Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are ubiquitous and persistent chemicals, often referred to as “forever chemicals”. They are used in various applications, including food contact materials (FPF reported). In a perspective article published in Science on July 18th, 2024, Mohamed Ateia from the US Environmental Protection Agency and Martin Scheringer from ETH Zurich make the case for a responsible and informed shift away from PFAS using a strategic approach . They summarize the status quo and suggest ways to avoid unwanted consequences when switching to fluorine-free alternatives.
PFAS are extremely persistent and can affect human health and the environment. The authors state that their chronic toxicity and ubiquity are still often overlooked in standard hazard assessments. They note that recent regulatory action (FPF reported, and here) and public awareness have led to a push for finding replacements.
However, the replacement process is not straightforward. “Regrettable substitution” can occur when one harmful chemical is replaced by another (FPF reported). Avoiding such problems requires extensive research, development, and information gathering by many stakeholders. The authors raise concerns regarding the fragmentation of assessments and replacement activities. The many functions of PFAS in many diverse applications make replacing them even more difficult.
The authors call for effective and holistic strategies considering (i) the full lifecycle and (ii) for open communication and data exchange between stakeholders.
Regarding the first aspect, replacements for PFAS should consider the entire life cycle from manufacturing to disposal, incorporate green chemistry principles (FPF reported), and balance functionality and protection of human health and the environment. The authors state that “[a]n ideal PFAS replacement has effective functionality, minimal safety issues, and a minimal environmental footprint.” Fluorine-free alternatives should be benign-by-design and have robust and resilient supply chains. The essential use concept and the careful prioritization of high exposure sources can help identify areas where the development of new alternatives is most urgently needed.
Regarding the second element in the proposed strategic approach, open data sharing can accelerate the discovery, development, and implementation of safer alternatives. Such collaboration avoids duplication of work and isolated discussion in individual sectors, especially where PFAS use is non-essential and alternatives already exist. Some stakeholders have already replaced PFAS in food contact materials (FPF reported). Nonetheless, the authors acknowledge that finding immediate replacements for PFAS in certain industries and for some specific applications will be challenging, particularly mentioning the demanding conditions and diverse applications of PFAS in semiconductors, aerospace, and construction.
The authors urge that these trade-offs, uncertainties, and challenges, should not be used to exaggerate the advantages of PFAS, downplay the link between PFAS exposure and adverse impacts, or overstate the technological downsides of alternatives. They note that “for alternatives to PFAS, setting realistic expectations is important. Not all substitutes may immediately match the performance of well-established chemicals that have been optimized over decades of use”. Replacing PFAS will require a comprehensive and strategic approach, a commitment to research and innovation, and a willingness to work together across sectors.
The Agriculture Department is working on a study of retail food pricing that is likely to raise questions about industry practices, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Thursday.
The study comes as Republicans continue to hammer Vice President Kamala Harris over the food inflation that has taken place since she and President Joe Biden took office in 2021. Harris on Friday is expected to discuss an economic plan that includes cracking down on what she says is price gouging by food companies.
Vilsack, speaking to reporters at an American Coalition for Ethanol conference in Omaha, declined to address the Harris plan, citing Hatch Act restrictions on political activities of federal employees. But he said the USDA study would “be coming out very soon.”
“I think it’ll raise some some valid questions and issues about practices within the industry that ultimately impact and affect the price that people pay that bear some examination,” Vilsack said.
Vilsack sad he believes the USDA’s current partnership with the Department of Justice has been beneficial for ensuring competition across the food and agriculture sectors.
“We’ve been pleased with the work that the Department of Justice has made in terms of cracking down on potential antitrust violations,” Vilsack said.
The companies “used policies that imposed strict delivery requirements on their upstream suppliers and threatened fines for noncompliance. Walmart even tightened the delivery requirements its suppliers had to meet to avoid fines as the pandemic went on,” the report said.
The Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program provides funding for building or expanding of processing facilities, installing new equipment, ensuring they are meeting packaging and labeling requirements, and helping companies meet staffing goals.
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Food prices rose sharply starting in 2020, before Biden took office, but inflation has slowed considerably over the past year. The Consumer Price Index for food eaten at home rose 3.5% in both 2020 and 2021 and then jumped 11.4% in 2022 and 5% in 2023., but the index for grocery prices has risen just 1.1% since July 2023.
