Environmental assessment of diets: overview and guidance on indicator choice.

Comprehensive but interpretable assessment of the environmental performance of diets involves choosing a set of appropriate indicators. Current knowledge and data gaps on the origin of dietary foodstuffs restrict use of indicators relying on site-specific information. This Personal View summarises commonly used indicators for assessing the environmental performance of diets, briefly outlines their benefits and drawbacks, and provides recommendations on indicator choices for actors across multiple fields involved in activities that include the environmental assessment of diets.

Soil NO emissions, N leaching and marine eutrophication in life cycle assessment - A comparison of modelling approaches.

Nitrogen fertilisation is an essential part of modern agriculture, providing food for a growing human population, but also causing environmental impacts when reactive nitrogen (N) is released to the environment. The amount and impact of these emissions are difficult to quantify in life cycle assessment (LCA), due to their site-dependent nature. This study compared seven models for direct soil nitrous oxide (NO) emissions, seven models for N leaching and five characterisation models for marine eutrophication impact assessment, selected to represent medium-effort options for accounting for spatial variation in emissions and impact assessment.