Advances in on-animal sensors and remote sensing have generated vast data streams, but their impact on rancher decision-making remains limited due to fragmented and uncoordinated efforts. Integration of on-animal monitoring with remote sensing of the grazing resource base offers synergistic potential to assess, in near-real time, grazing behaviour metrics and animal health, thereby enhancing animal performance and improving vegetation conditions through adaptive grazing management. For example, ranchers could use this integration to match the spatio-temporal distribution of grazing animals more effectively across landscapes with available forage quantity and quality. Precision technologies support targeted grazing to achieve ecological goals such as invasive species control, fire break creation, and improved vegetation structure for wildlife-livestock coexistence. Integrating precision technologies show promise, but adoption is hindered by barriers including data accuracy, sensor durability, connectivity, high costs, and the need for effective data integration into decision-support tools. Co-production research efforts with ranchers are essential to bridge the gap between data and decision-making, thereby enabling adaptive grazing strategies that reduce labor inputs and improve both economic and ecological outcomes for ranchers.

While feed additives have been widely studied for their role in reducing the environmental impact of dairy production, few studies have evaluated the baseline sustainability and improvement potential of their commercial manufacturing. This study employed a multidimensional analytical framework to evaluate baseline sustainability performance and develop improvement strategies for the commercial manufacturing of rumen-protected B vitamins (RPBVs) in Canada. The study followed the Livestock Environmental Assessment Performance guidelines, ISO 14040/44 for environmental life cycle assessment, and ISO 14075 and ISO 14045 standards for social life cycle and eco-efficiency assessment. Producing and packaging 1 kg of RPBV could contribute 1375 g of CO2-eq, 3.21 g of PO43--eq, 7.5 g of SO2-eq, use a 0.7 m2 area of crop-eq, and deplete 225 g of oil-eq in fossil resources. A relative contribution analysis revealed that raw material sourcing was the highest contributor, particularly hydrogenated vegetable oil, which emerged as a principal impact component, accounting for an average of 78.0 % of the raw material environmental footprint. Possible product design changes using alternative hydrogenated oils from cottonseed, soybean, and insect oils as substitutes could offset CO2-eq emissions and acidification potential by 1.0-70.2 % and 1.6-70.1 %, respectively. However, in some substitution scenarios (sunflower and cottonseed oils), the eutrophication potential and fossil depletion increased by up to 8.8 % and 58.1 %, respectively, while all scenarios increased agricultural land use. Comparative analysis of socio-eco-efficiency scenarios also revealed that the probable substitution of hydrogenated vegetable oil with cottonseed and sunflower oils is associated with relatively greater medium-risk worker hours, lower supply-demand ratios, higher environmental footprints, and increased costs of production, making them unfavorable alternatives. Instead, incorporating hydrogenated soybean oil was the most promising alternative, reducing potential impacts in some priority categories by 32.0-53.0 % and the unit cost of production by 1.0-10.2 % for partial to complete substitution. The simultaneous incorporation of hydrogenated soybean and insect oils in the RPBV could offset 82-180 tons of CO2-eq annually, supporting the industry partner's climate goals. Although product stability has been addressed, further research on the efficacy, quality, and zootechnical performance of redesigned products is needed to ensure the viability of these alternatives for sustainable RPBV production.

Maximizing the sorption capacity of gaseous Hg0 by sulfur-functionalized biochar can lead to increased energy consumption and the production of secondary environmental pollutants such as greenhouse gases. This study evaluates the environmental impact of producing sulfurized biochar through a life cycle assessment (LCA), weighing these impacts against the benefits of enhanced Hg removal efficiencies. The biochar's Hg0 adsorption capacity, which ranges between 3 and 22 μg-Hg0/g-biochar, is influenced by several factors: it increases with higher sulfur loading (0-15 %), higher O2 levels (0-21 %), and longer pyrolysis times (1-5 h). However, it also decreases with increased pyrolysis temperature (100-500 °C). XPS and FT-IR analysis confirm that the sulfur in the biochar primarily exists as elemental sulfur, but each sulfurization condition also resulted in the formation of sulfate, organic sulfur, and sulfone. LCA results indicate that using biochar as a sorbent for Hg0 is carbon-negative when the biochar is disposed of in landfills. Sensitivity analysis showed that increasing mercury adsorption capacity through excessive investment in energy and resources does not necessarily reduce the overall environmental impact. Consequently, when selecting an adsorbent for mercury removal, it is crucial to consider both sorption capacity and environmental impact.

