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. 2024 May 20:926:171882.
doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.171882. Epub 2024 Mar 26.

Retrospective analysis of the main feedstocks for animal feed in the world: How the green revolution has affected their environmental performance over the last 60 years, from 1961 to 2021

Kássio R G Lucas  1 , Ermias Kebreab  2
Affiliations

Retrospective analysis of the main feedstocks for animal feed in the world: How the green revolution has affected their environmental performance over the last 60 years, from 1961 to 2021

Kássio R G Lucas et al. Sci Total Environ. .

Abstract

At the end of the 1950s, studies began to create high-yield cultivars with the aim of increasing the supply of basic foods in the world, this action was called "green evolution". It was associated with the increase in the use of inputs to increase production levels, leading agriculture to a possible increase in environmental impacts and "harmful habits" of management. To characterize the historical damage of this action, it is necessary to use methods that generate universal results, capable of representing the world. Then, we use Life cycle assessment (LCA) to estimate the historical evolution of the environmental impacts of the two main feedstock for feed in the world, soybeans, and corn, from 1961 to 2021. To better understand the variation in their impacts, we consider the change in agricultural management when we use as a functional unit the amount of area needed to produce 1 kg of grain. Although emissions and impacts from agriculture, by area, have increased each decade, when considering productivity through the area/production ratio, we note that a number of emissions were avoided, along with impacts in all categories evaluated. Therefore, the development and use of technologies that modify the area/production ratio can contribute to avoiding environmental impacts.

Keywords: Agricultural inputs; Agriculture; Food demand; Livestock; Population growth.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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