EPNF

#Mandate #Publications #Meetings #Sustainability

The core aim of the Expert Panel on Nitrogen and Food (EPNF) is “to create a better understanding of the relationship between human diets and the impact of the N-cycle on the environment” (WGSR 47th Session. Inf. Document No. 18, September 2010). During the first phase of the EPNF, co-chaired by Henk Westhoek of the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) and Christian Pallière of Fertilizers Europe (EFMA), the panel has developed a European Nitrogen Assessment Special Report on Nitrogen and Food, 'Nitrogen on the Table' which was launched in full on 12th January 2016, investigating the effects of a lower human intake of plant and animal originated protein on N emissions and the societal cost for mitigation NH3 and greenhouse gas emissions. Please visit 'N on the Table' to download the report. 

The second phase of the EPNF started at TFRN-11 which was held partly as joint OECD/TFRN workshop: "The nitrogen cascade and policy - towards integrated solutions", co-chared by Adrian Leip (European Commmission - Joint Research Centre) and Susanna Kugelberg (until 2017 at World Health Organization, Regional Office for Europe; now working at the Department of Organization, Copenhagen Business School). In its second phase, the following key questions were addressed (WGSR 53rd Session. Inf. Document, December 2015):

  1. How far could a combination of improved farm level technical measures and shifts in consumption go to improving the Nitrogen Use Efficiency of the overall food system of Europe? And what need the incentives be in order to realize this NUE improvement? 
  2. What is the relative potential of dietary changes and food waste reduction to reduce nitrogen air pollution and other environmental threats? 
  3. What are the health effects of a range of dietary patterns that generate less nitrogen pollution (ie. positive and negative)? Potential health effects include those from air pollution and those that are nutrition related. Is it possible to identify particular dietary patterns that achieve health-environmental synergies? 
  4. To what extent can a stronger link between the scientific evidence on environment and healthstrengthen the case for controlling nitrogen pollution and optimizing diets to meet human health goals?

Building on these questions a 2nd European Nitrogen Assessment Special Report on NItrogen & Food 'Appetite for Change: Food system options for nitrogen, environment & health' was published on 20th December 2023. To download the report please visit 'Appetite for Change'.

 

Publications (#top)

GFS Special Issue
  • Corrado, S., Caldeira, C., Carmona-Garcia, G., Körner, I., Leip, A., Sala, S., 2020. Unveiling the potential for an efficient use of nitrogen along the food supply and consumption chain. Glob. Food Sec. 25, 100368. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2020.100368 (open access)
  • Costa Leite, J., Caldeira, S., Watzl, B., Wollgast, J., 2020. Healthy low nitrogen footprint diets. Glob. Food Sec. 24, 100342. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2019.100342 (open access)
  • Hebinck, A., Zurek, M., Achterbosch, T., Forkman, B., Kuijsten, A., Kuiper, M., Nørrung, B., Veer, P. van ’t, Leip, A., 2021. A Sustainability Compass for policy navigation to sustainable food systems. Glob. Food Sec. 100546. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2021.100546 (open access)
  • Hutchings, N.J., Sørensen, P., Cordovil, C.M. d. S., Leip, A., Amon, B., 2020. Measures to increase the nitrogen use efficiency of European agricultural production. Glob. Food Sec. 26, 100381. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2020.100381 (open access)
  • Kugelberg, S., Bartolini, F., Kanter, D.R., Milford, A.B., Pira, K., Sanz-Cobena, A., Leip, A., Wollgast, J., 2021. Implications of a food system approach for policy agenda-setting design. Glob. Food Sec. 28, 100451. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2020.100451 (open access)
  • Latka, C., Kuiper, M., Frank, S., Heckelei, T., Havlík, P., Witzke, H.-P., Leip, A., Cui, H.D., Kuijsten, A., Geleijnse, J.M., van Dijk, M., 2021. Paying the price for environmentally sustainable and healthy EU diets. Glob. Food Sec. 28, 100437. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2020.100437 (open access)
  • Leip, A., Bodirsky, B.L., Kugelberg, S., 2021. The role of nitrogen in achieving sustainable food systems for healthy diets. Glob. Food Sec. 28, 100408. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2020.100408 (open access)
  • Puigdueta, I., Aguilera, E., Cruz, J.L., Iglesias, A., Sanz-Cobena, A., 2021. Urban agriculture may change food consumption towards low carbon diets. Glob. Food Sec. 28, 100507. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2021.100507 (open access)
  • Weindl, I., Ost, M., Wiedmer, P., Schreiner, M., Neugart, S., Klopsch, R., Kühnhold, H., Kloas, W., Henkel, I.M., Schlüter, O., Bußler, S., Bellingrath-Kimura, S.D., Ma, H., Grune, T., Rolinski, S., Klaus, S., 2020. Sustainable food protein supply reconciling human and ecosystem health: A Leibniz Position. Glob. Food Sec. 25, 100367. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2020.100367 (researchgate.net)

