Agriculture production as a major driver of the Earth system exceeding planetary boundaries

Campbell, Bruce M.; Beare, Doug; Bennett, Elena M.; Hall‐Spencer, Jason M.; Ingram, John; Jaramillo, Fernando; Ortíz, Rodomiro; Ramankutty, Navin; Sayer, Jeffrey; Shindell, D. T.

doi:10.5751/es-09595-220408

Cited by 724 publications

(469 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…Integrating climate change mitigation goals into agricultural practice is urgent but poses great difficulties (Campbell et al, 2017;Fellmann et al, 2018). Cattle in the U.S. and Europe emit up to 400 g/day of methane (for an assessment see Niu et al, 2018).…”

Section: Reducing Agricultural Methane Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Methane Mitigation: Methods to Reduce Emissions, on the Path to the Paris Agreement

Nisbet

Fisher

Lowry

et al. 2020

Reviews of Geophysics

211

131

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The atmospheric methane burden is increasing rapidly, contrary to pathways compatible with the goals of the 2015 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Paris Agreement. Urgent action is required to bring methane back to a pathway more in line with the Paris goals. Emission reduction from “tractable” (easier to mitigate) anthropogenic sources such as the fossil fuel industries and landfills is being much facilitated by technical advances in the past decade, which have radically improved our ability to locate, identify, quantify, and reduce emissions. Measures to reduce emissions from “intractable” (harder to mitigate) anthropogenic sources such as agriculture and biomass burning have received less attention and are also becoming more feasible, including removal from elevated‐methane ambient air near to sources. The wider effort to use microbiological and dietary intervention to reduce emissions from cattle (and humans) is not addressed in detail in this essentially geophysical review. Though they cannot replace the need to reach “net‐zero” emissions of CO2, significant reductions in the methane burden will ease the timescales needed to reach required CO2 reduction targets for any particular future temperature limit. There is no single magic bullet, but implementation of a wide array of mitigation and emission reduction strategies could substantially cut the global methane burden, at a cost that is relatively low compared to the parallel and necessary measures to reduce CO2, and thereby reduce the atmospheric methane burden back toward pathways consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement.

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Section: Reducing Agricultural Methane Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Cutting agricultural ruminant populations by changing human diets reduces methane emissions (Poore & Nemecek, 2018). There is enough food for a substantial reduction if food is better shared and wasted less (Campbell et al, 2017). The broader impacts of going further are less clear.…”

Section: Summary Of Prioritiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Methane Mitigation: Methods to Reduce Emissions, on the Path to the Paris Agreement

Nisbet

Fisher

Lowry

et al. 2020

Reviews of Geophysics

211

131

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“…However, the P consumed by farm animals is to a certain extent excreted via manure and usually applied regionally on arable land and grassland. It is clear that the potential uses of P compete between agricultural systems to ensure food security for a growing world population [18]. For animal husbandry, this demands solutions to balance the P cycle in the monogastric pig and poultry farming (which represents about 70% of the global meat production [19]), hence contributing to a P-resilient livestock production that is resource-efficient and economically competitive.…”

Section: Approaches To Achieving P Sustainability From An Animal Husbmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bridging Gaps in the Agricultural Phosphorus Cycle from an Animal Husbandry Perspective—The Case of Pigs and Poultry

et al. 2018

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Since phosphorus (P) is an essential element for life, its usage and application across agricultural production systems requires great attention. Monogastric species such as pigs and poultry can significantly contribute to global food security but these animals remain highly dependent on the supply of mineral inorganic P in their feeds. Pig and poultry, which represent 70% of the global meat production, are also major P excretors and thus represent important sources of environmental P inputs. Balancing the P cycle within farming systems is crucial to achieve P sustainable and resilient livestock production. Therefore, the interconnection of animal feed, livestock farming, manure, and soil/aquatic ecosystems requires multidisciplinary approaches to improve P management. With regard to a sustainable agricultural P cycle, this study addresses aspects of feeding strategies and animal physiology (e.g., phase feeding, P conditioning, liquid feeding, phytase supplementation, genetics), soil agroecosystems (e.g., P cycling, P losses, P gains), reuse and recycling (e.g., manure, slaughter waste), measures of farmers' economic performance (e.g., bio-economic models), and P governance/policy instruments (e.g., P quota, P tax). To reconcile the economic and ecological sustainability of animal husbandry, the strategic objective of future research will be to provide solutions for a sufficient supply of high-quality animal products from resource-efficient and economically competitive agro-systems which are valued by society and preserve soil and aquatic ecosystems.

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“…Literature indicates that the EU's consumption-based cropland use is already beyond a globally equitable limit (Bringezu et al 2012, O'Brien et al 2015, O'Neill 2015, Tukker et al 2016, Häyhä et al 2018. Anthropogenic land modification, in particular deforestation, has already transgressed the planetary boundary for land system change, causing increasing pressure on climate and biodiversity (Steffen et al 2015, Campbell et al 2017. Many global energy and land use scenarios envision that the systemic change towards a bio-based economy will be more heavily reliant on terrestrial ecosystems and land resources (e.g.…”

Section: Social and Environmental Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying the global cropland footprint of the European Union’s non-food bioeconomy

Brückner

Häyhä

Giljum

et al. 2019

Environ. Res. Lett.

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A rapidly growing share of global agricultural areas is devoted to the production of biomass for nonfood purposes. The expanding non-food bioeconomy can have far-reaching social and ecological implications; yet, the non-food sector has attained little attention in land footprint studies. This paper provides the first assessment of the global cropland footprint of non-food products of the European Union (EU), a globally important region regarding its expanding bio-based economy. We apply a novel hybrid land flow accounting model, combining the biophysical trade model LANDFLOW with the multi-regional input-output model EXIOBASE. The developed hybrid approach improves the level of product and country detail, while comprehensively covering all global supply chains from agricultural production to final consumption, including highly processed products, such as many non-food products. The results highlight the EU's role as a major processing and the biggest consuming region of cropland-based non-food products, while at the same time relying heavily on imports. Two thirds of the cropland required to satisfy the EU's non-food biomass consumption are located in other world regions, particularly in China, the US and Indonesia, giving rise to potential impacts on distant ecosystems. With almost 39% in 2010, oilseeds used to produce for example biofuels, detergents and polymers represented the dominant share of the EU's non-food cropland demand. Traditional non-food biomass uses, such as fibre crops for textiles and animal hides and skins for leather products, also contributed notably (22%). Our findings suggest that if the EU Bioeconomy Strategy is to support global sustainable development, a detailed monitoring of land use displacement and spillover effects is decisive for targeted and effective EU policy making.

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Agriculture production as a major driver of the Earth system exceeding planetary boundaries

Cited by 724 publications

References 61 publications

Methane Mitigation: Methods to Reduce Emissions, on the Path to the Paris Agreement

Methane Mitigation: Methods to Reduce Emissions, on the Path to the Paris Agreement

Bridging Gaps in the Agricultural Phosphorus Cycle from an Animal Husbandry Perspective—The Case of Pigs and Poultry

Quantifying the global cropland footprint of the European Union’s non-food bioeconomy

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