Background: On behalf of the Government of Canada, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) undertakes research to achieve security of the food system, health of the environment and innovation for growth. Within this broad mandate, an important objective is to assess and to manage the risks to environmental quality and public health created by agriculture. We are therefore focussing our current research efforts on developing the life cycle assessment capabilities of the Holos model in order to
provide producer, producer groups, and scientists with a tool to assess the energy efficiency of Canadian farming systems, an estimate that will contribute to the accuracy of carbon footprint calculations and to assessing environmental footprints.
Description of the post-doctoral work: The successful candidate will focus on creating a life cycle inventory with respect to Canadian farm energy use for the Holos model, an AAFC farm-level greenhouse gas calculator intended for development as an environmental impact tool. To start, the candidate will revisit existing farm energy models (e.g., GHGenius and F4E2), and use the gained insight to improve farm machine use considerations (energy use, GHG emissions) within the Holos model. This involves assessing the types of energy used in consultation with the Holos development team. The candidate will build an energy budget (in- vs. outputs), based on understanding gleaned from scientific
literature and other sources. The candidate will report findings to collaborating scientists and at Holos workshops. Scientific publications will focus on a) life cycle inventory building, b) model development, and c) scenario analysis. The candidate will join the HOLOS development team at the Lethbridge Research Centre.