Source: PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY submitted to NRP
THE INTERSECTION OF AGROECOLOGY AND INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY – OPPORTUNITIES TO IMPROVE SUSTAINABILITY ACCOUNTING FOR THE BIOECONOMY
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
AFRI COMPETITIVE GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1030562
Grant No.
2023-68016-40134
Cumulative Award Amt.
$22,117.00
Proposal No.
2022-12002
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
May 15, 2023
Project End Date
May 14, 2024
Grant Year
2023
Program Code
[A1414]- Bioenergy Feedstock Logistics Program
Recipient Organization
PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY
408 Old Main
UNIVERSITY PARK,PA 16802-1505
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
This funding request is to support the dedicated conference theme "The Intersection of Agroecology (AE) and Industrial Ecology (IE) at the International Symposium on Sustainable Systems and Technologies (ISSST) conference, June 12-15, 2023 in Fort Collins CO. The purpose and goal of this effort is to advance shared understanding of methods applied and perspectives held by the disciplines of AE and IE in order to answer critical questions about how bioeconomies can contribute to climate and ecosystem goals. Much progress has occurred in recent decades, and many challenges remain related to scale, variability and uncertainty, and differences in societal values when creating sustianbility metrics to support developmenet of bioeconomies. The AE/IE conference track will include: high profile keynote speakers; targeted panel discussions focused on critical issues; multiple oral presentations on bioeconomy topics from AE and IE; a facilitated working session; a workshop on ethical considerations. Through and following the conference we will create a document to summarize the event and outcomes, an Extension document to highlight key issues and frequently asked questions, a policy brief about key research needs and issues for developing metrics to support the bioeconomy. Through these efforts we will support dialogue around difficult and significant scientific questions that need to be answered in order to create policy and incentives for bioenergy and biomaterials systems that are likely to realize program goals in support of Program Priority area Bioenergy, natural resources and environment.
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
50%
Developmental
50%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
6050430202040%
1310199107040%
1330430202020%
Knowledge Area
133 - Pollution Prevention and Mitigation; 605 - Natural Resource and Environmental Economics; 131 - Alternative Uses of Land;

Subject Of Investigation
0430 - Climate; 0199 - Soil and land, general;

