It's well known that producing foods such as beef can have an outsized footprint when it comes to carbon emissions. But a new study shows that some of these same staples can have an equally huge effect when it comes to biodiversity losses.
One of the main problems, the study found, results when food production overlaps with areas that have been identified as having the highest conservation priority. The findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"Food production remains the main cause of biodiversity loss," said Keiichiro Kanemoto, an associate professor at the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN) in Kyoto, Japan and one of the paper's senior authors. "However, there is a painful lack of systematic data on which products and which countries contribute the most to this loss. Our research combines information about agricultural land use with species habitats to identify which crops cause the most pressure on biodiversity."
The study ranks which commodities are sourced from regions with high priority for conservation. While previous studies have quantified the carbon, land, and water footprints of the agriculture industry, the threats to biodiversity and ecosystems from farming are poorly understood and thus often omitted. The new results are expected to assist with the formation of policies that protect biodiversity while preserving global food security.
The results have been made publicly available on Google Earth Engine, a cloud computing platform used for environmental analyses. The study covers 50 agricultural products sourced from 200 countries, and draws on farming data, a database of global supply chains, and new ecological models with conservation data for more than 7,000 species to estimate the conservation value of different areas.
Mapping the conflict between farming and biodiversity
One of the main problems, the study found, results when food production overlaps with areas that have been identified as having the highest conservation priority. The findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"Food production remains the main cause of biodiversity loss," said Keiichiro Kanemoto, an associate professor at the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN) in Kyoto, Japan and one of the paper's senior authors. "However, there is a painful lack of systematic data on which products and which countries contribute the most to this loss. Our research combines information about agricultural land use with species habitats to identify which crops cause the most pressure on biodiversity."
The study ranks which commodities are sourced from regions with high priority for conservation. While previous studies have quantified the carbon, land, and water footprints of the agriculture industry, the threats to biodiversity and ecosystems from farming are poorly understood and thus often omitted. The new results are expected to assist with the formation of policies that protect biodiversity while preserving global food security.
The results have been made publicly available on Google Earth Engine, a cloud computing platform used for environmental analyses. The study covers 50 agricultural products sourced from 200 countries, and draws on farming data, a database of global supply chains, and new ecological models with conservation data for more than 7,000 species to estimate the conservation value of different areas.
Mapping the conflict between farming and biodiversity