Could consumption of insects, cultured meat or imitation meat reduce global agricultural land use?

Animal products, i.e. meat, milk and eggs, provide an important component in global diets, but livestock dominate agricultural land use by area and are a major source of greenhouse gases. Cultural and personal associations with animal product consumption create barriers to moderating consumption, and hence reduced environmental impacts. Here we review alternatives to conventional animal products, including cultured meat, imitation meat and insects (i.e. entomophagy), and explore the potential change in global agricultural land requirements associated with each alternative. Stylised transformative consumption scenarios where half of current conventional animal products are substituted to provide at least equal protein and calories are considered. The analysis also considers and compares the agricultural land area given shifts between conventional animal product consumption. The results suggest that imitation meat and insects have the highest land use efficiency, but the land use requirements are only slightly greater for eggs and poultry meat. The efficiency of insects and their ability to convert agricultural by-products and food waste into food, suggests further research into insect production is warranted. Cultured meat does not appear to offer substantial benefits over poultry meat or eggs, with similar conversion efficiency, but higher direct energy requirements. Comparison with the land use savings from reduced consumer waste, including over-consumption, suggests greater benefits could be achieved from alternative dietary transformations considered. We conclude that although a diet with lower rates of animal product consumption is likely to create the greatest reduction in agricultural land, a mix of smaller changes in consumer behaviour, such as replacing beef with chicken, reducing food waste and potentially introducing insects more commonly into diets, would also achieve land savings and a more sustainable food system

Drivers for global agricultural land use change: The nexus of diet, population, yield and bioenergy

The nexus of population growth and changing diets has increased the demands placed on agriculture to supply food for human consumption, animal feed and fuel. Rising incomes lead to dietary changes, from staple crops, towards commodities with greater land requirements, e.g. meat and dairy products. Despite yield improvements partially offsetting increases in demand, agricultural land has still been expanding, causing potential harm to ecosystems, e.g. through deforestation. We use country-level panel data (1961-2011) to allocate the land areas used to produce food for human consumption, waste and biofuels, and to attribute the food production area changes to diet, population and yields drivers. The results show that the production of animal products dominates agricultural land use and land use change over the 50-year period, accounting for 65% of land use change. The rate of extensification of animal production was found to have reduced more recently, principally due to the smaller effect of population growth. The area used for bioenergy was shown to be relatively small, but formed a substantial contribution (36%) to net agricultural expansion in the most recent period. Nevertheless, in comparison to dietary shifts in animal products, bioenergy accounted for less than a tenth of the increase in demand for agricultural land. Population expansion has been the largest driver for agricultural land use change, but dietary changes are a significant and growing driver. China was a notable exception, where dietary transitions dominate food consumption changes, due to rapidly rising incomes. This suggests that future dietary changes will become the principal driver for land use change, pointing to the potential need for demand-side measures to regulate agricultural expansion. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Losses, inefficiencies and waste in the global food system

Losses at every stage in the food systeminfluence the extent towhich nutritional requirements of a growing global population can be sustainablymet. Inefficiencies and losses in agricultural production and consumer behaviour all play a role. This paper aims to understand better themagnitude of different losses and to provide insights into how these influence overall food system efficiency.We take a systems view fromprimary production of agricultural biomass through to human food requirements and consumption. Quantities and losses over ten stages are calculated and compared in terms of drymass, wetmass, protein and energy. The comparison reveals significant differences between these measurements, and the potential for wet mass figures used in previous studies to be misleading. The results suggest that due to cumulative losses, the proportion of global agricultural dry biomass consumed as food is just 6% (9.0% for energy and 7.6% for protein), and 24.8% of harvest biomass (31.9% for energy and 27.8% for protein). The highest rates of loss are associatedwith livestock production, although the largest absolute losses of biomass occur prior to harvest. Losses of harvested crops were also found to be substantial, with 44.0% of crop dry matter (36.9% of energy and 50.1% of protein) lost prior to human consumption. If human overconsumption, defined as food consumption in excess of nutritional requirements, is included as an additional inefficiency, 48.4% of harvested cropswere found to be lost (53.2% of energy and 42.3% of protein). Over-eatingwas found to be at least as large a contributor to food systemlosses as consumer foodwaste. The findings suggest that influencing consumer behaviour, e.g. to eat less animal products, or to reduce per capita consumption closer to nutrient requirements, offer substantial potential to improve food security for the rising global population in a sustainable manner

