CSIRO - RD1

The objective of the collaborative agreement is to assess sustainable pathways for feeding 9 billion people. Key dimensions of sustainability to be explored include intensification pathways, water, nutrients, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The Collaborator (Jens Heinke) will spend 2 months per year at CSIRO to ensure the delivery of project outputs and to foster institutional collaboration.

The Collaborator (Jens Heinke) will undertake to: 1. Assess the alteration of nitrogen and phosphorus cycles by livestock production from different animal types, in different world regions and in different production systems. The analysis will build on a detailed representation of the livestock sector from Herrero et al. and previous work by Bouwman et al. The assessment will highlight the different alteration of nutrient cycling by different forms of livestock production providing important insight for sustainable intensification. 2. Comprehensively assess trade-offs between consumptive water use, nutrients, and GHG emissions in global agriculture within a consistent framework. The analysis will build on the previous quantification of alterations of nutrient cycles that completes already existing quantifications of consumptive water use and GHG emissions based on the same detailed representation of the livestock sector, and provide insights on competing goals in the context of sustainable intensification. 3. Participate in the development of 'wedge-based' regional and global models of global food systems in collaboration with Princeton University and INRA. The previous trade-off analysis of water, nutrients, and GHGs will provide a basis for quantifying resources and emission related aspects of different strategies for sustainable intensification. 4. Assist in the development of scenarios of sustainable diets and their impacts on the world food and ecosystems. For this activity, the previous trade-off analysis of water, nutrients, and GHGs will provide the link to resources use and environmental consequences for given scenarios of food consumption.