Microbes: Food for the Future

Current projections estimate that in 2050 about 10 billion people will inhabit the earth and food production will need to increase by more than 60%. Food security will therefore represent a matter of global concern not easily tackled with current agriculture practices and curbed by the increasing scarcity of natural resources and climate change. Disrupting technologies are urgently needed to improve the efficiency of the food production system and to reduce the negative externalities of agriculture (soil erosion, desertification, air pollution, water and soil contamination, biodiversity loss, etc.). Among the most innovative technologies, the production of microbial protein (MP) in controlled and intensive systems called “bioreactors” is receiving increasing attention from research and industry. MP has low arable land requirements, does not directly compete with crop-based food commodities, and uses fertilizers with an almost 100% efficiency. This review considers the potential and limitations of four MP sources currently tested at pilot level or sold as food or feed ingredients: hydrogen oxidizing bacteria (HOB), methanotrophs, fungi, and microalgae (cyanobacteria). The environmental impacts (energy, land, water use, and GHG emissions) of these MP sources are compared with those of plant, animal, insect, and cultured meat-based proteins. Prices are reported to address whether MP may compete with traditional protein sources. Microalgae cultivation under artificial light is discussed as a strategy to ensure independence from weather conditions, continuous operation over the year, as well as high-quality biomass. The main challenges to the spreading of MP use are discussed.

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Climate change and sustainable food production

Proceedings of The Nutrition Society ◽

10.1017/s0029665112002832 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 72 (1) ◽

pp. 21-28 ◽

Cited By ~ 88

Author(s):

Pete Smith ◽

Peter J. Gregory

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Food Security ◽

Environmental Impact ◽

Food Production ◽

Ghg Emissions ◽

Food Preferences ◽

Biodiversity Loss ◽

Future Climate ◽

Mitigation Measures ◽

Future Climate Change

One of the greatest challenges we face in the twenty-first century is to sustainably feed nine to ten billion people by 2050 while at the same time reducing environmental impact (e.g. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, biodiversity loss, land use change and loss of ecosystem services). To this end, food security must be delivered. According to the United Nations definition, ‘food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life’. At the same time as delivering food security, we must also reduce the environmental impact of food production. Future climate change will make an impact upon food production. On the other hand, agriculture contributes up to about 30% of the anthropogenic GHG emissions that drive climate change. The aim of this review is to outline some of the likely impacts of climate change on agriculture, the mitigation measures available within agriculture to reduce GHG emissions and outlines the very significant challenge of feeding nine to ten billion people sustainably under a future climate, with reduced emissions of GHG. Each challenge is in itself enormous, requiring solutions that co-deliver on all aspects. We conclude that the status quo is not an option, and tinkering with the current production systems is unlikely to deliver the food and ecosystems services we need in the future; radical changes in production and consumption are likely to be required over the coming decades.

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Fisheries: A Missing Link in Greenhouse Gas Emission Policies in South Korea

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13115858 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (11) ◽

pp. 5858

Author(s):

Kyumin Kim ◽

Do-Hoon Kim ◽

Yeonghye Kim

Keyword(s):

Greenhouse Gas ◽

Greenhouse Gas Emission ◽

Ghg Emissions ◽

Bioeconomic Model ◽

Negative Externalities ◽

Fishing Vessel ◽

Gas Emission ◽

Fishing Vessels ◽

The Government ◽

Different Levels

Recent studies demonstrate that fisheries are massive contributors to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The average Korean fishing vessel is old, fuel-inefficient, and creates a large volume of emissions. Yet, there is little research on how to address the GHG emissions in Korean fisheries. This study estimated the change in GHG emissions and emission costs at different levels of fishing operations using a steady-state bioeconomic model based on the case of the Anchovy Tow Net Fishery (ATNF) and the Large Purse Seine Fishery (LPSF). We conclude that reducing the fishing efforts of the ATNF and LPSF by 37% and 8% respectively would not only eliminate negative externalities on the anchovy and mackerel stock respectively, but also mitigate emissions and emission costs in the fishing industry. To limit emissions, we propose that the Korean government reduce fishing efforts through a vessel-buyback program and set an annual catch limit. Alternatively, the government should provide loans for modernizing old fishing vessels or a subsidy for installing emission abatement equipment to reduce the excessive emissions from Korean fisheries.