USDA’s Economic Research Service is forecasting that grocery prices will be up 1% in 2024 over 2023 and only 0.7% in 2025. The 20-year average inflation rate for food eaten at home is 2.7%.
Grocery prices fell slightly, 0.2%, in 2017, the first year of the Trump administration, and rose just 0.4% in 2018 and 0.9% in 2019 ahead of the pandemic.
Last year’s profit margins for farming and food processing were 7.12% and 6% respectively, according to the NYU data.
Julie Anna Potts, president and CEO of the Meat Institute, which represents meat processors, said the federal ban on price gouging that Harris wants “does not address the real causes of inflation.”
“The Harris campaign rhetoric unfairly targets the meat and poultry industry and does not match the facts. Food prices continue to come down from the highs of the pandemic. Prices for meat are based on supply and demand. Avian Influenza, a shortage of beef cattle and high input prices like energy and labor are all factors that determine prices at the meat case,” Potts said in a statement.
This policy outlines Tesco UK & ROI’s farmed decapod crustacean welfare commitments and applies to all own label Tesco Welfare Approved (TWA) farmed decapod crustaceans in the following categories:
Fresh
Frozen
Canned
Pre Prepared
This policy covers practices applied during capture, on-board holding/sorting, landing, storage, transport, slaughter and the general handling of farmed decapod crustaceans. It will also reference our Tesco Welfare Approved standard for some farming specific practices, and should be read in conjunction with our overarching Animal Welfare Policy. More information can be shared with suppliers wanting to understand prerequisites to supplying Tesco in line with decapod crustacean welfare.
This policy specifically covers farmed Decapod Crustaceans, there is an ongoing review into our wild sourced decapod crustacean supply chains and a separate policy will be published for wild sourced in due course.
Purpose
Animal health and welfare is a key component of our wider sustainable farming agenda and our requirements and approach in this area include:
Tesco Welfare Approved (TWA) standards, which are species specific and follow the Five Freedoms proposed by the Farm Animal Welfare Committee, aim to ensure transparency across our supply chains and are designed and regularly reviewed to drive improvement.
All farms must comply with a recognised farm assurance scheme, such as Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), Global GAP or BAP 4*, in addition to meeting our TWA requirements.
We are committed to the reduction in antibiotic usage as part of the Food Industry Initiative on Antimicrobials (FIIA) and publicly report progress.
Regular submission of Welfare Outcome Measure data evidencing key health and welfare parameters
Tesco is committed to high standards of animal welfare in all of its supply chains, which we manage through sourcing strategies, policies and species-specific welfare standards. We continually develop these to ensure demonstrable best practice, consistent with industry advances, research and changes to legislation, through a combined process of supplier consultation and engagement with NGOs. The current policy is the result of this process and we recognise the valuable contributions from our suppliers, Crustacean Compassion, the Shrimp Welfare Project, Aquatic Life Institute and World Wildlife Fund in articulating our commitments for Farmed Decapod Crustaceans.
For our customers, we source farmed Decapod Crustaceans including Penaeus vannamei (white leg prawns) and Penaeus monodon (tiger prawns). Now legally recognized as ‘sentient’ beings (Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022) their welfare, like all other species in our supply chains, is of the utmost importance. Consequently we have species-specific welfare policies, covering all aspects of farming, transport and slaughter, in place for all our farmed species, including Decapod Crustaceans. Compliance with these policies is independently audited and suppliers additionally hold independent certification against a recognized assurance standard such as ASC, Global GAP or BAP 4*. Regular submission of Welfare Outcome Measure data evidencing key health and welfare parameters is also a requirement from each supplying site.
With this continuous improvement process we aim to build a supply base that can both share learnings where appropriate but also identify risk at an earlier stage and mitigate in a sustainable way. Further detail on our approach can be found in our latest Animal Health and Welfare report.
In addition to these requirements, we have committed to the following decapod animal health and welfare targets.
Our Commitments
1. We will not sell any live decapod crustaceans in stores at any of our sites or online We recognise that there are several major welfare concerns with the transport, storage and eventual slaughter of Decapod Crustaceans when sold as live either through retail stores or online retailing. We therefore commit to prohibiting the sale of any live decapod crustaceans through our stores or online.
