Ecological unequal exchange: Evidence from imbalanced cropland soil erosion and agricultural value-added embodied in global agricultural trade

The cropland soil erosion (CSE), a major driver of land degradation and water pollution, is directly caused by agricultural production processes driven by food demand in a globalized food market. However, it is essential to determine what role global trade and agricultural value chains play in regional CSE, especially when imbalanced erosion is embodied in global agricultural trade. In this study, the Revised Universal Soil and Water Loss Equation and the Environment Expanded Multi Region Input-Output Model were used to quantify the global distribution of CSE and the value added in global agricultural value chains to identify trade imbalances. We introduce the Local Environmental Coefficient, the Regional Environmental Coefficient, and the Agricultural Trade Environment Inequality (AEI) index, which were used to analyze the overall and bilateral inequalities in agricultural trade among the world’s regions. The results showed that 34.65 % of the global CSE was embodied in international trade, whereas the ratio of the value added was 30.80 %. The global trade in agricultural products is generally unbalanced, as indicated by the AEI index of developed regions such as Norway and Japan, which is more than 30 times higher than that of regions such as China and Brazil, and more than 20 times higher than the global average. In terms of bilateral trade, China, the United States, and Brazil face more prominent imbalances in their international trade. Major agricultural producers generally bear more environmental costs with less value-added benefits in trade. This study quantifies, for the first time, the implied imbalances of CSE transfer in agricultural trade. Global ecological governance thus requires accountability from all regions, especially in an era of increasing globalization of agricultural trade. Timely adoption of ecological compensation and technology transfer for both large agricultural producers and less-developed regions are key to achieving sustainable global agricultural production.