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Greenhouse gas balance of cropland conversion to bioenergy poplar short-rotation coppice

Biogeosciences ◽

10.5194/bg-13-95-2016 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 95-113 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

S. Sabbatini ◽

N. Arriga ◽

T. Bertolini ◽

S. Castaldi ◽

T. Chiti ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Greenhouse Gas ◽

Arable Land ◽

Hybrid Poplar ◽

Ghg Emissions ◽

Net Ecosystem Exchange ◽

Short Rotation Coppice ◽

Co2 Uptake ◽

Greenhouse Gas Balance ◽

Short Rotation ◽

Ch4 And N2o

Abstract. The production of bioenergy in Europe is one of the strategies conceived to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The suitability of the land use change from a cropland (REF site) to a short-rotation coppice plantation of hybrid poplar (SRC site) was investigated by comparing the GHG budgets of these two systems over 24 months in Viterbo, Italy. This period corresponded to a single rotation of the SRC site. The REF site was a crop rotation between grassland and winter wheat, i.e. the same management of the SRC site before the conversion to short-rotation coppice. Eddy covariance measurements were carried out to quantify the net ecosystem exchange of CO2 (FCO2), whereas chambers were used to measure N2O and CH4 emissions from soil. The measurements began 2 years after the conversion of arable land to SRC so that an older poplar plantation was used to estimate the soil organic carbon (SOC) loss due to SRC establishment and to estimate SOC recovery over time. Emissions from tractors and from production and transport of agricultural inputs (FMAN) were modelled. A GHG emission offset, due to the substitution of natural gas with SRC biomass, was credited to the GHG budget of the SRC site. Emissions generated by the use of biomass (FEXP) were also considered. Suitability was finally assessed by comparing the GHG budgets of the two sites. CO2 uptake was 3512 ± 224 g CO2 m−2 at the SRC site in 2 years, and 1838 ± 107 g CO2 m−2 at the REF site. FEXP was equal to 1858 ± 240 g CO2 m−2 at the REF site, thus basically compensating for FCO2, while it was 1118 ± 521 g CO2 m−2 at the SRC site. The SRC site could offset 379.7 ± 175.1 g CO2eq m−2 from fossil fuel displacement. Soil CH4 and N2O fluxes were negligible. FMAN made up 2 and 4 % in the GHG budgets of SRC and REF sites respectively, while the SOC loss was 455 ± 524 g CO2 m−2 in 2 years. Overall, the REF site was close to neutrality from a GHG perspective (156 ± 264 g CO2eq m−2), while the SRC site was a net sink of 2202 ± 792 g CO2eq m−2. In conclusion the experiment led to a positive evaluation from a GHG viewpoint of the conversion of cropland to bioenergy SRC.

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Resource use and environmental impacts from Australian export lamb production: a life cycle assessment

Animal Production Science ◽

10.1071/an14647 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 56 (7) ◽

pp. 1070 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

S. G. Wiedemann ◽

M.-J. Yan ◽

C. M. Murphy

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Fresh Water ◽

Water Use ◽

Water Consumption ◽

Energy Demand ◽

Production Systems ◽

Arable Land ◽

Ghg Emissions ◽

Land Occupation ◽

Fossil Fuel Energy

This study conducted a life cycle assessment (LCA) investigating energy, land occupation, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, fresh water consumption and stress-weighted water use from production of export lamb in the major production regions of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. The study used data from regional datasets and case study farms, and applied new methods for assessing water use using detailed farm water balances and water stress weighting. Land occupation was assessed with reference to the proportion of arable and non-arable land and allocation of liveweight (LW) and greasy wool was handled using a protein mass method. Fossil fuel energy demand ranged from 2.5 to 7.0 MJ/kg LW, fresh water consumption from 58.1 to 238.9 L/kg LW, stress-weighted water use from 2.9 to 137.8 L H2O-e/kg LW and crop land occupation from 0.2 to 2.0 m2/kg LW. Fossil fuel energy demand was dominated by on-farm energy demand, and differed between regions and datasets in response to production intensity and the use of purchased inputs such as fertiliser. Regional fresh water consumption was dominated by irrigation water use and losses from farm water supply, with smaller contributions from livestock drinking water. GHG emissions ranged from 6.1 to 7.3 kg CO2-e/kg LW and additional removals or emissions from land use (due to cultivation and fertilisation) and direct land-use change (due to deforestation over previous 20 years) were found to be modest, contributing between –1.6 and 0.3 kg CO2-e/kg LW for different scenarios assessing soil carbon flux. Excluding land use and direct land-use change, enteric CH4 contributed 83–89% of emissions, suggesting that emissions intensity can be reduced by focussing on flock production efficiency. Resource use and emissions were similar for export lamb production in the major production states of Australia, and GHG emissions were similar to other major global lamb producers. The results show impacts from lamb production on competitive resources to be low, as lamb production systems predominantly utilised non-arable land unsuited to alternative food production systems that rely on crop production, and water from regions with low water stress.

