Assessing the energy trap of industrial agriculture in North America and Europe: 82 balances from 1830 to 2012

Early energy analyses of agriculture revealed that behind higher labor and land productivity of industrial farming, there was a decrease in energy returns on energy (EROI) invested, in comparison to more traditional organic agricultural systems. Studies on recent trends show that efficiency gains in...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Authors: Tello, Enric, Sacristán, Vera, Olarieta, José Ramón, Cattaneo, Claudio, Marull, Joan, Pons, Manel, Gingrich, Simone, Krausmann, Fridolin, Galán, Elena
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2023
Country:España
Institution:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repository:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:10459.1/464576
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-023-00925-5
https://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/464576
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Agricultural systems
Agroecosystem
Circularity
Dietary transition
Boscos i silvicultura
id ES_a95732fbbbfbeb664b59e94cfb9f5bc1
oai_identifier_str oai:recercat.cat:10459.1/464576
network_acronym_str ES
network_name_str España
repository_id_str
spelling Assessing the energy trap of industrial agriculture in North America and Europe: 82 balances from 1830 to 2012Tello, EnricSacristán, VeraOlarieta, José RamónCattaneo, ClaudioMarull, JoanPons, ManelGingrich, SimoneKrausmann, FridolinGalán, ElenaAgricultural systemsAgroecosystemCircularityDietary transitionBoscos i silviculturaEarly energy analyses of agriculture revealed that behind higher labor and land productivity of industrial farming, there was a decrease in energy returns on energy (EROI) invested, 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.Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. This research was supported by the international Partnership Grant SSHRC-895-2011-1020 on “Sustainable farm systems: long-term socioecological metabolism in western agriculture” funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, together with other matching contributions such as the Spanish project PID2021-123129NB-C4 and the European Research Council (ERC-2017-StG 757995 HEFT).Springer-Verlag Italia s.r.l.2023info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionhttps://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-023-00925-5https://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/464576reponame:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunyainstname:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)InglésReproducció del document publicat a https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-023-00925-5Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 2023, vol. 43, núm. 6, p. 1-19cc-by (c) Tello et al., 2023Attribution 4.0 Internationalinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/oai:recercat.cat:10459.1/4645762026-05-29T05:05:01Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Assessing the energy trap of industrial agriculture in North America and Europe: 82 balances from 1830 to 2012
title Assessing the energy trap of industrial agriculture in North America and Europe: 82 balances from 1830 to 2012
spellingShingle Assessing the energy trap of industrial agriculture in North America and Europe: 82 balances from 1830 to 2012
Tello, Enric
Agricultural systems
Agroecosystem
Circularity
Dietary transition
Boscos i silvicultura
title_short Assessing the energy trap of industrial agriculture in North America and Europe: 82 balances from 1830 to 2012
title_full Assessing the energy trap of industrial agriculture in North America and Europe: 82 balances from 1830 to 2012
title_fullStr Assessing the energy trap of industrial agriculture in North America and Europe: 82 balances from 1830 to 2012
title_full_unstemmed Assessing the energy trap of industrial agriculture in North America and Europe: 82 balances from 1830 to 2012
title_sort Assessing the energy trap of industrial agriculture in North America and Europe: 82 balances from 1830 to 2012
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Tello, Enric
Sacristán, Vera
Olarieta, José Ramón
Cattaneo, Claudio
Marull, Joan
Pons, Manel
Gingrich, Simone
Krausmann, Fridolin
Galán, Elena
author Tello, Enric
author_facet Tello, Enric
Sacristán, Vera
Olarieta, José Ramón
Cattaneo, Claudio
Marull, Joan
Pons, Manel
Gingrich, Simone
Krausmann, Fridolin
Galán, Elena
author_role author
author2 Sacristán, Vera
Olarieta, José Ramón
Cattaneo, Claudio
Marull, Joan
Pons, Manel
Gingrich, Simone
Krausmann, Fridolin
Galán, Elena
author2_role author
author
author
author
author
author
author
author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Agricultural systems
Agroecosystem
Circularity
Dietary transition
Boscos i silvicultura
topic Agricultural systems
Agroecosystem
Circularity
Dietary transition
Boscos i silvicultura
description Early energy analyses of agriculture revealed that behind higher labor and land productivity of industrial farming, there was a decrease in energy returns on energy (EROI) invested, 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.
publishDate 2023
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2023
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-023-00925-5
https://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/464576
url https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-023-00925-5
https://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/464576
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv Reproducció del document publicat a https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-023-00925-5
Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 2023, vol. 43, núm. 6, p. 1-19
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv cc-by (c) Tello et al., 2023
Attribution 4.0 International
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
rights_invalid_str_mv cc-by (c) Tello et al., 2023
Attribution 4.0 International
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Springer-Verlag Italia s.r.l.
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Springer-Verlag Italia s.r.l.
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
instname:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
instname_str Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
reponame_str Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
collection Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
_version_ 1869416012553650176
score 15,811543

Similar Items