Abstract
Agriculture can simultaneously address global food, feed, fiber, and energy challenges provided our soil, water, and air resources are not compromised in doing so. Our objective is to present a landscape management concept as an approach for integrating multiple bioenergy feedstock sources into current crop production systems. This is done to show how multiple, increasing global challenges can be met in a sustainable manner. We discuss how collaborative research among USDAAgricultural Research Service (ARS), US Department of Energy (DOE) Idaho National Laboratory (INL), several university extension and research partners, and industry representatives [known as the Renewable Energy Assessment Project (REAP) team] has led to the development of computer-based decision aids for guiding sustainable bioenergy feedstock production. The decision aids, known initially as the «Corn Stover Tool» and more recently as the «Landscape Environmental Assessment Framework» (LEAF) are tools designed to recognize the importance of nature’s diversity and can therefore be used to guide sustainable feedstock production without having negative impacts on critical ecosystem services. Using a 57 ha farm site in central Iowa, USA, we show how producer decisions regarding corn (Zea mays L.) stover harvest within the US Corn Belt can be made in a more sustainable manner. This example also supports REAP team conclusions that stover should not be harvested if average grain yields are less than 11 Mg ha-1 unless more balanced landscape management practices are implemented. The tools also illustrate the importance of sub-field management and site-specific stover harvest strategies.
Highlights
A recent report by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs concluded that «a landscape-based framework is needed to resolve agricultural, energy, and environmental trade-offs inherent in bioenergy production systems (Brick, 2011)
Through an advanced, sophisticated linkage of several simulation models, each optimized according to their individual guidelines, the tools use the various data sources to achieve an optimum balance as described by the limiting factor model (Wilhelm et al, 2010) and to assess sustainability of bioenergy feedstock production based on multiple factors
A case study using an advanced version of the Corn Stover tool was conducted to investigate the conceptual impacts of implementing a bioenergy feedstock based landscape management plan on a central Iowa USA farm
Summary
A recent report by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs concluded that «a landscape-based framework is needed to resolve agricultural, energy, and environmental trade-offs inherent in bioenergy production systems (Brick, 2011). This too is a very complex question, so perhaps illustrating it as a «wicked» problem (Figure 1) is an appropriate way to show why land use decisions of today are so much more challenging than during past decades (Batie, 2010). If landscape management is so important, why is it a difficult concept for some to grasp and what barriers need to be overcome to implement it for sustainable bioenergy feedstock supplies and enhanced soil quality? Wicked problems are those difficult-to-describe issues that are subject to considerable political debate. Addressing wicked problems does not tend to lead to definitive «solutions.» Instead, the action often results in outcomes that are «better or worse.» In other words, wicked problems are not «solved» but rather they are «managed.»
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