2. We will ensure that 100% of our suppliers comply with recognised farm assurance schemes, such as ASC, Global GAP or BAP 4* Farm assurance schemes play an integral part in the management of farmed decapod crustaceans, ensuring farming practices protect and improve the health and welfare of these animals whilst adhering to legislative requirements. Our suppliers must hold certification against a recognised assurance scheme that is compliant with ISO 17020 inspection requirements as a prerequisite of supply, 100% of our suppliers are compliant with this commitment. This applies to all stages of the supply chain, including hatcheries, farms and feeds mills. In addition to this, Tesco use independent audits to assess suppliers against our Tesco Welfare Approved (TWA) species specific standards, more detail of which can be found in our annual report.
3. We will ensure that 100% of decapod crustacean feed achieves a Forage Fish/Oil Dependency Ratio of <1 by 2030 We recognise that all farmed species require a nutritious, balanced diet to promote health growth and optimal nutritional value for our consumers. For most aquatic species, this has traditionally been achieved through the inclusion of fishmeal & fish oil sourced from wild caught fish. However, the industry has been examining more sustainable sources of ingredients, such as trimmings and the use of novel ingredients. Tesco will work with our supply base to support the reduction of wild sourced fishmeal and fish oil used in diets, to ensure that all of our suppliers obtain a Forage Fish & Oil Dependency Ratios of <1.
4. 100% of our farmed Penaeus vannamei are electrically stunned by 2026 We acknowledge that humane slaughter must include an effective mechanism of stunning the animal prior to slaughter. At present a minority of our decapod crustaceans are stunned using thermal shock as the standalone method i.e. immersed in salt water with temperature below 4 degrees-C (iced water or ice slurry) , with strict monitoring of ice slurry temperatures and water conditions. However, we recognise and support the move to the use of electrical stunning of decapod crustaceans as a more effective and humane method. For Penaeus vannamei, we already have implementation of electrical stunning across a proportion of the supply base and are committed to achieving 100% adoption of this best practice approach for P. Vannamei by 2026. In addition, we are currently exploring the practicalities of implementing this across our P. Monodon supply chains with our suppliers.
5. 100% of broodstock used to produce the post-larvae (PL) for Tesco are ablation free by 2026 (Penaeus Vannamei) or 2027 (Penaeus Monodon) Eye Stalk ablation has been used extensively within the shrimp industry to increase fertility in broodstock, however, the practice is recognised as a welfare concern. Only post larvae sourced from non-ablated female broodstock will be accepted into Tesco supply chains from 2026 for Penaeusvannamei and 2027 for Penaeusmonodon.
Our Approach
All of our policies and commitments are implemented through direct communication with suppliers and supplier contracts, supply chain gap analyses and improvement plans, supplier group meetings and educational workshops.
We will ensure our sourcing policies reflect these commitments to help us meet our targets and work with our suppliers to achieve compliance with these.
We will measure our progress through the data we collect via mechanisms such as Outcome Measure collation, and we will publicly report on our progress each year on the Tesco PLC website (see our annual report) to ensure transparency with our customers and the industry as whole.
We will verify ongoing compliance against these commitments through our independent audit process, supplier reviews and outcome measure reviews.
In addition, we will work closely with industry, NGO’s and researchers to ensure our commitments stay relevant and update this policy when required.
Roles and Responsibilities
Role
Responsibility
Aquaculture Manager
Ensure this document is accurate, updated and that relevant colleagues have had oversight
Fish Technical Managers
Ensure they read through and understand the documents, that suppliers have visibility and that they are complying with the requirements
Fish buyers
Ensure they read through and understand the documents, that suppliers have visibility and that they are complying with the requirements
Suppliers
Ensure they comply with the requirements laid out in this document and share any comments, feedback and/or concerns with Tesco technical managers, buyers or the Responsible Sourcing Team.
Glossary
Acronym
Definition
TWA
Tesco Welfare Approved
ASC
Aquaculture Stewardship Coucil
BAP
Bet Aquaculture Practices
Associated Documents
Document No.
Document Title
60585
Tesco Human Rights Requirements for food and grocery non-food suppliers
20595
Tesco Salmonid Farm Standard
20596
Tesco Sea Bass & Sea Bream Farm Standards
20597
Tesco Shrimp Farm Standard
60576
Tesco Salmonid Farm Requirements
60577
Tesco Sea Bass & Sea Bream Farm Requirements
60578
Tesco Shrimp Farm Requirements
20598
Tesco Pangasius Standard
60589
Tesco Pangasius Farm Requirements
Appendices
List of relevant conventions and requirements:
Supply chains should adhere to the following
Tesco Human Rights Requirements for food and grocery non-food suppliers (Document 60585)
Aquaculture specific:
Tesco Zero Deforestation Soymeal Action Plan (Document 60549)
The Bud Light brewer’s plant closure will take place during the first two weeks of November. The change is permanent and its operations will be moved to wholesaler Quality Beverage in the same region, the company said in a statement to Food Dive.
