Photo credits: Pexels - https://www.pexels.com/photo/black-and-white-animals-sheep-flock-1469/
Explainer
Methane and the sustainability of ruminant livestock
The environmental sustainability of our food production methods, and what kinds of agricultural systems might be compatible with keeping global warming below internationally agreed upon limits, are key topics for sustainable food systems research and policy. Since the food system is an important emitter of three different greenhouse gases; carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide; greater clarity as to their warming impacts and their consequent contribution to climate change is needed. https://www.doi.org/10.56661/25320192
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Photo credits: Pexels - https://www.pexels.com/photo/brown-yak-on-green-and-brown-grass-field-144234/
Explainer
Agricultural methane and its role as a greenhouse gas
There has recently been a lot of focus on methane, as it is an important contributor to climate change. The food system is one of the largest emitters of methane, and the gas is particularly associated with ruminant livestock (cattle, sheep and goats) and with rice production. Despite its significance as a greenhouse gas, there is also considerable confusion over how we should quantify the climate impacts of methane emissions. This is because there are important differences in how methane and carbon dioxide – the major human-generated greenhouse gas – affect the climate. This explainer provides an overview of the key points about methane, and addresses some common areas of confusion. Last update: 11 June, 2019 https://www.doi.org/10.56661/0f7f7b1e
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Foodsource
Explainer
How can we reduce food-related greenhouse gas emissions?
It is an internationally agreed objective to cut human-caused greenhouse gas emissions to zero this century, to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Given the major contribution of food system activities to total human-caused emissions, reducing these emissions is of great importance. But how and by how much can emissions be reduced, while also feeding a growing population? There are different perspectives on how food systems emissions can be reduced and it is helpful to explore these since these differences also underpin many other debates around food system sustainability. Understanding these perspectives helps to put specific proposals for reducing food system emissions into a wider food systems context.
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Foodsource
Explainer
Impacts of climatic and environmental change on food systems
Food systems are central to human well-being. We rely on them for nourishment, employment, livelihoods, culture and more. Reliable access to sufficient food is a foundation of human health, and of social and political stability. While the impacts of food systems on the environment are great, changes to the climate and the wider environment — to which food systems contribute — also have major implications for the functioning of food systems and all that they support. Understanding this matters, because sustainable food systems in the future must not only maintain human well-being with fewer environmental impacts, but must also be able to cope to different environmental conditions to those experienced today.
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Foodsource
Explainer
Food systems and greenhouse gas emissions
Emissions resulting from the many activities involved in food systems, account for a substantial portion of all human-caused greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and, as such, contribute to climate change. A major challenge for the sustainability of food systems is, therefore to figure out how its contribution to GHGs can be reduced. If we are to be able to address and mitigate food systems’ contributions to climate change, it is important to understand where and how the greenhouse gas emissions arise across the whole food system. Also important, is to understand how different ways of organising parts of the food system, can result in differing levels of greenhouse gas emissions.
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Cows on pasture. Photo by Leon Ephraim via Unsplash.
Essay
Livestock’s carbon footprint & the importance of comparing greenhouse gases
This blog-post from Martin Persson at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden takes on the timely question of how one should measure the climate impacts of different greenhouse gases.  He begins by explaining what the two most common metrics - Global Warming Potential (GWP) and the Global Temperature change Potential (GTP) – actually measure.  He then moves on to focus specifically on beef and associated methane emissions. In light of the Paris Agreement’s target of limiting warming to 2oC he argues that the ‘right’ metric to choose needs to reflect the specific climate policy that the measurement is to serve.Martin Persson is an Associate Professor at Physical Resource Theory, Department of Energy & Environment at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden. In addition to metrics, his research focuses on global land use in relation to climate, biodiversity, and conservation policy. In a recent paper he and his colleagues show that the consumption and international trade of beef, soy, palm oil and timber products are dominant causes of deforestation in the tropics.
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