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1. Potential Environmental Impacts of Peanut Using Water Footprint Assessment: A Case Study in Georgia

   https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy12040930  

   Deepa, Raveendranpillai ; Anandhi, Aavudai ; Bailey, Nathaniel O. ; Grace, Johnny M. ; Betiku, Omolola C. ; Muchovej, James J. ( April 2022 , Agronomy)

   The recent decade has witnessed an increase in irrigated acreage in the southeast United States due to the shift in cropping patterns, climatic conditions, and water availability. Peanut, a major legume crop cultivated in Georgia, Southeast United States, has been a staple food in the American household. Regardless of its significant contribution to the global production of peanuts (fourth largest), studies related to local or regional scale water consumption in peanut production and its significant environmental impacts are scarce. Therefore, the present research contributes to the water footprint of peanut crops in eight counties of Georgia and its potential ecological impacts. The impact categories relative to water consumption (water depletion—green and blue water scarcity) and pesticide use (water degradation—potential freshwater ecotoxicity) using crop-specific characterization factors are estimated for the period 2007 to 2017 at the mid-point level. These impacts are transformed into damages to the area of protection in terms of ecosystem quality at the end-point level. This is the first county-wise quantification of the water footprint and its impact assessment using ISO 14046 framework in the southeast United States. The results suggest inter-county differences in water consumption of crops with higher blue water requirements than green and grey water.more »According to the water footprint analysis of the peanut crop conducted in this study, additional irrigation is recommended in eight Georgia counties. The mid-point level impact assessment owing to water consumption and pesticide application reveals that the potential freshwater ecotoxicity impacts at the planting and growing stages are higher for chemicals with high characterization factors regardless of lower pesticide application rates. Multiple regression analysis indicates blue water, yield, precipitation, maximum surface temperature, and growing degree days are the potential factors influencing freshwater ecotoxicity impacts. Accordingly, a possible impact pathway of freshwater ecotoxicity connecting the inventory flows and the ecosystem quality is defined. This analysis is helpful in the comparative environmental impact assessments for other major crops in Georgia and aids in water resource management decisions. The results from the study could be of great relevance to the southeast United States, as well as other regions with similar climatic zones and land use patterns. The assessment of water use impacts relative to resource availability can assist farmers in determining the timing and layout of crop planting.« less
2. How does COVID-19 affect the life cycle environmental impacts of U.S. household energy and food consumption?

   https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac52cb  

   Yao, Yuan ( February 2022 , Environmental Research Letters)

   The COVID-19 pandemic has reduced travel but led to an increase in household food and energy consumption. Previous studies have explored the changes in household consumption of food and energy during the pandemic; however, the economy-wide environmental implications of these changes have not been investigated. This study addresses the knowledge gap by estimating the life cycle environmental impacts of U.S. households during the pandemic using a hybrid life cycle assessment. The results revealed that the reduction in travel outweighed the increase in household energy consumption, leading to a nationwide decrease in life cycle greenhouse gas emissions (−255 Mton CO₂eq), energy use (−4.46 EJ), smog formation (−9.17 Mton O₃eq), minerals and metal use (−16.1 Mton), commercial wastes (−8.31 Mton), and acidification (−226 kton SO₂eq). However, U.S. households had more life cycle freshwater withdrawals (+8.6 Gton) and slightly higher eutrophication (+0.2%), ozone depletion (+0.7%), and freshwater ecotoxicity (+2.1%) caused by increased household energy and food consumption. This study also demonstrated the environmental trade-offs between decreased food services and increased food consumption at home, resulting in diverse trends for food-related life cycle environmental impacts.
3. Life cycle assessment of aquaculture systems: Does burden shifting occur with an increase in production intensity?

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquaeng.2020.102130  

   Ghamkhar, Ramin ; Boxman, Suzanne ; Main, Kevan ; Zhang, Qiong ; Trotz, Maya ; Hicks, Andrea ( January 2021 , Aquacultural engineering)

