Environmental Impact of Livestock Production and Mitigation Strategies

Dear Colleagues,

Livestock is an important food source for humans; however, livestock production is considered to be a significant anthropogenic cause of negative environmental impacts. Atmospheric emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) and ammonia (NH₃), combined with releases of substances (like nitrates, phosphorus, heavy metals) to water and soil, are the main pollutants linked to livestock activities that negatively affect the environment. The need to address emissions deriving from livestock production is of primary importance to combating climate change and achieving the goals of sustainable development.

Each stage of livestock production (housing, manure storage, manure land application) is characterized by specific emissions, and several solutions can be adopted for their containment.

This Special Issue will highlight these innovative solutions by focusing on (among others):

• Techniques or methodologies for monitoring emissions to the atmosphere, water and soil
• Economic and social assessments of encouraging farmers to adopt sustainable practices
• Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) to assess innovative solutions that increase the sustainability of livestock production
• Techniques or management solutions to reduce emissions during housing or field application of livestock effluents
• Improving the agronomic use of recycled nutrients. Precision farming and other innovations to increase crop fertilization efficiency.
• Alternative uses and new markets for manure valorization
• Treatment systems for renewable energy production or to rebalance the nutrient content of livestock manure.

Although several studies have been published on these topics, there is still a need for innovative solutions for a whole system approach to environmental impact assessment and mitigation in livestock farming. The Special Issue will provide a coherent platform for this information.

Prof. Dr. Giorgio Provolo
Dr. Alberto Finzi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.