b'EXTRASHIGH SOCIAL AND ECOLOGICAL STANDARDSCities have emerged as crucial actors in the global food FOR CHOCOLATE security geography: today they occupy approximately only 3% of the total land, but the number of people living in urban areas Worldwide demand for food from the tropics that meets highersurpassed for the first time the number of people living in rural environmental and social standards has risen sharply in recentareas, and urban contexts are therefore the biggest source of years. Consumers often have to make ethically questionable deci- post-consumption food waste, using between 70% and 80% of sions: products may be available to the global market throughworld\'s food.child labour, starvation wages or environmental destruction. Building on an interdisciplinary project in Peru, an interna-tional research team with the participation of the University ofGLOBAL FOOD PRODUCTION THREATENS THE Gttingen has now published an overview article on the transi- CLIMATEtion to responsible, high-quality cocoa production. Chocolate is made from cocoa beans, and because cocoa is originally fromConcentration of dinitrogen oxide - also referred to as nitrous Peru, using indigenous varieties means a premium price can beoxide - in the atmosphere increases strongly and speeds up cli-charged. A large cooperative for small-holder farmers in north- mate change. In addition to CO2 and methane, it is the third ern Peru stands for social and ecological improvements withimportant greenhouse gas emitted due to anthropogenic activi-the help of organic and fair-trade certification, as well as theties. Human-made nitrous oxide emissions are mainly caused by cultivation of native varieties in species-rich cocoa agroforestrythe use of fertilizers in agriculture. Growing demand for food and systems. The work was published as a Perspective article in thefeed in future might further increase the emissions. This is one journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution. finding of an international study published in Nature, in which Shade trees in traditional cocoa agroforestry systemsKarlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) was one of the partners. improve conditions for cocoa growth and promote biodiversity,Dinitrogen oxide (N2O), also called nitrous oxide, is about for instance of birds. However, these trees are increasingly being300 times as climate-damaging as carbon dioxide. It stays for removed to increase productivity, even though moderate, partialabout 120 years in the atmosphere. Although it exists in the shade does not significantly reduce productivity. In addition,form of traces only, it has a very strong greenhouse effect and proven high-yielding varieties are imported, although there aresuperproportionally contributes to anthropogenic climate unique indigenous varieties in Peru that may be associated withchange. Nitrous oxide concentration in the atmosphere today a particular trade advantage. The researchers\' project group isalready is about 20% higher than the pre-industrial value. In working together with the cooperative Norandino Ltda. in Piura,past decades, increase has accelerated due to emissions from northern Peru, which is committed to working towards devel- various anthropogenic activities. In total, worldwide N2O emis-oping high social and ecological standards. It represents 5,400sions in 2016 were about ten percent higher than those of the smallholder farmers and stands for sustainable production that1980s. An international study coordinated by researchers from pursues both ecological and economic goals. Furthermore, theAuburn University in Alabama/USA now presents the most com-cooperative is committed to fighting all forms of discrimination.prehensive evaluation of all nitrous oxide sources and sinks so The result is ecologically certified and fair-trade chocolate of afar. Under the title "A comprehensive quantification of global high standard, which achieves up to twice the regular marketnitrous oxide sources and sinks," it is now reported in Nature. price, protects smallholder farmers against market fluctuationsThe conclusion: As a result of strongly increasing nitrous oxide and moves towards the greater use of local cocoa bean varietiesemissions, the climate goals of the Paris Agreement are at stake.in the future.THOSE FUNKY CHEESE SMELLS ALLOW FOOD WASTE: CITIES CAN MAKE THEMICROBES TO \'TALK\' TO AND FEED EACH OTHERDIFFERENCEResearchers at Tufts University have found that those distinctly Food waste is one of the most important issues of current foodfunky smells from cheese are one way that fungi communicate systems: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has esti- with bacteria, and what they are saying has a lot to do with the mated that more than one third of food is either lost or wasteddelicious variety of flavors that cheese has to offer. The research along the entire food supply chain causing significant economic,team found that common bacteria essential to ripening cheese social and environmental impacts. can sense and respond to compounds produced by fungi in the From an environmental point of view, food waste repre- rind and released into the air, enhancing the growth of some sents between 8% and 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions,species of bacteria over others. The composition of bacteria, and the annual water footprint of the agricultural phase of foodyeast and fungi that make up the cheese microbiome is critical to waste is about 250 km3, five times the volume of Lake Garda andflavor and quality of the cheese, so figuring out how that can be higher than any national food consumption water footprint. Thecontrolled or modified adds science to the art of cheese making.IPCC Special Report Climate Change and Land (2018) estimatesThe discovery, published in Environmental Microbiology, that 37% of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are attrib- also provides a model for the understanding and modification of utable to the food system considering its complete cycle, fromother economically and clinically important microbiomes, such agriculture and land use, storage, transport, packaging, pro- as in soil or the gastrointestinal tract.cessing, retail, consumption and waste. In the European Union (EU), 88 million tons of food waste are generated each year (i.e., 173 kg per capita) with significant economic, environmental and social impacts. It has been estimated that 15-16% of the total environmental impact of the food supply chain in Europe can be attributed to food waste.38IEUROPEAN SEEDIEUROPEAN-SEED.COM'