Environmental concerns due to the wide use of plastic in food packaging have become one of the most significant challenges in the world. Consequently, the research in developing sustainable materials for food packaging has accelerated. Nanocellulose-based packaging is a biodegradable, renewable, and antimicrobial material with some competitive physicochemical characteristics when compared to plastic packaging. However, there has been insufficient research on a holistic discussion of the potentials and drawbacks of nanocellulose as well as its production, applications and disposal regarding sustainability. This study aims to evaluate the application of nanocellulose in food packaging. It gives an exhaustive overview of the essential aspects from the production to disposal of nanocellulose through a literature review. Then, a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis is used to evaluate the potential and drawbacks of applying nanocellulose in food packaging. It has been observed that the physicochemical properties of nanocellulose materials have the potential to be used in food packaging with fewer negative impacts on the environment. Furthermore, it supports the top tiers of the waste hierarchy and a circular economy. However, some challenges need to be addressed to ensure the safe and effective use of nanocellulose in food packaging, including high expenses, a lack of guidelines, and potential hazards to people and the environment. To eliminate these uncertainties, more studies need to be performed on applying nanocellulose in food packaging. 

Achieving high maize yields and efficient phosphorus (P) use with limited environmental impacts is one of the greatest challenges in sustainable maize production. Increasing plant density is considered an effective approach for achieving high maize yields. However, the low mobility of P in soils and the scarcity of natural P resources have hindered the development of methods that can simultaneously optimize P use and mitigate the P-related environmental footprint at high plant densities. In this study, meta-analysis and substance flow analysis were conducted to evaluate the effects of different types of mineral P fertilizer on maize yield at varying plant densities and assess the flow of P from rock phosphate mining to P fertilizer use for maize production in China. A significantly higher yield was obtained at higher plant densities than at lower plant densities. The application of single super-phosphate, triple super-phosphate, and calcium magnesium phosphate at high plant densities resulted in higher yields and a smaller environmental footprint than the application of diammonium phosphate and monoammonium phosphate. Our scenario analyses suggest that combining the optimal P type and application rate with a high plant density could increase maize yield by 22%. Further, the P resource use efficiency throughout the P supply chain increased by 39%, whereas the P-related environmental footprint decreased by 33%. Thus, simultaneously optimizing the P type and application rate at high plant densities achieved multiple objectives during maize production, indicating that combining P management with cropping techniques is a practical approach to sustainable maize production. These findings offer strategic, synergistic options for achieving sustainable agricultural development.

Urban landscapes are high phosphorus (P) consumption areas and consequently generate substantial P-containing urban solid waste (domestic kitchen wastes, animal bones, and municipal sludge), due to large population. However, urbanization can also trap P through cultivated land loss and urban solid waste disposal. Trapped urban P is an overlooked and inaccessible P stock. Here, we studied how urbanization contributes to trapped urban P and how it affects the P cycle. We take China as a case study. Our results showed that China generated a total of 13 (±0.9) Tg urban trapped P between 1992–2019. This amounts to 6 (±0.5) % of the total consumed P and 9 (±0.6) % of the chemical fertilizer P used in China over that period. The loss of cultivated land accounted for 15% of the trapped urban P, and half of this was concentrated in three provinces: Shandong, Henan, and Hebei. This is primarily since nearly one-third of the newly expanded urban areas are located within these provinces. The remaining 85% of trapped urban P was associated with urban solid waste disposal. Our findings call for more actions to preserve fertile cultivated land and promote P recovery from urban solid waste through sound waste classification and recycling systems to minimize P trapped in urban areas.

Bimetallic gold core-silver shell (Au@Ag) surface-enhanced Raman scattering tags draw broad interest in the fields of biological and environmental analyses. Herein, an efficient hybrid microfluidic chip was designed to prepare uniform Au@Ag core-shell nanoparticles, and DTNB was used as the internal standard tag molecule to prepare Au@DTNB@Ag for SERS detection. Homogeneous core-shell nanoparticles with a particle size of 90 nm were prepared by mixing a silver precursor and a gold core in a microfluidic chip. The relative standard deviation (RSD) of the particle size distribution was close to 10%, and the detection limit of 4-MBA was as low as 10-10 M. In order to solve the influence of SERS signal fluctuation, a uniform Au@DTNB@Ag core-molecule-shell structure was synthesized in a microfluidic chip, and the characteristic peak of the analyte was corrected by the relative intensity of the DTNB characteristic peak (1335 cm−1). The experimental results showed that the SERS detection was achieved with high reproducibility, and the SERS peak intensity had a good linear correlation with the concentration. The homogeneous SERS substrate prepared using a microfluidic chip has potential for sensitive and reliable detection of environmental chemical contaminants.

Providing the world’s population with sufficient and nutritious food through sustainable food systems is a major challenge of the twenty-first century. Fertilizer use is a major driver of crop yield, but a comprehensive synthesis of the effect of fertilizer on the nutritional quality of food crops is lacking. Here we performed a comprehensive global meta-analysis using 7859 data pairs from 551 field experiment-based articles published between 1972 and 2022, assessing the contribution of fertilization with a wide set of plant nutrients to the nutritional quality of food crops (i.e., fruits, vegetables, cereals, pulses/oil crops, and sugar crops). On average, fertilizer application improved crop yield by 30.9% (CI: 28.2–33.7%) and nutritional quality (referring to all nutritionally relevant components assessed; carbohydrates, proteins, oil, vitamin C, representative mineral nutrients, and total soluble solids) by 11.9% (CI: 10.7–12.1%). The improvements were largely nutrient- and crop species dependent, with vegetables being the most responsive. Potassium, magnesium, and micronutrients played important roles in promoting crop nutritional quality, whereas the combined application of inorganic and organic source(s) had the greatest impact on quality. Desirable climatic conditions and soil properties (i.e., silt loam, soil organic matter 2.5–5.0%, and pH 4.5–8.5) supported further enhancements. Considering cross-continent responsiveness, the increase in the nutritional quality of food crops with fertilizer application was greatest in Africa. In a nutshell, our findings pave the way towards a quantitative understanding of nutrient management programs and responsible plant nutrition solutions that foster the sustainable production of nutritious and healthy food crops for human consumption.

