Connecting urban food plans to the countryside: leveraging Denver's food vision to explore meaningful rural-urban linkages

Includes bibliographical references (pages 14-18).Cities are increasingly turning to food policy plans to support goals related to food access, food security, the environment, and economic development. This paper investigates ways that rural farmers, communities, and economies can both support and be supported by metropolitan food-focused initiatives. Specifically, our research question asked what opportunities and barriers exist to developing food policies that support urban food goals, particularly related to local procurement, as well as rural economic development. To address this question, we described and analyzed a meeting of urban stakeholders and larger-scale rural producers related to Colorado’s Denver Food Vision and Plan. We documented and explored “findings” gleaned from a supply chain diagraming and data compilation process that were then used to inform an event that brought together diverse supply chain partners. Three findings stand out. First, facilitating dialog between urban food policymakers and rural producers to understand potential tensions, mitigate such tensions, and capitalize on opportunities is essential. Second, perceptions and expectations surrounding “good food” are nuanced—a timely finding given the number of preferred procurement programs emerging across the county. Third, critical evaluation is needed across a diverse set of value chain strategies (e.g., conventional and alternative distribution) if food policy intends to support heterogeneous producers, their communities, and urban food policy goals

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Evaluating the sustainability of agricultural systems using life cycle assessment and techno-economic analysis

2021 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.In a time of expansive population growth, our global resources have never been so strained; our contributions to a changing climate so significant. The International Panel on Climate Change recently addressed the need for focused effort toward reducing global resource depletion and greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). As such, special attention has been given to some of the largest GHG emitting sectors in the world: energy, industry, and agriculture. This work focuses on using sustainability analysis to further understand agricultural processes and products, both novel and emerging. To quantify the environmental component of sustainability, life cycle assessment (LCA) is used because it is a well-established method for evaluating processes and products with respect to emissions. Similarly, techno-economic analysis (TEA) is used to understand the economic viability of various processes and products. In harmony, these assessments are used to evaluate the sustainable performance of various agricultural processes and products by identifying pathways to reduce environmental impact while concurrently increasing economic viability. Results enable targeted research to be highlighted that can advance early-stage development toward a sustainable adoption. The dissertation proposal is divided into three topics all with a common theme: Using LCA and TEA to assess the sustainability of, and advance, agricultural systems. A drought tolerant crop currently grown in India, guar, was investigated to understand relative environmental impact and economic viability in the American Southwest compared to existing crops. Guar is cultivated as a source of guar gum, used primarily in hydraulic fracking fluid for shale oil and gas recovery, with demand currently met through importation. Therefore, a feasibility analysis was performed for a domestic guar supply in Arizona and New Mexico using LCA and TEA. The integrated assessment provided insight on environmental and economic performance of guar for comparison to existing crops. Results indicate that environmentally, guar has lower GHGs than many crops currently cultivated in the American Southwest. Economically, guar gum can be produced for less than the five-year average U.S. import price, with minimizing or eliminating irrigation identified as a critical area for further research. A best case scenario and sensitivity analysis are also investigated using LCA and TEA to evaluate early-stage development of adopting guar in the American Southwest. LCA is also a valuable assessment tool for emerging agricultural systems. A detailed LCA was performed for a first-of-its-kind study investigating the GHGs of commercial indoor cannabis cultivation. Since legalization, the cannabis industry has seen substantial growth with many products being cultivated inside industrialized warehouses. An engineering process model was built to track material and energy requirements of a typical indoor cannabis facility which was then translated to GHGs using LCA methodology. Results of a U.S.-wide analysis indicate that indoor cannabis production leads to substantial GHGs regardless of where it is cultivated, with regions such as the Mountain West and Midwestern United States being much more GHG intensive than East or West Coasts. Individual processes that lead to the majority of GHGs are heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), high intensity grow lights and the addition of carbon dioxide for increased plant growth rates. Results of this work have informed the industry, consumers, and policymakers of the environmental impact from this practice while providing insight on ways to reduce GHG emissions. Despite LCA and TEA being proven methodologies for assessing novel, emerging and established processes and products, limitations do exist. Particularly, in the context of agriculture, LCA does not traditionally account for water use outside of the emissions associated with procurement and use. In the American Southwest specifically, it is critical to understand water use and associated environmental impact to make informed decisions regarding ecosystem and societal sustainability. Recently, the development of an advanced LCA method, water scarcity footprint (WSF), has enhanced that ability to understand spatial and temporal considerations of freshwater consumption. However, this method is actively emerging and therefore limitations exist, particularly for arid regions where water demand is typically higher than the amount of water available. A novel method was proposed that can improve resolution and decision-making capabilities for freshwater environmental impact when evaluating arid regions. Results include method comparisons that highlight the improved resolution between the developed method and the traditional WSF method. Furthermore, a case study shows variation of the two methods when applied to alfalfa production in the American Southwest that reveals the severity of drought in the region. The proposed method enables improved resolution when considering spatial and temporal freshwater use in arid regions which enhances decision-making capabilities for product development. Throughout this work, traditional and advanced sustainability metrics, LCA, TEA and WSF, were used to understanding the environmental impact and economic viability of various agricultural-related products. Results from these assessments, from novel and existing technology investigation, provide quantifiable results for holistic comparisons and internal process improvement. These results can serve as decision-making tools during the research and development and commercialization stages, all leading toward providing a more sustainable future

