Conceptual Framework for Extended Life Cycle Assessment of Soy and Beef Chains

debate on appropriate framework, tools and methods to evaluate food and feed along the chains. This paper presents literature review for evaluation of triple bottom line impacts of soy and beef chains in particular, and food chains in general. We reviewed literature on the sustainability of soy and beef chains and concluded that synchronous quantitative assessment of triple bottom line impacts along the soy and beef chains is currently lacking. We proposed to define a framework to bridge the gap between concepts of sustainability and carry out economic, environmental and social evaluation of food business cases especially for soy and beef chains. The framework includes defining relevant triple bottom line indicators, stakeholder preferences and defining quantitative methods for assessment of these impacts simultaneously. However, this paper is still under development and defining framework has been partly done. Moreover, stakeholders’ preferences have not been finished yet

Conceptual Framework for Extended Life Cycle Assessment of Soy and Beef Chains

debate on appropriate framework, tools and methods to evaluate food and feed along the chains. This paper presents literature review for evaluation of triple bottom line impacts of soy and beef chains in particular, and food chains in general. We reviewed literature on the sustainability of soy and beef chains and concluded that synchronous quantitative assessment of triple bottom line impacts along the soy and beef chains is currently lacking. We proposed to define a framework to bridge the gap between concepts of sustainability and carry out economic, environmental and social evaluation of food business cases especially for soy and beef chains. The framework includes defining relevant triple bottom line indicators, stakeholder preferences and defining quantitative methods for assessment of these impacts simultaneously. However, this paper is still under development and defining framework has been partly done. Moreover, stakeholders’ preferences have not been finished yet

Sustainability assessment of agricultural systems : The validity of expert opinion and robustness of a multi-criteria analysis

Sustainability assessment of agricultural systems is frequently hampered by data availability. Elicitation of expert opinions combined with multi-criteria assessment (MCA) could be a useful approach for sustainability assessments in data-scarce situations. To our knowledge, the validity of expert opinion used to score sustainability performance of agricultural systems, however, has not been addressed. Also, robustness of the overall outcome of MCA to uncertainty about scores obtained from expert elicitation and weights used to aggregate scores is generally not addressed. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the validity of expert opinion, and to evaluate the robustness of the overall MCA outcome to uncertainty about scores and weights. The case study considers three soybean agricultural systems in Latin America: conventional agricultural system, with either genetically modified (GM) or non-genetically modified (non-GM) soybeans, and organic agricultural system. The validation was carried out by comparing the sustainability scores of experts with values from scientific studies. The robustness of the overall outcome of the MCA to uncertainty about scores and weights was assessed using Monte Carlo simulation. The comparison of expert opinion with reviewed studies showed that expert opinions are a potential alternative to extensive data-rich methods. The validity of expert opinions can be increased by considering a larger group of experts, with a high level of knowledge about agricultural systems and sustainability issues. With regard to robustness, the overall outcome of the MCA showed higher variation for organic soybean agricultural systems compared with GM and non-GM, in both Brazil and Argentina

Evaluation of the environmental, economic, and social performance of soybean farming systems in southern Brazil

Soybean production has a crucial role in the development of Brazilian agriculture and recently became the most important commodity in Brazilian agribusiness. Various soybean farming systems exist, which are claimed to differ in terms of sustainability performance. In this regard, evaluation of environmental, economic, and social performance of different soybean farming systems in Brazil, by consideration of variability in input parameters, is critically needed. In this context, we evaluated a number of environmental, economic, and social issues for the two main soybean farming systems in southern Brazil, the conventional system, which produces genetically modified (GM) or non-genetically modified (non-GM) soybeans, and the organic system. Data were collected for 2012 from three sources: soybean farms in Paraná, Brazil (15 GM, 15 non-GM, and 15 organic farms), the Brazilian Enterprise for Agricultural Research (EMBRAPA), and expert elicitation. Monte Carlo simulation was used to account for the variation in input parameters. Five sustainability issues were evaluated in this study: global warming, land occupation, primary energy use, profitability, and employment. Results revealed that, compared with the GM and non-GM systems, organic systems had a higher probability (77%) to have a lower global warming potential. Land occupation was higher and energy use was lower for organic systems than for the GM and non-GM systems at every level of probability. Concerning profitability, organic systems had a higher probability (60%) to have higher profitability compared with GM and non-GM production, and employment was higher for organic systems at every level of probability. Overall, simulation results of this study illustrated the relatively high level of variation in the environmental, economic, and social performance of organic soybean farming systems. This study shows that accounting for variability in key system parameters provides not only insight in the most likely outcomes, but also in the robustness of system performance.</p

Environmental and economic performance of beef farming systems with different feeding strategies in southern Brazil

