Category: Carbon footprint
Estimating the Water and Carbon Footprints of Growing Avocados in the Munich Metropolitan Region Using Waste Heat as a Water-Energy-Food Nexus Potential
Avocados, which have been labeled a superfood and are very popular around the world, are often grown in areas with water scarcity and have long-distance transports to their end consumer. Water and carbon footprints could be reduced by using greenhouse farming, waste heat and rainwater. This study aims to determine whether avocados and other exotic fruits could be locally or regionally grown in greenhouse systems in Bavaria heated using waste heat and examines whether this approach decreases the resulting
Energy balance and greenhouse gas emissions in organic and conventional avocado orchards in Mexico
There is a worldwide growing awareness of the negative impacts of the increasing fossil fuel reliance and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture, in particular for intensive crop systems. We analyze the energy balances and greenhouse gas emissions from export-oriented avocado orchards in Mexico. Avocado is a very important export crop and one of the main drivers of land-use change in the country. We compared 12 avocado orchards under organic and conventional management during two production
Environmental footprint of critical agro-export products in the Peruvian hyper-arid coast: A case study for green asparagus and avocado
Peru has become one of the world's main agricultural hubs for a wide range of fruits and vegetables. Two of these products, avocado and green asparagus, have raised attention in recent years in the international scene from an environmental perspective due to the high amounts of water they require, as well as the long air and marine freighting distances to export these products to Europe, Asia or the US. Consequently, the aim of the current study was to perform an environmental assessment of these
Effects of converting forest to avocado orchards on topsoil properties in the trans-Mexican volcanic system, Mexico
In the present work, land cover and land use changes between 2003 and 2008 were assessed in the Cupatitzio River sub-basin located in the Trans-Mexican Volcanic System and Balsas Depression in Mexico. The effects of land cover conversion from temperate forest to avocado orchards on soil properties were determined. Land cover and land use databases were built for the years 1975, 2003, and 2008 using available cartographic information and interpretation of panchromatic SPOT images for the year 2008.
Potential expansion of Hass avocado cultivation under climate change scenarios threatens Mexican mountain ecosystems
Analysis of potential areas for crop establishment is necessary for sustainable agricultural planning, conservation of natural ecosystems, and achievement of food security’s current global objective. This study aims to model the current potential distribution of the optimal areas for Hass avocado crop in Mexico, along with the likely impact of climate change on the crops and the surrounding mountain ecosystems in the state of Michoacán, the principal producer. The maximum entropy approach was
Resource use and GHG emissions of eight tropical fruitspecies cultivated in Colombia
The cultivation of high-value fruit species is a profitable agricultural activity in many tropical countries; however, intensive fruit cultivation may depend on high amounts of external inputs. The objective of our study was to quantify and compare the resource use during the cultivation of eight tropical fruit species (Rubus glaucus, Solanum quitoense, Passiflora edulis, Cyphomandra betacea, Physalis peruviana, Ananas comosus, Persea americana and Mangifera indica) commonly cultivated in Colombia.