Sustainable Development and Pathways for Food Ecosystems: Integration and Synergies

Sustainable Development and Pathways for Food Ecosystems: Integration and Synergies is a science-based reference which explores the roles played by agri-food ecosystems, their functions and needs, and the importance of the interdependencies among them. This book explores the relationships between food ecosystems, highlighting each entity’s role in transforming, preserving, and conserving the others. It is a vital resource of information on the ecosystems that surround the food supply chain and includes all processes, from primary production of food through consumption. The book covers the agricultural and farming phases; processing and transformation; storage and consolidation; packaging; transportation; the management of waste and losses; and the supply and conservation of enabling resources like materials, biodiversity, energy, and water. Sustainable Development and Pathways for Food Ecosystems: Integration and Synergies is a useful reference for academics, researchers, policymakers, and industry professionals involved within the agri-food sector management.

• Provides information on sustainability challenges, developments and solutions related to food ecosystems
• Discusses the impact of renewables toward sustainable and zero-carbon food ecosystems
• Summarizes the scientific literature on alternative valorization strategies to reduce biomass
• Defines boundaries of analysis of entities, input/output flows, constraints and performance goals to measure data

• Language: English
• Publisher: Academic Press
• Release date: Jun 19, 2023
• ISBN: 9780323908863

Book preview

Preface

Sustainable development in the agri-food sector involves the use of natural resources to meet the needs and demands of the present day, without compromising on the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Within this context, the United Nations (in 2015) adopted the "Sustainable Development Goals" (total of 17 SDGs), which was a universal call to action focusing on protecting our planet. And these set goals are to be met by the year 2030.

In the last few years, the entire global agri-food system has witnessed remarkable transitions that have positively impacted academia, research, industry, and society. Contemplating this as a backdrop, the book Sustainable Development and Pathways for Food Ecosystems: Integration and Synergies was designed keeping in mind four vital themes: (1) Food supply chain ecosystems, (2) Natural ecosystems and agriculture (3) Agro-industry symbiosis, and (4) Energy and water resource management.

In general, food ecosystems include all those elements involved in producing, processing, and distributing food up to the consumption level, all of which can play a crucial role in realizing sustainable development. As of today, there are several novel proposed pathways to gain success in achieving sustainable food ecosystems. These can be in the form of regenerative agriculture, sustainable sourcing, food-waste reduction, and within the circular economy concepts valorization of industry-generated wastes, and by-products. The theme of regenerative agriculture focuses mainly on various farming practices adopted that can restore soil health, nutrients, biodiversity, and other related ecosystem services. In addition, objectives of the regenerative agriculture are also focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, enhancing carbon sequestration, and improving water quality. While the sustainable sourcing approach involves sourcing food products from suppliers who adopt sustainable practices all through the production and distribution stages. This may include sourcing from small-scale farmers, local farming communities, or personnel who embrace agroecological methods. The involvement of small-scale farmers and growers at a global scale would contribute to securing food in a sustainable manner for the whole planet but compels the design, planning, organization, and control of hybrid food supply chain ecosystems able to harmonize modern with organic agriculture, local with the long-range distribution. On the other note, the food waste reduction approach involves reducing food waste at all stages in a food system, from production up to consumption. This may include implementing various effective production methods, reducing food losses during storage and transportation, valorization of wastes and by-products, as well as educating consumers. Concurrent to this is the EU-proposed circular economy concept which involves designing a closed-loop system where food waste and/or by-products are used to create new value-added products and thereby reduce the waste. This may be in the form of composting, biofuel production, producing novel bioactive compounds and chemicals, and the development of animal feed. On the other note, global trends indicate an up rise in plant-based diets aimed towards promoting plant-based foods (e.g., plant protein) over animal-based food and food products. The main reason is to reduce the environmental impact of food production and consumption (reduce the carbon footprint) and promote health and overall well-being. By espousing these pathways, sustainable food ecosystems can be ensured globally, thus contributing towards a resilient food system that can meet the needs of present and future generations. All these aspects have been discussed meticulously in chapters 1–3 of the book.