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Spatio-temporal effects of vegetated windbreaks on wind erosion and microclimate as basis for model development

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-9182 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Thomas Weninger ◽

Simon Scheper ◽

Nathan King ◽

Karl Gartner ◽

Barbara Kitzler ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Soil Water ◽

Wind Erosion ◽

Arable Land ◽

Model Development ◽

Weather Conditions ◽

Bare Soil ◽

Sediment Traps ◽

Spatial And Temporal Variability ◽

Regional Modelling ◽

Erosion Rates

Wind erosion of arable soil is considered a risk factor for Austrian fields, but direct measurements of soil loss are not available until now. Despite this uncertainty, vegetated windbreaks have been established to minimize adverse wind impacts on arable land. The study addresses these questions: i) How relevant is wind erosion as a factor of soil degradation? ii) How important is the protective effect of vegetated windbreaks? iii) Are systematic patterns of spatial and temporal variability of wind erosion rates detectable in response to weather conditions?&#160;Two experimental fields adjacent to windbreaks were equipped with sediment traps, soil moisture sensors, and meteorological measurement equipment for microclimatic patterns. Sediment traps were arranged in high spatial resolution from next to the windbreak to a distance of ten times the windbreak height. Beginning in January 2020, the amount of trapped sediment was analyzed every three weeks. The highest wind erosion rates on bare soil were observed in June and July. For unprotected fields with bare soil, upscaled annual erosion rates were as high as 0.8 tons per hectare, and sediment trapped increased in a linear fashion with distance from the windbreak. Soil water content near the surface (5 cm depth) was three percent higher at a distance of two times the height of the windbreak than at a distance of six times the height. For the same respective distances from the windbreak, we observed 29 days of soil water contents below the wilting point compared with 60 days.The preliminary outcomes confirmed the expected effects of windbreaks on soil erosion and microclimate in agricultural fields. Prospective results from multiple vegetation periods will be used in an upscaling approach to gain informations for the whole basin. That is meant to be done by a combination with a soil wind erosion model which was so far used for regional modelling of wind erosion susceptibility.

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Biodiversity: Increasing the Political Clout of Nature Conservation

Conceptual Innovation in Environmental Policy ◽

10.7551/mitpress/9780262036580.003.0009 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Yrjö Haila

Keyword(s):

Biological Diversity ◽

Biodiversity Loss ◽

Convention On Biological Diversity ◽

Global Environmental Problems ◽

Global Environmental ◽

Political Clout ◽

Human Modification ◽

Local Contexts ◽

Global Concern ◽

Living Nature

The term biodiversity was introduced in the 1980s as a novel framing for the human dependence on the Earth's biosphere. 'Biodiversity loss' became the way to capture a major dimension of global environmental problems. The chapter describes stages of this process. The first phase of the spread of the term was its enthusiastic reception among environmentalists. Second, concern was integrated into international environmental policy at the Rio Conference in 1992 through the adoption of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Efforts to implement the convention have created an environmental regime both internationally and within different countries. However, due to its broad coverage of processes of living nature and its huge ambition to regulate human modification of nature and exploitation of natural resources, there have been major difficulties with implementation. In particular, how to integrate specific issues manifested in local contexts, and the global concern, has proved problematic.

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Multitemporal Geospatial Evaluation of Urban Agriculture and (Non)-Sustainable Food Self-Provisioning in Milan, Italy

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su11071846 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (7) ◽

pp. 1846 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Giuseppe Pulighe ◽

Flavio Lupia

Keyword(s):

Urban Agriculture ◽

Food Production ◽

Food Systems ◽

Arable Land ◽

Well Being ◽

Google Earth ◽

Total Production ◽

Ancillary Data ◽

Sustainable Food ◽

The City

Urban agriculture in Global North cities is strongly promoted as a sustainable solution to achieve different goals, such as food production, quality of life, and well-being. Although several attempts have been made to evaluate urban agriculture production, few studies have investigated food production in a multitemporal geospatial way and considered per capita population needs, gender, and age strata consumption. This study presents a spatiotemporal quantification of urban agriculture in the city of Milan (Italy) for assessing food self-provisioning potential. We utilized high-resolution Google Earth images and ancillary data to create a detailed cadaster of urban agriculture for the years 2007 and 2014. Based on four scenarios of food production and statistical data on vegetables and cereals consumption, we estimated current total production and requirements for the city dwellers. Our results showed that the actual extension of vegetable gardens (98 ha) and arable land (2539 ha) in the best scenario could satisfy approximately 63,700 and 321,000 consumers of vegetables and cereal products, respectively. Overall, current urban agriculture production is not able to meet vegetables and cereal consumption for more than 1.3 million city residents. Scenario estimates suggest rethinking land use promoting horticultural production to achieve more sustainable food systems.

