The effects of potential changes in United States beef production on global grazing systems and greenhouse gas emissions

We couple a global agricultural production and trade model with a greenhouse gas model to assess leakage associated with modified beef production in the United States. The effects on emissions from agricultural production (i.e., methane and nitrous oxide emissions from livestock and crop management)...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental research letters 2012-06, Vol.7 (2), p.1-9
Main Authors: Dumortier, Jerome, Hayes, Dermot J, Carriquiry, Miguel, Dong, Fengxia, Du, Xiaodong, Elobeid, Amani, Fabiosa, Jacinto F, Martin, Pamela A, Mulik, Kranti
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Air pollution
Beef
beef production
Emission analysis
Grazing
Greenhouse effect
greenhouse gas emissions
Land use
land-use change
Livestock
Methane
pasture expansion
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Summary:We couple a global agricultural production and trade model with a greenhouse gas model to assess leakage associated with modified beef production in the United States. The effects on emissions from agricultural production (i.e., methane and nitrous oxide emissions from livestock and crop management) as well as from land-use change, especially grazing system, are assessed. We find that a reduction of US beef production induces net carbon emissions from global land-use change ranging from 37 to 85 kg CO2-equivalent per kg of beef annualized over 20 years. The increase in emissions is caused by an inelastic domestic demand as well as more land-intensive cattle production systems internationally. Changes in livestock production systems such as increasing stocking rate could partially offset emission increases from pasture expansion. In addition, net emissions from enteric fermentation increase because methane emissions per kilogram of beef tend to be higher globally.
ISSN:1748-9326
1748-9326
DOI:10.1088/1748-9326/7/2/024023