The company saw beer volumes decline 1.3% in its most recent quarter, according its earnings report earlier this month.
Dive Insight:
The largest companies in the beer category are making strategic moves to cut costs amid soft consumer demand.
Simon Wuestenberg, the U.S. chief sales officer at AB InBev, said in a statement the company’s decision to shutter the facility comes after assessing its “operational footprint to ensure our entire system is set-up for long term success.” He said shifting operations to another distributor will help it continue to drive growth.
The move follows after a period of declining beer sales since early 2023, spurred in part by the highly publicized boycott of Bud Light. Last year, it laid off less than 2% of its corporate workforce and the company ceded market share in traditional beer to rivals like Molson Coors and Constellation Brands.
Despite the headwinds, CEO Michael Doukeris expressed optimism to investors about the long-term prospects for the industry on AB InBev’s most recent earnings call.
“We see some good premiumization in the industry. We see beer in terms of dollars consistently growing. And now in the last quarters, we see beer gaining share of value,” Doukeris said. “And we see that when you combine with the RTDs, there is a very good momentum there for the brewers in terms of capturing volume and dollars in the industry.”
AB InBev has also made strategic decisions to invest in growth outside its staple beer brands. Last year, the company spent $13 million on projects at its Cartersville Brewery in the Atlanta area, which produces its Kona Big Wave craft beer alongside hard seltzer and canned cocktail brands. It also announced a $22.5 million investment in August 2023 on upgrades to a Houston brewery.
Throughout the food and beverage industry, companies are choosing to reconfigure their production strategy as they deal with a tenuous economy amid years of ongoing inflation. In the last month, cereal giant WK Kellogg Co and beverage behemoth Keurig Dr Pepper both announced the closures of production facilities, each impacting hundreds of jobs.
SILVER SPRING, MD. — The US Food and Drug Administration on Aug. 15 issued draft guidance for its Phase II approach on sodium reduction, which includes reducing sodium intake among Americans by 20% over a three-year period to an average of 2,750 mg per person per day. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends limiting per-capita sodium intake to 2,300 mg per day for consumers age 14 and older, but intake was about 3,400 mg prior to 2021, according to the FDA.
The Phase II voluntary sodium reduction goals are intended to balance the need for gradual reductions in sodium and what is known about technical and market constraints on sodium reduction and reformulation, according to the FDA. The draft guidance provides goals that include both a target mean concentration and an upper-bound concentration of sodium for various food categories. Sodium intake reduction should progress at a pace that allows consumers to adjust to the lower amount of sodium in their food, according to the FDA.
The FDA’s Phase I approach was issued in October 2021. Preliminary data from 2022 showed about 40% of the Phase I targets “are very close to or have already been reached,” the FDA said. The Phase I approach encouraged the food industry to reduce sodium levels in a variety of processed, packaged and prepared foods since over 70% of sodium intake in the US population comes from sodium added during food manufacturing and commercial food preparation. The Phase II approach will do the same.
“Reducing sodium in the food supply has the potential to be one of the most important public health initiatives in a generation,” said Jim Jones, deputy commissioner for human foods at the FDA. “The early successes we’re seeing with sodium level reduction in certain foods is encouraging and indicative of the impact we believe our overall nutrition approach can have on the well-being of society.
“In addition to our sodium reduction efforts, the FDA is also actively working on a forthcoming final rule updating the definition of the claim ‘healthy,’ a proposed rule for front-of-package nutrition labeling and exploring ways to reduce added sugars consumption. The FDA’s sodium reduction and other nutrition initiatives are central to a broader, whole-of-government approach to help reduce the burden of diet-related chronic diseases and advance health equity.”
The FDA will accept public comments on the draft guidance for sodium reduction until Nov. 14, which is 60 days after its Aug. 16 publication in theFederal Register.Electronic comments may be sent to regulations.gov. Written comments may be sent to Dockets Management Staff (HFA-305), Food and Drug Administration, 5630 Fishers Lane, Rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852.