Further, when the focus is on the food chain ecosystem, this is often considered to be a linear sequence that shows the flow of energy from one organism to another (or from one level to another level). It is a well-understood fact that each level in the food chain is dependent on the lower (a level below them) for energy requirements, and this energy is transferred from one level to the next level through consumption. However, energy is lost at each level through heat and waste, which limits the number of trophic levels that can exist in an ecosystem. Hence, food chains are important elements of ecosystems, as they regulate the flow of energy and nutrients through the ecosystem and help to maintain the balance of the ecosystem. Furthermore, livestock production relies on minimizing the use of arable grasslands, with competition arising for land use to produce food for direct human food consumption. In this regard, protecting natural ecosystems within a universal equitable food system is necessary. It is worth reminiscing that natural ecosystems and agriculture are distinct systems interacting in various ways within a specific environment and forming a complex web of relationships. Today, natural ecosystems have been significantly affected by the loss of biodiversity, and environmental pollution along with the depletion of soil and clean water resources the world over. However, practicing sustainable agriculture (e.g., crop rotation, integrated pest management, organic farming practices, conservation tillage, maintenance of soil health, reduced use of chemicals, etc.) have proved to be beneficial for preserving and enhancing the natural resources within natural ecosystems. It is imperative that a balance between the needs of the growing population and preserving agriculture-dependent natural resources is totally ensured. In this regard, in chapters 5–6, reconciling the design of livestock production systems and preservation of the ecosystems, the role of natural and organic ecosystems in the food industry, sustainable biodiversity, and ecosystem services with agricultural production is precisely discussed.

In chapters 7–9, agro-industries symbiosis has been methodically covered. The concept of agro-industrial symbiosis involves the integration of various agro-industrial processes to create a more sustainable and efficient food system. Agro-industries symbiosis depends on coordination between some of the key actors, stakeholders, and business models adopted in industries. One of the basic notions is to create a closed-loop system where the waste and by-products from one process can be used as inputs (as raw material) for another process, thus promoting resource efficiency and effective valorization. This is on par with the circular economy concept where nothing goes to waste in the system. The potential application can be in food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetic and packaging industries, livestock feed development, and bioenergy production. In addition, understanding the agro-industrial symbiosis can help reduce the need for fossil fuels, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Based on evidence-based research, agro-food industrial symbiosis can significantly promote sustainability and resilience in agricultural and industrial systems and create new economic opportunities.

The last set of chapters (10–13) in this book cover various aspects related to energy and water resource management. These two components are critical arenas that are closely interconnected that can significantly influence reducing the impact of human activities on the environment. Energy resource management involves the sustainable use of renewable energy sources (e.g., hydropower, solar, wind, and nuclear) and fossil fuels. In addition, optimizing energy via the adoption of energy-efficient technologies, reducing energy wastes, and promoting renewable energy sources are vital requirements of the present global scenario. With regard to sustainable water resource management, this involves various processes related to managing the demands of water supply coupled with protecting water quality and distribution systems. Hence, by executing operative management strategies, natural resources can be conserved, thus ensuring our future generations will have access to clean energy and water resources.

Hence, conclusively, all the chapters in this book rely on proving information on the present-day trends in research and development on various aspects discussed above. We, the editors are grateful and indebted to all the contributing authors who have provided their expert views by meticulously discussing theoretical and experimental information, thus significantly bridging the gap of missing knowledge. As the editors, we are highly indebted to the Elsevier team (academic publishers) and the members involved who ensured the timely publication of this book. This book is expected to be a valuable resource material for agrifood scientists, environmental researchers, industry personnel, policymakers, and graduate students.

Conclusively, we both (editors) gratefully thank our respective family members for their support. In particular, Riccardo would like to dedicate this book to Adele, his first sweet daughter recently born, a new hope for the times to come. We, the editors also sincerely acknowledge our university authorities (Ülle Jaakma and Toomas Tiirats, Rector and Institute director, respectively at the Estonian University of Life Sciences) and colleagues from the Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Bologna (Michele, Beatrice, and Riccardo) for their constant support.

