Achieving Environmentally Sustainable Livestock Production

Controlling air pollution by lowering methane emissions, conserving natural resources, and slowing urbanization in a panel of selected Asian economies

The destruction of the earth’s ecosystems is the most pressing issue globally. Carbon emissions account for nearly half of global air pollution. Methane is the primary source of ground-level ozone and a significant source of greenhouse gases (GHGs), with greater warming potential than carbon dioxide emissions. The study examines the impact of the different methane emissions (released by agriculture, energy, and industrial sectors), urbanization, natural resource depletion, and livestock production on carbon emissions in the panel of selected Asian countries for the period of 1971 to 2020. The results show that energy associated methane emissions, livestock production, natural resource depletion, and urbanization are the main detrimental factors of environmental degradation across countries. The causality estimates show the unidirectional relationship running from livestock production and agriculture methane emissions to carbon emissions, from total methane emissions and carbon emissions to urbanization and from urbanization to energy methane emissions and livestock production. The forecasting estimates suggest that total methane emissions, natural resource depletion, and urbanization will likely increase carbon emissions over the next ten years. The study concludes that the energy sector should adopt renewable energy sources in its production process to minimize carbon emissions. Urbanization and excessive resource exploitation must be curtailed to attain carbon neutrality.

Satisfying meat demand while avoiding excess manure: Studying the trade-off in eastern regions of China with a nitrogen approach

Due to the rising incomes and rapid urbanization, China is facing a challenge in producing more meat while avoiding excess manure. These objectives might be in contrast: if excess manure is avoided, meat self-sufficiency might not be met; in contrast, meeting meat self-sufficiency might cause severe excess manure. Our study (1) characterizes the eastern regions of China according to the deficiency/excess of manure nitrogen and meat production, and investigates their relationships with natural resources and social economic indicators; (2) analyzes how the trade-off changes with increasing proportion of chemical nitrogen substituted with manure nitrogen (PCSM). Elaborating on data, we divided eastern regions of China into types according to satisfaction/unsatisfaction of meat demand and deficiency/excess of manure. We then re-calculated the number of regions in each type simulating the effect of increasing values of PCSM. In ~15% of the regions, meat self-sufficiency was met without manure excess, but in ~76% of the regions, manure excess occurred where meat self-sufficiency was met. In ~2% of the regions, meat self-sufficiency was not met and manure excess was absent; in ~7% of the regions, meat self-sufficiency was not met and excess manure was observed. The higher the regions' GDP (gross domestic product) per capita, the lower their ability to satisfy meat demand; the more arable land per capita in the regions, the higher their ability to satisfy meat demand and avoid excess manure. For the scenarios of increasing PCSM, our results show that some regions still cannot avoid excess manure with unchanged livestock quantity, although manure fertilizer completely replaced chemical fertilizer. Our study suggests that the regions of eastern China need to advocate a healthy diet and strengthen the management of food waste and livestock manures. The study is significant for policymakers to achieve sustainable agricultural production.

The Integrated Cropping Calendar Information System: A Coping Mechanism to Climate Variability for Sustainable Agriculture in Indonesia

Climate change and its variability are some of the most critical threats to sustainable agriculture, with potentially severe consequences on Indonesia’s agriculture, such as changes in rainfall patterns, especially the onset of the wet season and the temporal distribution of rainfall. Most Indonesian farmers receive support from agricultural extension services, and therefore, design their agricultural calendar based on personal experience without considering global climate phenomena, such as La Niña and El Niño, which difficult to interpret on a local scale. This paper describes the Integrated Cropping Calendar Information System (ICCIS) as a mechanism for adapting to climate variability. The ICCIS contains recommendations on planting time, cropping pattern, planting area, varieties, fertilizers, agricultural machinery, potential livestock feed, and crop damage due to climate extremes for rice, maize, and soybean. To accelerate the dissemination of information, the ICCIS is presented in an integrated web-based information system. The ICCIS is disseminated to extension workers and farmers by Task Force of the Assessment Institute for Agricultural Technology (AIAT) located in each province. Based on the survey results, it is known that the ICCIS adoption rate is moderate to high. The AIAT must actively encourage and support the ICCIS Task Force team in each province. Concerning the technological recommendations, it is necessary to update the recommendations for varieties, fertilizer, and feed to be more compatible with local conditions. More accurate information and more intensive dissemination can enrich farmers’ knowledge, allowing for a better understanding of climate hazards and maintaining agricultural production.

Sustainable Diets in the UK—Developing a Systematic Framework to Assess the Environmental Impact, Cost and Nutritional Quality of Household Food Purchases

Sustainable diets should not only respect the environment but also be healthy and affordable. However, there has been little work to assess whether real diets can encompass all three aspects. The aim of this study was to develop a framework to quantify actual diet records for health, affordability and environmental sustainability and apply this to UK food purchase survey data. We applied a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach to detailed food composition data where purchased food items were disaggregated into their components with traceable environmental impact data. This novel approach is an improvement to earlier studies in which sustainability assessments were based on a limited number of “food groups”, with a potentially high variation of actual food items within each group. Living Costs and Food Survey data for 2012, 2013 and 2014 were mapped into published figures for greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE, taking into account processing, transport and cooking) and land use, a diet quality index (DQI) based on dietary guidelines and food cost, all standardised per household member. Households were classified as having a ‘more sustainable’ diet based on GHGE, cost and land use being less than the median and DQI being higher than the median. Only 16.6% of households could be described as more sustainable; this rose to 22% for those in the lowest income quintile. Increasing the DQI criteria to >80% resulted in only 100 households being selected, representing 0.8% of the sample. The framework enabled identification of more sustainable households, providing evidence of how we can move toward better diets in terms of the environment, health, and costs.