The US consumer phosphorus footprint: where do nitrogen and phosphorus diverge?

Phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) are essential nutrients for food production but their excess use in agriculture can have major social costs, particularly related to water quality degradation. Nutrient footprint approaches estimate N and P release to the environment through food production and waste management and enable linking these emissions to particular consumption patterns. Following an established method for quantifying a consumer-oriented N footprint for the United States (U.S.), we calculate an analogous P footprint and assess the N:P ratio across different stages of food production and consumption. Circa 2012, the average consumers P footprint was 4.4 kg P capita(-1) yr(-1) compared to 22.4 kg N capita(-1) yr(-1) for the food portion of the N footprint. Animal products have the largest contribution to both footprints, comprising >70% of the average per capita N and P footprints. The N:P ratio of environmental release based on virtual nutrient factors (kilograms N or P per kilogram of food consumed) varies considerably across food groups and stages. The overall N:P ratio of the footprints was lower (5.2 by mass) than for that of U.S. food consumption (8.6), reinforcing our finding that P is managed less efficiently than N in food production systems but more efficiently removed from wastewater. While strategies like reducing meat consumption will effectively reduce both N and P footprints by decreasing overall synthetic fertilizer nutrient demands, consideration of how food production and waste treatment differentially affect N and P releases to the environment can also inform eutrophication management.Funding Agencies|National Academies of Science Research Associateship Program through US EPA [CQ-83557701]; Trottier Institute for Science and Public Policy (TISPP); Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada; NSF INFEWS grant [NSF EAR1639458]