Sustainable Diets, Food, and Nutrition Proceedings of a Workshop (2019) / Chapter Skim
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5 Innovation in Food Production and Distribution to Reduce Environmental Footprint
5 Innovation in Food Production and Distribution to Reduce Environmental Footprint
Pages 91-122
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From page 91... ...
This chapter summarizes the presentations and discussion that took place during this session, with highlights of the presentations provided in Box 5-1. REDUCING THE FOOTPRINT OF ANIMAL AGRICULTURE Frank Mitloehner, University of California, Davis, opened the session with a glimpse of what he described as "ground zero of environmental discussions, and that is the sunny state of California." He informed the audience that California is the leading agricultural state in the nation, producing 50 percent of all fruits and vegetables and 20 percent of all dairy (CDFA, 2017)
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− Recycling food waste into animal feed (the "leftovers approach") can reduce GHG emissions from regional livestock systems.
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A life-cycle assessment (LCA) was used to estimate the emissions attributable to the livestock sector, taking into account all aspects of livestock production, whereas only direct emissions (i.e., from tailpipes)
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This includes not just food waste at the household level but food wasted throughout the entire food supply chain. In the United States, Mitloehner reported, 40 percent of food produced goes to waste (Gunders, 2012)
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Mitloehner went on to point out that as the global population rises, so, too, does the demand for eggs, meat, and milk, particularly in developing parts of the world. He added that this growing demand is largely a function of disposable income, according to 2005 FAO data (see Figure 5-1)
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. To further illustrate the importance of the livestock sector with respect to the global food supply, Mitloehner added that not only is most agricultural land not arable, but half of all arable land in the world is fertilized with chemical fertilizers and the other half with organic fertilizers, which are, by and large, animal manure (FAO, 2006)
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The same is true, he observed, with respect to emission intensities associated FIGURE 5-2 Greenhouse gas emissions (kilograms [kg] of carbon dioxide [CO2]
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Other Animals (Outside of Agriculture) , Other Countries Mitloehner commented on the 9.5 million horses in the United States, compared with the country's 9 million dairy cows, and the lack of discussion around their environmental footprint.
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First, livestock has very different environmental footprints throughout the world, with technologies having allowed the United States and other countries with efficient livestock production to arrive at where they are today. The state of California, for example, has mandated a 40 percent reduction in GHG emissions in the next 12 years.
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From page 100... ...
Heller explained further that dairy contributes 20 percent of total dietrelated GHG emissions, while plant-based foods contribute another 22 percent. He added that if the American diet shifted toward what is recommended, which would include increases in consumption of fruits and vegetables, seafood, and dairy (for the omnivorous DGA pattern)
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. Heller explained that the latter is similar to the omnivorous DGA pattern, but with less red meat and dairy.1 For a 2,000-calorie diet, the researchers found that, compared with an omnivorous diet, with its 1 percent decrease in GHG emissions, a shift to a vegan diet or to either a lacto-ovo vegetarian or Harvard's Healthy Eating Plate diet would reduce GHG emissions by 53 percent and 33 percent, respectively, compared with the current average American diet.
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, an amount equivalent to the tailpipe emissions from 33 million average passenger vehicles. Heller explained that this one-third estimate does not include GHG emissions associated with disposing of food waste, only those associated with producing the wasted food.
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diet as an average," Heller continued. Analyzing diet at the individual level, he stated, "opens up a lot of possibilities." One can begin linking diet, health, and environmental impacts across a population and, he pointed out, "really set the stage for some more nuanced modeling of dietary change." He went on to describe his recent work linking GHG emissions and energy use to individual selfselected diets.
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SOURCES: Presented by Martin Heller on August 2, 2018, modified from Heller et al., 2018. FIGURE 5-4 Cumulative greenhouse gas emission intensity of U.S.
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If those in the upper quintile were to shift their diet to one associated with average emissions through some combination of diet composition and caloric intake reduction, Heller suggested, the environmental savings in terms of GHG emissions after 1 year would be equivalent to 44.6 million Americans driving 15 miles fewer every day, a FIGURE 5-5 Percentage contributions from food groups to total greenhouse gas emissions for all diets, 1st-quintile diets (bottom emitters) , and 5th-quintile diets (top emitters)
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LOCAL AND REGIONAL FOOD SYSTEMS IN SUSTAINABLE DIETS Nicole Tichenor Blackstone, Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts, reflected on the difference between research on sustainable diets and research on local and regional food systems, and how this difference underlies the reality that there are multiple ways to think about sustainable food systems. As an example of her work in research on sustainable diets, she mentioned an analysis in which she and her colleagues compared the environmental impacts of three different diet patterns in the most recent DGA (Blackstone et al., 2018)
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People who work in local and regional food systems consider themselves food systems transformers, she said, because they are exploring alternative ways to organize farms and supply chains. What Is a Local Food System?
