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Drivers of Environmental Impacts from Agricultural Production Systems

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 11261

Special Issue Editor

Department of Environmental Sciences , Aarhus University
Interests: My research focuses on coupling human and natural systems and sustainable systems analysis including energy policy; waste management; pollution and natural resources embodied in international trade and the complex interactions of agriculture/livestock, climate change and global ecology.

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The need of a sustainable production of agricultural products is becoming more and more important, especially due to the expected increase of population in the next decades. In this context, producers and consumers are urgently called for sustainable actions. In general, the former are called for sustainable practices in order to reduce their environmental impacts, whereas the latter are called for aware choices in order to lead the market toward more sustainable productions. The present Special Issue aims to gather a series of manuscripts relating to the main drivers of environmental impacts associated with agricultural and livestock sectors. Drivers of agricultural/livestock sector are called to be assessed and discussed by providing analysis concerning global and regional case studies. Papers investigating different level of analyses are therefore considered for publication in this Special Issue. Multienvironmental impact analyses focusing on single agricultural/livestock products are also solicited. Agricultural and livestock sectors interact with many exosystemic processes. Indeed, environmental impacts of different origin can be analyzed and discussed. Papers assessing the complex interactions of agriculture/livestock sectors on climate change, water and land will be considered, as well as the potential pros and cons of resources embodied in international trade.

Prof. Dr. Dario Caro
Guest Editor

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

  • Agricultural sector
  • Livestock sector
  • Impact assessment
  • Sustainable agriculture
  • Sustainable food
  • LCA
  • Carbon, water, land footprint

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 1899 KiB  
Article
Analysis of Agricultural CO2 Emissions in Henan Province, China, Based on EKC and Decoupling
by Zhenjie Wang and Donghui Lv
Sustainability 2022, 14(3), 1931; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14031931 - 08 Feb 2022
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 1854
Abstract
Global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions is highly concerning. Both the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis and decoupling analysis indicate a dynamic relationship between economic growth and environmental pollution, and each method has its own emphasis. The objective of this paper is [...] Read more.
Global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions is highly concerning. Both the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis and decoupling analysis indicate a dynamic relationship between economic growth and environmental pollution, and each method has its own emphasis. The objective of this paper is to investigate the nexus between grain production and agricultural carbon emissions for the main grain-producing areas in China. Taking Henan Province, the second largest agricultural province, as an example, this paper examines the relationship between grain production and agricultural CO2 emissions during 2000–2019, using the EKC hypothesis and decoupling analysis. The results are as follows: (1) The estimation model of CO2 EKC shows the climbing stage of an inverted U-shaped relationship, which suggests that agricultural economic growth occurred at the cost of an increase in agricultural CO2 emissions in Henan Province during the past 20 years. (2) The results of the decoupling analysis show that incidences of weak decoupling and expansive coupling states took up most of the study period, accompanied by an occasionally strong decoupling state; decoupling and coupling states alternated irregularly, and no clear development trends were observed. (3) Considering the shape of the CO2 EKC and the decoupling state, environmental policies encouraged decoupling, but suffered from time lags and poor continuity; long-term incentives, such as an ecological compensation policy, could perhaps drive carbon emission reduction. On this basis, Chinese agricultural policy should combine environmentally targeted interventions with measures supporting production and farmers’ incomes, and environmental policy should also adapt to economic growth. Only when both supplement each other can sustainable agricultural goals be achieved. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drivers of Environmental Impacts from Agricultural Production Systems)
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16 pages, 1627 KiB  
Article
Standardized Recipes and Their Influence on the Environmental Impact Assessment of Mixed Dishes: A Case Study on Pizza
by Katerina S. Stylianou, Emily McDonald, Victor L. Fulgoni III and Olivier Jolliet
Sustainability 2020, 12(22), 9466; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12229466 - 13 Nov 2020
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 4482
Abstract
Food and diet life cycle assessment (LCA) studies offer insights on the environmental performance and improvement potential of food systems and dietary patterns. However, the influence of ingredient resolution in food-LCAs is often overlooked. To address this, four distinct decomposition methods were used [...] Read more.
Food and diet life cycle assessment (LCA) studies offer insights on the environmental performance and improvement potential of food systems and dietary patterns. However, the influence of ingredient resolution in food-LCAs is often overlooked. To address this, four distinct decomposition methods were used to determine ingredients for mixed dishes and characterize their environmental impacts, using the carbon footprint of the U.S. daily pizza intake as a case study. Pizza-specific and daily pizza intake carbon footprints varied substantially between decomposition methods. The carbon footprint for vegetarian pizza was 0.18–0.45 kg CO2eq/serving, for meat pizza was 0.56–0.73 kg CO2eq/serving, and for currently consumed pizzas in the U.S. (26.3 g/person/day; 75 pizzas types) was 0.072–0.098 kg CO2eq/person/day. These ranges could be explained by differences in pizza coverage, ingredient resolution, availability of ingredient environmental information, and ingredient adjustability for losses between decomposition methods. From the approaches considered, the USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, which reports standardized food recipes in relative weights, appears to offer the most appropriate and useful food decompositions for food-LCAs. The influence and limitations of sources of reference flows should be better evaluated and acknowledged in food and diet LCAs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drivers of Environmental Impacts from Agricultural Production Systems)
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19 pages, 2528 KiB  
Article
Impacts of Climatic and Agricultural Input Factors on the Water Footprint of Crop Production in Jilin Province, China
by Xiaoxue Zheng, Lijie Qin and Hongshi He
Sustainability 2020, 12(17), 6904; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12176904 - 25 Aug 2020
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 4051
Abstract
Water consumption ensures crop production and grain security, and is influenced by many factors. Analyzing the impact factors of water consumption during crop production will be beneficial to the full use of water resources and crop growth. Jilin Province is one of the [...] Read more.
Water consumption ensures crop production and grain security, and is influenced by many factors. Analyzing the impact factors of water consumption during crop production will be beneficial to the full use of water resources and crop growth. Jilin Province is one of the major crop production areas in China and is facing water shortages. Using the water footprint as an indicator, this study evaluated the water consumption of crop production in Jilin Province during 2000–2016, explored the impacts of climatic and agricultural input factors on the water consumption of crop production, and identified the most influential factors in years under different levels of rainfall. The results indicate that the crop water footprint exhibited a decreasing trend during 2000–2016, and the most influential factors of the crop water footprint changed over the years with different levels of rainfall. Precipitation and the effective irrigation area were the most influential factors in the drought year, and accumulated temperature, machinery power, and chemical fertilizer consumption were the most influential factors in normal and humid years. The most influential factors of the crop water footprint differed in different regions with the differences in natural and human interfered conditions. Identifying the impacts of the most influential factors on the water consumption of crop production would be conducive to optimizing farmland management and achieving sustainable agricultural production. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drivers of Environmental Impacts from Agricultural Production Systems)
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