More Sustainable Agriculture by Global Redistribution of Nitrogen Fertilizer October 16, 2023
Introduction:
(Eurekalert) Models Reveal that a Homogeneous Global Distribution of Nitrogen Fertilizer Would Significantly Reduce Worldwide Fertilization and the Resulting Pollution of the Environment
About 60 percent of worldwide nitrogen fertilizer consumption are presently used for growing crops, such as corn, wheat, or rice. These plants need nitrogen fertilizers to grow and produce bigger harvests. However, large quantities of the fertilizer enter the ground and groundwater or are emitted into the atmosphere in the form of nitrous oxide. This pollutes the environment and contributes to the loss of biological diversity, to climate change, and to the degradation of the ozone layer. This problem is particularly serious in the big cultivation areas of North America, Europe, and East Asia, where comparably large amounts of nitrogen fertilizer are used. KIT (Karlsruher Institut Fur Technologie) researchers recently modeled the effect of a worldwide redistribution of nitrogen fertilizer use. They simulated various fertilizer quantities at different locations and calculated the total production of corn, wheat, and rice between 2015 and 2030 using the biogeochemical model LandscapeDNDC. “Our work was based on the question of how we can produce sufficient food without exceeding environmental boundaries,” says Dr. Andrew Smerald from the Atmospheric Environmental Research Department of KIT’s Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research (IMK-IFU), KIT’s Campus Alpine in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Grain Production Level Could Be Maintained with a Far Smaller Global Use of Fertilizer
“Our models show that worldwide consumption of nitrogen fertilizer could be reduced by 32 percent by a more homogeneous distribution. The current level of grain production would remain unaffected,” Smerald says. “For this, nitrogen fertilizer would have to be redistributed from traditional cultivation areas in China, North America, and Europe to less used areas, such as Sub-Saharan Africa.“ Then, the increased production in these regions would compensate decreased production in other regions. As a result, nitrogen fertilizer use for wheat and corn production would be reduced by 45 and 33 percent, respectively, without influencing worldwide production quantities. Moreover, nitrate leaching would be reduced by 71 percent for wheat and 63 percent for corn.
Models reveal that worldwide redistribution of nitrogen fertilizer consumption would positively affect nitrous oxide emissions.
New Institute Aims to Address Gap in Nation’s Health Care System Through Highly Effective Yet Overlooked Nutrition Interventions October 18, 2023
Introduction:
(Eurekalert) A newly launched, first-of-its-kind institute aims to address a glaring gap in the medical system by working to integrate food-based nutrition interventions into health care to treat disease and advance health equity.
The Food is Medicine Institute at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, launched today, establishes a university-wide initiative aimed at transforming health care through scalable food-based interventions such as: medically tailored meals and prescriptions for produce; nutrition education for doctors; and clinical care, electronic health record, and reimbursement pathways for nutrition-based tools to help treat or prevent diet-related illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes, and certain cancers and complications during pregnancy. The Institute will advance Food is Medicine research, patient care, and community and policy engagement nationwide and beyond, and be a leader in educating the next generation of professionals in the Food is Medicine space.
“The Institute builds on Tufts’ rich array of schools, our role as a leading research university, and our position as a pioneer in nutrition education and scholarship,” said Tufts University President Sunil Kumar. “It also reflects our university-wide commitment to advancing societal equity while tackling difficult global challenges.”
Inadequate diet is responsible for more deaths worldwide than any other risk factor, including smoking tobacco. In the U.S., it’s the number one driver of poor health, leading to more than half a million deaths a year and costing more than $1.1 trillion in health costs and lost productivity. And poor nutrition disproportionately affects people with lower-incomes, rural communities, and historically marginalized racial and ethnic groups.
Research has shown that food and nutrition interventions incorporated into a patient’s treatment plan could lead to improved health outcomes and lower health care costs.
85%
of all health care spending is related to the management of diet-related chronic diseases
$13.6B
would be saved each year if all eligible Americans received medically tailored meal interventions
49%
Adults with serious medical conditions who received 10 medically tailored meals per week for an average of 9 months per year were 49% less likely to be admitted to the hospital
16%
A program that provided 10 medically tailored meals for an average of 9 months per year to adults with serious medical conditions resulted in a 16% reduction in total health care costs, even with the cost of the program
Can Planting Multiple Crops in the Same Plot Improve Agricultural Production and Sustainability? October 18, 2023
Introduction:
(Eurekalert) Agricultural management has typically focused on increasing yields, but there is an increasing need for sustainable food production that limits negative impacts on the environment. A new study published in Grassland Research provides insights into the potential benefits of diversifying agricultural practices, revealing how different mixtures of plant species can improve production, quality, and conservation.
For the study, investigators planted multiple species in different grassland plots, manipulating plant species richness from one to six species spanning three functional groups (legumes, herbs, and grasses). Certain mixtures led to increases in plant productivity and invasion resistance. Also, different plant species drove different functions, with legumes and herbs benefiting plant productivity and water availability, and grasses improving invasion resistance. Legumes were also highly beneficial for maintaining soil nitrogen.
“While the specific plant species and functional groups used in the study may vary across regions, the concept of using multispecies mixtures to enhance multifunctionality and promote both production and biodiversity can be applicable in various agricultural contexts around the world,” said corresponding author Laura Argens, a PhD student at the Technical University of Munich, in Germany.
All the Fruit You Can Eat, but Many Japanese Not Interested by mike Omura
October 23, 2023
Introduction:
(Asahi Shimbun) —Strawberries, cherries, melons and watermelons from spring through summer. Asian pears, grapes, persimmons and chestnuts in autumn. Apples and mandarin oranges in winter.