Over the last decade, policymakers and dairy producers worldwide have faced the challenge of reducing the environmental impact of dairy production while continuing to meet societal needs for high-quality and nutritious protein sources. Given this, the objective of the present study was to assess the net environmental impact of adopting different nutrition strategies with and without supplementing rumen-protected B vitamins (RPBV, B vitamins that are microencapsulated to bypass rumen degradation in cows and be absorbed in the small intestines) in dairy milk production. Seven representative regional dairy production systems across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Australia, and France were investigated, utilizing a total mixed ration (TMR) feeding program supplemented with 3 g of RPBV. The estimated climate change impact scores for all control production scenarios ranged from 1.08 to 1.65 kg CO2-eq/kg fat protein-corrected milk (FPCM). However, the impact of climate change per kg of FPCM decreased by 5.6-18.0 % when RPBV was supplemented on top of the TMR feeding program. The highest and lowest climate change impact reductions were observed for the RPBV production scenarios in Mexico and Colombia, where the impacts decreased from 1.65 to 1.36 kg CO2-eq/ FPCM and from 1.49 to 1.41 kg CO2-eq, respectively. Additionally, the impacts of agricultural land use, water consumption, and acidification, as well as eutrophication potential, were reduced by 3.0-16.3 % (with an average reduction of 7.4 % across all scenarios) when the TMR feeding programs were supplemented with 3 g of RPBV. The observed impact reduction could be attributed to improvements in milk production, which varied across different regions, with milk yields ranging from 3.3 % to 19.4 % above those of the control production scenario. Additionally, there were reductions in enteric methane (up to 2.4 %) and nitrogen emissions (up to 10 %). In dairy cows, RPBV acts as an enzyme co-factor at the cellular level by improving the efficiency of key pathways involved in energy, fat, and protein metabolism, which consequently increases milk yield and feed efficiency. The manufacturing and transportation of RPBV to the seven regional destinations examined in the current study had a minimal impact on the total environmental footprint of dairy production systems. The null hypothesis was rejected, indicating significant differences in results, as the p-value for all impacts and pairs (control and RPBV scenarios per 500 Monte Carlo runs) was less than 0.05, which is considered statistically significant. Overall, supplementation with RPBV constitutes a valuable nutritional strategy to support ongoing efforts and innovations in driving sustainable dairy production.

Nutrient removal using renewable/green energy sources and their impact on the surrounding environment is still limited. To fill this knowledge gap, we studied the simultaneous production of struvite, hydrogen, and electricity with no applied voltage/current or chemical adjustment using a flow-cell reactor in farm wastewater compositions, and their impact on the surrounding environment by using life cycle assessment (LCA). In a 3 h experiment, the flow cell reactor removed up to 87 % of phosphate and 77 % of ammonia thus improving water quality. The produced electricity decreased over time due to the formation of a passivating film and hydrogen bubbles on the magnesium anode. Surface characterization techniques (FT-IR, XRD, SEM) indicated that the obtained struvite was of good quality, while chemical analysis showed < 2.6% of Ca(2+)as co-precipitate. The LCA showed that generation of struvite, hydrogen, and electricity provided major environmental credits, but the manufacturing of magnesium anode had environmental burdens.

