Environmental Trade-Offs for a Sustainable Future: Water/Energy/Food Nexus
ECO-AGRICULTURE
Agriculture, rural livelihoods, sustainable management of natural resources and food security are connected within the development and climate change challenges of the twenty-first century [1]. The impact of food processing on the climate is well established and it will be necessary that value addition to traditional foods in the region be well managed throughout the value chain. Food processing contributes to climate change, eutrophication (the process by which there is a gradual increase in the concentration of phosphorus, nitrogen, and other plant nutrients in an aging aquatic ecosystem such as a lake), acid rain, and the depletion of biodiversity.
NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Resources diverted to renewable energy generation or to smart electronics and digital technologies are in direct competition with using land and livestock for food only. Economics of renewable energy generation do not favour appropriation of land and natural resources for generation of bio-fuels at large scale for gross domestic and transport use. However, use of agricultural waste materials and natural forestry waste and urban cooking oils collection and industrial waste from bio-industries at smaller scales can provide bio-fuel components for hybrid synthetic fuels.
Bottlenecks of renewable energy storage capacity as well as the excessive use of water resources in current process technologies represent serious limitations. The world cannot afford to deplete water resources in the synthesis of biofuels. Access from municipal dumps and landfills and remote agricultural and forestry sites to recyclable natural bio-materials adds significant transportation costs as well as consideration of fuel use for transport of raw materials to process site.
Scale and low cost are significant issues as well as the need to convert fertilizers and plant soil chemical mixes and animal feedstock materials and regimes to generate less methane, and volatile organics. Handling of waste from production of natural and synthetic composite textiles as well as the post-consumption waste handling and recycling of disposable clothing items and furnishings and packaging materials present very large scale recycling problems without sustainable long-term solutions.
MODIFIYING CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
We need widely published data to drive real positive change in modifying consumer behaviour. Tax Incentives: Currently, it is not quite clear as to how to tax consumer use in a scientifically meaningful way. Taxing environmental emissions on the basis of toxicity will ensure that synthetic nano-particles as well as toxic chemical effluents harming and destroying the beneficial bacterial biosphere can be avoided. This is very important for long-term sustainability of smart materials manufacture and recycle.
STRIVING FOR LONG-TERM SUSTAINABILITY AND RESILIENT FUTURE
Obviously, food production in crops and livestock has significant environmental impacts in terms of land use water use soil degradation and greenhouse gas emissions. So, we can't just scale up the current food system because that's not going to be sustainable.
Chemical engineers will be a major part of the future when it comes to the production of sustainable and available food, one area this has already seen a recent growth and I believe will continue in the coming decades is the production of “fake” (not animal derived) meat. Chemical engineering will be key in ensuring that these products have the correct taste and texture and that they include the necessary nutrients that people need and can decrease the bad fats that are in animal-based meat. This needs to be achieved ensuring that we use less land, less water and emit less climate warming gases as we produce these products.
Also, a policy shift in reassessing our food systems through developing a more robust food manufacturing technology for a resilient future is required [2].
Further emphasis on developing a more resilient food production systems to meet the sudden unexpected changes and demands brought by events such as COVID-19 through developing initiatives such as recovery of resources from waste streams from food production plants is required. Some example of these recovery processes includes development of a water-energy-food matrix such as using chemical and bio-engineering processes for waste water treatment, fermentation based protein (food) production for fish feed using keratin waste and conversion of waste streams into bio-butanol for energy use; see for example, [3].
[1] IPCC. Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; Stocker, T.F.D., Qin, G.K., Plattner, M., Tignor, S.K., Allen, J., Boschung, A., Nauels, Y., Xia, V.B., Midgley, P.M., Eds.; Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK; New York, NY, USA, 2013; 1535p.
[2] Galvez, J.F.; Mejuto, J.C.; Simal-Gandara, J. Future challenges on the use of blockchain for food traceability analysis. TrAC Trends Anal. Chem. 2018, 107, 222–232.
[3] Waste Biorefinery: Potential and Perspectives Edts. Bhaskar, T., Pandey, A. et al., 2018, Elsevier, ISBN 978-0-444-63992-9 DOI:/10.1016/C2016-0-02259-3.