2023-09-07 10:29:48
Soil profile of a test field: Brick-sized soil samples were taken at different depths and then roots were isolated, scanned and measured. – JOHANNES SIEBIGTEROTH/UNIVERSITY OF BONN
MADRID, 7 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Large-scale changes in the global food system could not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but to achieve net negative emissions by 2050.
A new study published in PLOS ONE by an international team led by Maya Almaraz of Princeton University and Benjamin Houlton of Cornell University, demonstrates that more advanced agricultural technology and management can not only reduce that growth, but eliminate it altogether, generating net negative emissions , that is, reducing more greenhouse gases than food systems add.
In fact, the use of additional agricultural technology could result in more than 13 billion tons of net negative greenhouse gas emissions each year, as the world tries to avoid dangerous climate extremes.
“Our study recognizes that the food system is one of the most powerful weapons in the battle against climate change,” said Houlton, Ronald P. Lynch Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University. We have to go beyond silver bullet thinking and try, quickly verify and scale local solutions by leveraging market-based incentives.”
The global network of food systems generates between 21% and 37% of the planet’s greenhouse gas emissions each year. With the world population approaching 10 billion by mid-century, greenhouse gas emissions from the global food system — if left unchecked — could increase to 50% and 80% in 2050, According to the document.
Previous research has indicated that changing diets around the world is key to reducing greenhouse gases in the food system sector, but Houlton and Almaraz believe the emissions reductions could be much greater.
If the entire human population adopted a so-called “flexitarian” diet by 2050 – promoted by the EAT-Lancet Commission (a group of global experts that established a nutritious, healthy and sustainable diet) – scientists estimated a gross reduction of 8,200 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, which is very far from the goal of net negative emissions.
“Our study examines both dietary change and agricultural technologies, as various options to drastically reduce emissions,” says Almaraz, a research associate at Princeton University. This includes an analysis of carbon sequestration.”
In contrast to the marked benefit of agricultural technology in bringing about massive negative emissions across the sector, changes in diet had little effect on carbon sequestration, according to the study, which involved scientists from Kenya, Dimamarca , Malaysia and the United Kingdom.
“We have only analyzed a dozen technologies,” says Almaraz, but there are even more in development, which are very promising for the food system.
The new model demonstrated that the most effective way to reduce emissions is to boost soil amendments for crops (biochar, compost and rock amendments), develop agroforestry, advance sustainable seafood harvesting practices and promote the production of hydrogen fueled fertilizers.
In a process called “enhanced weathering”, For example, silicate rock dust can be added to crop soils every five years to accelerate carbonate formation. This process devours carbon dioxide, which can sequester several billion metric tons of carbon annually, according to the paper.
Through agroforestry, planting trees on unused cropland can sequester up to 10.3 billion metric tons of carbon annually, while algae can be grown on the ocean surface and then buried in the deep sea, removing up to 10.7 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide.
Supplementing livestock feed with additives could reduce methane emissions by 1.7 billion metric tons, and applying biochar to cropland could reduce nitrous oxide emissions by 2.3 billion metric tons.
Environmental action in the food system must begin at a regional scale. Houlton notes that anaerobic digesters have been converting manure from New York dairy farms into electricity since the mid-1970s, reducing emissions, supporting energy self-sufficiency and contributing to improving water quality.
Biogas from waste is converted into energy that local power companies can easily use, but this approach must prevent gas leaks and financial incentives are still needed. “We need a portfolio of solutions that are effective locally but have a global impact,” he says.
“If people choose to switch to healthier diets, as EAT-Lancet suggests, and if they can afford it, great,” Houlton says, “but to get the world to net negative greenhouse gas emissions – an imperative global to avoid the most dangerous climate impacts-, we need to rely heavily on agricultural technology and management techniques.
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