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Opening the black box of energy throughputs in farm systems: A decomposition analysis between the energy returns to external inputs, internal biomass reuses and total inputs consumed (the Vallès County, Catalonia, c.1860 and 1999)

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  • Tello, E.
  • Galán, E.
  • Sacristán, V.
  • Cunfer, G.
  • Guzmán, G.I.
  • González de Molina, M.
  • Krausmann, F.
  • Gingrich, S.
  • Padró, R.
  • Marco, I.
  • Moreno-Delgado, D.

Abstract

We present an energy analysis of past and present farm systems aimed to contribute to their sustainability assessment. Looking at agroecosystems as a set of energy loops between nature and society, and adopting a farm-operator standpoint at landscape level to set the system boundaries, enthalpy values of energy carriers are accounted for net Final Produce going outside as well as for Biomass Reused cycling inside, and External Inputs are accounted using embodied values. Human Labour is accounted for the fraction of the energy intake of labouring people devoted to perform farm work, considering the local or external origin of their food basket. In this approach the proportion of internal Biomass Reused becomes a hallmark of organic farm systems that tend to save External Inputs, whereas industrial farming and livestock breeding in feedlots tend to get rid of reuses replacing them with inputs coming from outside. Hence, decomposing the internal or external energy throughputs may bring to light their contrasting sociometabolic profiles. A Catalan case study in 1860 and 1990 is used as a test bench to show how revealing this decomposing analysis may be to plot the energy profiles of farm systems and their possible improvement pathways.

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  • Tello, E. & Galán, E. & Sacristán, V. & Cunfer, G. & Guzmán, G.I. & González de Molina, M. & Krausmann, F. & Gingrich, S. & Padró, R. & Marco, I. & Moreno-Delgado, D., 2016. "Opening the black box of energy throughputs in farm systems: A decomposition analysis between the energy returns to external inputs, internal biomass reuses and total inputs consumed (the Vallès Count," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 160-174.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:121:y:2016:i:c:p:160-174
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2015.11.012
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    Cited by:

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    3. Guzmán, Gloria Isabel & Fernández, David Soto & Aguilera, Eduardo & Infante-Amate, Juan & de Molina, Manuel González, 2022. "The close relationship between biophysical degradation, ecosystem services and family farms decline in Spanish agriculture (1992–2017)," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    4. Elen Presotto & Gabrielli Martinelli & Gabriela Allegretti & Edson Talamini, 2021. "Energy Efficiency, Monetary Costs, and Sustainability of Brazilian Rainfed and Irrigated Rice Cropping Systems," Biophysical Economics and Resource Quality, Springer, vol. 6(3), pages 1-14, September.
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    6. David Pérez-Neira & Marta Soler-Montiel & Rosario Gutiérrez-Peña & Yolanda Mena-Guerrero, 2018. "Energy Assessment of Pastoral Dairy Goat Husbandry from an Agroecological Economics Perspective. A Case Study in Andalusia (Spain)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-20, August.
    7. Kander, Astrid & Warde, Paul & Teives Henriques, Sofia & Nielsen, Hana & Kulionis, Viktoras & Hagen, Sven, 2017. "International Trade and Energy Intensity During European Industrialization, 1870–1935," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 33-44.
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    9. Claudio Cattaneo & Joan Marull & Enric Tello, 2018. "Landscape Agroecology. The Dysfunctionalities of Industrial Agriculture and the Loss of the Circular Bioeconomy in the Barcelona Region, 1956–2009," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-22, December.
    10. LaRota-Aguilera, María José & Delgadillo-Vargas, Olga Lucía & Tello, Enric, 2022. "Sociometabolic research in Latin America: A review on advances and knowledge gaps in agroecological trends and rural perspectives," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
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    13. Marco, I. & Padró, R. & Tello, E., 2020. "Dialogues on nature, class and gender: Revisiting socio-ecological reproduction in past organic advanced agriculture (Sentmenat, Catalonia, 1850)," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    14. Hana Nielsen, 2018. "Industrial Intensification and Energy Embodied in Trade: Long‐Run Energy Perspective of the Planned Economy of Czechoslovakia," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 22(6), pages 1436-1450, December.
    15. Padró, R. & Marco, I. & Font, C. & Tello, E., 2019. "Beyond Chayanov: A sustainable agroecological farm reproductive analysis of peasant domestic units and rural communities (Sentmenat; Catalonia, 1860)," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 227-239.
    16. Warner, Kevin J. & Jones, Glenn A., 2017. "A population-induced renewable energy timeline in nine world regions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 65-76.

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