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Economic Viability According to Blackstone, research has shown that farms working in local supply chains can have higher net revenue relative to those working in mainstream chains (King et al., 2010)
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. The reason is that local supply chains can have lower fuel efficiency per unit product; because of their larger scale, regional food systems may offer efficiency advantages (King et al., 2010)
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She and her research team were struck by evidence in the animal science literature demonstrating that a high-energy feed that mimics corn can be created from plant-based retail food waste (Froetschel et al., 2014) , coupled with the large potential supply of plant-based retail food waste in the Northeast because of the large number of urban centers.
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SUSTAINABLE FOOD SYSTEMS: INNOVATIONS AT THE INTERSECTION OF SUPPLY CHAINS AND CONSUMERS For Karrie Denniston, Walmart, Bentonville, Arkansas, there are any number of different doors one could walk through when thinking about the role retail serves in sustainable food systems. "Should we talk about food waste?
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, can do this alone; changes in infrastructure, as well as in behavior, will be required. She added that Walmart cannot focus on everything everywhere because it sources from so many countries worldwide and from so many different types of supply chains.
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On another boat farther up the supply chain, Denniston continued, fishing for some other species, a crew is trying to meet all the standards of sustainable certification. She described them as really wanting to "do it the right way." So they pull up their catch and take it to port, but then the wholesaler to whom they bring it does not have enough demand to keep it separated from other catches, and their catch never makes it to market with a signal saying, "we worked hard to catch this sustainably." Meanwhile, in a nearby village, Denniston said, imagine a farmer who has worked hard to perfect what she has been doing with her aquaculture ponds.
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Lessons Learned by Working Across Supply Chains Denniston described six lessons learned by working across supply chains: (1) what good looks like must be defined, (2)
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"If we don't get to know what assets that community has as an alternative," she stressed, "we won't be successful." Economics Help Drive Innovation According to Denniston, one way to articulate the fifth lesson -- that economics help drive innovation -- is that if there is a strong enough business case for an idea, people will figure out how to implement it. As an example, Walmart set a goal of sending zero food waste to landfills, but had no idea how to accomplish this.
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Environmental Impact of Transportation: Nutrient Dense Versus Energy-Dense Food Supply Chains Imagine a city of 20 million people, each of whom is eating a diet of 2,000 calories, Drewnowski proposed. Further suppose that the average energy density of their diets, filled with broccoli, leafy greens, baby carrots, and other vegetables, is one-half calorie per gram.
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That said, she added, there are differences in transportation efficiency, noting that the difference in transportation impact between a fruit and vegetable supply chain and a processed food supply chain depends on how the foods are transported. If the same fruits and vegetables are being air-freighted, she pointed out, their transportation will have a much larger environmental impact -- by an order of magnitude -- than if they are being transported by trucks.
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This is a "grave concern," he said, because the animals are often not vaccinated or otherwise treated appropriately. He pointed out that this leads to enormous production losses, which in turn drive environmental impact.
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annual meeting, where she saw Dennis Dimick's presentation "Eyes on Earth." In line with that presentation, she commented on the urgency of the climate change crisis. She asked the panel to reflect on whether dietary shifts, which obviously have potential benefits, are enough to move the needle on climate change as quickly as is needed, and whether reductions in fossil fuel use and food waste would have a greater impact more quickly.
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That growing demand, she pointed out, will continue to drive deforestation. Thus, she concluded, "it is really important in high beef consumption countries, like the U.S., the UK, and others, that we have reductions in order to allow others to eat beef as they enter the global middle class." Mitloehner clarified that the 4 percent figure for the United States was for all livestock, not just beef, and that it referred only to direct emissions.
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Promoting Local and Regional Food Systems to Consumers: Any Federal Policies? Rebecca Boehm, University of Connecticut, pointed to the recent farm bill negotiations, in which programs that supported local food systems, such as the Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive Grant program, received more funding and garnered bipartisan support.
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