Including animal to plant protein shifts in climate change mitigation policy: a proposed three-step strategy

Strong and rapid greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions, far beyond those currently committed to, are required to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. This allows no sector to maintain business as usual practices, while application of the precautionary principle requires avoiding a reliance on negative emission technologies. Animal to plant-sourced protein shifts offer substantial potential for GHG emission reductions. Unabated, the livestock sector could take between 37% and 49% of the GHG budget allowable under the 2°C and 1.5°C targets, respectively, by 2030. Inaction in the livestock sector would require substantial GHG reductions, far beyond what are planned or realistic, from other sectors. This outlook article outlines why animal to plant-sourced protein shifts should be taken up by the Conference of the Parties (COP), and how they could feature as part of countries’ mitigation commitments under their updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to be adopted from 2020 onwards. The proposed framework includes an acknowledgment of ‘peak livestock’, followed by targets for large and rapid reductions in livestock numbers based on a combined ‘worst first’ and ‘best available food’ approach. Adequate support, including climate finance, is needed to facilitate countries in implementing animal to plant-sourced protein shifts.

Key policy insights

• Given the livestock sector’s significant contribution to global GHG emissions and methane dominance, animal to plant protein shifts make a necessary contribution to meeting the Paris temperature goals and reducing warming in the short term, while providing a suite of co-benefits.

• Without action, the livestock sector could take between 37% and 49% of the GHG budget allowable under the 2°C and 1.5°C targets, respectively, by 2030.

• Failure to implement animal to plant protein shifts increases the risk of exceeding temperate goals; requires additional GHG reductions from other sectors; and increases reliance on negative emissions technologies.

• COP 24 is an opportunity to bring animal to plant protein shifts to the climate mitigation table.

• Revised NDCs from 2020 should include animal to plant protein shifts, starting with a declaration of ‘peak livestock’, followed by a ‘worst first’ replacement approach, guided by ‘best available food’.

     

珠三角基塘系统研究回顾及展望

基塘系统是中国劳动人民独创的低洼地利用方式和生态循环农业模式,珠三角基塘系统在历史上曾起到重要的作用,但目前其面积萎缩、生态功能退化。为了推动珠三角传统农业文化遗产的保护、促进区域人地关系协调发展,论文结合文献计量学方法对珠三角基塘系统研究文献进行梳理和概括,发现在基(田)塘生产力、区域水陆生态农业循环模式规律、社会经济发展与传统农业文化遗产保护的关系等方面已经展开研究;但是珠三角基塘系统演变机理研究比较薄弱,区域特色的农业文化遗产保护途径探索还鲜见。建议未来加强珠三角基塘系统演变机理、系统重构技术、农业文化遗产保护价值与途径的研究,以此深化基塘系统理论及实践研究,为协同区域农业生产格局与农业生态系统耦合关系提供支撑。     

Winter cover crops in Dutch maize fields: Variability in quality and its drivers assessed from multi-temporal Sentinel-2 imagery

Planting a cover crop between the main cropping seasons is an agricultural management measure with multiple potential benefits for sustainable food production. In the maize production system of the Netherlands, an effective establishment of a winter cover crop is important for reducing nitrogen leaching to groundwater. Cover crop establishment after maize cultivation is obliged by law for sandy soils and consequently implemented on nearly all maize fields, but the winter-time vegetative ground cover varies significantly between fields. The objectives of this study are to assess the variability in winter vegetative cover and evaluate to what extent this variability can be explained by the timing of cover crop establishment and weather conditions in two growing seasons (2017–2018). We used Sentinel-2 satellite imagery to construct NDVI time series for fields known to be cultivated with maize within the province of Overijssel. We fitted piecewise logistic functions to the time series in order to estimate cover crop sowing date and retrieve the fitted NDVI value for 1 December (NDVI_Dec). We used NDVI_Dec to represent the quality of cover crop establishment at the start of the winter season. The Sentinel-2 estimated sowing dates compared reasonably with ground reference data for eight fields (RMSE = 6.6 days). The two analysed years differed considerably, with 2018 being much drier and warmer during summer. This drought resulted in an earlier estimated cover crop sowing date (on average 19 days) and an NDVI_Dec value that was 0.2 higher than in 2017. Combining both years and all fields, we found that Sentinel-2 retrieved sowing dates could explain 55% of the NDVI_Dec variability. This corresponded to a positive relationship (R² = 0.50) between NDVI_Dec and the cumulative growing degree days (GDD) between sowing date and 1 December until reaching 400 GDD. Based on cumulative GDD derived from two weather stations within Overijssel, we found that on average for the past three decades a sowing date of 19 September (± 7 days) allowed to attain these 400 GDD; this provides support for the current legislation that states that from 2019 onwards a cover crop should be sown before 1 October. To meet this deadline, while simultaneously ascertaining a harvest-ready main crop, in practice implies that undersowing of the cover crop during spring will gain importance. Our results show that Sentinel-2 NDVI time series can assess the effectiveness and timing of cover crop growth for small agricultural fields, and as such has potential to inform regulatory frameworks as well as farmers with actionable information that may help to reduce nitrogen leaching.     

