Current issues and controversies in assessing the environmental impacts of livestock production.

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (044) ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith L. Capper
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Resource Use ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Livestock Production ◽  
Environmental Indicators ◽  
Environment Impact ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Specific Practice ◽  
Over Time

Abstract The environment impact of livestock production is one of the most significant issues within agriculture. Global concerns over climate change, resource use, pollution and other environment indicators means that producers must implement practices and systems to reduce environmental impacts, yet this may only be achieved through assessments that allow impacts to be quantified, benchmarked and improved over time. Although environmental indicators are widely accepted, the metrics by which these are assessed continue to evolve over time as assessment objectives gain clarity and focus, and as the science relating to controversial topics (e.g. global warming or carbon sequestration) becomes more refined. however, significant negative trade-offs may occur between different metrics and denominators such that a specific practice or system may appear to have greater or lesser impacts, depending on assessment methodology. A number of tools and models have been developed to empower producers in quantifying environmental impacts, which will be increasingly important is satisfying future consumers' hunger for information as well as food. These tools must be supplied in tandem with information as to the potential consequences of changing management practices and systems. At present however, tools available are based on differing methodologies, are often opaque in their background calculations and do not necessarily account for all the factors that influence environmental impacts from livestock. There is a clear need for robust tools that can be used as standards for assessing environmental impacts from the global livestock industry and that go beyond GHG emissions to produce a more rounded holistic assessment.

scholarly journals Strategies to Improve the Energy Performance of Buildings: A Review of Their Life Cycle Impact

Buildings ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (8) ◽  
pp. 105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadia MIRABELLA ◽  
Martin RÖCK ◽  
Marcella Ruschi Mendes SAADE ◽  
Carolin SPIRINCKX ◽  
Marc BOSMANS ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Embodied Energy ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Operational Energy

Globally, the building sector is responsible for more than 40% of energy use and it contributes approximately 30% of the global Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. This high contribution stimulates research and policies to reduce the operational energy use and related GHG emissions of buildings. However, the environmental impacts of buildings can extend wide beyond the operational phase, and the portion of impacts related to the embodied energy of the building becomes relatively more important in low energy buildings. Therefore, the goal of the research is gaining insights into the environmental impacts of various building strategies for energy efficiency requirements compared to the life cycle environmental impacts of the whole building. The goal is to detect and investigate existing trade-offs in current approaches and solutions proposed by the research community. A literature review is driven by six fundamental and specific research questions (RQs), and performed based on two main tasks: (i) selection of literature studies, and (ii) critical analysis of the selected studies in line with the RQs. A final sample of 59 papers and 178 case studies has been collected, and key criteria are systematically analysed in a matrix. The study reveals that the high heterogeneity of the case studies makes it difficult to compare these in a straightforward way, but it allows to provide an overview of current methodological challenges and research gaps. Furthermore, the most complete studies provide valuable insights in the environmental benefits of the identified energy performance strategies over the building life cycle, but also shows the risk of burden shifting if only operational energy use is focused on, or when a limited number of environmental impact categories are assessed.

scholarly journals Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers

Science ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 360 (6392) ◽  
pp. 987-992 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Poore ◽  
T. Nemecek
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Dietary Change ◽  
Environmental Indicators ◽  
Animal Products ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
New Evidence

Food’s environmental impacts are created by millions of diverse producers. To identify solutions that are effective under this heterogeneity, we consolidated data covering five environmental indicators; 38,700 farms; and 1600 processors, packaging types, and retailers. Impact can vary 50-fold among producers of the same product, creating substantial mitigation opportunities. However, mitigation is complicated by trade-offs, multiple ways for producers to achieve low impacts, and interactions throughout the supply chain. Producers have limits on how far they can reduce impacts. Most strikingly, impacts of the lowest-impact animal products typically exceed those of vegetable substitutes, providing new evidence for the importance of dietary change. Cumulatively, our findings support an approach where producers monitor their own impacts, flexibly meet environmental targets by choosing from multiple practices, and communicate their impacts to consumers.

