Embodied Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Diets

Pradhan, Prajal; Reusser, Dominik E.; Kropp, Jürgen P.

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0062228

Cited by 111 publications

(130 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Moreover, the importance of crop commodities in food supplies, particularly in contribution to protein and fat, may shift in response to health, natural resources, and climate pressures (22,(57)(58)(59), counteracting the trend demonstrated over the past 50 y in increased animal as well as energy-dense plant food commodity consumption. The trajectory of northern European food supplies appears to be demonstrating such a trend (22).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increasing homogeneity in global food supplies and the implications for food security

Khoury

Bjorkman

Dempewolf

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

859

574

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The narrowing of diversity in crop species contributing to the world's food supplies has been considered a potential threat to food security. However, changes in this diversity have not been quantified globally. We assess trends over the past 50 y in the richness, abundance, and composition of crop species in national food supplies worldwide. Over this period, national per capita food supplies expanded in total quantities of food calories, protein, fat, and weight, with increased proportions of those quantities sourcing from energy-dense foods. At the same time the number of measured crop commodities contributing to national food supplies increased, the relative contribution of these commodities within these supplies became more even, and the dominance of the most significant commodities decreased. As a consequence, national food supplies worldwide became more similar in composition, correlated particularly with an increased supply of a number of globally important cereal and oil crops, and a decline of other cereal, oil, and starchy root species. The increase in homogeneity worldwide portends the establishment of a global standard food supply, which is relatively species-rich in regard to measured crops at the national level, but species-poor globally. These changes in food supplies heighten interdependence among countries in regard to availability and access to these food sources and the genetic resources supporting their production, and give further urgency to nutrition development priorities aimed at bolstering food security.A shared axiom of ecology and nutrition is that, within certain ranges, diversity enhances the health and function of complex biological systems. Species diversity has been shown to stimulate productivity, stability, ecosystem services, and resilience in natural (1-5) and in agricultural ecosystems (6-13). Likewise, variation in food species contributing to diet has been associated with nutritional adequacy (14-17) and food security (18).The development of sedentary agricultural societies and further rise of modern agriculture is generally considered to have led to a decline in the total number of plant species upon which humans depend for food (19,20), particularly the wild, semidomesticated, and cultivated vegetables and fruits, spices, and other food plants that supplemented staple crops with the provision of micronutrients and that bolstered food security historically during crop failures (21). Harlan (20) warned that most of the food for mankind comes from a small number of crops and the total number is decreasing steadily. In the United States in the past 40 years, many vegetables and fruits have disappeared from the diet, and the trend is going on all over the world. More and more people will be fed by fewer and fewer crops.More recent analyses of dietary transition in developing countries in association with globalization have noted increases in the diversity of plants contributing to diets locally, along with a Westernization transition in preference of energy-dense foods (i.e.,...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increasing homogeneity in global food supplies and the implications for food security

Khoury

Bjorkman

Dempewolf

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

859

574

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…It has been reported that dietary patterns globally are changing from low to high calorie intakes [65], and this leads to increased consumption of vegetables compared to cereals. Between 2000 and 2013, the annual cereal consumption of Chinese residents increased by 19.75%, while that of vegetables increased by 48.43% [66], a trend that is projected to continue.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial Patterns and Driving Forces of Greenhouse Land Change in Shouguang City, China

Song

Lang

2017

Sustainability

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Abstract:As an important facet of modern agricultural development, greenhouses satisfy ever-increasing demands for agricultural production and, therefore, constitute a growing proportion of global agriculture. However, just a handful of countries regularly collect statistics on the land cover of greenhouse infrastructure. Even when collected, these data cannot provide the detailed spatial information required for environmental risk assessment. It is, therefore, important to map spatial changes in greenhouse land cover using remote sensing (RS) approaches to determine the underlying factors driving these changes. In this paper, we apply a support vector machine (SVM) algorithm to identify greenhouse land cover in Shouguang City, China. Enhanced thematic mapper (ETM) images were selected as the data source for land use classification in this study as they can be freely acquired and offer the necessary spatial resolution. We then used a binary logistic regression model to quantitatively discern the mechanisms underlying changes in greenhouse land cover. The results of this study show that greenhouse land cover in Shouguang increased by 50.51% between 2000 and 2015, and that 90.39% of this expansion took place between 2010 and 2015. Elevation, slope, precipitation, and the distance to the nearest rural settlements and coastline are all significant factors driving expansion in greenhouse land cover, while distance to the nearest urban areas, rivers, roads, railways, and coastline have contributed to contractions in this land use type. Our research provided a practical approach to allow the detection of changes in greenhouse land cover in the countries with using free or low-cost satellite images.

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“…Even today, Indonesia is a net importer of food, and malnutrition and stunting among children is present (WFP, 2012). With increasing development and higher demand lifestyles, the water intensity of food-consumption patterns may increase, further exacerbating the problem (Pradhan et al, 2013).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Determining regional limits and sectoral constraints for water use

Lissner

Sullivan

Reusser

et al. 2014

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract.Water is an essential input to the majority of human activities. Often, access to sufficient water resources is limited by quality and infrastructure aspects, rather than by resource availability alone, and each activity has different requirements regarding the nature of these aspects. This paper develops an integrated approach to assess the adequacy of water resources for the three major water users: the domestic, agricultural and industrial sectors. Additionally, we include environmental water requirements. We first outline the main determinants of water adequacy for each sector. Subsequently, we present an integrated approach using fuzzy logic, which allows assessing sector-specific as well as overall water adequacy. We implement the approach in two case study settings to exemplify the main features of the approach. Using results from two climate models and two forcing RCPs (representative concentration pathways), as well as population projections, we further assess the impacts of climate change in combination with population growth on the adequacy of water resources. The results provide an important step forward in determining the most relevant factors, impeding adequate access to water, which remains an important challenge in many regions of the world. The methodology allows one to directly identify the factors that are most decisive in determining the adequacy of water in each region, pointing towards the most efficient intervention points to improve conditions. Our findings underline the fact that, in addition to water volumes, water quality is a limitation for all sectors and, especially for the environmental sector, high levels of pollution are a threat to water adequacy.

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Embodied Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Diets

Cited by 111 publications

References 37 publications

Increasing homogeneity in global food supplies and the implications for food security

Increasing homogeneity in global food supplies and the implications for food security

Spatial Patterns and Driving Forces of Greenhouse Land Change in Shouguang City, China

Determining regional limits and sectoral constraints for water use

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