Riccardo Accorsi

Rajeev Bhat

Chapter 1

Exploring strategies, technologies, and novel paradigms for sustainable agri-food supply chain ecosystems design and control

Riccardo Accorsia,b, Beatrice Guidania, Michele Ronzonia, Riccardo Manzinia and Emilio Ferraria

aDepartment of Industrial Engineering, Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

bCIRI – AGRO, Interdepartmental Center for Industrial Research of the University of Bologna, Cesena (FC), Italy

1.1 Introduction

Global warming is claimed to be today's elephant in the room but is not wholeheartedly handled as the main Century's global challenge (Some et al., 2022; Yuan et al., 2022; Zhang & Zhai, 2022). To date, scientists argue that humanity is the only cause and origin of such accelerated change (IPCC, 2021; Rehman et al., 2021). Evidence results not only from scientific bulletins and surveys (Billionnet, 2013; Blakeney, 2019; Love et al., 2010). We already live under the pressure of unceasing tangible and disruptive warnings consisting of sudden climate changes (De Temmerman et al., 2002; Fischer et al., 2015), floods, and drought (Arunrat et al., 2022; Zhu et al., 2022), the unstoppable rise of temperatures worldwide, the glaciers melting (Garcia et al., 2019; Nabi et al., 2022; Wu et al., 2015), the loss of freshwater sources (Malerba et al., 2022; Mohammed et al., 2019), of animals and plants biodiversity (Davies et al., 2021; Przedmie, 2023), of forests and natural ecosystems (Burrell et al., 2022; Zhang et al., 2022). Citizens first, then governments, industries, and policymakers ignore this issue, which irreversibly changes the quality, services, and self-restoration mechanism of natural and anthropogenic ecosystems (Godde et al., 2021; Leisner, 2020).

A call to design and implement solutions, prioritizing the industrial sectors that mainly affect climate change, is urgent. Being the fuel of our primary need, in the light of their demand volume and flow along with the impact of agricultural, production, and distribution processes, the food industry is a major contributor to climate change (Campbell et al., 2018) and its comprehension as an interlinked ecosystem is the prime aim of this chapter.

The main obstacles to the spread of a pervasive and shared awareness of the impacts on the climate and natural ecosystems from human action, in general, and specifically food systems, are the following, as illustrated in Fig. 1.1:

1. Lack of visibility and transparency on own choices' impact.

2. Environmental externalities not accounted for as price drivers.

3. Poor understanding of the impact and the change dynamics.

4. Lack of solutions and holistic strategies to put complex systems under control.

Figure 1.1 Main issues preventing the development of holistic carbon-neutral planning of food systems and supply chains. Chart of the Global Land-Ocean Temperature Index elaborated from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). From: https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/global-temperature/

Consumers' lack of visibility (1) is experienced whenever they convey their preferences and food habits toward products whose impact on climate change and the natural environment is not tracked, quantified, or available (He et al., 2021, 2019). Consumers' choices are often driven by nutritional contents, diets, taste, retention to change, or economic considerations (Parkinson & Goodall, 2011; Song et al., 2022). With the growing impacts of post-harvest processes like transformation, packaging, storage, and transportation in the food supply chains, the actual and proper value of GHGs, e.g., kg of CO2 eq., associated with a specific product is far to be known, with significant differences in the origins, the topology of the supply chain network, the distribution channels, the countries of production and consumption and their climate conditions, the markets, the safety regulations and packaging adopted and so on.

On the other side, if the environmental impacts associated with food products were known and visible to the consumer (Feliciano et al., 2022; Pechey et al., 2022; Stelwagen et al., 2021), the food price may not be sensitive to these, resulting in (2) cheaper product corresponding to the most emitters. Without carbon taxes or subsidies for organic growers, farmers, and producers, low-carbon products, resulting from local, less intensive practices and operations, still tend to cost more to reward growers for lower crop yields. However, an in-depth debate on this balance is open (Hyland et al., 2017; Zhou et al., 2021), and the environmental benefit from organic food deserves to be punctually quantified.