In response to significant shifts in dietary and lifestyle preferences, the global demand for fruits has increased dramatically, especially for apples, which are consumed worldwide. Growing apple orchards of more productive and higher quality with limited land resources is the way forward. Precise planting age identification and yield prediction are indispensable for the apple market in terms of sustainable supply, price regulation, and planting management. The planting age of apple trees significantly determines productivity, quality, and yield. Therefore, we integrated the time-series spectral endmember and logistic growth model (LGM) to accurately identify the planting age of apple orchard, and we conducted planting age-driven yield prediction using a neural network model. Firstly, we fitted the time-series spectral endmember of green photosynthetic vegetation (GV) with the LGM. By using the four-points method, the environmental carrying capacity (ECC) in the LGM was available, which serves as a crucial parameter to determine the planting age. Secondly, we combined annual planting age with historical apple yield to train the back propagation (BP) neural network model and obtained the predicted apple yields for 12 counties. The results show that the LGM method can accurately estimate the orchard planting age, with Mean Absolute Error (MAE) being 1.76 and the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) being 2.24. The strong correlation between orchard planting age and apple yield was proved. The results of planting age-driven yield prediction have high accuracy, with the MAE up to 2.95% and the RMSE up to 3.71%. This study provides a novel method to accurately estimate apple orchard planting age and yields, which can support policy formulation and orchard planning in the future.

Improvements in economic profit, energy-use efficiency and environmental friendliness are critical for the sustainability of wheat production. The present study was aimed at evaluating the suitability of wheat production shifting conventional flat planting (CFH) and supplemental irrigation (SIH) with water-saving cultivation strategies [straw mulching (SML) and plastic film mulching (PFL) with 50% less N fertilizer] from economic, energy, and environmental perspectives on the Loess Plateau of China. Results showed that the PFL exhibited ∼18.5% and 12.7% higher grain yields, and 74.0% and 59.9% higher economic profit over the CFH and SML, while reduced grain yields by 9.6% retative to the SIH. Meanwhile, the economic profit and the ratio of income to cost remained consistent between the PFL and SIH. The PFL had the highest net energy out, energy use efficiency and energy productivity, but had the lowest specific energy. Compared with the SIH, the total environmental emissions final score increased by 36.6% under SML, while decreased by 24.8% under PFL. Overall, the strategy of plastic film mulching with 50% less N fertilizer has great potential to cater to the demands of wheat production with environmental sustainability on the Loess Plateau of China.

While intensive peach production has expanded rapidly in recent years, few studies have explored the environmental impacts associated with specific regional systems or the optimal management strategies to minimize associated environmental risks. Here, data from a survey of 290 native farmers were used to conduct a life cycle assessment to quantify the acidification potential (AP), global warming potential (GWP), eutrophication potential (EP), and reactive nitrogen (Nr) losses in peach production in Pinggu District, Beijing. Total annual Nr losses, and GWP, AP, and EP values for peach production in Pinggu District were respectively 10.7 kg N t−1, 857 kg CO2-eq t−1, 12.9 kg SO2-eq t−1, and 4.1 kg PO4-eq t−1. The principal driving factors were fertilizer production, transportation, and application, which together accounted for 94%, 67%, 75%, and 94% of Nr losses, GWP, AP, and EP, respectively. In the high yield, high nitrogen-use efficiency (HH) group, relative values of Nr losses, GWP, AP, and EP were respectively 33%, 25%, 39%, and 32% lower than the overall averages for 290 orchards. Further analyses indicate that improved farming practices such as decreasing application rates of fertilizers, increasing proportion of base fertilization rate, and proper fertilization frequency in the HH group were the main reasons for these orchards’ better performance in peach yields and partial factor productivity of nitrogen fertilizer, and their reduced environmental impacts. These results highlight the need to optimize nutrient management in peach production in order simultaneously to realize both environmental sustainability and high productivity in the peach production system.

International trade has led to increasing levels of economic development; however, its role in altering the global phosphorus (P) demand and local P footprint (PF) is unclear. Here, through a multi-regional input–output (MRIO) analysis, we quantified the PF associated with the global consumption of agricultural products for 159 countries and 169 crops over the period of 1995–2015. The results suggested that the international network of P flows was highly connected and the flow distribution was overridingly driven by developed economies (e.g., USA and Germany) and large emerging economies (e.g., China and India). A decoupling between the PF and economic growth was observed in most countries. The high PF per capita in developed economies was mainly driven by imports from developing countries rather than domestic P applications. Our results also highlighted that international trade had two impacts on global P management. Firstly, it reduced the total global P demand from agricultural production by 16%; secondly, it intensified the imbalance of local P consumption. Therefore, the future sustainable management of P requires consideration of the original suppliers and final consumers along the global supply chains and the associated consequences on P management from both local and global perspectives.