Sustainability performance of soybean and beef chains in Latin America

Sustainability Performance of Soybean and Beef Chains in Latin America The objective of this thesis, was to analyze the sustainability performance of soybean and beef production chains in Latin America (LA). First identifying a set of sustainability issues of soybean and beef production chains in a LA-EU context was carried out. Sustainability issues were found to vary across stakeholders’ interests. Next, the environmental and economic performance of four feeding strategies for beef production in southern Brazil were evaluated. Results showed that improved pasture is a promising system as it results in the best environmental and economic performance. Furthermore, the environmental, economic, and social performance of genetically modified (GM), non-genetically modified (non-GM), and organic soybean production was evaluated by capturing the uncertainty of key parameters. Results revealed that none of these systems performed best for all sustainability issues evaluated. Multi-criteria assessment (MCA) has the capability of giving a single overall score per system by aggregating sustainability scores using relative importance weights provided by stakeholders. The results showed that there is potential to use expert elicitation as an alternative to extensive data rich methods. The simulation results showed a higher variation for the organic soybean production system compared to GM and non-GM

The impact of sugarcane expansion in Brazil: Local stakeholders' perceptions

Sugarcane expansion in Brazil during the 2000s was partly restricted by several discussions about the sustainability aspects of its cultivation. These discussions were mainly based on surveys that sometimes use highly aggregated data not including local perspectives and particularities, and sometimes used case studies with small samples which, while listening to local perspectives, cannot be considered representative of the whole sector. This work aims at filling this gap by considering both the perceptions of the local community, which add primary data on impact, and a large sample, to increase the research representativeness. To do so, we present the results of 353 interviews, covering 33 municipalities in five states of the Center-South region of Brazil (the largest cultivation area in the country). The results show that the expansion of biofuels has generated conflict mostly related to environmental and social issues, although there is good acceptance of the sugarcane mills in general. Our conclusions point to the importance of including local voices for a deeper understanding of the advantages and limitations of the expansion of biofuels73147162COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL DE NÍVEL SUPERIOR - CAPESFUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESPsem informaçãosem informaçã

Socioeconomic effects of aviation biofuel production in Brazil: A scenarios-based Input-Output analysis

Derived from renewable feedstocks, aviation biofuel is generally perceived as inherently sustainable. However, its production involves a wide range of sectors and interacts with different actors in society. It is therefore important to understand and evaluate not only the environmental impacts of that process, but also its socioeconomic effects. At present, empirical studies assessing socioeconomic aspects of aviation biofuel are rare in scientific literature. The aim of this study, therefore, is to assess key effects of aviation biofuel production on employment, GDP, and trade balance. A scenarios-based Input-Output (IO) analysis was used to evaluate these socioeconomic effects, taking Brazilian aviation biofuel production to 2050 as an example. To address the uncertainty of IO analysis, we have proposed a stochastic simulation approach for the technical coefficients in the IO model. Four distinct scenarios were developed. In each, three potential combinations of technologies and feedstocks for producing aviation biofuel were evaluated: sugarcane via alcohol to jet (ATJ), macauba via hydro-processed esters and fatty acids (HEFA), and eucalyptus via Fischer-Tropsch (FT). Among other things, we found that the production of aviation biofuel would create around 12,000–65,000 jobs, while contributing US$200-1100 million to Brazil's GDP under different scenarios with different supply chains. The socioeconomic effects calculated deterministically were generally higher than the stochastic outcomes, which can be explained by factors such as technological learning and economic growth. Aviation biofuel production showed large positive net socioeconomic effects on employment and GDP, although some of the fossil sectors would be negatively affected. Overall, the macauba-HEFA chain (with the highest effects on employment and GDP, and the lowest effects on imports) seemed to be the most favorable of the scenarios studied, despite the relatively high level of uncertainty associated with it.Accepted Author ManuscriptBT/Biotechnology and Societ

Benchmarking the sustainability performance of the Brazilian non-GM and GM soybean meal chains: An indicator-based approach

A commonly accepted approach for measuring the sustainability of agricultural products is the first step toward treating traded products differentially according to their sustainability. If we were able to measure sustainability, business stakeholders could optimize food production chains, consumers could demand products based on reduced environmental and social impacts, and policy makers could intervene to meet the growing demand for food in a context of environmental conservation, population growth, and globalization. We proposed to measure profit adjusted for the negative externalities of production as a promising single metric for benchmarking products in terms of their relative sustainability. The adjusted profit differences between different products are then assessed by means of the Bennet Total Factor Productivity (TFP) indicator and the Total Price Recovery (TPR) indicator to highlight areas for potential sustainability improvement. To illustrate the usefulness of the indicator-based approach, we assessed the relative sustainability of two Brazilian conventional soybean meal chains, non-genetically modified (non-GM) and genetically modified (GM) chains. Based on the results, we indicated potential areas for sustainability improvement. Sustainability issues included in the assessment were profitability, global warming potential, eutrophication potential, environmental toxicity, farmworker toxicity, consumer toxicity, deforestation, and loss of employment. Results showed that the non-GM soybean meal chain is more sustainable than the GM chain (higher adjusted profit due to higher TFP and favorable prices especially for outputs). However, both chains require joint efforts to address their economic, environmental, and social deficiencies. These efforts should focus on providing technical and high quality assistance to reduce biocide use, and improving transportation. The analysis in this study could be extended by undertaking a comparative assessment of the sustainability performance of major soybean meal producers, i.e. United States, Argentina, China, and Brazil. The approach proved to be a promising benchmarking tool for agricultural trade flows. It allows an integrated assessment of the dimensions of sustainability along food chains that is sufficiently flexible to compare the sustainability level of various biomass stocks that are produced in different locations and in a variety of environmental and socio-economic contexts. Nevertheless, it requires consensus on which components of sustainability are to be assessed

Can Certification Enhance the Feasibility of Insurance?

The feasibility of insurance heavily depends on the behaviour of the insured. Certification can be a tool to facilitate risk classification and monitoring. This chapter aims to analyse the role of certification for insurance of risks in agriculture. We develop three cases: (1) liability insurance in the animal feed industry, (2) epidemic disease insurance for farmers, and (3) liability insurance in the horse business. Findings illustrate that certification schemes have potential to enhance feasibility of insurance schemes, among others as a tool to cope with adverse selection. It is recommended to further exploit opportunities of certification as part of insurance design to also address problems of moral hazard and systemic risk