Other publications

  • Kanter, D.R., Bartolini, F., Kugelberg, S., Leip, A., Oenema, O., Uwizeye, A., 2020. Nitrogen pollution policy beyond the farm. Nat. Food 1, 27–32. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-019-0001-5 (online open access) 
  • Kobayashi, Y., Kotilainen, T., Carmona-García, G., Leip, A., Tuomisto, H. L., 2022. Vertical farming: A trade-off between land area need for crops and for renewable energy production, Journal of Cleaner Production,
    379, Part 2, 134507. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.134507.
  • Latka, C., Parodi, A., van Hal, O., Heckelei, T., Leip, A., Witzke, H.-P., van Zanten, H. H. E., 2022. Competing for food waste – Policies’ market feedbacks imply sustainability tradeoffs. Resources, Conservation and Recycling 186, 106545. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2022.106545.
  • Leip, A., Ledgart, S., Uwizeye, A., Palhares, J.C.P., Aller, F., Amon, B., Binder, M., Cordovil, C.M. d. S., Dong, H., Fusi, A., Helin, J., Hörtenhuber, S., Hristov, A.N., Koelsch, R., Liu, C., Masso, C., Nkongolo, N. V., Patra, A.K., Redding, M.R., Rufino, M.C., Sakrabani, R., Thoma, G., Vertès, F., Wang, Y., Ledgard, S., Uwizeye, A., Palhares, J.C.P., Aller, M.F., Amon, B., Binder, M., Cordovil, C.M. d. S., De Camillis, C., Dong, H., Fusi, A., Helin, J., Hörtenhuber, S., Hristov, A.N., Koelsch, R., Liu, C., Masso, C., Nkongolo, N. V., Patra, A.K., Redding, M.R., Rufino, M.C., Sakrabani, R., Thoma, G., Vertès, F., Wang, Y., 2019. The value of manure - manure as co-product in life cycle assessment. J. Environ. Manage. 241, 293–304. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2019.03.059
  • Leip, A., Uwizeye, A., 2019. Nitrogen Footprints. Encycl. Ecol. 4, 370–382. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-409548-9.10753-5
  • Leip, A, Caldeira, C, Corrado, S., Hutchings, N. J., Lesschen, J. P., Schaap, M., de Vries, W., Westhoek, H., van Grinsven, H. J. M., 2022. Halving nitrogen waste in the European Union food systems requires both dietary shifts and farm level actions, Global Food Security 35, 100648. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2022.100648.
  • Parodi, A., Leip, A., De Boer, I.J.M.M., Slegers, P.M., Ziegler, F., Temme, E.H.M.M., Herrero, M., Tuomisto, H.L., Valin, H., Van Middelaar, C.E., Van Loon, J.J.A.A., van Zanten, H.H.E., 2018. The potential of future foods for sustainable and healthy diets. Nat. Sustain. 1, 782–789. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-018-0189-7 (online open access)
  • Sanz-Cobena, A., Alessandrini, R., Bodirsky, B.L., Springmann, M., Aguilera, E., Amon, B., Bartolini, F., Geupel, M., Grizzetti, B., Kugelberg, S., Latka, C., Liang, X., Milford, A.B., Musinguzi, P., Ng, E.L., Suter, H., Leip, A., 2020. Research meetings must be more sustainable. Nat. Food 1, 187–189. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-020-0065-2 (online open access - researchgate.net)
  • Springmann, M, Van Dingenen, R., Vandyck, T., Latka, C. Witzke, P., Leip, A., 2023. The global and regional air quality impacts of dietary change. Nature Communications 14, 6227. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-41789-3 
  • Temme, E.H.M.; Vellinga, R.E.; de Ruiter, H.; Kugelberg, S.; van de Kamp, M.; Milford, A.; Alessandrini, R.; Bartolini, F.; Sanz-Cobena, A.; Leip, A., 2020. Demand-Side Food Policies for Public and Planetary Health. Sustainability 12, 5924. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12155924
  • Vanham, D., Leip, A., 2020. Sustainable food system policies need to address environmental pressures and impacts: The example of water use and water stress. Sci. Total Environ. 730, 139151. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139151
  • Vanham, D., Leip, A., Galli, A., Kastner, T., Bruckner, M., Uwizeye, A., van Dijk, K., Ercin, E., Dalin, C., Brandão, M., Bastianoni, S., Fang, K., Leach, A.M., Chapagain, A., Van der Velde, M., Sala, S., Pant, R., Mancini, L., Monforti-Ferrario, F., Carmona-Garcia, G., Marques, A., Weiss, F., Hoekstra, A.Y., 2019. Environmental footprint family to address local to planetary sustainability and deliver on the SDGs. Sci. Total Environ. 693, 133642. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.133642
  • CERCEDILLA MANIFESTO: Research meetings must be more sustainable - Sign the openpetition.eu/!cercedillamanifesto 

Meetings (#top)

Sustainability - Compensation of Carbon and Nitrogen emissions (#top)

The EPNF2 meetings are organized as sustainable as possible; remote or hybrid remote meetings are done whenever possible. Carbon and Nitrogen emissions from the meetings in Milan, Wageningen, and Cercedilla have been compensated through myclimate.org by supporting the Kolar Biogas Project. This project has been selected for several reasons (i) it is a Gold Standard CDM project; (ii) it reduced both GHG and Nr emissions through better management of manure and avoiding deforestation; (iii) detailed background data are availabe from UNFCCC. The quantitative information has been used to quantify amount of Nr compensation per t of COeq. See evaluation of the Milan-meeting for a summary. As the ratio of Nr:CO2 compensation is with 4.5 g Nr / kg CO2eq larger than the ratio of the Nr:CO2 emissions caused by the meetings at (0.9 g Nr / kg CO2eq for the meeting in Milan), this project ensures that Nr emissions are fully compensated with the compensation of the GHG emissions.

 

Presentations