Assessing the Environmental Impacts of Consumption and Produ

[Oscar]

Assessing the Environmental Impacts of Consumption and Production

http://www.unep.org/resourcepanel/documents/pdf/
PriorityProductsAndMaterials_Report_Full.pdf

A few quotes regarding agriculture:

"Agricultural production accounts for a staggering 70% of the global freshwater consumption, 38% of the total land use, and 14% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions."
"Agriculture and food consumption are identified as one of the most important drivers of environmental pressures, especially habitat change, climate change, water use and toxic emissions."
"Substantial habitat losses have arisen due to increased demand for land for agriculture and grazing, and significant declines in game and fish populations have resulted from overharvesting."
"More recently, new approaches to agriculture and forestry have posed new genetic challenges. Rather than tens of thousands of local varieties, highly selected ’elite‘ strains of high-producing varieties cover relatively large areas, with many of these varieties highly
dependent on fertilizers and pesticides (that may have deleterious side-effects on ecosystems)."
"Agriculture is the most important anthropogenic activity responsible for terrestrial biotic resource extraction, producing 2121.6 million tonnes of grain, 391.6 million tonnes of oilseed and 120.5 million tonnes of cotton globally in 2008 (USDA 2009). Wood harvesting is another important activity for terrestrial biotic resources extraction, accounting for 1.55 billion m3 of wood annually (FAO, 2008). Other activities implying significant terrestrial biotic resource extraction include grazing and energy production, which are relatively smaller compared to the two previous categories. In addition, relatively insignificant amounts of terrestrial biotic resource are extracted through recreational sports (mainly hunting) and pharmaceutical uses."
"In contrast to biotic materials from nature, growing agricultural products and materials can cause a lot of environmental impacts.
Pollution problems arise from agrochemicals being used and dispersed into the environment. Moreover, ’modern‘ agriculture is very resource intensive (Reijnders and Huijbregts 2009), particularly with respect the uses of energy, land and water. Currently about half of the world’s land is used for agriculture and 70% of total water use (FAOSTAT resource database8).
Compared to industrial processes, agricultural processes have an inherently low efficiency of resource use, which renders food, fibres and fuels from agriculture among the more polluting resources. This is true especially for animal products, where the metabolism of the animals
is the limiting factor. Large proportions of the world’s crops are fed to animals and this is expected to increase to 40–50% of global cereal production in 2050 (Aiking et al. 2006)."
"In the future, problems will increase. Not only must a growing population be fed but the increasing demand for biofuels will demand significant quantities of land and water. Even if only a limited fraction of total energy supply is met through biomass, the demand for such crops will exceed that needed for food, implying a further expansion of demand for land and water use with the associated environmental impacts (Cortula et al. 2008; UNEP. 2009).
In several studies, materials from agriculture come out as high priority from an environmental impact point of view (see Section 5.4 below). Various crops score differently, based on their land and water requirements and on the agrochemicals used in cultivation"
"It is also noteworthy that agricultural materials contribute significantly to global warming, despite their CO2 capture during growth. This is due to the intensive nature of European agriculture."
"Agriculture and biomass using activities• . In spite of its limited share of value added in developed countries, this sector is related to many environmental impacts. The sector is responsible for by far the most of the land and water use globally, leading to habitat loss and
other negative impacts on ecosystems. The use of agrochemicals is related to ecotoxicity, eutrophication and depletion of phosphorus stocks. Intensive agriculture is related to substantial energy use. The loss of soil and biomass carbon can contribute to climate change.
Invasive species problems are also connected to agriculture: crops, pests and biological pest control all are associated with invasive species-related problems. On the other hand, agriculture can also contribute to environmental solutions, e.g. by binding carbon in the
soil, increase biodiversity through diverse habitats. The impacts of agriculture thus depend to a substantial degree on specific aspects of the activities and hence the resource management regime."
"Impacts from agriculture are expected to increase substantially due to population growth, increasing consumption of animal products. Unlike fossil fuels, it is difficult to look for alternatives: people have to eat. A substantial reduction of impacts would only be possible with a substantial worldwide diet change, away from animal products. A further increase in agricultural production is required when energy policies succeed in increasing the share of bioenergy. Even a limited percentage of biofuels runs into land and water constraints quite quickly (UNEP 2009)."

FULL REPORT: http://www.unep.org/resourcepanel/documents/pdf/
PriorityProductsAndMaterials_Report_Full.pdf