Third, the lack of understanding of the dynamics of change in the ecosystems (3) prevents the application of punctual measures and solutions to limit the impact and the GHGs emissions of food systems and supply chains (Accorsi et al., 2021; Kusumowardani et al., 2022; Yadav et al., 2022) How humans affect the natural ecosystems and how our actions influence the interrelated relationships among these ecosystems are crucial questions to answer (McCune et al., 2013).

Lastly, along with the lack of understanding, no (or just in extraordinary circumstances) support-decision tools or technologies are already implemented in practice to foster holistic strategies (4) for developing sustainable and carbon-neutral food systems and supply chains (Hilson & Ovadia, 2020; Zotos et al., 2009). Such support-decision systems should incorporate languages, features, and entities, physical flows and intangible influences and connections, constraints, and decisions, from the broad cluster of disciplines that pertain to food systems and supply chains (Burgos & Ivanov, 2021; Kamble et al., 2022; van der Valk et al., 2022). From the biology of plants to the land-use and crops rotation planning, from food operations management (i.e., harvesting and consolidation, processing and packaging, storage and transportation) to the product's microbiology and the conservation of safety conditions and shelf life, from the economics of food growers and the distribution channels to the mitigation of environmental impacts and the preservation of soil, water, natural and ecosystems and livestock. Each sub-system and dimension provide services to the food system as a whole but contributes to global emissions resulting in climate change. Therefore, the complexity of the connections and interrelations, often even difficult to be identified and captured, requires a unique interdisciplinary shared language for understanding, modeling, and providing feasible solutions toward the triple-bottom-line sustainability that is far from being agreed upon and delivered (Khan et al., 2021).

These four issues, further aggravated by the lack of horizontal communication among different disciplines' research, portray a desolating scenario where humans cannot feed the growing global population without irreversibly destroying the natural ecosystems, resources, and conditions that give us life. Notwithstanding the broader and open debate on global demographic control (out-of-scope for these pages) (Acaroğlu & Güllü, 2022; Sullivan, 2008), is there any way to divert from this trend? Are long-term sustainable alternatives to the current intensive agricultural and food systems and supply chains feasible? And if possible, how could practitioners and industry sustain these? Can humans positively contribute to maintaining natural resources while feeding the global population? In other words, is humanity better than what has been proved so far?

1.2 A new paradigm for food systems design and control

The fertile environment for designing a multidisciplinary language and decision-support tools that aid holistic food systems and supply chain design and control requires the definition of original ground-breaking paradigms able to overcome existing barriers and functional gaps. This chapter introduces and illustrates a design approach built upon the system control theory.

According to a shared and renowned definition, control theory deals with controlling dynamical systems in engineered and designed processes, tools, mechanisms, and plants (Ivanov et al., 2018). The goal of control theory is to study and design the entire architecture of components enabling to govern of a given system toward a specific set point value of one or multiple characteristic system variables (Poley, 2015). Once the architecture made of technological components is set, the second aim of control theory is to design models and algorithms fed by the system inputs to drive the system to a desired state or value of the system variables, while minimizing any delays, wastes, or steady-state errors and ensuring certain control stability while achieving a degree of optimality (Poley, 2015). In Fig. 1.2 the typical scheme of a feedback control system architecture is illustrated.

Figure 1.2 Control system architecture: functionalities, components, and information flow.

For one (or multiple) state variable, the reference input provides the set point y_ref(t), i.e., the target the controlled system should achieve or must tend toward. The controller implements a strategy, that practically lies on a prescriptive support-decision model, an algorithm, a routine, and manipulates its input to generate a control signal transmitted to the actuators. The actuators are mechanisms, tools, or devices that act on the controlled system with the purpose to change the value of the system variable. Examples of actuators are engines, resistances or heaters, coolers and refrigerators, pumps, electromechanical valves, switchers, sound emitters, lights, fans, and so on. The type, size, and technology of the actuators depend on the state variable to control, the boundaries of the systems, and risks resulting from an unstable and uncontrolled environment.