While technologies are in development to recover key, non-renewable nutrients and reduce eutrophication potential from wastewater treatment, there currently does not exist information that can inform an effective strategy to maximize the impacts of these efforts while maintaining efficient use of limited resources. This work provides 1) an estimate of spatially explicit emitted EP (EPE) from WRRFs in the contiguous U.S. at 0.5-degree resolution using total P emissions from WRRFs and site-specific cumulative fate factors from a global model, 2) conceptualization and estimate of total spatially explicit received EP (EPR) locally and upstream for each grid cell, 3) estimate of percent EPR from local vs. upstream sources for each grid cell, 4) hotspot analysis and impact assessment of EP mitigation via nutrient recovery in a case study. Mapping grid cells with site-specific EPE show hotspots near the Great Lakes area, where P emissions from WRRFs and/or cumulative fate factors are high and yield the highest EPE. Estimates for received EP show nearly half of all non-arid cells in the U.S. with P loading have the majority of spatially explicit EPR stemming from local WRRF discharge rather than upstream WRRFs. Grid cells with a majority of EPR coming from upstream sources, as opposed to local sources, tended to occur in areas near or encompassing rivers. These results also showed that when focusing only on cells that encompassed 303(d) listed impaired waters, most cells receive more than half of their EPR from local sources. Case study results show that of the 19 grid cells that contribute to the mouth of Wabash River, three cells contribute 52 % of the total EPR. When modeling a 25 % reduction in P emissions of contributing cells, it is found that similar EPR reductions could be achieved at the mouth of the river from two of the largest contributing cells; however, this 25 % reduction in one cell equated to less than half overall P reduction (lb P emitted) compared to the other contributing cell.

Lifecycle assessment (LCA) quantified changes in environmental impact categories (global warming, eutrophication, etc.) from 2021 to 2030 due to genetic trends in (re)production traits in pig lines of the breeding company Genus-PIC. The 2030 levels were projected with selection index theory based on weightings of traits in the breeding goals and genetic covariances among them. The projected improvement was 0.9% annually for most impact categories. Another LCA compared the impacts of 2021 North American pig production based on PIC genetics versus the industry average. Software openLCA converted material and energy flows to impact categories of frameworks ReCiPe-2016, PEF-3.1, and IPCC-2021. Flows came from data recorded by customers (1.1/4.7 million sows/finishing pigs) and by subscribers to a third-party data aggregator (1.3/9.1 million). PIC genetics have a 7–8% better impact than industry average for 13/18 categories of ReCiPe-2016, 19/25 of PEF-3.1, and all categories of IPCC-2001. Pig breeding delivers positive environmental outcomes as correlated responses to selection for profitability-oriented breeding goals. This trend is additive; technology development will increase it. Different investment levels in breeding population structure and technology and different operational efficiencies of breeding companies cause substantial differences in the environmental impact of pig production.

The report Potential for U.S. Agriculture to Be Greenhouse Gas Negative (November 2024) evaluates the technical and economic feasibility of transforming U.S. agriculture into a net-negative greenhouse gas (GHG) sector. Prepared by U.S. Farmers & Ranchers in Action (USFRA) and reviewed by the National Academy of Sciences, the study synthesizes scientific literature, modeling, and life-cycle assessments to identify strategies for reducing emissions and enhancing carbon sequestration. Current U.S. agricultural emissions are approximately 0.55 Gt CO₂-eq annually, representing 10% of national emissions. Achieving GHG-negative status requires sequestration of ~0.60 Gt CO₂-eq through integrated approaches. The report addresses eight critical domains: soil carbon sequestration, nitrogen use efficiency, closing row crop yield gaps, animal protein production, energy and energy use efficiency, food loss and waste reduction, and economic and policy frameworks. Key findings highlight soil carbon sequestration and regenerative practices as primary drivers, with potential reductions of up to 234 MMT CO₂-eq per year under widespread adoption scenarios. Enhanced nitrogen management, precision agriculture, and digital technologies can significantly mitigate nitrous oxide emissions. Livestock systems offer opportunities for methane reduction via feed additives, manure management, and improved grazing practices. Energy decarbonization through renewable sources and efficiency improvements further supports emission reductions. Policy recommendations emphasize integrated modeling, robust carbon markets, and incentives to accelerate adoption. The report concludes that U.S. agriculture can contribute substantially to national climate goals through coordinated research, technology deployment, and policy innovation, positioning the sector as a global leader in climate-smart food systems.

