Abstract
Abstract. The Seine watershed has long been the food-supplying hinterland of Paris, providing most of the animal and vegetal protein consumed in the city. Nowadays, the shift from manure-based to synthetic nitrogen fertilisation, has made possible a strong land specialisation of agriculture in the Seine watershed: it still provides most of the cereal consumed by the Paris agglomeration, but exports 80% of its huge cereal production. On the other hand the meat and milk supply originates mainly from regions in the North and West of France, specialised in animal farming and importing about 30% of their feed from South America. As it works today, this system is responsible for a severe nitrate contamination of surface and groundwater resources. Herein two scenarios of re-localising Paris's food supply are explored, based on organic farming and local provision of animal feed. We show that for the Seine watershed it is technically possible to design an agricultural system able to provide all the plant- and animal-based food required by the population, to deliver sub-root water meeting the drinking water standards and still to export a significant proportion of its production to areas less suitable for cereal cultivation. Decreasing the share of animal products in the human diet has a strong impact on the nitrogen imprint of urban food supply.
Highlights
Food supply is a major factor in shaping cities (Steele, 2010) and determining their relationships with surrounding rural territories
Food-Miles, i.e. the total transport distance covered by foodstuffs from their production to their consumption sites, have been proposed as an indicator of sustainability of the human food system (Paxton, 1994; Smith et al, 2005)
These calculations show that it is quite possible to conceive a scenario of organic farming locally meeting the quantitative food requirements of the current population of the Paris agglomeration and of the other cities of the Seine watershed, totalling 16.9 million inhabitants, provided that the livestock density is increased from the current value of 18 LU km−2 to 50 LU km−2
Summary
Food supply is a major factor in shaping cities (Steele, 2010) and determining their relationships with surrounding (close or distant) rural territories. In an analysis of the US food supply chain, Weber and Matthews (2008) showed that foodstuff transportation is only a minor term in its total carbon imprint and that changes in agricultural practices or in the composition of human diet would have a much more pronounced effect on greenhouse gas emission than reduction of the food transport distance They conclude that the issue of localisation of the food supply is not a question of climate impact optimisation but is conditioned by the political will to support local agricultural communities and to restore the link between cities and their rural hinterland. We explore the potentialities of radically changing both the agricultural practices and the urban diet patterns for reducing the environmental imprint of urban food consumption
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
