Cropland footprints from the perspective of productive land scarcity, malnutrition-related health impacts and biodiversity loss

Abstract

Croplands are a scarce natural resource and there is a need to limit further expansion of croplands to avoid biodiversity losses and other undesirable earth system changes. This has led to the emergence of the cropland footprint as a sustainability indicator that links the production and consumption of goods and services to cropland demand. However, croplands are heterogeneous in productivity and in local environmental context. Using a 1.1 km2 spatial resolution map of agricultural production, three cropland footprint indicators were quantified using life cycle impact assessment models for 34 agricultural commodities grown or imported in Australia: cropland scarcity footprint, cropland malnutrition footprint and cropland biodiversity footprint. Although the different cropland footprint results were positively correlated with each other and with a simple assessment of cropland occupation, the relative assessment of different commodities varied substantially. At the scale of the national food system, cropland occupation explained only one third of the variation between commodities in cropland biodiversity footprint. As such, cropland occupation is not a fit-for-purpose indicator to inform about environmental performance. Cropland footprints that address specific environmental concerns using impact assessment models are recommended. These findings have important implications for strategic action to address the environmental challenges related to cropland use, and the development of sustainable diets.