Nitrogen efficiency of food production in Austria

Transcription

1 Nitrogen efficiency of food production in Austria Simon Thaler*, Matthias Zessner*, Katerina Ruzicka*, Maria Magdalena Mayr**, Helmut Kroiss* *Institute for Waste Management, Vienna University of Technology, Austria **Austrian Association for Agricultural Research (AAER), Austria

2 introduction Energy Consumption kcal/person/day Protein Consumption g/person/day Fat Consumption g/person/day Annual meat consumption kg/person/year World 2, Developed countries Developing countries 3, , Table 1: Dietary patterns per capita among developed and developing countries ( ) The values for energy, protein, and fat include household food wastes. Sources: FAO(2010a) and Steinfeld et al. (2006) in Heumesser et al. (unpublished) a shift to a meat based diet in developing countries will drastically increase the meat consumption and thus require more resources Diffuse Pollution Conference

3 introduction project Within the project "healthy nutrition as key to sustainability the influence of diet on health, agriculture, environmental impacts and resource consumption is investigated for Austria What is the nitrogen efficiency for animal and plant based food in Austria? Diffuse Pollution Conference

4 method & data Regional material flow analysis complexity of nitrogen fluxes is transformed into clear processes and fluxes system boundaries national territory of Austria troposphere groundwater period of investigations is set to focus on relevant processes and fluxes for the human nutrition and food production Diffuse Pollution Conference

5 troposphere waste and wastewater method & data consumption industry animal husbandry plant production forestry & other soil usage groundwater and surface water Diffuse Pollution Conference

6 method & data N emissions calculated with the IPCC guidelines (adopted for Austria by Austrian Environmental Agency) nitrogen emissions into surface and groundwater MONERIS model calculation of efficiencies: partial efficiencies were calculated for each step of the food chain data: national agricultural statistics national supply balance statistics national nutrition report additional waste and wastewater data (calculation of losses) were used Diffuse Pollution Conference

7 N consumed 12 g N/person/yr In agreement with the wastewater data 4,4 kg N/person/yr is consumed in Austria 61% from animal based 39% from plant based food nutrition recommendations suggest the contrary distribution Diffuse Pollution Conference

8 N efficiency food Galloway & Cowling (2002) : varying nitrogen efficiencies of a carnivorous diet (a) and vegetarian diet (b) a) b) Diffuse Pollution Conference

9 N efficiency food what are the efficiencies for food production in Austria? based on the derived nitrogen balance applying the actual fertilizer mix as N input account for the fertilizer use of manure using the derived losses neglecting import and export imports are treated as Austrian products The partial efficiencies for Austria have been used Diffuse Pollution Conference

10 results N efficiency N efficiency for a vegetarian diet in Austria % reference N input mix 24 % of the nitrogen input is consumed Diffuse Pollution Conference

11 results N efficiency N efficiency for a carnivorous diet in Austria % reference N input mix 11 % of the nitrogen input is consumed Diffuse Pollution Conference

12 results N efficiency N efficiency for the actual distribution between animal and plant based food % reference N input mix 16 % of the nitrogen input is consumed Diffuse Pollution Conference

13 results & conclusion N efficiency vegetarian diet carnivorous diet Galloway & Cowling 14% 4% Austria 24 % 11 % Austria mixed actual diet 16 % Austria mixed healthy diet 19 % Diffuse Pollution Conference

14 results & conclusion nitrogen efficiency increases with a vegetarian diet in contrast to a carnivorous diet depends on the food chain system (agriculture, food processing, food preparation and consumption) increases with amount of recycled manure could further increase by use of organic waste or sewage sludge as nitrogen input source could be increased by 3% due to a healthy diet in Austria same output could be achieved by 20% less input decrease of nitrogen emissions to surface and groundwaters Diffuse Pollution Conference

15 outlook a follow up activity has been started going into detail regarding resource potential (i.e. use of wastewater sludge for fertilization important for phosphorus efficiency) apart from efficiencies the change in area demand and potential use of free agricultural area the change in fertilizer requirements the impacts on waters the emissions of greenhouse gases different scenarios (import export, self sufficient, ) will (and partly have been) be examined Diffuse Pollution Conference

16 Thank you for your attention Institute for Institute for Waste Management Vienna University of Technology This presentation has evolved from a project of the provision program, funded from the Diffuse Pollution Conference Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research