Environmental impact assessments | TableDebates

UN FAO - Food wastage footprint & Climate Change

This FAO brief on food waste discusses the carbon footprint of global food waste and so called embedded emissions in avoidable food waste. In order to measure the avoidable emissions it is necessary to know how much of what kind of food is wasted and where.

Thesis: Sustainability assessment of urban rooftop farming using an interdisciplinary approach

This thesis by PhD student Esther Sanyé-Mengual (Autonomous University of Barcelona) discusses urban rooftop farming, its potential and its associated environmental impacts and economic costs.

Study argues that scarcity, not abundance, enhances consumer creativity

This paper entitled Creating When You Have Less: The Impact of Resource Scarcity on Product Use Creativity, argues that resource scarcity actually translates into enhanced consumer product-use creativity.

FAO report Natural Capital Impacts in Agriculture – Supporting better business decision-making

This report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) aims to inform decision-making that focuses on reducing impacts on natural capital.

Volkswagen scandal– 500.000 “clean diesel” cars deliberately set to cheat emission tests

Photo credit: Getty images The German car giant Volkswagen has admitted that they have cheated in emissions tests in the US. Since 2009, Volkswagen has been installing elaborate software in 482,000 "clean diesel" vehicles sold in the US and according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), these cars had devices in their diesel engines that could detect when they were being tested, changing the performance accordingly to improve results. The cars' pollution controls would then only work when being tested for emissions.

A meal with pita bread, veggies, and sauce. Photo by Odiseo Castrejon via Unsplash.

Environmental concerns now in Sweden’s newly launched dietary guidelines

In this piece, Elin Röös summarizes and contextualizes both the development and controversies of the Swedish Food Agency's recently released dietary guidelines.Elin is a postdoctoral researcher at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences working for the Future Agriculture initiative at the same university, which is a strategic multidisciplinary research platform that addresses the sustainable use of natural resources with emphasis on agricultural production and food systems. Currently she is visiting the Food Group at the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford, working with future scenarios for protein production and consumption, and engaged in the FCRN network.

Rescuing food from the organics waste stream to feed the food insecure in Australia

This paper, co-authored by FCRN member Christian Reynolds, investigates the economic and environmental efficiency of charities and NGOs that divert and redistribute wasted but edible food. Through a case study of food rescue organizations in Australia, the authors show that food rescue operations generate approximately six kilograms of food waste per tonne of food rescued, at a cost of US$222 per tonne of food rescued. This is lower than purchasing edible, non-food waste food at market-cost. Secondly, for every US dollar spent on food rescue, edible food to the value of US$5.71 (1863 calories) was rescued.

Australia’s beef industry reduces environmental impact

Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) reports that the Australian beef industry has reduced its environmental footprint over the past 30 years. The results are presented in a new paper in Agricultural Systems, and in a press-release MLA writes that:

US dietary guidelines proposed by government advisory committee - back low-meat diet for helping planet

The 2015 USDA’s Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, has published a report that sets out its revised dietary recommendations to encourage Americans to eat more healthily, and this time the recommendations also take account of environmental sustainability considerations. The report, Scientific Report of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (Advisory Report) will be reviewed by the Secretaries of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Federal government will determine how it will use the information in the Advisory Report as the government develops the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2015 to be released later this year.