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Food Sustainability

Food Sustainability. Scott Matthews 12-712 / 19-622. Administrative Issues. No HW due this week (taking a week off) Final HW due next week (Wed or Fri) Start tracking your expenses AND your general “material/resource” flow starting tomorrow am. Will need to for next HW.

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Food Sustainability

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  1. Food Sustainability Scott Matthews 12-712 / 19-622

  2. Administrative Issues • No HW due this week (taking a week off) • Final HW due next week (Wed or Fri) • Start tracking your expenses AND your general “material/resource” flow starting tomorrow am. Will need to for next HW. • Advanced LCA class offered (mini 4)

  3. Hydrologic Cycle: Mostly a fixed, closed system

  4. Use Categories Relevant • Consumptive Use – not returned to sources after use (lost to evaporation or transpiration by plants) • Non-consumptive Use – returned to surface runoff (not necessarily of same quality) but not “used”

  5. More discussion: Water Rights and Sustainability • Is it fair? • Sustainability?

  6. Food Issues • Our demand for it (what we buy) • The supply of it (where it is produced) • How much we need to survive • The impacts of producing it • The choices we make and how they can be changed

  7. Protein Requirements • Govt: about 50 grams protein/day • Many think recommendation too high • On average, we eat 110g per day • Could likely survive with protein from only plant sources

  8. Background • Lower incomes -> lower quality foods (cereals, starches not meat) • $200 per year per person total food spending • About 2500 calories per day • 1960s: 71 million tons of meat/yr • Now: 300 million tons meat (4.5x increase) • Per-capita consumption more than doubled • Average US: 8 oz/person/day meat (2x world) • Increased China meat consumption -> more grain input than used here to make ethanol

  9. Livestock Interactions • More meat leads to more water, land, energy, feed • Inefficiency: 2-5x times more grain is required to produce the same amount of livestock calories than grain (grain-fed beef is 10x more) • Discussed water quantity last time.. • EPA: Agriculture leads to ¾ of water quality issues

  10. Consumer Expenditure Survey http://www.bls.gov/cex/

  11. Taken from http://www.ers.usda.gov/AmberWaves/February08/Features/CovergingPatterns.htm

  12. Implications - Scale • Increased meat – increased production (AFOs). Total 56 billion animals/yr. Generally located closer to urban areas

  13. Implications – continued • Livestock – 18% of GHG emissions • Significant ammonia emissions, nitrogen deposition • Significant water use (see last time) • Animal waste • Increased meat consumption will be significant barrier to Kyoto-like reductions

  14. 320 calories: 2 choices

  15. Globalization • Aside from general global demand increase, where we produce it also changing • Are we outsourcing food production and its impacts? • Concept: virtual footprints (similar to urban funnels) – where are we “trading land from” for food production?

  16. Source: Wurtenberger et al

  17. Wurtenberger - Virtual Land

  18. Food Miles • Lots of studies pushing this • Co-opted into climate argument. Is it right?

  19. Source: Weber and Matthews 2008

  20. Solutions • Animal waste to power (digesters, etc) • Reduce grain fed, revert to grass fed beef • And eat less of it!

  21. Country Of Origin Labeling (COOL) • Why? • Applies to meats, vegetables, etc. • Excludes cooked/processed foods • How could this affect sustainability?

  22. HW 5 – Posted tonight • Summarize your expenditures for the most recent week down to the $1 level • Categorize them overall to 5 categories of your choosing (e.g., food, transportation, etc.). • Rank order the 5 categories in terms of cost paid. • Rank order the categories by your own assessment in terms of greatest resource consumption (separately) of materials, water, and energy.

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