Articles | Volume 14, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-1795-2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-1795-2022
Review article
 | 
14 Apr 2022
Review article |  | 14 Apr 2022

Pre- and post-production processes increasingly dominate greenhouse gas emissions from agri-food systems

Francesco N. Tubiello, Kevin Karl, Alessandro Flammini, Johannes Gütschow, Griffiths Obli-Laryea​​​​​​​, Giulia Conchedda, Xueyao Pan, Sally Yue Qi, Hörn Halldórudóttir Heiðarsdóttir, Nathan Wanner, Roberta Quadrelli, Leonardo Rocha Souza, Philippe Benoit, Matthew Hayek, David Sandalow, Erik Mencos Contreras​​​​​​​, Cynthia Rosenzweig, Jose Rosero Moncayo, Piero Conforti, and Maximo Torero

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Cited articles

Bellarby, J., Foereid, B., and Hastings, A.: Cool Farming: Climate Impacts of Agriculture and Mitigation Potential, https://abdn.pure.elsevier.com/en/publications/cool-farming-climate-impacts-of-agriculture-and-mitigation-potent (last access: 15 March 2022), 2008. 
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Brentrup, F., Lammel, J., Stephani, T., and Christensen, B.: Updated carbon footprint values for mineral fertilizer from different world regions, in: 11th International Conference on Life Cycle Assessment of Food, Kasetsart University, 17–19 October 2018​​​​​​​, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329774170_Updated_carbon_footprint_values_for_mineral_fertilizer_from_different_world_regions (last access: 1 January 2022), 2018. 
Clark, M. A., Domingo, N. G. G., Colgan, K., Thakrar, S. K., Tilman, D., Lynch, J., Azevedo, I. L., and Hill, J. D.: Global food system emissions could preclude achieving the 1.5 and 2 C climate change targets, Science, 370, 705–708, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aba7357, 2020. 
Conchedda, G. and Tubiello, F. N.: Drainage of organic soils and GHG emissions: validation with country data, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 3113–3137, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-3113-2020, 2020. 
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The paper presents results from the new FAOSTAT database on food system emissions, covering all countries over the time series 1990–2019. Results indicate and further clarify – updated to 2019 – the relevance of emissions from crop and livestock production processes within the farm gate; from conversion of natural ecosystems to agriculture, such as deforestation and peat degradation; and from use of fossil fuels for energy and other industrial processes along food supply chains.
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