Community-supported agriculture (CSA) has emerged as a pivotal model for sustainable and humanistic agricultural practices, emphasizing the symbiotic relationship between food production, consumption, and sustainable ecosystems. Despite the growing interest, a comprehensive analysis of research themes and trends within the CSA framework remains sparse. This paper undertakes a systematic review of CSA literature from 1999 to 2023, identifying evolving research hotspots, dominant themes, and prospective directions by keyword analysis to corroborate Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory. The research analysis location is categorized into four temporal phases, revealing a geographical expansion from North America to encompass Asia, Africa, and other continents. This expansion corroborates Maslow’s theory, illustrating a global shift from fulfilling basic physiological needs towards recognizing sustainable practices, particularly in developing regions. The results of temporal trends (5 phases) and the hotspots of keyword analysis support each other by showing a societal shift from basic sustenance to a deeper understanding of nutrition and diet. Most of the recent research keywords are grouped into the “environment” and “health and education” categories, indicating an increasing emphasis on transforming the food system and nutrition education. This review suggests conducting an integrated analysis that links the various stages of the food supply chain with the criteria outlined in the Sustainable Agriculture Matrix (SAM). It highlights that the “environment” theme is a stage of building up esteem and self-realization that needs to be unfolded in the future, given that most research on community-supported agriculture (CSA) focuses on the “economy and society” aspect and consumption stage, which burnish self-morality in the theory of Maslow. Overall, this review proposes an analysis of the relevance among different subject categories and between food supply chain stages, which reveals that the trend of research under CSA development is accorded to the theory of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and calls for a more holistic approach to agricultural research that considers ecological, health, and social imperatives.

The persistent issue of odor nuisance poses significant challenges to the sustainable development of livestock farming. While previous studies have primarily focused on individual gas concentrations, a comprehensive understanding of overall odor impact based on human perception remains limited. This study introduces a novel perspective by employing the odor activity value (OAV)—calculated from the ratio of gas concentration to its olfactory threshold—to evaluate the actual odor contribution of various compounds. Through a meta-analysis of data from 123 papers, we systematically assessed odor emission characteristics and mitigation strategies across different manure management stages. The results indicated that ammonia (NH₃) (with maximum concentration of 8056 ppm) and hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) (with maximum concentration of 20,057 ppm) were the most concentrated odor components in the whole manure management links. However, considering the olfactory threshold, trimethylamine (TMA) (with OAVmax 380800), H₂S (with OAVmax 48919512), butyric acid (with OAVmax 801684), and aldehydes (with OAVmax 11707) played major odor-causing roles. Notably, biological methods (83%), covering (77%), and additives (39%) were the most efficient odor mitigation strategies in the barn, manure storage, and manure treatment link, respectively. Therefore, employing the OAV-based approach is crucial for identifying priority pollutants and developing targeted control strategies across different livestock species and management stages, ultimately guiding more effective odor mitigation and healthier cohabitation.

Growing green manure, as a sustainable agricultural practice, is widely recognized for its role in improving soil structure and enhancing soil quality. However, despite the significant benefits of green manure, research on how its application specifically influences soil organic carbon content remains insufficient, especially in the context of complex and ever-changing agricultural management models and ecological environments. In this study, 59 papers published from January 1980 to May 2024 were collected, and a database containing 299 groups of comprehensive effects of green manure planting on soil organic carbon content and crop yield, as well as its key regulatory factors, through a meta-analysis system. The research is mainly conducted through several key elements types of green manure, planting seasons, fallow periods of food crops, soil types, climate types, and planting years. The results show that compared with not growing green manure on fallow land, the cultivation of green manure significantly increased the soil organic carbon content (by 6.98%) and the yield of the next staple food crop (by 10.36%). In different planting seasons, both summer and winter planting of green manure can effectively increase the soil organic carbon (SOC) content and crop yield. Among them, the application effect during the fallow period of wheat and rice is particularly significant, while during the fallow period of maize, only the SOC content increases significantly. From the perspective of green manure types, both the single species of leguminous and the mixed species with cruciferous have shown good effects. The research also found that under soil types such as loam and clay loam, as well as climatic conditions like temperate continental climate, temperate monsoon climate, and subtropical monsoon climate, the effect of green manure planting on the increase of SOC and yield is more significant. In addition, the planting years are also an important influencing factor. Green manure planting for ≤3 a or >5 a can significantly improve the SOC content and crop yield. These findings provide important theoretical support for the scientific application and promotion of green manure in China.

Construction of a multifactor barrier evaluation system and classification of barrier types for arable land on the northern Huang-Huai-Hai Plain

Northeast China’s black soil region serves as a critical cornerstone of national food security, yet accelerating soil degradation, characterized by declining soil organic matter (SOM) and rising bulk density (BD), threatens the productive capacity of its farmland. Understanding how soil physicochemical properties regulate crop yields in this ecologically heterogeneous landscape is essential for sustainable agricultural development. Here, 2916 soil samples from 201 counties across six ecological zones were analyzed in conjunction with county-level rice and maize yield records. Our findings revealed that crop yield determinants are fundamentally governed by regional resource endowment characteristics rather than uniform factors. In areas characterized by sandy soil texture, low precipitation (1.34 g cm⁻³) and alkaline soil conditions (pH > 7.0) constitute the primary constraints to productivity through restricting root development. Conversely, in regions with fertile mollisols and high baseline soil organic matter (SOM > 40 g kg⁻¹), nutrient dynamics emerge as the dominant yield-regulating factors. For volcanic soil landscapes with strong phosphorus fixation capacity, available phosphorus deficiency represents the critical bottleneck for maize production. Path analysis further demonstrates that BD and pH operate predominantly through indirect mechanisms, modulating SOM accumulation and nutrient cycling rather than directly constraining yield. Threshold analysis identified that BD exceeding 1.34 g cm⁻³ and SOM below 26 g kg⁻¹ markedly reduce productivity, while SOM levels above 40 g kg⁻¹ yield diminishing marginal returns. These findings advance our mechanistic understanding and provide scientific foundations for spatially differentiated soil conservation and precision nutrient management strategies essential for sustaining grain production capacity in northeast China’s black soil region.

The Jing-Jin-Ji region in China has highly intensive agriculture but faces challenges of feed protein shortage and manure surplus, threatening environmental sustainability and industrial development. The black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) is a promising sustainable feed protein source, capable of efficiently converting organic waste into high-quality insect protein to alleviate feed scarcity while mitigating waste pollution. Existing research on black soldier fly (BSF) treatment in this area is limited, lacking comprehensive benefit evaluations. This study, conducted in Hebei Province, integrated sub-county-scale manure resource mapping, life cycle assessment, and economic assessment to compare traditional composting with BSF-based manure management. Results show BSF treatment can produce 0.36 to 0.39 teragrams (Tg) of feed protein per year. Compared with conventional composting, BSF treatment reduced direct manure-treatment emissions, while additional mitigation benefits were obtained through feed-protein substitution, fertilizer substitution, and BECCS-related land-use savings. Overall, the BSF scenarios achieved a total GHG mitigation potential of 2.85–6.19 Tg CO₂eq yr⁻¹. Economically, low-technology BSF production is cost-competitive, with a total cost of $121 for treating 1 ton of fresh chicken manure. With its protein output roughly doubling the local soybean production capacity, BSF technology provides a viable, low-carbon solution to the dual challenges of feed security and waste management in intensive agricultural systems.