Assessing nitrate groundwater hotspots in Europe reveals an inadequate designation of Nitrate Vulnerable Zones.

Monitoring networks show that the European Union Nitrates Directive (ND) has had mixed success in reducing nitrate concentrations in groundwater. By combining machine learning and monitored nitrate concentrations (1992-2019), we estimate the total area of nitrate hotspots in Europe to be 401,000 km, with 47% occurring outside of Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZs). We also found contrasting increasing or decreasing trends, varying per country and time periods.

Beyond the Farm to Fork Strategy: Methodology for designing a European agro-ecological future.

The publication of the European Commission's Farm to Fork Strategy has sparked a heated debate between those who advocate the intensification of agriculture in the name of food security and those who recommend its de-intensification for environmental reasons. The design of quantified scenarios is a key approach to objectively evaluate the arguments of the two sides. To this end, we used the accounting methodology GRAFS (Generalized Representation of Agri-Food Systems) to describe the agri-food system of Europe divided into 127 geographical units of similar agricultural area, in terms of nitrogen (N) fluxes across cropland, grassland, livestock, and human consumption.

Drivers of ammonia volatilization in Mediterranean climate cropping systems.

Ammonia (NH) volatilization is the major source of nitrogen (N) loss resulting from the application of synthetic and organic N fertilizers to croplands. It is well known that in Mediterranean cropping systems, there is a relationship between the intrinsic characteristics of the climate and nitrous oxide (NO) emissions, but whether the same relation exists for NH emissions remains uncertain. Here, we estimated the impact of edaphoclimatic conditions (including meteorological conditions after N fertilization), crop management factors, and the measurement technique on both the cumulative emissions and the NH emission factor (EF) in Mediterranean climate zones, drawing on a database of 234 field treatments.

Investing in mini-livestock production for food security and carbon neutrality in China.

Future food farming technology faces challenges that must integrate the core goal of keeping the global temperature increase within 1.5 °C without reducing food security and nutrition. Here, we show that boosting the production of insects and earthworms based on food waste and livestock manure to provide food and feed in China will greatly contribute to meeting the country's food security and carbon neutrality pledges.

Nesting nitrogen budgets through spatial and system scales in the Spanish agro-food system over 26 years.

Along its route through the agro-food system nitrogen (N) can be wasted, heightening diverse environmental problems. Geopolitical instabilities affect prices of N fertilisers and livestock feed, challenging production systems and increasing their need to reduce N waste. The analysis of N flows is essential to understanding the agroenvironmental performance of agro-food systems to detect leakages and to design strategies for reducing N pollution while producing feed and food.