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Environmental Impact Assessment of Food Systems: From Farm to Fork and Beyond

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sustainability and Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2022) | Viewed by 10261

Special Issue Editors

Department of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management (NIFTEM), Kundli, Sonipat 131028, India
Interests: environmental impact assessment; sustainable food systems; carbon footprint; water footprint
Department of Energy and Environment, TERI School of Advanced Studies, New Delhi 110070, India
Interests: climate change; agriculture; food security
National Mission on Himalayan Studies, G. B Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment, Kosi-Katarmal 263643, Almora, Uttrakhand, India
Interests: carbon footprint; water footprint; life cycle assessment; sustainable food systems

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Population growth and lifestyle changes have led to an increase in the demand for food. The demand side drivers along with technological advancements have triggered intensification in the food system, often leading to large scale environmental changes. Food production and consumption is identified as one of the major drivers of environmental pressure, and a substantial contributor to global warming, water use, land use, eco-toxicity, and eutrophication. The food production system is responsible for about a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions and around 70% of the world’s fresh water use, and covers around half of the world’s habitable land. As food systems evolve, there is a need to imbibe sustainability aspects at every stage of the food value chain, from farm to fork and beyond. Life cycle assessment studies including carbon footprint and water footprint are becoming increasingly popular as they hold immense importance to identifying the hotspots of environmental pressures and prioritize mitigation strategies. This Special Issue aims to showcase articles on environmental assessments of food production, consumption and beyond, including but not limited to carbon footprint, water footprint of agri-livestock products such as crops, meat, dairy, processed food products, and so on. The issue covers different aspects of the food value chain such as agricultural practices, processing and packaging,, retail and distribution, environmental labeling, consumer behaviour, waste management, and life cycle analysis.

Prof. Dr. Tripti Agarwal
Prof. Dr. Chubamenla Jamir
Dr. Durba Kashyap
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • carbon footprint
  • water footprint
  • agricultural products
  • processed food
  • meat
  • dairy products

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 2534 KiB  
Article
Spatialized Life Cycle Assessment of Fluid Milk Production and Consumption in the United States
by Andrew D. Henderson, Anne Asselin-Balençon, Martin C. Heller, Jasmina Burek, Daesoo Kim, Lindsay Lessard, Manuele Margni, Rosie Saad, Marty D. Matlock, Greg Thoma, Ying Wang and Olivier Jolliet
Sustainability 2023, 15(3), 1890; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15031890 - 18 Jan 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2934
Abstract
Purpose: Understanding the main factors affecting the environmental impacts of milk production and consumption along the value chain is key towards reducing these impacts. This paper aims to present detailed spatialized distributions of impacts associated with milk production and consumption across the United [...] Read more.
Purpose: Understanding the main factors affecting the environmental impacts of milk production and consumption along the value chain is key towards reducing these impacts. This paper aims to present detailed spatialized distributions of impacts associated with milk production and consumption across the United States (U.S.), accounting for locations of both feed and on-farm activities, as well as variations in impact intensity. Using a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) approach, focus is given to impacts related to (a) water consumption, (b) eutrophication of marine and freshwater, (c) land use, (d) human toxicity and ecotoxicity, and (e) greenhouse gases. Methods: Drawing on data representing regional agricultural practices, feed production is modelled for 50 states and 18 main watersheds and linked to regions of milk production in a spatialized matrix-based approach to yield milk produced at farm gate. Milk processing, distribution, retail, and consumption are then modelled at a national level, accounting for retail and consumer losses. Custom characterization factors are developed for freshwater and marine eutrophication in the U.S. context. Results and discussion: In the overall life cycle, up to 30% of the impact per kg milk consumed is due to milk losses that occur during the retail and consumption phases (i.e., after production), emphasizing the importance of differentiating between farm gate and consumer estimates. Water scarcity is the impact category with the highest spatial variability. Watersheds in the western part of the U.S. are the dominant contributors to the total water consumed, with 80% of water scarcity impacts driven by only 40% of the total milk production. Freshwater eutrophication also has strong spatial variation, with high persistence of emitted phosphorus in Midwest and Great Lakes area, but high freshwater eutrophication impacts associated with extant phosphorus concentration above 100 µg/L in the California, Missouri, and Upper Mississippi water basins. Overall, normalized impacts of fluid milk consumption represent 0.25% to 0.8% of the annual average impact of a person living in the U.S. As milk at farm gate is used for fluid milk and other dairy products, the production of milk at farm gate represents 0.5% to 3% of this annual impact. Dominant contributions to human health impacts are from fine particulate matter and from climate change, whereas ecosystem impacts of milk are mostly due to land use and water consumption. Conclusion: This study provides a systematic, national perspective on the environmental impacts of milk production and consumption in the United States, showing high spatial variation in inputs, farm practices, and impacts. Full article
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20 pages, 1817 KiB  
Article
A Life Cycle Assessment Approach for Vegetables in Large-, Mid-, and Small-Scale Food Systems in the Midwest US
by Tiffanie F. Stone, Janette R. Thompson, Kurt A. Rosentrater and Ajay Nair
Sustainability 2021, 13(20), 11368; https://doi.org/10.3390/su132011368 - 14 Oct 2021
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 6496
Abstract
Although vegetables are important for healthy diets, there are concerns about the sustainability of food systems that provide them. For example, half of fresh-market vegetables sold in the United States (US) are produced in California, leading to negative impacts associated with transportation. In [...] Read more.
Although vegetables are important for healthy diets, there are concerns about the sustainability of food systems that provide them. For example, half of fresh-market vegetables sold in the United States (US) are produced in California, leading to negative impacts associated with transportation. In Iowa, the focus of this study, 90% of food is imported from outside the state. Previous life cycle assessment (LCA) studies indicate that food consumption patterns affect global warming potential (GWP), with animal products having more negative impacts than vegetables. However, studies focused on how GWP, energy, and water use vary between food systems and vegetable types are less common. The purpose of this study was to examine these environmental impacts to inform decisions to buy locally or grow vegetables in the Midwest. We used a life cycle approach to examine three food systems (large-, mid-, and small-scale) and 18 vegetables commonly grown in/near Des Moines, Iowa. We found differences in GWP, energy, and water use (p ≤ 0.001 for each) for the three food systems with the large-scale scenario producing more emissions. There were also differences among vegetables, with the highest GWP for romaine lettuce (1.92 CO2eq/kg vegetable) approximately three times that of leaf lettuce (0.65 CO2eq/kg vegetable) at the large scale. Hotspots and tradeoffs between GWP, energy, and water use were also identified and could inform vegetable production/consumption based on carbon and water use footprints for the US Midwest. Full article
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