Moving to net zero barley production

气候紧急情况要求紧急制定创新和有效的缓解措施，以实现向零净额的公正过渡。人们越来越关注如何在农业部门解决这一问题，同时仍能为不断增长的全球人口维持生产。该项目由学术和行业合作伙伴共同开发，将探索减少大麦种植对威士忌行业环境影响的潜力。威士忌是英国最有价值的食品和饮料产品(2020年为55亿GB)，但大麦种植阶段约占每瓶生产的碳足迹的50%。在很大程度上，这是化肥使用的结果(生产的能源成本和施后土壤的温室气体通量)。因此，迫切需要在保持粮食可持续生产的同时减少化肥使用的战略。利用酿酒厂废弃物通过厌氧消化(AD)生产能源(沼气)已经成为抵消威士忌生产中碳成本的一种既定手段。然而，AD本身产生营养含量高的废物(消化液)，具有潜在的有害环境影响(例如，影响水质的污水排放)。因此，该项目的具体目标是研究AD废物作为化肥替代品的潜在价值，开发其在大麦种植中的高营养价值，并通过从废物流中分流来支持循环经济原则。这项研究将涉及受控环境和田间试验，以评估AD废物的化肥当量，量化啤酒大麦相对于化肥的生长和籽粒质量。AD废物对土壤健康的影响必须是中性的或积极的，该项目将量化其应用对土壤生物多样性和功能的影响。这将包括用同位素方法量化土壤中的碳和养分循环过程(包括温室气体通量和养分淋溶)，并结合微生物/动物群的分子特征来确定AD废物应用的相关影响。根据所获得的结果，将探索配方(例如，AD废水与固体废物部分产生的生物炭相结合)，以优化大麦生产，并促进啤酒大麦生产系统土壤生态系统服务的长期可持续性。

The Climate Emergency demands that innovative and effective mitigations are urgently developed to achieve a just transition to Net Zero. There is an increasing focus on how this can be tackled in the agricultural sector, while still maintaining production for a growing global population. This project, co-developed by academic and industry partners, will explore the potential for reducing the environmental impact of barley cultivation for the whisky industry. Whisky is the single most valuable Food and Drink product in the UK (£5.5Bn in 2020), but the barley cultivation stage contributes approximately 50% of the carbon footprint associated with each bottle produced. In large part, this is a consequence of chemical fertiliser use (both energy costs of manufacture and GHG fluxes from soil following application). Therefore, strategies to reduce use of chemical fertilisers, while maintaining sustainable grain production are urgently needed. The use of distillery wastes for energy production (biogas) through anaerobic digestion (AD) is already an established means of off-setting carbon costs of whisky manufacture. However, AD itself generates wastes with high-nutrient content (digestates) that have potentially deleterious environmental impacts (e.g. effluent discharges affecting water quality). Therefore, the specific aim of this project is to examine the potential value of AD wastes for use as fertiliser replacements, exploiting their high-nutrient value in barley cultivation and supporting circular economy principles through diversion from waste streams. The research will involve controlled environment and field trials to assess the fertiliser equivalence of AD wastes, quantifying growth and grain quality of malting barley, relative to chemical fertilisers. It is essential that impacts of AD wastes on soil health are neutral or positive, and the project will quantify effects of their application on soil biological diversity and functions. This will include isotopic approaches to quantify carbon and nutrient cycling processes in soils (including GHG fluxes and nutrient leaching), combined with molecular characterisation of microbial /faunal communities to determine associated impacts of AD waste application. Based on results obtained, formulations (e.g., AD effluent in combination with biochar generated from solid waste fractions) will be explored to optimise barley production and to foster long-term sustainability of soil ecosystem services in malting barley production systems.