Field Of Science
2020 - Engineering; 1070 - Ecology;
Goals / Objectives
The purpose and goal of the programming dedicated to the Intersection of Agroecology (AE) and Industrial Ecology (IE) at the International Symposium on Sustainable Systems and Technologies (ISSST) conference, June 12-15, 2023 in Fort Collins CO, is to advance shared understanding of methods applied and perspectives held by the disciplines of AE and IE in pursuit of answering critical questions about how bioeconomies can contribute to climate and ecosystem goals. This work is justified by the need to support policy and market incentives which require quantitative analysis, such as life cycle assessment (LCA), e.g., the California Air & Resources Board requirements for validating Renewable Identification Numbers (LCFS Life Cycle Analysis Models and Documentation California Air Resources Board, n.d.). While considerable progress has been made in LCA methodology in the last twenty years, there remain many challenges for biological systems related to scale, variability and uncertainty, and differences in societal values when creating metrics to support sustainability goals within policy and market environments. For example, how to reliably estimate changes in soil organic carbon or nitrous oxide emissions due to changes in land use and/or management (Basche et al., 2014, 2016; Berardi et al., 2020; Goglio et al., 2015). Through the programming described in more detail below, we will support dialogue around difficult and significant scientific questions that need to be answered in order to create policy and incentives for bioenergy and biomaterials systems that are likely to realize program goals.The following activities are designed to support achievement of our purpose and goal:Field-defining keynote speakers, Dr. Lisa Schulte-Moore, leader in Agroecology and Dr. Braden Allenby, leader in Industrial Ecology, will provide key context from research and applied perspectives;Panel session to deliberate key questions for advancing carbon and ecosystems accounting in bioenergy and biomaterials;Two to three session of the conference will focus on oral presentations relevant to bioeconomy research;An active working session in which AE and IE researchers, students to late career, will work through a few critical questions for assessing and creating policy-relevant, science-driven approaches for supporting bioenergy and biomaterial markets;A workshop to explore the ethical perspectives of researchers in AE and IE; and,Document and share key outcomes from these sessions in a white paper, integrate into policy briefings, summarize knowledge gaps relevant to farmers in relation to carbon accounting in an Extension document.
Project Methods
Detailed structure and instructive approach:As outlined above, the conference will include six specific activities to address key topics toward realizing sustainable and climate smart bioeconomies, additional details are provided below and the tentative schedule for the entire conference is provided as an Attachment, "Draft Agenda."The Intersection of Agroecology and Industrial Ecology theme will be explored through the activities listed below. Additionally, selected abstracts will be woven throughout the conference in sessions not directly focused on the theme.(a) Keynote speakers, Dr. Lisa Schulte-Moore, leader in AE and Dr. Braden Allenby, leader in IE, will provide key context from intellectual and practical perspectives. We are honored to host these two keynote speakers who have forged academic and applied research paths in full dedication to the pursuit of systems that can provision the needs of humans while mitigating harm to ecosystems and earth systems. On Tuesday and Wednesday mornings of the ISSST conference the day will kick off with talks from these thought leaders to set the tone for the day's activities.?(b) The panel session will be organized to deliberate key questions for advancing carbon and ecosystem services accounting in bioenergy and biomaterials production systems. Over the next couple of months, the organizing sub-committee, see Appendix C: Organizers will refine focus questions for this panel session and the active working session described in part (d) of this section; we will take into consideration the topics of abstracts received as well to incorporate participant expertise and interests.Based on the sub-committee's experiences and current projects, we see soil organic carbon due to changes in land use and/or management and/or the related carbon:nitrogen dynamics along with the perennial (pun intended) issue of managing variability and uncertainty at field scale as key issues in need of resolution to support the development of bioeconomy. We have drafted the following initial, organizing questions that we will continue to refine:(1) Industrial ecologists' and agroecologists' disciplines are based on different principles and analysis tools. How do these principles and tools affect the approach and perspective for how to solve commonresearch challenges, e.g., on topics like nutrient flows in agroecosystems?(2) How do current laws and markets (dis)incentivize material flows between industrial and agricultural systems? What's the role of politics in this space?(3) What metrics and information are most valuable for decision-making in agroecological and industrial ecologicalwork?(4) How do we account for variability and/or uncertainty when developing economic incentives associated with market and/or regulatory incentives?The panel will include expertise from areas of agroecology that focus on landscape ecology, soil sciences with a focus on how agricultural management influences biogeochemistry critical to accounting for greenhouse gas emissions in these systems. Industrial ecologist expertise on the panel will focus on quantitative accounting methods, such as life cycle assessment, the predominate method used for net carbon and other ecosystem services accounting. Experts have been identified for these critical areas, see Appendix B, Potential Participants.(c) Oral presentations sessions. Two to three 75-minute oral presentation sessions of the conference will focus on abstracts relevant to sustainable and climate smart bioeconomy research. ISSST has an existing community of researchers focused on bioenergy and biomaterials, for example in 2022 there were two conference sessions focused on bio-based systems analysis, mostly to do with biofuels, carbon and ecosystem services accounting. These researchers are predominately engineers who are not often trained in the biological and agricultural sciences. By supporting attendance of researchers that are formally trained in biological and agricultural sciences, including the variety of specific topics under the umbrella of agroecology, we'll create opportunity for audience members to observe differences in principles dictating scientific approach and analysis within the same session.These sessions will serve to deepen and broaden awareness of the variety of research activities necessary to understand bioenergy and biomaterials systems and products in preparation for the active working session.(d) Active working session in which AE and IE researchers, students-to-late career, will work through one to three (to be determined) critical questions for assessing and creating policy-relevant, science-driven approaches for supporting bioenergy and biomaterial markets that ensure efforts will deliver toward sustainability goals. This session will create the platform where the topics presented in activities a, b and c will be built upon and participants will have an opportunity to engage in a facilitated discussion around some of the broader issues, methods applied and key knowledge gaps as they relate to the critical questions developed.We envision this session to last 90-120 minutes. Participants will be prompted with one or two specific questions, see examples in section (a) above. Participants will be organized into diverse groups, provided with materials to document their thought process together. The ISSST conference has led sessions of this nature in the past. Further, as many of us are professional educators and some with Extension experience, we are highly qualified to design and deliver an effective, facilitated session.The questions will be re-iterated and participants will be guided through a process to elicit, document and discuss various perspectives and concerns from the group. In addition to the organizers, we will train and assign graduate students to take notes and support the facilitated working session. These notes will be transcribed to one centralized location during and/or after the conference and utilized in the preparation of deliverables.(e) A workshop titled, "Representing Sustainability in Agroecology and Industrial Ecology Research" will be offered on Monday, June 12, 2023 to explore the ethical perspectives of researchers in AE and IE. This workshop will build upon a full-semester 1-credit seminar developed by Dr. Costello and student Farrah Dingal, on the same topic offered at Penn State in Spring 2023. The main goal of the seminar is to introduce students to environmental ethics, to review what the literature from AE and IE state about ethical perspectives and for students to link their research to the myriad of ethical perspectives relevant to "sustainability." Ms. Dingal and Dr. Costello will be distilling what is learned in the full seminar to provide a more succinct workshop at ISSST that will be a consolidated version of the seminar, with the objective of educating participants about the ethical perspectives held within the fields of AE and IE as well as to identify what ethical issues associated with "sustainability" can be addressed using the scientific and analytical methods present in our respective disciplines and to explore how we might combine efforts to provide more holistic representation of the benefits of bioeconomies.(f) Document and share key outcomes from these sessions in a white paper, integrate into policy briefings, summarize knowledge gaps relevant to farmers in relation to carbon accounting in an Extension document. The artifacts produced during the active working session will be collected by the PD, transcribed and summarized in the deliverables described below.

