Assessing the energy trap of industrial agriculture in North America and Europe : 82 balances from 1830 to 2012
Tello, Enric (Universitat de Barcelona)
Sacristán, Vera (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya.)
Olarieta, José R. (Universitat de Lleida.)
Cattaneo, Claudio (Masaryk University. Studies)
Marull, Joan (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
Pons, Manel (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
Gingrich, Simone (BOKU University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences)
Krausmann, Fridolin (BOKU University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences)
Galán, Elena (Universidad del País Vasco)
Marco, Inés (Independent professional researchers, Barcelona, Spain)
Padró i Caminal, Roc (Department of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda, Government of Catalonia)
Guzmán, Gloria I. (Pablo de Olavide University. Agroecosystems History Laboratory)
González de Molina, Manuel (Universidad Pablo de Olavide)
Cunfer, Geoff (University of Saskatchewan.)
MacFadyen, Joshua (University of Prince Edward Island. Faculty of Arts)
Fraňková, Eva (Masaryk University.)
Aguilera, Eduardo (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.)
Infante-Amate, Juan (Universidad de Granada.)
Urrego-Mesa, Alexander (Universidad de Granada.)
Soto, David (University of Santiago de Compostela.)
Parcerisas, Lluis (Marianopolis College.)
Dupras, Jérôme (Université du Québec.)
Díez-Sanjuán, Lucía (BOKU University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences.)
Caravaca, Jonathan (Independent professional researchers, Barcelona, Spain)
Gómez, Laura (Independent professional researchers, Barcelona, Spain)
Fullana, Onofre (University of the Balearic Islands.)
Murray, Ivan (University of the Balearic Islands.)
Jover, Gabriel (Universitat de Girona)
Cussó i Segura, Xavier (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament d'Economia i d'Història Econòmica)
Garrabou, Ramon 1937- (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament d'Economia i d'Història Econòmica)

Data:	2023
Resum:	Early energy analyses of agriculture revealed that behind higher labor and land productivity of industrial farming, there was a decrease in energy returns on the energy invested (EROI), in comparison to more traditional organic agricultural systems. Studies on recent trends show that efficiency gains in production and use of inputs have again somewhat improved energy returns. However, most of these agricultural energy studies have focused only on external inputs at the crop level, concealing the important role of internal biomass flows that livestock and forestry recirculate within agroecosystems. Here, we synthesize the results of 82 farm systems in North America and Europe from 1830 to 2012 that for the first time show the changing energy profiles of agroecosystems, including livestock and forestry, with a multi-EROI approach that accounts for the energy returns on external inputs, on internal biomass reuses, and on all inputs invested. With this historical circular bioeconomic approach, we found a general trend towards much lower external returns, little or no increases in internal returns, and almost no improvement in total returns. This "energy trap" was driven by shifts towards a growing dependence of crop production on fossil-fueled external inputs, much more intensive livestock production based on feed grains, less forestry, and a structural disintegration of agroecosystem components by increasingly linear industrial farm managements. We conclude that overcoming the energy trap requires nature-based solutions to reduce current dependence on fossil-fueled external industrial inputs and increase the circularity and complexity of agroecosystems to provide healthier diets with less animal products.
Ajuts:	European Commission ERC-2017-StG 757995 HEFT Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación PID2021-123129NB-C4
Nota:	Altres ajuts: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
Drets:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Llengua:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Matèria:	Agricultural systems ; EROI (energy return on energy investment) ; Agroecosystem ; Circularity ; Socioecological transition ; Dietary transition ; Forest transition
Publicat a:	Agronomy for Sustainable Development, Vol. 43 (november 2023) , ISSN 1773-0155

DOI: 10.1007/s13593-023-00925-5
PMID: 37969112

19 p, 2.3 MB

El registre apareix a les col·leccions:
Articles > Articles de recerca
Articles > Articles publicats