Beef and dairy production systems play an important role in society, providing a variety of ecosystem services. U.S. beef and dairy production systems require being aligned with the global and national effort to stabilize the anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the atmosphere. This study adapted the nominal group technique framework to design a roadmap to achieving a net-zero GHG cattle supply chain in the U.S. with an emphasis on farm recommendations. Scientists with diverse expertise in sustainable beef and dairy production proposed, categorized, described, defined, and prioritized strategies that have the potential to significantly reduce GHG emissions, improve production system efficiencies, and promote sustainability. These strategies were presented to different stakeholders and classified according to the marginal GHG reduction, expected return on investment, and market readiness. Thus, strategies were defined for cow-calf and stocker, feedlot, and dairy operations, according to the characteristics of the cattle systems in the U.S. This net-zero roadmap presents a broad range of options for promoting sustainable cattle production in the U.S. Priority items for a research agenda to facilitate progress towards implementing this net-zero roadmap are described according to the dairy or beef production system and including the modulation of rumen fermentation, precision diet management, manure management, increasing animal and system efficiency, and genetic evaluation and selecting of efficient animals. The expected return on investment and market readiness of the proposed strategies depend on the technology type and system localization. Progress toward the net-zero goal depends on the widespread adoption of appropriate mitigation strategies. Future research programs must prioritize identified research needs to promote the wide adoption of the proposed strategies.

Life cycle assessments of have been completed documenting the environmental sustainability of beef, but these studies have often focused on specific cattle production systems with an emphasis on global warming potential. A need exists for a national-scale full life cycle assessment of beef production through consumption in the United States. Process level simulation of archetypical cattle production systems throughout the nation were combined with information gathered for harvest, processing, retail, and consumption of beef to provide inventory data for a cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment. A set of 18 environmental impact categories were quantified, and important sources of each were identified. In 13 of the categories, the major sources of impact were related to cattle production, and for 10 of these categories, cattle production and related upstream sources contributed more than half of the total impact. These categories were fine particulate matter, global warming, land use, mineral resource scarcity, ozone formation, stratospheric ozone depletion, terrestrial acidification, and water consumption. Categories where most of the impact occurred post farmgate were fossil resource scarcity, freshwater ecotoxicity, freshwater eutrophication, human carcinogenic toxicity, human non-carcinogenic toxicity, ionizing radiation, marine ecotoxicity, and terrestrial ecotoxicity. Mitigation strategies for reducing these environmental impacts are normally specific to the impact category. Because electricity use is an important contributor to many of the potential impacts throughout the full chain, reducing electricity use is an important mitigation strategy. We evaluated the sensitivity associated with greening of the electric grid in which the Northeast US power grid, which has a larger percentage of renewables, was used as the source of electricity for all systems. The impact remained constant or were reduced in 15 of the 18 impact categories including a 6% reduction in global warming and 22% reduction in particulate matter formation. Another major contributor to all impact categories was food loss and waste. A 50% reduction in food waste, primarily by the consumer, resulted in an across-the-board reduction of approximately 11% in each of the impact categories, which makes food waste reduction one of the most important strategies for improving the environmental sustainability of beef. This assessment provides a current baseline for evaluating mitigation strategies and measuring future improvements in sustainability for the U.S. beef industry.

Nutrient recovery from wastewater is a sustainable solution to combat the harmful release of nutrients to the environment. Here, we investigate nutrient recovery from wastewater by pre-concentration of wastewater nutrients using pressure-driven membranes prior to downstream electrochemical nutrient precipitation. When using electrochemical struvite precipitation, a higher nutrient concentration leads to a higher precipitation efficiency. Therefore, we investigate the performance of commercial nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) membranes with different polymer chemistry and molecular weight cut-offs (MWCO) and discuss the membrane selection based on design goals and wastewater compositions for maximum nutrient recovery efficiency. Our results indicated that the Alfa membrane, a polyamide thin film composite (PA-TFC) NF membrane with 300 Da MWCO has the highest concentration factor in phosphorus (P) preconcentration among all the membranes studied due to the high flux and removal efficiency. BW30LE (PA-TFC, 100 Da), Synder (PA-TFC, 100-250 Da) and NF90 (PA-TFC, 200-400 Da) achieved a high concentration factor for nitrogen (N) recovery. NF90 and Synder NF membranes are able to achieve a nitrogen concentration factor similar to BW30LE RO membrane at much lower energy consumption. A multistage membrane system design is suggested using the selected membranes for effective nutrient recovery. Life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted to characterize the environmental impact of the multistage membrane nutrient recovery system. Among the different process configurations of the selected membranes, key trends included: 1) environmental impacts across most categories increased as the number of membranes increased, and 2) as the amount of fertilizer substitute that could be produced in a given configuration increased, total environmental impacts decreased with some exceptions.