Völur, a protein processing optimization software company, has announced the appointment of Michael Farrand as the new chief commercial officer effective Sept. 1, 2024. In this role, Farrand will oversee the company’s commercial strategy, driving growth and strengthening relationships with key stakeholders.
Farrand brings over 30 years of experience in the food and agriculture space, along with a proven track record of implementing SaaS solutions globally. Prior to joining Völur, he served as global head of food and agriculture at DecisionNext, where he levered his decades of leadership at Hormel Foods Corp. to drive growth and refine product offerings to the food and agriculture supply chain space.
“Michael’s broad food and agriculture background, and his experience in Sales, Management and Strategy, will build upon the experience and depth of the team,” said Anna Turvoll, CEO at Völur. “We are confident that Michael’s expertise and leadership will be instrumental in driving our commercial initiatives forward.”
In his new role, Farrand will be responsible for leading the product application and customer development efforts for the company.
“I am thrilled to join Völur and lead the commercial team during such an exciting and transformational time in the protein space,” said Farrand. “I look forward to building on the company’s success and driving new opportunities for growth.”
Dimitra, a blockchain-based operating system for agricultural technology, has onboarded Alkaff, a Sicily-based international green coffee trading corporation, to its EUDR Due Diligence Service (DDS) platform to ensure compliant coffee supplies in Italy.
This platform utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain technology to acquire and analyze farmer data and ensure market compliance with the upcoming European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), set to take effect at the end of 2024.
Reducing the burden of data management for green coffee traders, roasters and merchants in Italy, Dimitra’s DDS platform receives, manages, analyzes and stores supply chain data for seamless communication with authorities and other supply chain operators. Once a supply chain is fully mapped, Dimitra’s DDS will automatically prepare a Risk Assessment and Due Diligence Report, and upon user confirmation, upload all required data to the EU Information System, documenting compliance. Dimitra’s DDS platform can act as a standalone system or be fully integrated into any third-party Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) environment.
Alkaff will employ Dimitra’s tailored DDS platform and engage Dimitra’s industry experts to map Alkaff’s expansive supply chain, support Alkaff suppliers in farm-level data acquisition, and analyze the data provided by the suppliers to ensure a transparent, traceable and EUDR-compliant supply chain. Dimitra will integrate fully into Alkaff’s software environment and also deliver traceability data directly to Alkaff’s customer-facing application.
“For Alkaff, the largest coffee merchant in Italy, to make this decisive step towards EUDR compliance proves once again that Rudi Albert, the company CEO, and his team understand the opportunities that come with the digitalization of global coffee chains,” says Maurizio Zugna, Italy project manager. “Dimitra’s platform digitalizes the process making compliance that much more achievable.”
Aptar-Food Protection, part of AptarGroup, Inc., has expanded its SeaWell active packaging system into the e-commerce category.
Already utilized by major retailers across the U.S., the active packaging solution – designed to help maintain seafood freshness, quality and aesthetics – has now been adopted for direct-to-consumer shipping of various seafood items including filets, whole fish and shellfish such as crab legs, scallops and shrimp.
In response to customer feedback, two leading home delivery companies have adopted SeaWell technology for their seafood-based meal kits to improve consumer experiences with case-to-cook convenience and cleaner handling in the kitchen. In addition to allowing frozen-to-thaw distribution, the SeaWell active packaging system’s integrated technology absorbs excess liquids that would otherwise accumulate around seafood, causing potential product breakdown and negatively impacting both freshness and appearance.
SeaWell active packaging utilizes food contact-safe absorbent materials embedded into its proprietary Drip-Lock technology to trap excess fluids inside patented pockets or wells. This separation reduces the rate of seafood microbial growth, chemical degradation and odor accumulation.
“The home delivery companies we work with are always listening to the voice of the consumer and making packaging changes to improve user experiences to promote customer loyalty,” says Michael Stephens, CEO, Bama Sea Products. “In particular, shrimp tends to be a prominent cause of customer complaints in the home delivery sector due to leaking, messy handling, and cross-contamination with other proteins. We were delighted to be able to work with Aptar to develop an appropriate SeaWell packaging solution for this market and bring it to commercialization.”
“The SeaWell active packaging system addresses many of the challenges the seafood home delivery market faces, particularly related to keeping products fresh and avoiding messy leaks and spills during transit,” adds Neal Watson, VP and general manager for Aptar-Food Protection. “This innovative technology can deliver as much as an extra day of in-home shelf life, improving consumer experiences, driving customer loyalty and securing repeat business.”
