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| The world needs to close a land gap of 593 million hectares to avoid further agricultural expansion
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By 2050, nearly 10 billion people will live on the planet. Can we produce enough food sustainably? The synthesis report of the World Resources Report: Creating a Sustainable Food Future shows that it is possible – but there is no silver bullet. This report offers a five-course menu of solutions to ensure we can feed everyone without increasing emis...
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... and pasture productivity gains are from the GlobAgri-WRR model. These gains hold down the expansion of agricultural areas to 593 Mha (Figure 2). However, if future crop yields grow at the somewhat slower rates experienced more recently (1989)(1990)(1991)(1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008), and pasture and livestock productivity also grow more slowly than in our baseline scenario, agricultural areas could instead expand by 855 Mha by 2050. ...
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... soil carbon also generally requires large quantities of nitrogen, which is needed by the micro- organisms that convert decaying organic matter to soil organic carbon. Low nitrogen surely limits soil carbon buildup in Africa (Figure 20), where nitrogen additions are insufficient even for crop needs, and probably limits soil carbon buildup elsewhere. 96 ...
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... hardest gap to close is the GHG mitigation gap because it is difficult to reduce annual agricultural production emissions to the 4 Gt CO 2 e target while feeding everyone in 2050. Annual production emis- sions remain at 4.4 Gt even in our Breakthrough Technologies scenario ( Figure 23). Reaching the 4 Gt goal would require major technological advances as well as full reforestation on at least 80 Mha of liberated agricultural land. ...
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... public funding is still important. In 2014-16, public support for agriculture averaged $600 billion per year in countries assessed by the OECD (Fig- ure 24). Half of this total takes the form of market interventions that raise prices to consumers, such as import barriers, tariffs, or systems that limit production by farmers to increase prices. ...
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... Other analyses assume yield gains could be used to free up land for bioenergy without clearing more forests and savannas-even as those same yield gains are needed just to meet rising food demand. In claiming GHG savings from bioenergy, analyses often attribute the carbon absorbed by plant growth as an offset for burning biomass even when this plant growth would otherwise have occurred and removed carbon from the atmosphere anyway ( Figure 25). ...
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... and pasture productivity gains are from the GlobAgri-WRR model. These gains hold down the expansion of agricultural areas to 593 Mha (Figure 2). However, if future crop yields grow at the somewhat slower rates experienced more recently (1989)(1990)(1991)(1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008), and pasture and livestock productivity also grow more slowly than in our baseline scenario, agricultural areas could instead expand by 855 Mha by 2050. ...
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... soil carbon also generally requires large quantities of nitrogen, which is needed by the micro- organisms that convert decaying organic matter to soil organic carbon. Low nitrogen surely limits soil carbon buildup in Africa (Figure 20), where nitrogen additions are insufficient even for crop needs, and probably limits soil carbon buildup elsewhere. 96 ...
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... hardest gap to close is the GHG mitigation gap because it is difficult to reduce annual agricultural production emissions to the 4 Gt CO 2 e target while feeding everyone in 2050. Annual production emis- sions remain at 4.4 Gt even in our Breakthrough Technologies scenario ( Figure 23). Reaching the 4 Gt goal would require major technological advances as well as full reforestation on at least 80 Mha of liberated agricultural land. ...
Context 9
... public funding is still important. In 2014-16, public support for agriculture averaged $600 billion per year in countries assessed by the OECD (Fig- ure 24). Half of this total takes the form of market interventions that raise prices to consumers, such as import barriers, tariffs, or systems that limit production by farmers to increase prices. ...
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... Other analyses assume yield gains could be used to free up land for bioenergy without clearing more forests and savannas-even as those same yield gains are needed just to meet rising food demand. In claiming GHG savings from bioenergy, analyses often attribute the carbon absorbed by plant growth as an offset for burning biomass even when this plant growth would otherwise have occurred and removed carbon from the atmosphere anyway ( Figure 25). ...
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... The agricultural industry is currently using 37% of Earth's land mass for food production. This causes deforestation and as a result it inflicts a loss of biodiversity and increased greenhouse gas emissions [3]. Alone livestock production is responsible for 14% (excluding land-use) of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. ...
... Alone livestock production is responsible for 14% (excluding land-use) of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. These emissions originate from manure management, ruminant waste on pastures, ruminant emissions, and fertiliser production [3]. In addition, results suggest that the agricultural industry is responsible for 92% of the global water consumption [3]. ...
... These emissions originate from manure management, ruminant waste on pastures, ruminant emissions, and fertiliser production [3]. In addition, results suggest that the agricultural industry is responsible for 92% of the global water consumption [3]. ...
Increasing population size and income growth are causing and increasing demand for food and protein of animal origin. Insects are an interesting alternative to conventional animal source proteins as they can convert by-products from the agricultural industry to biomass for commercial feed for livestock and potentially as a food source for human consumption. Microorganisms have been found to affect insects and can be accumulated via horizontal and vertical transmission. This study aimed to identify if the removal of egg- and substrate-associated microorganisms impact larval performance through the following parameters: development of biomass, final biomass, and the survival rate of house fly (Musca domestica) larvae. Four treatments were tested on substrate consisting of 10.81% alfalfa (Medicago sativa), 21.62% wheat bran (Triticum aestivum), and 67.57% water: (A) disinfected eggs and non-autoclaved substrate, (B) non-disinfected eggs and autoclaved substrate, (C) disinfected eggs and autoclaved substrate, and (D) a control without any removal of microbiota. The results showed a significant decrease in final biomass for the treatments with only disinfected eggs, only autoclaved substrate and both when comparing to the control, and a significant decrease in survival rate for B and D. Moreover, the development of biomass showed a significant difference between days within all treatments. Together this suggest that microorganisms of housefly eggs and the growth substrate plays an important role for growth, which is critical in commercial insect production. Further studies must be performed to examine these parameters in more commercially relevant substrates.
