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1. Meeting global challenges with regenerative agriculture producing food and energy

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-021-00827-y  

   Schulte, Lisa A.; Dale, Bruce E.; Bozzetto, Stefano; Liebman, Matt; Souza, Glaucia M.; Haddad, Nick; Richard, Tom L.; Basso, Bruno; Brown, Robert C.; Hilbert, Jorge A.; et al (May 2022, Nature Sustainability)
2. Implication of imposing fertilizer limitations on energy, agriculture, and land systems

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.114391  

   Sinha, Eva; Calvin, Katherine V.; Kyle, Page G.; Hejazi, Mohamad I.; Waldhoff, Stephanie T.; Huang, Maoyi; Vishwakarma, Srishti; Zhang, Xin (March 2022, Journal of Environmental Management)
3. Energy- and Safety-Aware Operation of Battery-Powered Autonomous Robots in Agriculture

   https://doi.org/10.1109/TAFE.2024.3353597  

   Vyas, Shashank Dhananjay; Subash, Vigneshwar Kumutha; Mepani, Manav; Venkatesh, Sai; Sinha, Arpita; Guha, Anirban; Dey, Satadru (January 2024, IEEE Transactions on AgriFood Electronics)
4. Recycling food waste to agriculture through hydrothermal carbonization sustains food-energy-water nexus

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2024.153710  

   Xu, Hao; Chen, Tong; Shan, Yide; Chen, Kang; Ling, Ning; Ren, Lixuan; Qu, Hongye; Berge, Nicole D; Flora, Joseph RV; Goel, Ramesh; et al (September 2024, Chemical Engineering Journal)

   Recycling underutilized resources from food waste (FW) to agriculture through hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) has been proposed to promote a circular economy (CE) in food-energy-water (FEW) nexus. However, most HTC studies on FW were conducted at laboratory scale, and little is known on the efficacy and feasibility of field application of HTC products from FW, i.e. the aqueous phrase (AP) and solid hydrochar (HC), to support agriculture production. An integrated pilot-scale HTC system was established to investigate practical HTC reaction conditions treating FW. A peak temperature of 180 ◦C at a residence time of 60 min with 3 times AP recirculation were recommended as optimal HTC conditions to achieve efficient recovery of nutrients, and desirable AP and HC properties for agriculture application. Dilution of the raw AP and composting of the fresh HC are necessary as post-treatments to eliminate potential phytotoxicity. Applying properly diluted AP and the composted HC significantly improved plant growth and nutrient availability in both greenhouse and field trials, which were comparable to commercial chemical fertilizer and soil amendment. The HTC of FW followed with agricultural application of the products yielded net negative carbon emission of 􀀀 0.28 t CO2e t􀀀 1, which was much lower than the other alternatives of FW treatments. Economic profit could be potentially achieved by valorization of the AP as liquid fertilizer and HC as soil amendment. Our study provides solid evidences demonstrating the technical and economic feasibility of recycling FW to agriculture through HTC as a promising CE strategy to sustain the FEW nexus. 

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5. Impacts of irrigated agriculture on food–energy–water–CO2 nexus across metacoupled systems

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19520-3  

   Xu, Zhenci; Chen, Xiuzhi; Liu, Jianguo; Zhang, Yu; Chau, Sophia; Bhattarai, Nishan; Wang, Ye; Li, Yingjie; Connor, Thomas; Li, Yunkai (December 2020, Nature Communications)

   null (Ed.)

   Abstract Irrigated agriculture has important implications for achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. However, there is a lack of systematic and quantitative analyses of its impacts on food–energy–water–CO 2 nexus. Here we studied impacts of irrigated agriculture on food–energy–water–CO 2 nexus across food sending systems (the North China Plain (NCP)), food receiving systems (the rest of China) and spillover systems (Hubei Province, affected by interactions between sending and receiving systems), using life cycle assessment, model scenarios, and the framework of metacoupling (socioeconomic-environmental interactions within and across borders). Results indicated that food supply from the NCP promoted food sustainability in the rest of China, but the NCP consumed over four times more water than its total annual renewable water, with large variations in food–energy–water–CO 2 nexus across counties. Although Hubei Province was seldom directly involved in the food trade, it experienced substantial losses in water and land due to the construction of the South-to-North Water Transfer Project which aims to alleviate water shortages in the NCP. This study suggests the need to understand impacts of agriculture on food–energy–water–CO 2 nexus in other parts of the world to achieve global sustainability. 

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