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.

Environmental impact associated with production and consumption of pulses in the United States was evaluated using life cycle assessment (LCA). The system boundary was set to cradle-to-grave with a functional unit of 60 g (dry basis) of pulses consumed in a US household. Varieties of pulses modeled in the study included field pea (Pisum sativum), lentil (Lens culinaris), chickpea (Cicer arietinum), and dry bean. Three methods of cooking pulses at the consumer stage tested in the study were cooking in open vessel on electric cooking range (OVC), cooking in stovetop pressure cooker on electric cooking range (SPC), and cooking in electric pressure cooker (EPC). OVC formed the base scenario against which all other scenarios were compared. The environmental impact of pulses varied with type of pulse crop, cooking method, and the batch size. Consumption of approximately 60 g of dry pulses resulted in the greatest environmental impact for OVC. The consumer stage contributed at least 83, 81, 76, 75, and 87 percent for global warming potential (GWP), fossil resource scarcity (FRS), water consumption (WC), freshwater eutrophication (FE), and marine eutrophication (ME), respectively for this scenario. EPC resulted in the greatest decrease in the environmental impact, compared to OVC, for GWP, FRS, FE, and ME for all pulse varieties, which was validated in the uncertainty analysis. SPC, on the other hand, decreased the impact across these categories only for chickpea and dry bean. The uncertainty analysis suggested that the differences associated with cooking methods in the mean land use and water consumption scores of pulses were statistically non-significant. The impact categories were also highly sensitive to the mass of pulses cooked in a batch. Increasing the reference flow in OVC to 1 kg decreased the environmental impact of pulses by 49-87 percent for all impact categories, excluding land use. Overall, the study identified the consumer stage as the hotspot for environmental impact in the supply chain of pulses in the United States. The large contribution of the consumer stage to the overall environmental impact of pulses was attributed to electricity consumption for cooking and associated upstream emissions.

A cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) study was conducted for an open-field strawberry (strb) produced in California. The evaluation covered the full supply chain of strawberry, which also included the impacts of food waste generated at each phase of the life cycle. The supply chain included farming, retail, consumption, and end-of-life treatments of waste generated. Data on strawberry farming (included cultivation, harvest and packaging) were collected from the selected farms, with an average strawberry acreage of 138 acres. The defined functional unit (FU) was 1 kg-strb, consumed at the consumer stage, including food waste. Life cycle inventory (LCI) data for post-farm (retail and consumer stage) were based on the available literature and engineering estimates. The ReCiPe 2016 method was used to calculate the potential environmental impacts. The total GHG emissions calculated per FU was 1.45 kg CO2eq; freshwater eutrophication potential was 4.43*10−4 kg Peq/FU, fossil resource scarcity was 0.46 kg oileq/FU. Transportation contributed to about 32% of the total GHG emissions, the use of all forms of plastics (including packaging PET, labels, and field plastics) contributed 18% of the total GHG emissions, while their treatments contributed ∼1% (including the credits from the related recycling process). The use of corrugated boxes contributed 15% of the GHG emissions, while end-of-life treatment provided credits by –7% of the total impact. Food waste treatment contributed ∼15% to the total GHG emissions. For fossil resource scarcity, cultivation along with packaging contributed 71% of the total impact, followed by retail and consumer (25% and 11%, respectively), which was mainly due to transportation. Results showed that the use of recycled packaging materials and the adoption of a suitable recycling process are effective strategies to lower the environmental impacts. The study also showed that with changes in crop yields by ±10%, as compared to the reported yields, most of the selected environmental impacts could change by ± 3–4%, while water consumption would vary by −9% (with +10% yield increase) and increase by 11% (with −10% yield). Reducing food waste by 10% could lower the total GHG emissions by around 1%.