Progress 05/15/23 to 05/14/24

Outputs
Target Audience:Efforts to recruitresearchers engaged with agroecology research included sending invitations to a curated list of agroecology researchers in the United States, approximately 40. The invitation was shared via Linkedin, the ISSST listserv,andpersonal email communication initiate by myself or other organizers of the conference (including all in the potential participants list). In the end, funds were used to support 14 early career students, 11 graduate students and 3 postdoctoral scholars. During the conference, all participants were encouraged to attend the ethics workshop or one of the 23 oral presentations scheduled in the five sessions under the Intersection of Agroecology and Industrial Ecology theme. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project funded 14 graduate or postdoctoral scholars to attend a professional conference to speak about their work in the bioeconomy and network with peers, faculty, government lab resesarchers, and industry professionals. In addtion, the activities exposed others to nuances and complexities of evaluating the sustainability, e.g., net greenhouse gas emissions, issues of soil health, to the larger ISSST audience of 150. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?I am admittedly behind on finalizing the materials to disseminate, but they are in draft. To be honest, I learned so much from the experts invited to the panel that I had to revisit my own stance on the current state of biogeochemical modeling in agricultural soils, and moreso, the lack of consensus on how to evaluate important groupings of biophysical phenomena in soil, specifically "soil health." One panelist expert in particular informed the audience of the many aspects of soil health and the difficulty in modeling them with certainty. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We intend to use the remaining time to circulate and edit a working draft of the key highlights from the activities, as well as produce an extension document and policy notes.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The activities described in items 1 through 5 have been met, item 6 is in progress, with delays due to the need for time to digest the new information that arose from the conference activities and subsequent discussions. There is a working document in progress and a plan for continued work to finalize said document from which we will derived subsequent communications. 1. Keynote speakers occured as planned. Dr. Lisa Schulte-Moore's talk helped the ISSST audience to deepen their understanding of what Agroecology is andprovided largley engineers with insight to working in the agricultural sector. The talk occured Wed. June 14, 2023, "Meeting Global Challenges in Food and Energy through Agro-Industrial Ecology Collaboration." 2. The panel session included participants listed below and generated great ideas, concerns, and possible paths forward, see notes and working paper. Lisa Schulte-Moore, Ph.D., Professor, Iowa State University Bill Salas, Ph.D., Chief Strategy Officer, ReGrow Nathan Ayer, Ph.D., Director of Analytical Services, EarthShift Global Mike Badzierowski, Ph.D. Soil Health Specialist, Ph.D., Oregon Department of Agriculture Panel Session Hosts: Host, academic: Dr. Chris Costello, Assistant Professor, Agricultural and Biological Engineering & Research Associate in the Rock Ethics Institute, Pennsylvania State University. Co-host, government: Dr. Kiara Winans, LCA Specialist, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality; coordination with government agency thought partners: California Air Resources Board, Climate Investments Assessment Section, and Oregon Department of Agriculture, Soil Health. Co-hosts for panel discussion workshopping session: Dr. Obste Therasme, Assistant Professor, State University of New York; Dr. Jennifer Russell, Assistant Professor, Virginia Tech; Jessica Nelson, Research Scientist, Iowa State University. 3. A total of five sessions of the conference focused on oral presentations relevant to bioeconomy research, please see conference agenda. 4. An active working session was held as described above. Notes and discussion were documented and included in subsequent working draft, to be turned into additional wriitng. 5. The ethics workshop was completed, it was a 90-minute session, designed to 'introduce participants to the conceptual foundation/s of environmental ethics and connect them to how agroecology and industrial ecology research approaches agricultural sustainability. Weasked and discussed the question: what is the philosophy that shapes each field's approach to evaluating social, economic, environmental, and institutional sustainability of agricultural or bioproducts including food.' Feedback on this workshop was very positive, with 16 attendees, not including myself (PI Costello).