   Life cycle assessment (LCA), a tool used to assess the environmental impacts of products and processes, has been used to evaluate a range of aquaculture systems. Eighteen LCA studies were reviewed which included assess- ments of recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS), flow-through systems, net cages, and pond systems. This re- view considered the potential to mitigate environmental burdens with a movement from extensive to intensive aquaculture systems. Due to the diversity in study results, specific processes (feed, energy, and infrastructure) and specific impact categories (land use, water use, and eutrophication potential) were analyzed in-depth. The comparative analysis indicated there was a possible shift from local to global impacts with a progression from extensive to intensive systems, if mitigation strategies were not performed. The shift was partially due to increased electricity requirements but also varied with electricity source. The impacts from infrastructure were less than 13 % of the environmental impact and considered negligible. For feed, the environmental impacts were typically more dependent on feed conversion ratio (FCR) than the type of system. Feed also contributed to over 50 % of the impacts on land use, second only to energy carriers. The analysis of water use indicated intensive recirculating systems efficiently reducemore »water use as compared to extensive systems; however, at present, studies have only considered direct water use and future work is required that incorporates indirect and consumptive water use. Alternative aquaculture systems that can improve the total nutrient uptake and production yield per material and energy based input, thereby reducing the overall emissions per unit of feed, should be further investigated to optimize the overall of aquaculture systems, considering both global and local environmental impacts. While LCA can be a valuable tool to evaluate trade-offs in system designs, the results are often location and species specific. Therefore, it is critical to consider both of these criteria in conjunction with LCA results when developing aquaculture systems.« less
4. Oleaginous Fungi in Biorefineries

   https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-819990-9.00004-4  

   Zhu S, Bonito G ( January 2020 , Reference Module in Life Sciences)

   Many unicellular microorganisms including yeasts, fungi, microalgae, and to a lesser extent bacteria (Fig. 1), can produce intra- cellular edible oils under normal and specialized conditions (Papanikolaou and Aggelis, 2011). Most of these organisms can accumulate microbial lipids, or single-cell oils (SCOs), to 20%–90% (w/w) of their dry cell biomass. For example, fungi in the genus Mortierella and Umbelopsis can accumulate lipids at concentrations that exceed 86% of their dry weight (Meng et al., 2009). Microbial lipids can be produced using low-priced organic materials, including waste-streams from the food industry, as growth substrate. The fatty acid of microbial lipids is very similar to the conventional vegetable oils in type and composition (Madani et al., 2017). Furthermore, microbial lipids have many potential applications, including human food additives, nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, biopolymers and feed ingredients for aquaculture, and as an alternative feedstock for the production of biofuel (Lewis et al., 2000). Due to the reduced availability of cultivable land and increasing human population growth, producing lipids via traditional methods will not satisfy the rapidly growing global demand. Therefore, microbial lipids accu- mulated from microorganisms, especially oleaginous fungi, are considered as a vital and renewable oil resource and have been regarded as anmore »alternative to animal and plant lipids in recent years, given their unique characteristics and functions in energy, chemical, and food industries (Huang et al., 2017). The production of microbial lipids is particularly attractive when low or negative cost substrates are used as the feedstock.« less
5. The environmental and socioeconomic trade-offs of importing crops to meet domestic food demand in China

   https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab3c10  

   Huang, Guorui ; Yao, Guolin ; Zhao, Jing ; Lisk, Matthew D. ; Yu, Chaoqing ; Zhang, Xin ( September 2019 , Environmental Research Letters)

   China increasingly relies on agricultural imports, driven by its rising population and income, as well as dietary shifts. International trade offers an opportunity to relieve pressures on resource depletion and pollution, such as nitrogen (N) pollution, while it poses multiple socioeconomic challenges, such as food availability. To quantify such trade-offs considering the roles of different crop types, we developed a unique crop-specific N budget database and assessed the impacts of the crop trade on multiple sustainability concerns including N pollution caused by crop production, crop land area, independence of food supply, and trade expenditures. We quantified the ‘virtual’ N inputs and harvested areas, which are the amount of N inputs and land resources used in exporting countries for China’s crop import. In addition, we proposed the concepts of ‘alternative’ N inputs and harvested area to quantify the resources needed if imported crops were produced in China. By comparing results from ‘alternative’ and ‘virtual’ concepts, we assessed the role of trade in Chinese crops over the past 30 years (i.e. 1986–2015) in alleviating N pollution and saving cropland in China and the world. Crop imports accounted for 31% of Chinese crop N consumption in 2015, and these crop imports easedmore »the need for an additional cropland area of 62 million ha. It also avoided an N surplus by 56 and 36 Tg (Tg = 10⁹kg) for China and the world respectively but led to $621 billion crop trade expenditures over the 30 year period. The N pollution damage avoided by crop imports in economic terms was priced at $22 ± 16 billion in 2015, which is lower than the crop trade expenditures but may be surpassed in the future with the development of the Chinese economy. Optimizing a crop trade portfolio can shift domestic production from N-intensive crop production (e.g. maize, fruits, and vegetables) to N-efficient crop production (e.g. soybeans), and consequently mitigate an N surplus by up to 12%. Improving N use efficiency for individual crops can further increase the mitigation potential of N surplus to 30%–50%, but requires technology advancement and policy incentives.

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