Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems

Beef has a considerably higher climate impact than meat from monogastric animals and plant-based foods, due to methane emissions from enteric fermentation in ruminants. Animal feed production also contributes considerably to the climate impact, through carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel use and nitrous oxide emissions from soil. Despite this, ruminant animals can still be part of sustainable food systems, as they can produce human-edible food from coarse biomass unsuitable for human consumption (e.g., grass or straw), i.e., acting as ‘upgraders’. Feeding ruminants on coarse biomass also reduces the need for cropland for feed production. Using cereal straw as indoor feed for suckler cows reduces their feed intake in winter, while increasing their intake of biomass on pasture during the grazing season. This study assessed the climate impact of producing 1 kg of beef (carcass weight), and of the farm as a whole, in a Swedish suckler-based system using a mixture of cereal straw and grass-clover silage as winter feed for suckler cows, compared with using only grass-clover silage (reference scenario). The rest of the feed remained unchanged. Replacing part of the grass-clover silage with straw meant that less cropland area was needed to grow feed. Two alternative scenarios for using this spared land were investigated: producing wheat for human consumption (straw-food) and conversion to pasture (straw-pasture). Effects on total food production were also calculated. Using a combination of cereal straw and grass-clover silage as winter feed for suckler cows was found to reduce the climate impact associated with feed production compared with using only grass-clover silage. However, this change in winter feed increased biomass intake on pasture during the grazing season and thus the grazed area, so total climate impact of beef per kg carcass weight, and of the farm as a whole, increased when the demand for more grazing area resulted in deforestation. With no deforestation, the climate impact was comparable to that of beef from suckler cows fed exclusively on grass-clover silage during winter. Therefore, upcycling of straw to meat had no notable effect on the climate impact, indicating that using residues as feed does not always entail a climate benefit. However, increased demand for pasture can have a direct benefit for biodiversity if more biologically rich semi-natural pastures are maintained or restored. Using the land spared through feeding straw instead of grass-clover silage for wheat production increase total food production from the system, with potential indirect climate benefits.

Diversified farming systems appear to be one means of meeting the sustainability challenges facing livestock farming systems and of facilitating the renewal of future generations of farmers in a context of climatic, economic and social change. However, although work seems to be an essential issue for livestock farms, few studies have explored the impact of on-farm diversity on work. This study aims to fill the gap in our understanding of the various ways in which on-farm diversity affects work. We applied a framework combining six dimensions of work with three forms of on-farm diversity (diversity of management entities, diversity of farming activities, diversity of workers) to six studies that had been conducted previously on livestock farms. Our results highlight a wide range of links between on-farm diversity and work. We show that on-farm diversity affects various dimensions of work in multiple ways, which can be both positive and negative. For example, while there may not be a strict and clear relation between on-farm diversity and workloads, diversity provides flexibility for organizing the distribution of working time. Moreover, on-farm diversity seems to more frequently reinforce the meaning of work for farmers. Our results also show that there are multiple interactions between the six dimensions of work studied. Our study points to the need for a comprehensive approach to understanding the multifaceted and interconnected nature of work dimensions in diversified farming systems. Further research is recommended to explore these relationships more deeply to support sustainable and attractive diversified farming systems.

Climate change will increase average temperatures and the frequency and intensity of summertime droughts; those shifts will in turn affect forage production in grassland-based livestock farms. Farmers will accordingly likely have to implement adaptation strategies to cope with the effects of climate change. We hypothesized that farmers' resilience strategies would depend on (i) their intention to adapt to climate change, which partly results from previous climate risk exposure, (ii) how they perceive the values and disvalues of multi-species permanent grasslands (PGs), and (iii) that both of the aforementioned factors would vary according to the geographical context of each farm. We carried out 15 semi-structured interviews with dairy cattle farmers in the French Massif Central; the farms were distributed along a range of climatic and topographic conditions. We used (i) the Model of Proactive Private Adaptation to Climate Change to analyze farmers' individual process of adaptation, (ii) the Integrated Nature Futures Framework to analyze farmers' perception of multi-species PGs, and (iii) text analysis to identify the farmers' adaptation strategies. Nine of the farmers felt that they were already adapted to climate change or that they had a plan in place to implement new adaptations in the future. We observed straightforward relationships between these farmers' perception of PGs and their choice of adaptation strategy; those relationships varied, however, with the geographical context of each farm. Farmers in the northern Massif Central and southern uplands highlighted the values of PGs and considered PGs to be central to their adaption strategies. Conversely, farmers in the southern lowlands mostly referred to the disvalues of PGs; they based their adaptation strategies on temporary grasslands and forage crops. Three of the farmers believed that climate change posed a significant risk, but they foresaw little room to maneuver. Despite acknowledging the values of PGs, those individuals did not intend to use PGs to adapt to climate change. The final three farmers did not intend to adapt to climate change; their reasoning stemmed from either a mindset of fatalism or their acknowledged desire to retire soon. Extreme events such as the summertime drought of 2003 and human factors such as intergenerational transmission of farm can accordingly facilitate or inhibit climate change-related adaptation. It is accordingly important to take into account both socio-psychological and environmental factors when analyzing how grassland-based farmers transition to more climate change-resilient systems.

Women own or co-own almost half of the land in the US Midwest and women landowners are playing an increasingly important role in production and financial decision-making. Despite their growing influence, women landowners are less engaged in conservation programs and networks, primarily due to inadequate access to conservation services and resources, leading to a scenario where men continue to dominate participation in both governmental and private conservation initiatives. The existing body of literature further echoes this disparity, with women's perspectives and voices markedly underrepresented in the United States' conservation discourse. Aiming to bridge this gap, this article delves into the attitudes of women landowners toward conservation using a 2021 survey conducted with 135 Iowa women landowners. The survey sought to shed light on their interests in various conservation topics, their concerns regarding conservation decision-making, and their preferences concerning the sources of information and the methods through which educational content is delivered. We find that women landowners are most interested in government conservation programs, followed by soil erosion control, soil fertilizer improvement, and cover crops. We provide statistical evidence that more women operating landowners are interested in conservation topics and concerned about conservation issues than women non-operating landowners in general. We further explore the variations in conservation interests among women landowners, considering their demographic and farm-specific characteristics, to highlight the diverse perspectives within this group. Additionally, we examine the preferred channels through which women landowners wish to receive educational information, offering valuable insights for policymaking and extension services. The results underscore a preference for a mix of delivery methods among women landowners, with a particular inclination toward virtual platforms, such as periodic (e-)newsletters and webinars, and printed materials such as fact sheets or infographics, over traditional in-person formats. This nuanced understanding of women landowners' educational preferences and conservation interests serves as a foundational step toward fostering more inclusive conservation programs and networks that effectively engage and represent women in the agricultural sector.