Environmental impacts of livestock production

2001 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 13-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. R. Cumby ◽  
V. R. Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Water Pollution ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Environmental Effects ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Dairy Farm ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Livestock Production ◽  
Continuous Treatment ◽  
Good Management ◽  
Dirty Water

AbstractLivestock production under Northern European conditions can affect water, air and soil. Examples of the possible environmental effects on water are fish kills or microbial contamination, if solid manure, slurry, “dirty water” or silage effluent are collected, stored, handled or spread inappropriately. Examples of the possible environmental effects on air are emissions of ammonia (which can lead to acidification and, after subsequent deposition, to eutrophication), the greenhouse gases methane and nitrous oxide, odours and particulates.In the case of water pollution, good management practices using existing technology are usually adequate for preventing most environmental impacts. This often requires storage during periods when conditions are unsuitable for spreading, followed by carefully controlled application. However, for relatively dilute effluents (such as dairy farm “dirty water”), it may be more cost-effective to use different approaches, such as waste minimisation and/or continuous treatment and land spreading. Recent research results are reviewed and compared in this paper, to identify ways in which farmers can prevent water pollution at least cost. The potential implications of such measures on further reductions in the annual numbers of pollution incidents are discussed in conjunction with the impacts of different regulatory and punitive approaches.In the case of preventing air pollution, although good management can achieve much, there is a need for new technology to back it up. Existing ammonia abatement techniques are mostly expensive and farmer-unfriendly. In the longer term, changes to the animals' diet should hold the greater potential for abatement, not only of ammonia emissions but also of methane emissions. Reducing one form of pollution can often increase another, so an integrated approach to solving pollution problems is necessary.

scholarly journals Organic Vegetable Cultivation Reduces Resource and Environmental Costs While Increasing Farmers’ Income in the North China Plain

Agronomy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 361
Author(s):  
Qiang Xu ◽  
Kelin Hu ◽  
Hongyuan Zhang ◽  
Hui Han ◽  
Ji Li
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Resource Use ◽  
North China Plain ◽  
North China ◽  
Environmental Costs ◽  
Environment Impact ◽  
The North ◽  
Organic Cultivation ◽  
The North China Plain ◽  
Vegetable Cultivation

Organic cultivation has been promoted in recent years as a possible alternative to conventional cultivation in order to reduce environmental burdens and nonrenewable resource use. However, a comprehensive assessment of the sustainability of different vegetable cultivation modes is currently lacking. In this study, a combined use of economic analysis (ECA), emergy analysis (EMA), and lifecycle assessment (LCA) was conducted to evaluate the economic performance, resource use, and environmental impacts of three greenhouse eggplant production modes, namely conventional (CON), low-input (LOW), and organic (ORG) cultivation. ECA results showed that the economic profit and value to cost ratio of ORG increased by 14%–17% and 36%–41% compared with CON and LOW, respectively. EMA results showed that ORG had higher resource use efficiency. The unit emergy value and emergy sustainability index of ORG increased by 37%–49% and 45%–65% than those of CON and LOW, respectively. LCA results revealed lower potential environmental impacts for ORG, and its total potential environment impact index was 80%–91% lower than that of CON and LOW. These results showed that organic vegetable cultivation reduced resource and environmental costs while increasing farmers’ income, which is the most sustainable vegetable production mode in the North China Plain.

scholarly journals The effects of improved performance in the U.S. dairy cattle industry on environmental impacts between 2007 and 2017

2019 ◽  
Vol 98 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith L Capper ◽  
Roger A Cady
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Dairy Cattle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Milk Production ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Dairy Industry ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Environmental Modeling ◽  
Nutrient Excretion ◽  
The U.S

Abstract The U.S. dairy industry considerably reduced environmental impacts between 1944 and 2007, primarily through improved dairy cow productivity. However, although milk yield per cow has increased over the past decade, whole-system environmental impact analyses have not been conducted over this time period, during which environmental modeling science has improved considerably. The objective of this study was to compare the environmental impact of U.S. dairy cattle production in 2007–2017. A deterministic model based on population demographics, metabolism, and nutrient requirements of dairy cattle was used to estimate resource inputs, nutrient excretion, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per 1.0 × 106 t (one million metric t or MMT) of energy-corrected milk (ECM) produced in 2007 and 2017. System boundaries extended from the manufacture and transport of cropping inputs to milk at the farm gate. Milk transport, processing, and retail were not included. Dairy systems were modeled using typical management practices, herd population dynamics, and production data from U.S. dairy farms. Cropping data were sourced from national databases. The resources required to produce 1.0 MMT ECM in 2017 were considerably reduced relative to those required in 2007, with 2017 production systems using 74.8% of the cattle, 82.7% of the feedstuffs, 79.2% of the land, and 69.5% of the water as compared to 2007. Waste outputs were similarly reduced, with the 2017 U.S. dairy industry producing 79.4%, 82.5%, and 85.7% of the manure, N, and P excretion, respectively. Dairy production in 2017 emitted 80.9% of the CH4 and 81.5% of the N2O per 1.0 MMT ECM compared to 2007. Enteric and manure emissions contributed the major proportion (80%) of GHG emissions per unit of milk, with lesser contributions from cropping (7.6%) and fertilizer application (5.3%). The GHG emissions per 1.0 MMT ECM produced in 2017 were 80.8% of equivalent milk production in 2007. Consequently, although total U.S. ECM production increased by 24.9% between 2007 and 2017, total GHG emissions from this milk production increased by only 1.0%. In line with previous historical analyses, the U.S. dairy industry has made remarkable productivity gains and environmental progress over time. To maintain this culture of continuous improvement, the dairy industry must build on gains made to date and demonstrate its commitment to reducing environmental impacts while improving both economic viability and social acceptability.

