Considerations for reducing food system energy demand while scaling up urban agriculture

There is an increasing global interest in scaling up urban agriculture (UA) in its various forms, from private gardens to sophisticated commercial operations. Much of this interest is in the spirit of environmental protection, with reduced waste and transportation energy highlighted as some of the proposed benefits of UA; however, explicit consideration of energy and resource requirements needs to be made in order to realize these anticipated environmental benefits. A literature review is undertaken here to provide new insight into the energy implications of scaling up UA in cities in high-income countries, considering UA classification, direct/indirect energy pressures, and interactions with other components of the food–energy–water nexus. This is followed by an exploration of ways in which these cities can plan for the exploitation of waste flows for resource-efficient UA. Given that it is estimated that the food system contributes nearly 15% of total US energy demand, optimization of resource use in food production, distribution, consumption, and waste systems may have a significant energy impact. There are limited data available that quantify resource demand implications directly associated with UA systems, highlighting that the literature is not yet sufficiently robust to make universal claims on benefits. This letter explores energy demand from conventional resource inputs, various production systems, water/energy trade-offs, alternative irrigation, packaging materials, and transportation/supply chains to shed light on UA-focused research needs. By analyzing data and cases from the existing literature, we propose that gains in energy efficiency could be realized through the co-location of UA operations with waste streams (e.g. heat, CO2, greywater, wastewater, compost), potentially increasing yields and offsetting life cycle energy demands relative to conventional approaches. This begs a number of energy-focused UA research questions that explore the opportunities for integrating the variety of UA structures and technologies, so that they are better able to exploit these urban waste flows and achieve whole-system reductions in energy demand. Any planning approach to implement these must, as always, assess how context will influence the viability and value added from the promotion of UA

The Mediterranean Fruit Fly and the United States: Is the Probit 9 Level of Quarantine Security Efficient?

"Cold treatment periods, and associated levels of quarantine security, that maximize net US welfare under USDA's current medfly detection and control program are examined using a deterministic bioeconomic optimization model"". As anticipated, the efficient level of quarantine security is shown to increase with indices of medfly pressure (initial infestation rates) in areas in which the medfly is known to exist (the QCs)"". Efficient cold treatment periods and weighted mean medfly survival rates are 8, 11, and 12 days and 5.0 � 10-super--2, 1.7 � 10-super--3, and 5.2 � 10-super--4 under low, moderate, and high initial infestation rates, respectively. When model output is averaged across initial infestation rates, an 11-day cold treatment period, resulting in a weighted mean medfly survival rate of 1.6 � 10-super--3, maximizes US welfare. These findings suggest that the current minimum cold treatment period of 14 days and the current objective of US cold treatment policy-the probit 9 level of quarantine security-are economically inefficient. Adopting the 11-day cold treatment period is shown to increase US social surplus by an annual $24.9 million, of which$21.5 and $3.4 million would accrue to US consumers and producers, respectively, and QC producer surplus by an annual$24.8 million." Copyright 2007 Canadian Agricultural Economics Society.

A farm-to-fork stochastic simulation model of pork-borne salmonellosis in humans: Lessons for risk ranking

A food systems perspective offers many appealing analytic features to food safety researchers with an interest in the design and targeting of effective and efficient policy responses to the risks posed by foodborne pathogens. These features include the ability to examine comparative questions such as whether it is more efficient to target food safety interventions on-farm or in the food processing plant. Using the example of a farm-to-fork stochastic simulation model of Salmonella in the pork production and consumption system, the authors argue the feasibility of such a food systems approach for food-safety risk assessment and policy analysis. They present an overview of the farm-to-fork model and highlight key assumptions and methods employed. Lessons from their experience in constructing a farm-to-fork stochastic simulation model are derived for consideration in other food safety risk assessment efforts and for researchers interested in developing “best practice” benchmarks in the area of food safety risk assessments. [EconLit Citations: Q18, I18, I12]. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 23: 157-172, 2007.