Techno-Economic Feasibility and Life Cycle Assessment of Dairy Effluent to Biofuel via Hydrothermal Liquefaction

Uncertainty in the global energy market and negative environmental impacts associated with fossil fuels has led to renewed interest in alternative fuels. The scalability of new technologies and production pathways are critically being evaluated through economic feasibility studies and environmental impact assessments. This work investigated the conversion of agricultural wast, delactosed whey permeate (delac), with yeast fermentation for the generation of biofuel via hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL). The feasibility of the process was demonstrated at laboratory scale with data leveraged to validate systems models used to perform industrial-scale economic and environmental impact analyses. Results showed a minimum fuel selling point of $4.56 per gasoline gallon equivalent (CGE), a net energy ratio (NER), defined as energy required to process biofuel divided by energy in the biofuel produced, of 0.81 and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of 30.03 g CO2-eq MJ-1. High Production costs can be attributed to operational temperatures of HTL while the high lipid yields of the yeast counter these heating demands, resulting in a favorable NER. The operating conditions of both fermentation and HTL contributed to the majority of GHG emissions. Further discussion focuses on optimization of the process, on the metrics of TEA and LCA and the evaluation of the process, on the metrics of TEA and LCA, and the evaluation of the process through a sensitivity analysis that highlights areas for directed research to improve commercial feasibility

Enterprise Budgets: Guayule, Flood Irrigated, Southern Arizona

This series of enterprise budgets estimate the typical economic costs and returns to establish, grow, and harvest guayule over a six-year period, using flood irrigation in southern Arizona. It should be used as a guide to estimate actual costs and returns and is not representative of any particular farm. The assumptions used in constructing these budgets are discussed below. Assistance provided by area producers and agribusinesses is much appreciated

Wild Bees of Alberta Poster

Poster showcasing the diversity of wild bees found in Alberta and housed in the Department of Biological Sciences Biodiversity Collections. A digital collection of over 230 species of Alberta's wild bees can be found at the website - biodiversity.ucalgary.ca

Enterprise Budgets: Guayule, Flood Irrigated, Southern Arizona

This series of enterprise budgets estimate the typical economic costs and returns to establish, grow, and harvest guayule over a six-year period, using flood irrigation in southern Arizona. It should be used as a guide to estimate actual costs and returns and is not representative of any farm. The assumptions used in constructing these budgets are discussed below. Assistance provided by area producers and agribusinesses is much appreciated

Economic and Environmental Feasibility: Waste Dairy to Biofuel via Hydrothermal Liquefaction

The sustainability, scalability and economic feasibility of alternative fuel systems must be evaluated to understand the industrial-scale impact of new technologies and production pathways. Current investigation is underway for an innovative pathway that integrates agricultural waste, delactosed whey permeate (delac), with yeast fermentation for the generation of biofuel via hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL). Upgrading delac to biofuel through HTL has been demonstrated at laboratory-scale through yeast fermentation. However, industrial-scale economic and environmental feasibility of this process are yet to be quantified. Systems engineering process models were developed concurrently with biological experimentation to facilitate data feedback from modeling work and streamline further experimentation. Integrating process models, validated with experimental results, enabled techno-economic assessment (TEA) and life cycle assessments (LCA) of various large-scale conversion pathways. Results show a minimum fuel selling point of $4.86 per gallon of biofuel and a net energy ratio (NER), defined as energy required to process biofuel divided by energy withheld in the biofuel produced, of 1.44. Ongoing efforts are focused on the optimization of the process, in terms of TEA and LCA, such that research can focus on the demonstration of a commercially feasible pathway for the conversion of delac to biofuel

MOESM1 of Oleaginous yeast platform for producing biofuels via co-solvent hydrothermal liquefaction

Additional file 1. Supplementary HTL data and experimental information