Regional/Territorial Food Systems Archives - Page 4 of 5

Facility locations in the fresh produce supply chain: An integration of optimization and empirical methods

Facility locations are crucial determinants of supply chain efficiency for aggregating and distributing products. The multi-disciplinary nature of the facility location problem requires multiple complementary approaches, at different levels of aggregation, to accommodate the salient features of location determinants. This study examines the facility location problem for the U.S. fresh produce supply chain. We present a model that incorporates an empirical scenario into a facility location problem in order to capture much of the information required to make an optimal location decision. Our results suggest that the reliability of facility locations can be improved without significantly increasing the operating costs. This study sheds light on how the application of complementary modeling approaches improves the effectiveness of facility location solutions.

Increasing Anthropogenic Disturbance Restricts Wildebeest Movement Across East African Grazing Systems

The ability to move is essential for animals to find mates, escape predation, and meet energy and water demands. This is especially important across grazing systems where vegetation productivity can vary drastically between seasons or years. With grasslands undergoing significant changes due to climate change and anthropogenic development, there is an urgent need to determine the relative impacts of these pressures on the movement capacity of native herbivores. To measure these impacts, we fitted 36 white-bearded wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus) with GPS collars across three study areas in southern Kenya (Amboseli Basin, Athi-Kaputiei Plains, and Mara) to test the relationship between movement (e.g., directional persistence, speed, home range crossing time) and gradients of vegetation productivity (i.e., NDVI) and anthropogenic disturbance. As expected, wildebeest moved the most (21.0 km day–1; CI: 18.7–23.3) across areas where movement was facilitated by low human footprint and necessitated by low vegetation productivity (Amboseli Basin). However, in areas with moderate vegetation productivity (Athi-Kaputiei Plains), wildebeest moved the least (13.3 km day–1; CI: 11.0–15.5). This deviation from expectations was largely explained by impediments to movement associated with a large human footprint. Notably, the movements of wildebeest in this area were also less directed than the other study populations, suggesting that anthropogenic disturbance (i.e., roads, fences, and the expansion of settlements) impacts the ability of wildebeest to move and access available resources. In areas with high vegetation productivity and moderate human footprint (Mara), we observed intermediate levels of daily movement (14.2 km day–1; CI: 12.3–16.1). Wildebeest across each of the study systems used grassland habitats outside of protected areas extensively, highlighting the importance of unprotected landscapes for conserving mobile species. These results provide unique insights into the interactive effects of climate and anthropogenic development on the movements of a dominant herbivore in East Africa and present a cautionary tale for the development of grazing ecosystems elsewhere.

Exploring Climate Change Driven Changes in Kenyan Forest Cover and Carbon Sequestration Potential

The ability of forests to sequester carbon has made afforestation a critical tool in climate change mitigation. Deployed under the broad umbrella of nature-based climate solutions or forest carbon offset programs, afforestation efforts are underway across the globe, with the tropics serving as critical venues for these efforts. Forests, however, are themselves vulnerable to the direct and indirect impacts of climate change such as increased temperatures, more frequent fires, and disease outbreaks. As efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions stutter, the longevity of these afforestation efforts and their intended benefits remains underexplored. We investigated this issue in the context of ongoing afforestation efforts in Kenya. These afforestation efforts are underway to meet a constitutionally mandated national forest cover of 10%. Using L-Range, a model that simulates plant growth and the flow of carbon within rangeland ecosystems, we explored how existing and potential Kenyan forests will respond under different scenarios of climate change. We performed simulation experiments with L-Range using remotely sensed information for forest, land cover, and soil composition. Climate change impacts were explored using CMIP6 climate projections for three future emission-mitigation scenarios (SSP 1-RCP 2.6, SSP 2 – RCP 4.5, and SSP 3 – RCP 7.0). We also explored the additive impacts of increased fire frequency on forest cover. For each of these scenarios we calculated the change in forest cover and carbon sequestered within forests in the years 2050 and 2100 relative to a baseline year of 2010. We found that in Kenya, evergreen forests in particular experience spatially variable losses in extent under all scenarios (up to -5%). These losses in extent were accompanied by a decline in the amount of carbon sequestered within soils. We interpret these forest cover changes within the social context of each SSP-RCP scenario and ongoing afforestation efforts. Our findings suggest that the climate change mitigation potential from afforestation may be characterized by diminishing returns in the absence of concerted global efforts to rein in carbon emissions, and that real-time monitoring via ground and remotely sensed platforms will play a critical role in planning for an uncertain future.