Beef production is one of the contributors to emission of pollutants to the environment, and increasingly competes for natural resources. Beef producers can improve their environmental performance by adopting alternative feeding strategies. Adoption of alternative feeding strategies, however, might negatively impact farm profitability. The objective of this study was to evaluate the environmental and economic performance of four beef farming systems with different feeding strategies in southern Brazil: grazing on natural pasture (NP); grazing on improved pasture (IP); grazing on natural pasture and crop residues (CR); and grazing on natural pasture and feedlot fattening (FL). Environmental indicators used to compare these farming systems were global warming potential (GWP), fossil energy use, and land occupation per kilogram live weight (LW). Life cycle assessment (LCA) was used to quantify environmental indicators from cradle-to-farm gate. The indicator for economic performance was operating profit per farm. The IP system had lower GWP (18.7 kg CO2-eq.·kg-1 LW) and land occupation (37 m2·kg-1 LW) than other systems, whereas its fossil energy use (19.3 MJ·kg-1 LW) was higher. CR had the highest operating profit (1,567,800 R$·farm-1) of the four systems, followed by the IP system (616,400 R$·farm-1). Operating profit in the CR system was mainly from crop production (88%). The GWP of the CR system (26.8 kg CO2-eq.·kg-1 LW) was similar to the GWP of the NP system (27.3 kg CO2-eq.·kg-1 LW). Operating profit of the FL system (148,100 R$·farm-1) was lower than in the NP system (184,400 R$·farm-1). The outcomes of this research suggest that IP is a promising system to improve GWP, land occupation, and operating profit, whereas CR has the potential to improve economic performance of whole farms in southern Brazil

Sustainability tensions and opportunities for aviation biofuel production in Brazil

Aviation biofuels are promising to reduce carbon emissions in the aviation sector. However, emerging concerns over biofuels indicate a need for sustainability analyses that take into consideration the context around biofuel production. Here, we present a novel ex-ante sustainability analysis of production alternatives for aviation biofuel in Southeast Brazil. Considering local stakeholders’ concerns, the analysis is focused on climate change, commercial acceptability, efficiency, energy security, investment security, profitability, social development, and soil sustainability. By identifying tensions between production alternatives and these sustainability aspects, we discuss opportunities for further developments, such as sugarcane ethanol-to-jet production in the short term, and in-house production of hydrogen and power with renewable energy. Additionally, producer–operator partnerships and opening the decision-making to stakeholder participation are suggested to stimulate social cohesion, and reconcile diverging interests with biobased production. Analyzing sustainability with consideration of the local context can contribute to identify opportunities for more sustainable decarbonization alternatives

Типовая учебная программа для высших учебных заведений по специальностям 1-23 01 07 Информация и коммуникация (по направлениям) (1-23 01 07-01 Информация и коммуникация (технологии коммуникации)), 1-23 01 08 Журналистика (по направлениям) , 1-23 01 09 Журналистика международная

The expansion of livestock production throughout the world has led to increased demand for high protein animal feed. This expansion has created economic benefits for livestock farmers and other actors in the chain, but also resulted in environmental and social side effects. This study aims to identify a set of sustainability issues that cover the environmental, economic and social dimensions of soymeal and beef production chains. The method applied combines the results of multiple studies, including a literature review and stakeholder surveys. Stakeholder surveys were conducted for three different interest groups (business, consumers, and other stakeholders) and two geographical regions (Latin America and the European Union). Our results reveal that the selection of issues in most sustainability assessment studies is a relatively arbitrary decision, while the literature also states that identifying issues is an important step in a sustainability assessment. Defining sustainability issues from a whole chain perspective is important, as issues of sustainability emerge at various stages along the production chain, and are found to vary across stakeholders' interests. Business stakeholders, for example, perceived economic issues to be more important, whereas the majority of consumer stakeholders and other stakeholders perceived social and environmental issues, respectively, to be more important. Different education levels, knowledge, and living patterns in various geographical regions can affect the stakeholders' perceptions. The combination of a heterogeneous group of stakeholders and the consideration of multiple chain stages constitutes a useful approach to identify sustainability issues along food chains

OSiD: opening the conceptual design of biobased processes to a context-sensitive sustainability analysis

Biobased production has been promoted as an alternative to fossil-based production to mitigate climate change. However, emerging concerns over the sustainability of biobased products have shown that tensions can emerge between different objectives and concerns, like emission reduction targets and food security, and that these are dependent on local contexts. Here we present the Open Sustainabilityin-Design (OSiD) framework, the aim of which is to integrate a context-sensitive sustainability analysis in the conceptual design of biobased processes. The framework is illustrated, taking as an example the production of sustainable aviation fuel in southeast Brazil. The OSiD framework is a novel concept that brings the perspectives of stakeholders and considerations of the regional context to an ex ante sustainability analysis of biobased production. This work also illustrates a way to integrate methods from different scientific disciplines supporting the analysis of sustainability and the identification of tensions between different sustainability aspects. Making these tensions explicit early in the development of biobased production can make them more responsive to emerging sustainability concerns. Considering the global pressure to reduce carbon emissions, situating sustainability analyses in their socio-technical contexts as presented here can help to explain and improve the impacts of biobased production in the transition away from fossil resources