Nutrient recovery in domestic wastewater treatment has increasingly become an important area of study as the supply of non-renewable phosphorus decreases. Recent bench-scale trials indicate that co-generation of struvite and hydrogen using electrochemical methods may offer an alternative to existing recovery options utilized by municipal wastewater treatment facilities. However, implementation has yet to be explored at plant-scale. In the development of novel nutrient recovery processes, both economic and environmental assessments are necessary to guide research and their design. The aim of this study was to conduct a prospective life cycle assessment and cost analysis of a new electrochemical struvite recovery technology that utilizes a sacrificial magnesium anode to precipitate struvite and generate hydrogen gas. This technology was modeled using process simulation software GPS-X and CapdetWorks assuming its integration in a full-scale existing wastewater treatment plant with and without anaerobic digestion. Struvite recoveries of 18–33% were achieved when anaerobic digestion was included, with a break-even price of $6.03/kg struvite and $15.58/kg of hydrogen required to offset increased costs for recovery. Struvite recovery reduced aquatic eutrophication impacts as well as terrestrial acidification impacts. Tradeoffs between benefits from struvite and burdens from electrode manufacturing were found for several impact categories.

Phosphorus (P) recovery from wastewaters as struvite (MgNH4PO4·6H2O) may be a viable alternative fertilizer-P source for agriculture. The objective of this study was to evaluate the economic and environmental implications of struvite as a fertilizer-P source for flood-irrigated rice (Oryza sativa) relative to other commonly used commercially available fertilizer-P sources. A field study was conducted in 2019 and 2020 to evaluate the effects of wastewater-recovered struvite (chemically precipitated struvite (CPST) and electrochemically precipitated struvite (ECST)) on rice yield response in a P-deficient, silt–loam soil in eastern Arkansas relative to triple superphosphate, monoammonium and diammonium phosphate, and rock phosphate. A life cycle assessment methodology was used to estimate the global warming potentials associated with rice produced with the various fertilizer-P sources. Life cycle inventory data were based on the field trials conducted with and without struvite application for both years. A partial budget analysis showed that, across both years, net revenues for ECST and CPST were 1.4 to 26.8% lower than those associated with the other fertilizer-P sources. The estimated greenhouse gas emissions varied between 0.58 and 0.70 kg CO2 eq kg rice−1 from CPST and between 0.56 and 0.81 kg CO2 eq kg rice−1 from ECST in 2019 and 2020, respectively, which were numerically similar to those for the other fertilizer-P sources in 2019 and 2020. The similar rice responses compared to commercially available fertilizer-P sources suggest that wastewater-recovered struvite materials might be an alternative fertilizer-P-source option for flood-irrigated rice production if struvite can become price-competitive to other fertilizer-P sources.

In the process of analyzing and taking action toward a low-carbon production, understanding the effect kind of farm management options is critical. Currently, a sustainable production system entails effective energy use with reduced environmental impact. Considering the quantum of inputs in coffee production, this study deals with the evaluation of energy flow and environmental footprints of coffee-pepper farms of Karnataka, India. The aim is to ensure the socio-economic and environmental sustainability of coffee-pepper production systems. The evaluation was made for 108 farms, categorized into conventional farming (CF), integrated production (IP), and organic farming (OF) systems, using both data envelopment analysis (DEA) and Life cycle Assessment (LCA) methodologies. A cradle-to-gate perspective was used to evaluate the life cycle environmental impacts. The functional unit is one ha of the cropping system, used for producing both crops (coffee and pepper). The energy analysis revealed higher energy use efficiency (2.3), net energy gain (18,890 MJ/ha), and farm autonomy (0.3) in the OF system. Higher energy consumption in CF and IP was attributed to the N fertilizer use (38% & 32%, respectively), followed by lime (20% & 17%, respectively). The DEA indicated that the average technical efficiency of the farming system was 0.82 for the CF and 0.76 for the IP. This implies farmers can save 18 and 24% of the resources in the CF and the IP systems, respectively. These farms performed more efficiently with a mean economic saving of 497 and 540 USD, respectively compared to the CF. The on-farm greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were the major contributor to the global warming potential; contributing 59%, 62%, and 62%, respectively in the CF, IP, and OF. The overall GHG emissions in the OF systems were 65% lower compared to the CF. The IP and OF systems showed better environmental and energy gains compared to the CF for most of the selected sustainability metrics. Hence, large-scale adoption of the OF practices or reducing the use of external inputs can help to achieve higher energy efficiency and to reduce environmental impacts associated with conventional farming systems.

