Open Collections

Bamber, Nicole

University of British Columbia

Global populations are rising, and many among us are currently not receiving adequate nutrition, in terms of both under- and overnutrition for calories and specific nutrients. Moreover, agricultural land use has limited area for expansion, and already large environmental impacts. It is therefore of the utmost importance to design sustainable food systems that optimize the nutritional and environmental efficiency of agricultural land use and food production. Therefore the purpose of this dissertation was to propose an optimization framework to maximize nutrient provision and minimize environmental impacts associated with the production of specific food products. A case study of canola, wheat and peas produced in Saskatchewan, Canada was selected, based on the importance and variability in use of the crops, and the suitability of this region to grow them. The baseline of human-edible food products produced from each crop was estimated based on government and industry statistics. The environmental impacts associated with the production of these foods were then estimated using life cycle assessment (LCA). The nutritional contents (unitless combined nutrient score) and associated human health impacts (Disability Adjusted Life Years) of each food were also quantified. Finally, multi-objective optimization was performed to optimize land and product use for the case study crops for nutritional and environmental objectives. It was generally optimal to maximize the amounts of each crop used for human consumption, and to only feed the non-human edible portions to animals. The optimal livestock proportions for this animal feed included a majority fed to broiler chickens, followed by layer hens and dairy cows, with beef cattle and pig production minimized. Using the optimized scenarios for foods produced from each crop, there were trade-offs between land use for each crop – canola generally provided the most beneficial nutrients, but with increased detrimental nutrients and environmental impacts, whereas peas had the lowest environmental impacts and detrimental nutrients, with lower levels of beneficial nutrients. In the future, this optimization framework can be used to assess different, larger, or more complex optimization questions. This can provide the basis for decision support towards a more sustainable food system.

Text

2024-12-05

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/89788

Interdisciplinary Studies

University of British Columbia

UBCO

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/