Localising the nitrogen imprint of the Paris food supply: the potential of organic farming and changes in human diet

Billen, Gilles; Garnier, Josette; Thieu, Vincent; Silvestre, Marie; Barles, Sabine; Chatzimpiros, Petros

doi:10.5194/bg-9-607-2012

Cited by 48 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…9). This is very consistent with the Figure of 68 kg N ha yr −1 , which corresponds to aggregate N losses for all meat and dairy products to Paris from main farming regions (Billen et al, 2012) based on a computation using transportation and production data. Nonetheless, as shown above (cf.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Nitrogen food-print: N use and N cascade from livestock systems in relation to pork, beef and milk supply to Paris

Chatzimpiros¹,

Barles²

2012

Preprint

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A bottom-up approach is constructed to determine N losses from livestock farming systems and to relate these losses to the supply of fresh milk, pig and beef to Paris. First, the three products are expressed in terms of their nitrogen content; then, their fodder equivalent is determined by modelling feed formulas for swine, beef and dairy cows to meet their energy and protein requirements. Fodder deficits in livestock farms are determined by comparing the nutrient requirements of the livestock with the fodder production on the livestock farms. This allowed determining the geography of the livestock systems according to the imports of fodder to the livestock farms from external crop farms. Then we assessed the "farm-gate" N budgets in all crop and livestock farms of the entire livestock systems using data on total N fertilization, atmospheric deposition and manure management practices to finally derive N losses in relation to fodder cultivation and to manure management. Measured in N, the supply of milk, beef and pig to Paris sum 1.85 kg N/cap and the corresponding N losses from the farming systems total 8.9 kg N/cap. N losses per unit of product differ among the three livestock systems according to where and how the fodder is grown and to what densities the livestock is reared

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Nitrogen food-print: N use and N cascade from livestock systems in relation to pork, beef and milk supply to Paris

Chatzimpiros¹,

Barles²

2012

Preprint

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“…35-40% animal proteins); the livestock is fed only with locally produced feed; no synthetic fertilizer is used and arable land is fertilized with locally N 2 -fixing crops and the subsequent manure and crop residues; the area of the latter is adjusted to meet the requirements of livestock; the production of non-fixing arable land (mostly cereals) is calculated from the total fertilization rate, as is the leached nitrogen surplus (using the relationship illustrated in figure 5); the cereal production supplies first and foremost the local population, whereas the excess is available for export. This scenario was demonstrated to be able to reconcile the dual function of rural areas, namely feeding the city and producing high-quality water, while allowing the Seine basin to continue exporting a large share of its cereals production, notably with a larger net export of proteins than in the current situation [71].…”

Section: (A) Technical Measures To Manage the Nitrogen Cascadementioning

confidence: 98%

“…For the Seine basin, a local, organic and 'demitarian' [76] scenario has been constructed and analysed by Billen et al [71] (figure 3b). It obeys the following principles: livestock is adjusted to meet the requirements in animal protein of the local population (with the assumption of a 'demitarian' diet, i.e.…”

Section: (A) Technical Measures To Manage the Nitrogen Cascadementioning

confidence: 99%

The nitrogen cascade from agricultural soils to the sea: modelling nitrogen transfers at regional watershed and global scales

Billen

Garnier

Lassaletta

2013

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

213

144

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The nitrogen cycle of pre-industrial ecosystems has long been remarkably closed, in spite of the high mobility of this element in the atmosphere and hydrosphere. Inter-regional and international commercial exchanges of agricultural goods, which considerably increased after the generalization of the use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, introduced an additional type of nitrogen mobility, which nowadays rivals the atmospheric and hydrological fluxes in intensity, and causes their enhancement at the local, regional and global scales. Eighty-five per cent of the net anthropogenic input of reactive nitrogen occurs on only 43 per cent of the land area. Modern agriculture based on the use of synthetic fertilizers and the decoupling of crop and animal production is responsible for the largest part of anthropogenic losses of reactive nitrogen to the environment. In terms of levers for better managing the nitrogen cascade, beyond technical improvement of agricultural practices tending to increase nitrogen use efficiency, or environmental engineering management measures to increase nitrogen sinks in the landscape, the need to better localize crop production and livestock breeding, on the one hand, and agriculture and food demand on the other hand, is put forward as a condition to being able to supply food to human populations while preserving environmental resources.