Ecological Change and Livestock Governance in a Peruvian Ecological Change and Livestock Governance in a Peruvian National Park

Abstract: While the grazing of livestock has occurred for millennia in the Andes, current sustainability
debates center on concerns with co-managing climate change and pastoralism. These discussions have special resonance in places protected by the state for biodiversity, scenery, and sustainable and traditional land uses, such as those found in protected areas and biosphere reserves. For this article, we integrate data from a social-ecological research project on the land use systems that affect high-elevation ecosystems in Peru’s Huascarán National Park, with special emphasis on the wetlands. We used land cover and land use data and insights from interactions with pastoralists to show that (1) wet meadows dominate the lower reaches of the park, while peatlands predominate above 4000 m
elevation; (2) wet meadows are most useful for traditional grazing systems, while the peatlands are especially susceptible to trampling by livestock; and (3) there is limited ecological space at the highest elevations for the successful future upward relocation of either land use or potential habitats for species identified as of concern. We explore the implications of these findings for the adaptive strategies of biophysical and social processes in terms of livelihoods and biodiversity in and around a protected area. We conclude that there are many additional opportunities to be explored to inform the management of ecosystem services and provide improvements for the adaptive capacity of
communities and park managers.

Five Decades of Modeling Supporting the Systems Ecology Paradigm

Ecosystem modeling, a pillar of the systems ecology paradigm (SEP), addresses questions such as, how much carbon and nitrogen are cycled within ecological sites, landscapes, or indeed the earth system? Or how are human activities modifying these flows? Modeling, when coupled with field and laboratory studies, represents the essence of the SEP in that they embody accumulated knowledge and generate hypotheses to test understanding of ecosystem processes and behavior. Initially, ecosystem models were primarily used to improve our understanding about how biophysical aspects of ecosystems operate. However, current ecosystem models are widely used to make accurate predictions about how large-scale phenomena such as climate change and management practices impact ecosystem dynamics and assess potential effects of these changes on economic activity and policy making. In sum, ecosystem models embedded in the SEP remain our best mechanism to integrate diverse types of knowledge regarding how the earth system functions and to make quantitative predictions that can be confronted with observations of reality. Modeling efforts discussed are the Century ecosystem model, DayCent ecosystem model, Grassland Ecosystem Model ELM, food web models, Savanna model, agent-based and coupled systems modeling, and Bayesian modeling.

The profitability implications of sales through local food markets for beginning farmers and ranchers

The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 directed the US Secretary of Agriculture to report on the profitability and viability of beginning farmers and ranchers. Many beginning operations use local food markets as they provide more control, or a premium over commodity prices, and beginning operations cannot yet take advantage of economies of scale and subsequently have higher costs of production. Little research assesses the relationship between beginning farmer profitability and sales through local food markets. In this paper, the profitability implications of sales through local food markets for beginning farmers and ranchers are explored.

Exploring the relationships among stocks of community wealth, state farm to school policies, and the intensity of farm to school activities

Farm to School (FTS) is a widely implemented public food procurement program in the U.S., and the number of state and Federal policies promoting it continue to grow. However, previous research has found inconclusive results associated with state-level policies. One reason may be that FTS adoption is associated with different stocks of community wealth (assets including human, social, and financial capital, net of liabilities). This research leverages the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2019 FTS Census, a new disaggregated database on state-level FTS policies, and a new comprehensive dataset of stocks of community wealth to assess this relationship. We find positive associations between cultural and social capital and FTS intensity (an index representing the extent of FTS participation), highlighting community assets that are often overlooked in community development programs. Further, we find that different types of state FTS policies are associated with FTS intensity; procurement policies have positive associations and education policies have negative associations. Results provide rationale for more nuanced consideration of local assets in prioritizing the types of FTS policy.

Economic impact assessment of public incentives to support farm-to-school food purchases

Abstract: Farm-to-school projects have been widely supported by policy makers with funding provided at state and federal levels. Still, many of the outcomes of this inflow of policy and funding remain unclear, often due to insufficient data to examine them. In 2018, New York State (USA) announced the 30% NY Initiative that substantially increases school lunch reimbursements if school districts purchase at least 30% of their ingredients as New York food products. With detailed food purchasing data from the second largest school district in the state and the largest to qualify for enhanced reimbursement, we estimate the gross and net economic impacts of the policy through a customized input–output model. We observe clear shifts in food spending categories that suggest changes in what and where foods were purchased. Results demonstrate net positive value added impacts of the policy even when a negative impact is applied to account for the cost of the policy to taxpayers. For every dollar in gross domestic product lost in the state to support the program, $1.06 of gross domestic product is expected to be added. However, the results are only true to the extent that the increase in local food spending is commensurate with an expansion of the related farm and food product industries to meet that demand. Specifically, at least 67% of the growth in local food spending must contribute to new aggregate demand for the related food product industries, rather than reallocation from other local marketing channels.

Quantifying biodiversity impacts of livestock using life-cycle perspectives

Biodiversity impacts are rarely included in systems analyses of livestock production.

A national database of highly perishable fresh produce production with temporal and spatial resolution

Selected Paper prepared for presentation at the 2023 Agricultural & Applied Economics Association Annual Meeting, Washington DC; July 23-25, 2023

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