Publications


    Progress 05/15/23 to 05/14/24

    Outputs
    Target Audience:The main target audiences were graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. The secondary audience was the attendees of the International Symposium on Sustainable Systems and Technology. The 2023 information, which this award supported can be found here. Some of the participants also supported the creation and delivery of the content at the conference. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Same as prior report. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?JAFSCD publication reaches many researchers in the area of agroecology. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? No changes from prior report, I will email when any additional writing is published. I did present on some of the work at the Agriculture, Food and Human values conference in Syracuse in June, 2024. The activities described in items 1 through 5 have been met, item 6 is in progress, with delays due to the need for time to digest the new information that arose from the conference activities and subsequent discussions. There is a working document in progress and a plan for continued work to finalize said document from which we will derived subsequent communications. 1. Keynote speakers occured as planned. Dr. Lisa Schulte-Moore's talk helped the ISSST audience to deepen their understanding of what Agroecology is and provided largley engineers with insight to working in the agricultural sector. The talk occured Wed. June 14, 2023, "Meeting Global Challenges in Food and Energy through Agro-Industrial Ecology Collaboration." 2. The panel session included participants listed below and generated great ideas, concerns, and possible paths forward, see notes and working paper. Lisa Schulte-Moore, Ph.D., Professor, Iowa State University Bill Salas, Ph.D., Chief Strategy Officer, ReGrow Nathan Ayer, Ph.D., Director of Analytical Services, EarthShift Global Mike Badzierowski, Ph.D. Soil Health Specialist, Ph.D., Oregon Department of Agriculture Panel Session Hosts: Host, academic: Dr. Chris Costello, Assistant Professor, Agricultural and Biological Engineering & Research Associate in the Rock Ethics Institute, Pennsylvania State University. Co-host, government: Dr. Kiara Winans, LCA Specialist, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality; coordination with government agency thought partners: California Air Resources Board, Climate Investments Assessment Section, and Oregon Department of Agriculture, Soil Health. Co-hosts for panel discussion workshopping session: Dr. Obste Therasme, Assistant Professor, State University of New York; Dr. Jennifer Russell, Assistant Professor, Virginia Tech; Jessica Nelson, Research Scientist, Iowa State University. 3. A total of five sessions of the conference focused on oral presentations relevant to bioeconomy research, please see conference agenda. 4. An active working session was held as described above. Notes and discussion were documented and included in subsequent working draft, to be turned into additional wriitng. 5. The ethics workshop was completed, it was a 90-minute session, designed to 'introduce participants to the conceptual foundation/s of environmental ethics and connect them to how agroecology and industrial ecology research approaches agricultural sustainability. We asked and discussed the question: what is the philosophy that shapes each field's approach to evaluating social, economic, environmental, and institutional sustainability of agricultural or bioproducts including food.' Feedback on this workshop was very positive, with 16 attendees, not including myself (PI Costello).

    Publications

    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Costello, C. 2024. Finding synergies between agroecology and industrial ecology toward sustainable agricultural systems. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development. 13(3), 23-26. https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2024.133.010