After the system state change after the actuators' action, some disturbances or exogenous conditions may occur contributing to diverting from the target. The current state variable's value y(t) is then acquired from sensors or transducers and returned to combine with the target again at the next iteration of the control loop. The difference between the current value and the target, i.e., error e(t) = y_ref(t) – y(t), is then elaborated within the controller as an input of the prescriptive model/algorithm.

To provide an idea and stay practical, let's imagine designing a climate chamber/cell's control system for storing and conserving fresh food products. For the sake of simplicity, we only consider the state variable temperature T(t), which is supposed to be in the target range T_ref(t) [8 ± 1]°C degrees for the safe conservation of the products inside. The controlled system is the climate chamber while the actuators are the heater and the refrigerator, according to the architecture proposed in (Accorsi et al., 2021), as exemplified in Fig. 1.3.

Figure 1.3 Control system architecture of a climate chamber; state variable: temperature [°C]; actuator: heater and refrigerator; sensor/transducer: temperature probe.

When the temperature is above the range the error is negative and a relative control signal to the refrigerator will be generated. Otherwise, when the state variable's value is below the safe conservation range, the controller elaborates the resulting error e(t) into an activation signal for the heater and the cooler's shutdown. The transformation function, the strategy, the model, or the algorithm applied by the controller to generate the control signal in response to the input error follow many different approaches and rules, whose description is beyond this chapter's scope. When this system is under control, the climate cell will maintain the safe conservation temperature despite the disturbances (i.e., heat leakage) or will progressively move toward a new target T_ref(t) if new food products deserve it.

In other words, when the system is under control, any change in the state's stability or desired conditions will correspond to a reaction.

With this in mind, this chapter aims to bring out a hidden symmetry, a parallelism between the control theory modeling and novel paradigms for designing and controlling complex food systems and supply chains toward sustainability and carbon neutrality. Reminding the example of Fig. 1.3, replace the climate chamber with a significantly larger controlled environment as drawn in Fig. 1.4.

Figure 1.4 Simplified control system architecture of a global temperature.

Assuming that stabilizing the Global Land-Ocean Temperature (state variable) is the target of such a broad and complex controlled system, and that humans' actions disturb this stability, how to identify, design, and optimize the other components and functionalities of this modeled control system?

Focusing on the food systems and supply chains, among the prime contributors to climate change, is necessary to delve into such an issue. The too-generic global perspective of Fig. 1.4 is replaced in Fig. 1.5 by considering agricultural and food distribution systems' main processes and operations as the source of disturbance to the Earth's global temperature stability. In agreement with the scheme of Fig. 1.1, the systems' main entities and flows are represented, encouraging an in-depth survey of the possible existing actuators, sensors/transducers, and support-control strategies classified per sub-system or supply chain process or target state variable (e.g., overall system carbon footprint [ton. CO2 eq], Global temperature [°C], Food security [people fed], etc.).

Figure 1.5 Simplified control system architecture of carbon-neutral food ecosystems and supply chains.

While the formal definition of transformation function and specific prescriptive control models is beyond the scope of this chapter, in the following session, a preliminary survey of the planning and control strategies, support-decision models, and technologies for change actuation and variable acquisition is proposed and illustrated.