scholarly journals Spatial Variation in Environmental Impacts of Sugarcane Expansion in Brazil

Land ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 397
Author(s):  
Ivan Vera ◽  
Birka Wicke ◽  
Floor van der Hilst
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Variation ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Sugar Cane ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Sao Paulo ◽  
São Paulo ◽  
Paulo State ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
São Paulo State

In the past decades, sugarcane production in Brazil has expanded rapidly to meet increasing ethanol demand. The large majority of this expansion occurred in Sao Paulo state. We used an integrated approach considering location-specific biophysical characteristics to determine the environmental impacts of sugarcane expansion and their spatial variation in Sao Paulo state (2004–2015). The included environmental impacts are greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, biodiversity, soil erosion, and water quantity. All impacts were integrated into a single environmental performance index to determine trade-offs between impacts. Our results show a strong spatial variation in environmental impacts and trade-offs between them. The magnitude and direction of these impacts are mostly driven by the type of land use change and by the heterogeneity of the biophysical conditions. Areas where expansion of sugar cane has resulted in mostly negative environmental impacts are located in the center and east of the state (related to the change of shrublands, eucalyptus, and forest), while areas where sugar cane expansion has resulted in positive impacts are located in the center-west and north (related to the change of annual crops). Identifying areas with mainly positive and negative impacts enables the development of strategies to mitigate negative effects and enhance positive ones for future sugarcane expansion.

Climate change and broadacre livestock production across southern Australia. 2. Adaptation options via grassland management

2013 ◽  
Vol 64 (6) ◽  
pp. 615 ◽  
Author(s):  
Afshin Ghahramani ◽  
Andrew D. Moore
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Soil Fertility ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Livestock Production ◽  
Global Climate Models ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
Change Scenario ◽  
Adaptation Options ◽  
Over Time

Climate change is predicted to cause a significant reduction in the productivity of grasslands and the livestock industry across southern Australia. We have used the GRAZPLAN biophysical simulation models to assess a range of pasture management practices as adaptation options under the SRES A2 global change scenario. The modelling analysis spanned four dimensions: space (25 representative locations), time (2030, 2050, 2070, and a historical reference period of 1970–99), livestock enterprises (five), and management (four adaptation options at different levels). Climate projection uncertainty was taken into account by considering climates from four global climate models. The effectiveness of adaptation options varied widely among enterprises and locations, over time, and under the four projected future climates. Increased soil fertility by adding phosphorus and addition of an area of lucerne to the feed-base were predicted to have the greatest effect in recovering from the negative impact of climate change on profitability. In high-rainfall zones in particular, and compared with the historical period, the most profitable option could return the profitability of livestock production systems to historical levels at 68%, 52%, and 32% of the representative locations at 2030, 2050, and 2070, respectively. At 2030, increased soil fertility, adding lucerne to the feed-base, and confinement feeding in summer recovered overall profit fully at 52%, 28%, and 12% of locations. Removing annual legumes in an attempt to preserve ground cover was ineffective as an adaptation to changing climate. For the majority of location × livestock enterprise combinations, there was at least one individual incremental adaptation that could recover the declines in the profitability at 2030, but effectiveness decreased over time after 2030. It is unlikely that the examined single climate change adaptations to the feed-base of southern Australian livestock production systems can return them to profitability in the second half of the century.

Decision Processes and Value Endogeneity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
James G. March
Keyword(s):  
Decision Processes ◽  
Hard Problem ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Over Time ◽  
What Matters

Humans use reasons to shape and justify choices. In the process, trade-offs seem essential and often inevitable. But trade-offs involve comparisons, which are problematic both across values and especially over time. Reducing disparate values to a common metric (especially if that metric is money) is often problematic and unsatisfactory. Critically, it is not that values just shape choices, but that choices themselves shape values. This endogeneity of values makes an unconditional normative endorsement of modern decision-theoretic rationality unwise. This is a hard problem and there is no escaping the definition of good values, that is, those that make humans better. This removes the wall between economics and philosophy. If we are to adopt and enact this perspective, then greater discourse and debate on what matters and not just what counts will be useful and even indispensable.

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