Amid growing concern regarding the food system are calls to reduce or eliminate animal sourced foods (ASF) from human diets. Despite the green revolution and consequent increase in crop yields, nutrient deficiencies are still problematic, particularly in developing regions. In the US, ASF provide 24% of energy, 48% of protein, approximately 50% of the essential amino acids and essential fatty acids as well as the micronutrients (White and Hall, 2017). This presentation introduces a framework for evaluation and discusses remaining knowledge gaps regarding the role of ASF in sustainable food systems that provide nutritious diets. Lifecycle assessment (LCA) was used to provide an accounting of environmental and sustainability characteristics of food production systems. LCA has an explicit goal the identification of tradeoffs between stages in the supply chain and tradeoffs across environmental dimensions. In a published study (Kim et al., 2020) using a hybrid lifecycle assessment technique, it was shown that while vegetarian diets resulted in lower environmental impacts across several environmental categories, that the US non-vegetarian recommended dietary guidelines led to increases for many categories. This is driven by the increased consumption of less calorically dense foods and changes in the patterns of food loss and waste. Ongoing studies of US beef production systems are providing insight into factors behind the variability in sustainability driven by practice and location. One management practice receiving attention is Adaptively Managed Paddocks (AMP). Sequestration estimates were combined with process model simulations of cow calf finishing operations. One system used conventional grain finishing and the other used grass finishing. The potential mitigation of GHG emissions from the potential sequestration is significant. Complete assessment of the role of ASF in healthy diets from sustainable food systems requires a full understanding of the benefits and costs of alternatives and informed decisions based on understanding of tradeoffs.

HighlightsTractor guidance (TG) reduced the overlaps and gaps during fertilizer and herbicide applications.Production gains with TG on were 2.7% to 6.5% relative to TG off; however, fuel consumption increased.A 5% increase in yield is needed to make tractor guidance environmentally remunerating.Abstract. The use of auto-guidance on tractors and self-propelled machinery improves agricultural production efficiencies by reportedly avoiding negative environmental impacts from over-applying fertilizers and herbicides. Environmental impacts from auto-tractor guidance systems have not been systematically quantified and are difficult to assess at the farm system level. Therefore, this study uses a life cycle-based assessment to quantify the environmental impacts of deploying tractor guidance (TG) over a range of fertility rates, fertilizer sources (organic and inorganic), equipment, and pasture crops through scenarios based on in-field data (collected with and without TG). The use of TG reduced gaps by 7.6% and 10.1% and reduced absolute overlaps by 32.5% and 4.2% during herbicide and fertilizer application, respectively. Estimated production gains with TG on ranged from 2.7% to 6.5% over the baseline (TG off); however, tractor fuel consumption increased when TG was employed. There was high uncertainty for productivity gain estimates; however, under scenario testing with an assumed 15% yield gain, TG resulted in 8% to 12% reduced environmental impacts across all impact categories relative to non-GPS enabled technologies. Future research should be focused on actual yield-based responses from TG, as well as field emissions, operator experience, and resulting water quality. Overall, yield gains were crucial for improved pasture-based system sustainability when using TG because TG results in fewer gaps and overlaps, thereby resulting in greater input use across pasture landscapes. Consequently, more targeted applications of inputs during production may lead to fewer nutrients in water systems and more sustainable production of food. Keywords: Auto-guidance, Forage systems, Life cycle assessment, Poultry litter, Precision agriculture, Small farms.