Climate Change Mitigation along the Food Supply Chain 

Dairy production is a significant contributor to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and there is an urgent need to reduce emissions from this sector. Identifying potential mitigation options and the trajectory of diary system transformation is at the top of policy and academic debates. It was discussed among the agricultural economist communities during the latest European Association of Agricultural Economics (EAAE) Congress in Rennes, France. The SmartDairy Project organized a session focusing on different perspectives and views of emission reduction in the European dairy industry to shed light on the current debates.  

Koen Deconinck (OECD) presented a discussion entitled “Policy Options for climate change mitigation in Agriculture”. He focused on the increased interest by OECD countries’ governments to engage in climate change mitigation in the agriculture and food sector. The mitigation potential and other economic effects of key existing actions and policy options for the sector, based on OECD work, were also discussed.  

Source Deconinck (2023)  

Fabio Bartolini; Winkler, Greta; Razieh Hassannia (University of Ferrara) and Worley, Julian (University of Galway) showed the findings from the SmartDairy project; outlining stakeholders’ views on drivers and barriers of different GHG mitigation technologies along the dairy food supply chain. Results showed higher expected capacity to mitigate GHG from technological innovation, and less for organizational and social innovations.  

Source Bartolini et al., (2023)  

Daniele Asioli (University of Reading); Vincenzina Caputo (Michigan State University), and Rodolfo M. Nayga Jr. (Texas A&M University) presented on how consumers value new mitigation strategies from dairy producers. Results showed informing consumers about the environmental benefit of livestock production resulted in a significant increase in their valuation for this novel livestock as well as the consumers’ acceptance of novel food products. 

Source Asioli et al., (2023) 

Finally, Alan Mattews (Trinity College) critically evaluated the main policy implication of the three presentations and turned the debate to implications for the upcoming steps of the SmartDairy project.