强人类活动驱动下珠江磨刀门河口径潮动力的季节性异变特征

人类活动对河口环境影响巨大,揭示在强人类活动驱动下河口径潮动力非线性相互作用的异变特征,有利于了解人类活动影响河口动力地貌的机制,对河口区水利工程建设及环境保护等具有重要指导意义。基于1960—2016年珠江磨刀门河口沿程潮位站(甘竹、竹银、灯笼山、三灶)的逐月高、低潮位数据及马口水文站的月均流量数据,统计分析了磨刀门河口在强人类活动驱动下月均水位、潮波振幅及其空间梯度(即月均水位坡度和潮波振幅衰减率)的季节性异变特征。结果表明,1990年和2000年为磨刀门河口径潮动力的异变年份, 1990年前为自然演变阶段, 2000年后为恢复调整阶段,1990—2000年为过渡阶段;高强度采砂导致的河床下切使磨刀门河口月均水位及月均水位坡度显著减小,夏季减小幅度最为明显,沿程平均分别减小0.53m和8.93×10~(-6);月均水位坡度减小导致潮波衰减效应减弱,进而使沿程潮波振幅增大,多年平均增大0.071m;磨刀门河口径潮动力相互作用具有明显的季节性差异,夏季月均水位坡度随流量增大在上游抬升明显,冬季月均水位坡度在上游显著减小,但在下游略有抬升;随着流量的增大潮波振幅的衰减作用增强,但当流量超过阈值20000m~3/s时,月均水位坡度引起的底床摩擦增大效应不足以抵消横截面积辐散效应,潮波衰减效应略有减弱。     

广西农业干旱动态评估模型

以自然条件下大气-作物-土壤系统的水量平衡方程为基础,结合广西干旱灾害特点,建立广西农业干旱评估模型。与广西历史农业旱情实况对比分析表明,该模型能够较客观、定量地对农业干旱的发生、发展过程进行逐日动态监测和灾中、灾后评估。     

基于虚拟化云平台的气象终端集约化管理

气象终端的集约化管理是气象业务系统和气象服务需求发展到一定阶段后的必然趋势和结果。从气象终端管理的现状和需求、虚拟化云平台的技术体现和应用部署中,体现基于虚拟化云平台的气象终端集约化管理的应用特点和实施效果:提供虚拟防护、桌面管理及行为控制等的策略管理和策略服务,提升气象现代化支撑和保障气象用户个性化需求的能力,为气象平台建设、信息共享、应用服务的终端管理提出了全新概念,是集"应用"、"集成"、"运维"、"安全"到"成本控制"的解决方案。     

“How Much Does Property Cost Up There?”: Exploring the Relationship between Women,Sustainable Farming,and Rural Gentrification in the US

Using in-depth interviews with women engaged in sustainable farming in the western United States, this project explores an unanticipated finding: migration from an urban area to rural “Prairie County” was necessary for these farmers to secure farm land and sustain their farming operations. This article interrogates the role of migration in women’s access to farmland as both an economic and cultural phenomenon. My findings highlight the necessity of migration for women’s participation in sustainable farming and suggest that women’s success in sustainable farming may align with the processes of rural gentrification, by which cultural and economic in-migrants amplify their social privilege and transform the values and economy of rural communities. This project, then, situates gender as a key structure to understanding both the classed dynamics of sustainable agriculture and rural gentrification.     

“We Don’t Equal Even Just One Man”: Gender and Social Control in Conservation Adoption

Women own or co-own approximately half of the farmland in Iowa, United States, yet researchers are only beginning to study these landowners’ social relationships in relation to their land. This study analyzes qualitative data collected in Iowa through a series of meetings hosted by the Women, Food and Agriculture Network (WFAN). I find that social control through exclusion constrains women landowners’ access to information about and implementation of conservation. Specifically, I identify how women landowners experience the social processes of boundary maintenance and othering in land management. These processes create barriers to conservation adoption and maintain gendered agricultural landscapes. The women who participated in WFAN’s conservation programs express their experience of and resistance to dominant narratives as they attempt to create landscape change. These findings highlight the importance of further study of inequality processes and their relation to control of farmland if conservation goals are to be met.     

Lesbian and Queer Sustainable Farmer Networks in the Midwest

Heteropatriarchy underpins contemporary U.S. agriculture, even within the alternative sector. This paper builds on the legacies of women farmers and farmers of color creating peer networks to circumvent heteropatriarchal hurdles by investigating how lesbian, bisexual, trans, and queer (LBTQ) sustainable farmers access human resources. If and how did the farmers encounter or resist heteropatriarchy in this process? Drawing on four years of ethnographic research with 40 LBTQ Midwest sustainable farmers, I argue that resources through government agencies, neighborhood farmers, and like-minded practitioners did not necessarily align with LBTQ farmers’ sustainable practices or queer identities. LBTQ farmers convened with others at the intersections of their queerness and sustainable practices formally, informally, and through the labor market to access human resources removed from heteropatriarchal domination. I conclude that LBTQ farmer networks bolster human resources in sustainable agriculture and conservation practices.     

Relational Agriculture: Gender,Sexuality, and Sustainability in U.S. Farming

Although 97% of U.S. farms are “family-owned,” little research examines how gender and sexual relationships – inherent in familial dynamics – influence farmers’ practices and livelihoods. Gender and sexual dynamics – shaped by race and class – affect who is considered a farmer, land management decisions, and access to resources like land, subsidies, and knowledge. We use feminist and queer lenses to illuminate how today’s agricultural gender and sexual relations are not “natural,” but when left uninterrogated are constructed in ways that harm women and queer farmers while limiting potential to develop sustainable practices. Women and queer farmers also resist, “re-orienting” gender and sexual relations in ways that expand possibilities for achieving food justice and ecological sustainability. We offer “relational agriculture” as a tool for making visible and re-orienting gender and sexual relations on farms. Relational agriculture brings sexuality into food justice and demonstrates the centrality of gender and sexuality to agricultural sustainability.