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“…However, there are considerable differences in N surpluses and N losses between countries and regions (van Grinsven et al, 2012;Hansen et al, 2012), and there is a lack of knowledge concerning the effects of spatial variation in N surplus at the watershed (Bartoli et al, 2012;Ulrich and Volk, 2010) and landscape levels . Previous studies have focused on larger watersheds (Bartoli et al, 2012;Billen et al, 2012;Lassaletta et al, 2012) or regions Neumann et al, 2011), and are typically based on statistics and publicly-available geo-databases rather than empirically collected data. These studies provide valuable insight into the consequences of N hotspots at these regional scales, but there is a lack of knowledge concerning the interactions between the local farm management and the natural processes in specific landscapes with agricultural Npollution hotspots Dalgaard et al, 2011;Hewett et al, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Farm nitrogen balances in six European landscapes as an indicator for nitrogen losses and basis for improved management

Dalgaard

Bieńkowski²,

Bleeker

et al. 2012

Biogeosciences

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Abstract. Improved management of nitrogen (N) in agriculture is necessary to achieve a sustainable balance between the production of food and other biomass, and the unwanted effects of N on water pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity deterioration and human health. To analyse farm N-losses and the complex interactions within farming systems, efficient methods for identifying emissions hotspots and evaluating mitigation measures are therefore needed. The present paper aims to fill this gap at the farm and landscape scales. Six agricultural landscapes in Poland (PL), the Netherlands (NL), France (FR), Italy (IT), Scotland (UK) and Denmark (DK) were studied, and a common method was developed for undertaking farm inventories and the derivation of farm N balances, N surpluses and for evaluating uncertainty for the 222 farms and 11 440 ha of farmland included in the study.In all landscapes, a large variation in the farm N surplus was found, and thereby a large potential for reductions. The highest average N surpluses were found in the most livestock-intensive landscapes of IT, FR, and NL; on average 202 ± 28, 179 ± 63 and 178 ± 20 kg N ha −1 yr −1 , respectively. All landscapes showed hotspots, especially from livestock farms, including a special UK case with large-scale landless poultry farming. Overall, the average N surplus from the land-based UK farms dominated by extensive sheep and cattle grazing was only 31 ± 10 kg N ha −1 yr −1 , but was similar to the N surplus of PL and DK (122 ± 20 and 146 ± 55 kg N ha −1 yr −1 , respectively) when landless poultry farming was included.We found farm N balances to be a useful indicator for N losses and the potential for improving N management. Significant correlations to N surplus were found, both with ammonia air concentrations and nitrate concentrations in soils and groundwater, measured during the period of N management data collection in the landscapes from [2007][2008][2009]. This indicates that farm N surpluses may be used as an independent dataset for validation of measured and modelled N emissions in agricultural landscapes. No significant correlation was found with N measured in surface waters, probably because of spatial and temporal variations in groundwater buffering and biogeochemical reactions affecting N flows from farm to surface waters.A case study of the development in N surplus from the landscape in DK from 1998-2008 showed a 22 % reduction related to measures targeted at N emissions from livestock farms. Based on the large differences in N surplus between average N management farms and the most modern and Nefficient farms, it was concluded that additional N-surplus reductions of 25-50 %, as compared to the present level, were realistic in all landscapes. The implemented N-surplus Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. T. Dalgaard et al.: Farm nitrogen balances as indicator for nitrogen lossesmethod was thus effective for comparing and synthesizing results on farm N emissions and the potentials of miti...

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Localising the nitrogen imprint of the Paris food supply: the potential of organic farming and changes in human diet

Cited by 48 publications

References 24 publications

Nitrogen food-print: N use and N cascade from livestock systems in relation to pork, beef and milk supply to Paris

Nitrogen food-print: N use and N cascade from livestock systems in relation to pork, beef and milk supply to Paris

The nitrogen cascade from agricultural soils to the sea: modelling nitrogen transfers at regional watershed and global scales

Farm nitrogen balances in six European landscapes as an indicator for nitrogen losses and basis for improved management

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