Japan is blessed with mouthwatering seasonal fruit throughout the year.
And yet, fruit consumption remains relatively low.
The health ministry’s latest annual National Health and Nutrition Survey showed that 38 percent of those aged 20 and older did not consume a single bit of fruit on the day of the poll.
Zero consumption ratios were higher among younger age brackets: 61 percent for those in their 20s, 55 percent for thirtysomethings and 53 percent for those in their 40s.
(Eurekalert) A model examines farmers’ profits and the health and environmental costs of growing corn in the US Midwest, where about 20% of the world’s corn is grown. Corn farming involves applying fertilizer or manure to provide the crop with nitrogen, a vital nutrient. But around half of the nitrogen added to fields never makes it into the crop, and instead enters the environment, either through the air or the water. Andrew L. Goodkind and colleagues set out to model the costs and benefits of corn farming, both under current nitrogen management and alternative approaches. In particular, the authors were interested in capturing the costs associated with air pollution, which have not been as well studied as the costs associated with water pollution. The authors find that the health and environmental costs of current management practices are $25.6 billion per year, far exceeding farmer profits, which averaged $4.3 billion per year from 2013–2022. Emissions in the form of ammonia are responsible for 65% of the costs of nitrogen use. Ammonia forms fine particulate matter that, when inhaled, is associated with a myriad of health conditions. The team then considered several management alternatives, including injecting fertilizer into the ground to reduce air emissions, or reducing fertilizer application rates. Implementing both changes makes corn profits higher than health and environmental costs for the Midwest as a whole, turning net losses into net gains. For some counties, however, costs still outweigh benefits, even after management changes. For these areas, located largely in Indiana, southern Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan, retiring land from corn production may be the best option, according to the authors.
Researchers Create Heat-resistant Varieties of Apples by April Rubin
October 28, 2023
Introduction:
(Axios) For an apple a day to keep the doctor away, the fruits have to be resilient to climate change.
Why it matters: Newly patented variations of apples that thrive in warm weather, developed by a University of Maryland researcher, could be a solution to stunted production in recent years.
• "We [Maryland] have the heat, we have the humidity and we have more diseases," said Christopher Walsh, a plant science and landscape architecture professor, who developed the variants.
• "Because it's hot and a long growing season, the trees grow a lot more."
Threat level: Worldwide and U.S. apple output have both decreased, the Washington Post reports.
Low-income Countries Could Lose 30% of Nutrients Like Protein and Omega-3 from Seafood Due to Climate Change October 30, 2023
Introduction:
(Eurekalert) The nutrients available from seafood could drop by 30 per cent for low-income countries by the end of the century due to climate change, suggests new UBC research.
That’s in a high carbon emissions and low mitigation scenario, according to the study published today in Nature Climate Change. This could be reduced to a roughly 10 per cent decline if the world were to meet the Paris Agreement targets of limiting global warming to 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius - which recent reports have shown we’re not on track to achieve.
“Low-income countries and the global south, where seafood is central to diets and has the potential to help address malnutrition, are the hardest hit by the effects of climate change,” said first author Dr. William Cheung, professor and director of the UBC Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries (IOF). “For many, seafood is an irreplaceable and affordable source of nutrients.”
The researchers examined historical fisheries and seafood farming, or mariculture, databases including data from UBC’s Sea Around Us to find out quantities of key nutrients that were available through fisheries and seafood farming in the past, and used predictive climate models to project these into the future. They focused on four nutrients that are plentiful in seafood and important to human health: calcium, iron, protein and omega-3 fatty acids, the latter of which is not readily available in other food sources.
They found that the availability of these nutrients peaked in the 1990s and stagnated to the 2010s, despite increases provided by farming seafood, and from fishing for invertebrates such as shrimp and oysters.
Cigarette Style Warning Labels Could Reduce People’s Meat Consumption October 31, 2023
Introduction:
(Eurekalert) Cigarette style graphic warning labels could reduce people’s meat consumption, according to new research published today (1 November).
The study suggests the use of warning labels on meat options could improve public health and reduce the UK’s carbon footprint.
The team from Durham University tested a range of warning labels including those which warn people of the damage to climate, health, and risk of pandemics. They found that all labels were effective at discouraging people from choosing meals with meat.
All warning labels, which showed a graphic image alongside text, reduced meat meal selections by seven to 10 percent. However, participants were most in favour of the climate warning labels which they also found the most credible.
Conclusion:
Senior author on the paper, Dr Milica Vasiljevic from Durham University’s Department of Psychology said: “We already know that eating a lot of meat, especially red and processed meat, is bad for your health and that it contributes to deaths from pollution and climate change. Adding warning labels to meat products could be one way to reduce these risks to health and the environment.”
Exposing Plants to Ethylene Early on May Bolster Their Growth and Help Feed the World by Brad Binder
November 9, 2023
Introduction:
(The Conversation) Just like any other organism, plants can get stressed. Usually it’s conditions like heat and drought that lead to this stress, and when they’re stressed, plants might not grow as large or produce as much. This can be a problem for farmers, so many scientists have tried genetically modifying plants to be more resilient.
But plants modified for higher crop yields tend to have a lower stress tolerance because they put more energy into growth than into protection against stresses. Similarly, improving the ability of plants to survive stress often results in plants that produce less because they put more energy into protection than into growth. This conundrum makes it difficult to improve crop production.
I have been studying how the plant hormone ethylene regulates growth and stress responses in plants. In a study published in July 2023, my lab made an unexpected and exciting observation. We found that when seeds are germinating in darkness, as they usually are underground, adding ethylene can increase both their growth and stress tolerance.
