food production systems can contribute to the degradation of the environment; thereby endangering the very resource, they depend on. However, while overall large, the environmental impacts of individual agricultural products are disparate. Therefore, in order to gain a better understanding of the impact different food production systems have on the environment, we should start at the produce level. In this study, we combine life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology and data envelopment analysis to calculate environmental efficiency scores (i.e., agricultural output divided by environmental impacts) for eight product groups (Milk, Cattle, Pig fattening, Cereals, Beets, Potatoes, Vegetables, Fruits) in Switzerland. First, LCA is used to calculate “cradle to farm-gate” environmental impacts. These impacts are then used as inputs in a data envelopment analysis, with the amount of produced agricultural products as outputs. The resulting environmental efficiency scores reflect the relative efficiency (i.e., related to the best-observed performance) of the observed product groups. We find large differences in environmental impacts and environmental efficiency score distribution between the product groups. While we find some variability of environmental efficiency between farming systems (Organic and Proof of Ecological Performance) within a product group (difference in coefficient of variation between farming systems: Fruits = 48%, Vegetables = 13%, Cereals, Potatoes = 8%), we did not find any significant differences in environmental efficiency between organic and integrated farming systems for any of the considered product groups. Furthermore, we did not find a negative effect of multifunctionality of Swiss farms (i.e., multiple simultaneously produced product groups), but found a small positive effect for Milk in the presence of other product groups. However, the high within product group variance of environmental efficiency suggests the potential for improvements (notably >40% for Fruits and >30% for Cattle and Potatoes).

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Evaluating environmental impacts of contrasting pig farming systems with life cycle assessment

animal ◽

10.1017/s1751731114002134 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 8 (12) ◽

pp. 2027-2037 ◽

Cited By ~ 40

Author(s):

J.Y. Dourmad ◽

J. Ryschawy ◽

T. Trousson ◽

M. Bonneau ◽

J. Gonzàlez ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

Farming Systems ◽

Pig Farming

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Livestock farming systems and their environmental impacts

Livestock Production Science ◽

10.1016/j.livprodsci.2005.05.015 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 96 (1) ◽

pp. 1

Author(s):

John E. Hermansen ◽

George Zervas

Keyword(s):

Environmental Impacts ◽

Farming Systems ◽

Livestock Farming ◽

Livestock Farming Systems

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Sodium Contents in Dairy Cow Urine and Soil Aggregate Sizes Influence the Amount of Nitrogen Lost from Soil

Applied and Environmental Soil Science ◽

10.1155/2015/275985 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 2015 ◽

pp. 1-10 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Toru Hamamoto ◽

Yoshitaka Uchida

Keyword(s):

Environmental Impacts ◽

Aggregate Size ◽

Farming Systems ◽

Experimental Period ◽

Emission Rates ◽

Nutrient Losses ◽

Inorganic N ◽

Cow Urine ◽

Size Groups ◽

Simulated Rain

Cow urine deposition on pasture soils is a major source of N-related environmental impacts in the dairy farming systems. The urine-N can potentially be lost to the ground water as nitrate (NO3-) and to the atmosphere as nitrous oxide (N2O). These N-related environmental impacts are possibly related to the sodium (Na+) concentrations in urine. We sampled a pasture soil and separated it into three aggregate size groups (0–3, 3–5, and 5–7 mm). Then, cow urine with variable Na+concentrations (4.3–6.1 g Na+ L−1) was added to the soil cores. We treated the cores with simulated heavy rains and measured the amounts of calcium (Ca2+), Na+, potassium (K+), and inorganic-N leached from the soils. N2O emission rates were also determined throughout the experimental period. Increasing Na+concentration in urine decreased the loss ofNO3-(−20%), after repeatedly applied simulated rain treatments (30 mm × 3), whereas it increased the loss of ammonium (31%) and K+(19%). For the loss of Ca2+and the emissions of N2O, the effect of the Na+concentrations was unclear. Field level studies and studies focusing on the mechanisms behind the changes in nutrient losses are needed.

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