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Stakeholders’ Perspectives to Support the Integration of Ecosystem Services in Spatial Planning in Switzerland

Environments ◽

10.3390/environments6080088 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 6 (8) ◽

pp. 88 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Rémi Jaligot ◽

Jérôme Chenal

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

Spatial Planning ◽

Food Production ◽

Q Methodology ◽

Arable Land ◽

Paradigm Change ◽

Biological Functions ◽

Stakeholder Perspectives ◽

Land Use And Management ◽

Ecosystem Multifunctionality

Integrating the concept of ecosystem services (ES) into spatial planning is an opportunity to make land use and management choices that maximize the delivery of multiple ES. The assessment of social demand can be useful for the identification of priority areas or potential conflicts among stakeholders. We used Q-methodology to understand stakeholder perspectives on ES to facilitate their integration into spatial planning in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland. Three perspectives, utilitarian, cultural and protective, were analyzed and used to discuss potential implications for spatial planning. First, ecosystem multifunctionality and synergies among ES should be emphasized. Second, the food production system should move away from a productive-only approach, to a system that protects soils and their functions. Providing a paradigm change, arable land could be protected to the same level as forests and farmers could be incentivized further to change their practices. Finally, our findings show a potential over-interpretation of the importance of cultural ES in current planning policies, as most participants would be ready to change their behaviors to preserve biological functions. It would be useful to conduct a similar study in other cantons to ensure that the results are fully representative of the current situation in Switzerland.

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The Högdalen urban farm: a real case assessment of sustainability attributes

Food Security ◽

10.1007/s12571-020-01045-8 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (6) ◽

pp. 1461-1475

Author(s):

Rebecka Milestad ◽

Annika Carlsson-Kanyama ◽

Christina Schaffer

Keyword(s):

Urban Space ◽

Food Production ◽

Production Systems ◽

Ghg Emissions ◽

Point Of View ◽

Small Scale ◽

Food Provisioning ◽

Urban Farm ◽

City District ◽

The City

AbstractWhile urban indoor farming is a fairly new phenomenon, there is a growing interest from producers, authorities and consumers alike. However, many assumptions are made, and expectations held, about urban indoor farming from a sustainability, food production and food provisioning point of view. These assumptions and expectations need to be tested and assessed. This study assessed greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and a number of social aspects of a newly established indoor urban farm in Stockholm. The farm was the result of a project created by commercial, civil society and municipal actors with the aim to make use of unused urban space, create jobs and produce food. While lettuce grown on the indoor farm emitted more GHG than lettuce cultivated outdoors in Sweden, it was more climate friendly than imported lettuce in our comparison. Furthermore, the indoor farm created value for the actors involved and for the city district, albeit on a small scale. Many of the positive environmental and social features owed to the small scale of the indoor farm and the context in which it developed. Thus, when evaluating production systems like this one, we need to be cautious and refrain from extrapolating the results.

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Climate change risks to push large parts of global food production and population centres to unprecedented conditions

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-12897 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Matti Kummu ◽

Matias Heino ◽

Maija Taka ◽

Olli Varis ◽

Daniel Viviroli

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Food Production ◽

Crop Production ◽

Ghg Emissions ◽

Climatic Conditions ◽

Climate Change Scenarios ◽

Climate Conditions ◽

Rcp 8.5 ◽

Production Areas ◽

Global Food

The majority of global food production, as we know it, is based on agricultural practices developed within stable Holocene climate conditions. Climate change is altering the key conditions for human societies, such as precipitation, temperature and aridity. Their combined impact on altering the conditions in areas where people live and grow food has not yet, however, been systematically quantified on a global scale. Here, we estimate the impacts of two climate change scenarios (RCP 2.6, RCP 8.5) on major population centres and food crop production areas at 5 arc-min scale (~10 km at equator) using Holdridge Life Zones (HLZs), a concept that incorporates all the aforementioned climatic characteristics. We found that if rapid growth of GHG emissions is not halted (RCP 8.5), in year 2070, one fifth of the major food production areas and one fourth of the global population centres would experience climate conditions beyond the ones where food is currently produced, and people are living. Our results thus reinforce the importance of following the RCP 2.6 path, as then only a small fraction of food production (5%) and population centres (6%) would face such unprecedented conditions. Several areas experiencing these unprecedented conditions also have low resilience, such as those within Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Chad, and Guinea-Bissau. In these countries over 75% of food production and population would experience unprecedented climatic conditions under RCP 8.5. These and many other hotspot areas require the most urgent attention to secure sustainable development and equity.

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