title: Global cropland and greenhouse gas impacts of UK food supply are increasingly located overseas.
abstract: Producing sufficient, healthy food for a growing world population amid a changing climate is a major challenge for the twenty-first century. Agricultural trade could help alleviate this challenge by using comparative productivity advantages between countries. However, agricultural trade has implications for national food security and could displace environmental impacts from developed to developing countries. This study illustrates the global effects resulting from the agricultural trade of a single country, by analysing the global cropland and greenhouse gas impacts of the UK's food and feed supply. The global cropland footprint associated with the UK food and feed supply increased by 2022 kha (+23%) from 1986 to 2009. Greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) associated with fertilizer and manure application, and rice cultivation remained relatively constant at 7.9 Mt CO2e between 1987 and 2008. Including GHGE from land-use change, however, leads to an increase from 19.1 in 1987 to 21.9 Mt CO2e in 2008. The UK is currently importing over 50% of its food and feed, whereas 70% and 64% of the associated cropland and GHGE impacts, respectively, are located abroad. These results imply that the UK is increasingly reliant on external resources and that the environmental impact of its food supply is increasingly displaced overseas.
authors.affiliation: Information and Computing Sciences Group, The James Hutton Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen AB15 8QH, UK Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3UU, UK henri.deruiter@hutton.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Henri
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7352-9317
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: de Ruiter
authors.affiliation: Public Health Nutrition Research Group, Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB25 2ZD, UK.
authors.forename: Jennie I
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Macdiarmid
authors.affiliation: Information and Computing Sciences Group, The James Hutton Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen AB15 8QH, UK.
authors.forename: Robin B
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4685-6210
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Matthews
authors.affiliation: Institute of Social Ecology Vienna, Alpen-Adria Universität Klagenfurt, Wien, Graz, Schottenfeldgasse 29, Vienna 1070, Austria.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8155-136X
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kastner
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3UU, UK.
authors.forename: Pete
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3784-1124
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D018556:Crops, Agricultural / Q000191:economics* / Q000254:growth & development; D005523:Food Supply / Q000191:economics*; D017752:Greenhouse Effect / Q000191:economics*; D018803:Models, Economic; D006113:United Kingdom
keywords: food supply; global environmental impacts; international trade; land use; self-sufficiency