1.3 Surveying strategies and technologies for controlling sustainable food ecosystems

Given the aforementioned complexity of food systems, the search for pathways toward sustainable food supply chains compels interdisciplinary research. The study of technologies and strategies to support the design and control of sustainable food systems is the subject of several branches of science and engineering. To highlight interdependencies, to show connections, and to bound areas of investigation, the literature presented in this section is clustered into four domains: Natural Ecosystems and Farming relates to the farming techniques in agriculture, aquaculture, and livestock breeding, and the mutual negative impacts or benefits farming activities have on soil, water, and plants ecosystems. Waste, Biomass, and Packaging Materials refers to the management and minimization of food waste and process by-products, and the study of sustainable food packaging materials. Sustainable Decision-Making in Food Supply Chain relates to sustainable industry practices, efficient storage, transport, and distribution systems, enabling to secure safe, affordable, and sustainable food to consumers. Lastly, Resources Supply deals with the sustainable exploitation of water, energy, and raw materials.

For each domain, technological solutions and strategies have been identified to aid the control, management, and strategic planning and design of agri-food systems. Technological solutions are equipment, devices, tools and also treatments pertaining mechanics, information technology, and biochemistry. Such technology is used to prevent failure, reduce waste, emissions, and natural resources exploitation, and behave as actuators or transducers of the controlled process or system (for reference, see Fig. 1.2). Strategies are the pathways to pursuit desired system state (target), and are applied by the controller entity (Fig. 1.2).

In the following, some of the recent surveys on the strategies and technologies deployed in the proposed four domains are illustrated to enable the development of sustainable practices in the food sector. In Table 1.1, the adopted technologies are described, classified in Acquisition or Actuation technology according to the stage of application as in Fig. 1.5, and are categorized as Distributed (D) or Localized (L) depending on the pervasiveness of their application. The branches of science and engineering that allow the development and application of the technologies and are outlined in Fig. 1.6. The implementation and application of such technologies follow different strategies. These can be characterized for the planning time horizon (Short, Medium, Long term), the geographic boundaries (Localized, Area, Ecosystem), the Subject of the strategy (the entire Ecosystem, a Region, the Company Governance, a Process/Product), the Decision-maker (Policy maker and Regulators, a Consultant, Designer, or Researcher, the Practitioner/User), the Strategy definition method (Optimization, Simulation, or KPI Evaluation/Performance Assessment), and the specification of the Analytical or quantitative tools used.

Table 1.1

Figure 1.6 Representation of the research fields used to classify the technological solutions found in the literature with some sub-categories exemplified.

1.3.1 Natural ecosystems and farming

Among the different supply chain stages, primary food production (i.e., agricultural and livestock production) has the highest interaction with climate change (Filho et al., 2022). Control strategies have been proposed to simultaneously evaluate the impact of farming activities on the environment, increase operations efficiency, and reduce resource waste. Precision agriculture requires careful water use to address the recent water crisis issue. Smart monitoring and irrigation control represent examples of strategies for accurate irrigation scheduling (Bwambale et al., 2022; Guidani et al., 2022). In order to apply such strategies, tailored technologies must be developed. Smartphones, intelligent management of wireless sensor networks, middleware platforms, and integrated farm management information systems are examples of internet of things (IoT) solutions able to support farming activities (Villa-Henriksen et al., 2020). Crop germination and growth can be controlled and enhanced through several novel technologies, such as ultrasound, ozone processing, ultraviolet, magnetic field, and microwave radiation (Rifna et al., 2019). Kundu et al. (2019) find that sustainable agriculture strategies aimed to improve crop productivity, adversity prediction, and loss evaluation will be more and more based on biosensors. While IoT aids information collection and data exchange, biotechnologies enhance environmental resilience through molecular breeding, genetic engineering, AI, and ML-based solutions (Chaudhary & Kumar, 2022).

In the field of agricultural machinery management, capacity planning strategies, task times planning, scheduling, route planning, and performance evaluation can aid sustainable and autonomous operations (Bochtis et al., 2014). Extensive research has been performed to cover the technical applications of agricultural robots for field tasks (Bechar & Vigneault, 2016) and the human-robot interactions in agricultural processes (Vasconez et al., 2019). To give an example, machine learning-based sensors (employing technologies such as electrical spectroscopy, thermography, or machine vision) are well-used in fruit and vegetable defects detection systems (Nturambirwe & Opara,