Carbon and Water Footprints of Canadian Agriculture

• In-person event
• A220, Loeb Building, Carleton University
• 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON, K1S 5B6

• Contact
• Natalia Fierro, natalia.fierromarquez@carleton.ca

The Department of Geography and Environmental Studies Founders Seminar Presents

Andy VanderZaag
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada at Government of Canada
on
Carbon and Water Footprints of Canadian Agriculture

Abstract:
Agriculture plays an important role in carbon, nitrogen, and water cycles. Governments and the Agri-food sector are both interested in indicators of agri-environmental efficiency such as Carbon- and Water-Footprints. Determining these footprints is challenging because agricultural systems deal with soil-climate interactions as well as livestock-crop linkages. Finding management practices that reduce the footprints without pollution swapping is also difficult, and is a focus of current study. This presentation will describe ongoing research projects involving measurements from lab- to farm-scale and discuss opportunities and challenges in calculating footprints.

Biography: ­­­­­
Andy VanderZaag is a Research Scientist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Central Experimental Farm. His research focuses on agricultural efficiency and environmental health in Canada. This work is done at multiple scales (plots, farms, regions) with the goal of achieving national-scale results. The research happens along three lines: (i) fundamental and applied research to test new techniques and technologies for reducing losses of greenhouse gases, ammonia, and water pollution; (ii) measurements to validate models that can be used to simulate these emissions; (iii) using models to scale-up to the national level, and create algorithms that can be applied within Canada’s National GHG and Pollutant Inventories that are submitted annually to the UNFCCC and UNECE. In addition to improving the National Inventories, this work is simultaneously applied to improving sustainability metrics, such as carbon and water footprint calculations.