Assessing the energy trap of industrial agriculture in North America and Europe: 82 balances from 1830 to 2012
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14230%2F23%3A00132197" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14230/23:00132197 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13593-023-00925-5" target="_blank" >https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13593-023-00925-5</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13593-023-00925-5" target="_blank" >10.1007/s13593-023-00925-5</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Assessing the energy trap of industrial agriculture in North America and Europe: 82 balances from 1830 to 2012
Original language 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.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
J<sub>imp</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
10511 - Environmental sciences (social aspects to be 5.7)
Result continuities
Project
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Continuities
S - Specificky vyzkum na vysokych skolach
Others
Publication year
2023
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Agronomy for Sustainable Development
ISSN
1774-0746
e-ISSN
1773-0155
Volume of the periodical
43
Issue of the periodical within the volume
6
Country of publishing house
FR - FRANCE
Number of pages
19
Pages from-to
1-19
UT code for WoS article
001098771800002
EID of the result in the Scopus database
2-s2.0-85176137298