A systematic conservation strategy for crop wild relatives in the Czech Republic

Aim: To create a crop wild relative (CWR) conservation strategy for the Czech Republic: the first national CWR conservation strategy for Central and Eastern Europe. Location: Czech Republic. Methods: We generated a CWR checklist for the Czech Republic and then prioritized taxa, using widely adopted criteria modified with input from local experts, to create a national CWR inventory. For 204 priority CWR species, we collated 206,760 presence records. We carried out spatial analyses to identify patterns in species richness, gaps in existing conservation actions, complementary conservation networks and collecting strategies to increase representativeness of gene bank accessions. We considered both specific and genetic conservation, using geographic and ecogeographic proxies for the latter. Results: Passive in situ conservation of CWR in the Czech Republic is comprehensive at present, with all but one priority CWR species being contained in protected areas. Active in situ CWR conservation could be focussed within 11 ca. 10-km-by-10-km grid cells containing 94% of priority species, or their overlapping protected areas. To augment the genetic coverage of the in situ conservation network, active CWR conservation is encouraged within 11 supplementary areas. Meanwhile, there are huge gaps in ex situ collections, with no known conserved material for 134 of the 204 priority species. Furthermore, existing accessions are generally unrepresentative of genetic diversity. Main conclusions: In the Czech Republic, active in situ conservation of priority CWR should be instigated within the 22 recommended grid cell areas or their 14 overlapping protected areas. For ex situ conservation, strategic and targeted collection of germplasm would markedly increase the value of gene bank collections. Diversity of priority Czech CWR is concentrated in South Moravia, making this a particularly important CWR area for the country and for Europe

Identification of quantitative trait loci associated with iron deficiency chlorosis resistance in groundnut ( Arachis hypogaea )

Iron deficiency chlorosis is an important abiotic stress affecting groundnut production worldwide in calcareous and alkaline soils with a pH of 7.5–8.5. To identify genomic regions controlling iron deficiency chlorosis resistance in groundnut, the recombinant inbred line population from the cross TAG 24 × ICGV 86031 was evaluated for associated traits like visual chlorosis rating and SPAD chlorophyll meter reading across three crop growth stages for two consecutive years. Thirty-two QTLs were identified for visual chlorosis rating (3.9%–31.8% phenotypic variance explained [PVE]) and SPAD chlorophyll meter reading [3.8%–11% PVE] across three stages over 2 years. This is the first report of identification of QTLs for iron deficiency chlorosis resistance- associated traits in groundnut. Three major QTLs (>10% PVE) were identified at severe stage, while majority of other QTLs were having small effects. Interestingly, two major QTLs for visual chlorosis rating at 60 days (2013) and 90 days (2014) were located at same position on LG AhXIII. The identified QTLs/markers after validation across diverse genetic material could be used in genomics-assisted breeding

Sustainable development goal 2: improved targets and indicators for agriculture and food security

The pursuit of global food security and agricultural sustainability, the dual aim of the second Sustainable Development Goal (SDG-2), requires urgent and concerted action from developing and developed countries. This, in turn, depends on clear and universally applicable targets and indicators which are partially lacking. The novel and complex nature of the SDGs poses further challenges to their implementation on the ground, especially in the face of interlinkages across SDG objectives and scales. Here we review the existing SDG-2 indicators, propose improvements to facilitate their operationalization and illustrate their practical implementation in Nigeria, Brazil and the Netherlands. This exercise provides insights into the concrete actions needed to achieve SDG-2 across contrasting development contexts and highlights the challenges of addressing the links between targets and indicators within and beyond SDG-2. Ultimately, it underscores the need for integrated policies and reveals opportunities to leverage the fulfillment of SDG-2 worldwide

Model comparison and quantification of nitrous oxide emission and mitigation potential from maize and wheat fields at a global scale

This work was carried out by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in collaboration with farmers and funded by the CGIAR research programs (CRPs) on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). CCAFS' work is supported by CGIAR Fund Donors and through bilateral funding agreements. For details, please visit https://ccafs.cgiar.org/donors. The views expressed in this paper cannot be taken to reflect the official opinions of these organizations. The dataset associated with this manuscript will be available together with the supplementary materials of this manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural food production to supply Indian diets: Implications for climate change mitigation

Agriculture is a major source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions globally. The growing global population is putting pressure on agricultural production systems that aim to secure food production while minimising GHG emissions. In this study, the GHG emissions associated with the production of major food commodities in India are calculated using the Cool Farm Tool. GHG emissions, based on farm management for major crops (including cereals like wheat and rice, pulses, potatoes, fruits and vegetables) and livestock-based products (milk, eggs, chicken and mutton meat), are quantified and compared. Livestock and rice production were found to be the main sources of GHG emissions in Indian agriculture with a country average of 5.65 kg CO2eq kg-1 rice, 45.54 kg CO2eq kg-1 mutton meat and 2.4 kg CO2eq kg-1 milk. Production of cereals (except rice), fruits and vegetables in India emits comparatively less GHGs with <1 kg CO2eq kg-1 product. These findings suggest that a shift towards dietary patterns with greater consumption of animal source foods could greatly increase GHG emissions from Indian agriculture. A range of mitigation options are available that could reduce emissions from current levels and may be compatible with increased future food production and consumption demands in India