A third Japanese company has come clean that it altered test results for hundreds of ship engines manufactured since the year 2000.
Kawasaki Heavy Industries joins IHI Power Systems and Hitachi Zosen in a rumbling Japanese engine scandal as Tokyo investigates all the nation’s ship engine manufacturers.
Hitachi Zosen was forced to apologise to customers around the world after two of its subsidiaries were found to have falsified fuel economy data for a total of 1,364 ship engines, or almost all of the units investigated, that had been shipped out since 1999. The falsifications may have impacted calculations for nitrogen oxide emissions.
Now Kawasaki Heavy Industries is having to follow suit, admitting this week that test results were altered for 673 of its two-stroke diesel engines as well as one four-stroke engine.
“Specifically, the investigation confirmed that shop trial fuel consumption rates for the company’s marine diesel engines had been altered through the manipulation of testing equipment to keep values within the permissible range of customer specifications and to reduce data discrepancies. This has the potential to impact NOx emissions calculations for these engines,” the company wrote in a statement.
Investigations underway in Japan have overtones of the famous Volkswagen emissions scandal.
The 2015 Volkswagen emissions scandal is the most famous recent example of manufacturers knowingly misleading customers. The German car manufacturer was found to have intentionally programmed turbocharged direct injection (TDI) diesel engines to activate their emissions controls only during laboratory emissions testing, which caused the vehicles’ NOx output to meet US standards during regulatory testing. However, the vehicles emitted up to 40 times more NOx in real-world driving.
Shipping has had previous engine scandals. MAN, itself a subsidiary of Volkswagen, paid a fine in 2011 over its misleading fuel consumption claims while in 2016, Wärtsilä revealed deviations in certain fuel consumption measurement tests were detected at Wärtsilä’s delivery centre in Trieste in Italy.
A NEW $8 million national study is set to quantify greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from crop residues, to help the Australian grains industry accurately report its carbon footprint, with potential benefits for future market access and price.
An initiative of the Grains Research and Development Corporation, the national project will be led by Professor David Rowlings from the Queensland University of Technology.
It will involve two years of fieldwork to quantify emissions from crop-residue decomposition across a range of crop types, climates and soils at five sites in Australia.
The trial sites, and research-parnters monitors are:
Gatton, Qld – University of Qld;
Tamworth and Wagga Wagga, New South Wales – NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development;
Horsham, Victoria – Agriculture Victoria; and,
Wongan Hills, Western Australia – WA DPIRD.
The landmark study is expected to have significant benefits for grain growers and marketers, as the GHG emissions attached to grains can impact the price and marketability of exports, as well as the sustainability credentials of farm businesses.
Prof Rowlings said crop residues emit GHG as they decompose in the paddock, with nitrous oxide making up most of these emissions.
“Australia includes these emissions in its sector level accounting to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,” Prof Rowlings said.
“While the global default emission decomposition factor is 1 percent of total residues, international research has shown that 0.5pc may be more accurate for dry climates.
“As this research has been accepted by the IPCC, the CSIRO – with GRDC support – is currently updating Australia’s GHG baseline methodology to use the lower emissions factor from 2024.
“However, with approximately 23 million hectares of land under cropping, Australian growers could still benefit by being able to use accurate, locally derived emissions data for IPCC reporting.”
At each trial site, nitrous oxide will be measured for the 12 months following harvest to obtain accurate data on the emissions from the decaying crop residues.
Crops being studied include wheat, faba beans and canola in NSW and Victoria; maize, sorghum, wheat and faba beans in Qld; and wheat and canola in WA.
“We have achieved a good spread of representative climate conditions, soil types and crops.
“Over the two years and five locations, we will gather 32 site-years’ worth of data.”
GRDC sustainable cropping systems manager north Cristina Martinez said the new national study was critical in that it aimed to generate representative emissions factors for Australian crop residues alongside region-based data that individual farms could adopt for emissions accounting and reporting.
This research builds on earlier work done by GRDC in partnership with CSIRO for the Australian Grains Baseline and Mitigation Assessment.
This 2022 report showed crop residue accounted for 20.4pc of all Scope 1, or on-farm, GHG emissions in Australian cropping, compared to fertiliser at 15pc, lime application, or farm operations at 11pc each.
This initial study also concluded that the use of internationally derived emissions factors may be overestimating reportable GHG emissions from the Australian grains sector.
