Energy in agroecosystems: a tool for assessing sustainability

471 Pages·2017·10.14 MB·English

by  Casado

ENERGY IN
AGROECOSYSTEMS
A TOOL FOR ASSESSING SUSTAINABILITY
Advances in Agroecology
Series Editor: Clive A. Edwards
Agroecology in China: Science, Practice, and Sustainable Management,
Luo Shiming and Stephen R. Gliessman
Agroecology: A Transdisciplinary, Participatory and Action-Oriented Approach,
V. Ernesto Méndez, Christopher M. Bacon, Roseann Cohen, and Stephen R. Gliessman
Agroecology, Ecosystems, and Sustainability, Noureddine Benkeblia
Agroecosystems in a Changing Climate, Paul C.D. Newton, R. Andrew Carran,
Grant R. Edwards, and Pascal A. Niklaus
Agroecosystem Sustainability: Developing Practical Strategies, Stephen R. Gliessman
Agroforestry in Sustainable Agricultural Systems, Louise E. Buck, James P. Lassoie,
and Erick C.M. Fernandes
Biodiversity in Agroecosystems, Wanda Williams Collins and Calvin O. Qualset
The Conversion to Sustainable Agriculture: Principles, Processes, and Practices,
Stephen R. Gliessman and Martha Rosemeyer
Energy in Agroecosystems: A Tool for Assessing Sustainability,
Gloria I. Guzmán Casado and Manuel González de Molina
Global Economic and Environmental Aspects of Biofuels, David Pimentel
Integrated Assessment of Health and Sustainability of Agroecosystems, Thomas Gitau,
Margaret W. Gitau, and David Waltner-Toews
Interactions between Agroecosystems and Rural Communities, Cornelia Flora
Land Use Intensification: Effects on Agriculture, Biodiversity, and Ecological Processes,
David Lindenmayer, Saul Cunningham, and Andrew Young
Landscape Ecology in Agroecosystems Management, Lech Ryszkowski
Microbial Ecology in Sustainable Agroecosystems, Tanya Cheeke, David C. Coleman,
and Diana H. Wall
Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Agroecosystems, Mario Giampietro
Soil Ecology in Sustainable Agricultural Systems, Lijbert Brussaard and Ronald Ferrera-Cerrato
Soil Organic Matter in Sustainable Agriculture, Fred Magdoff and Ray R. Weil
Soil Tillage in Agroecosystems, Adel El Titi
Structure and Function in Agroecosystem Design and Management,
Masae Shiyomi and Hiroshi Koizumi
Sustainable Agriculture and New Biotechnologies, Noureddine Benkeblia
Sustainable Agroecosystem Management: Integrating Ecology, Economics and Society,
Patrick J. Bohlen and Gar House
Tropical Agroecosystems, John H. Vandermeer
Advisory Board
Editor-in-Chief
Clive A. Edwards, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
Editorial Board
Miguel Altieri, University of California, Berkeley, California
Patrick J. Bohlen, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida
Lijbert Brussaard, Agricultural University, Wageningen, The Netherlands
David Coleman, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia
D.A. Crossley, Jr., University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia
Adel El-Titi, Stuttgart, Germany
Charles A. Francis, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska
Stephen R. Gliessman, University of California, Santa Cruz, California
Thurman Grove, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina
Maurizio Paoletti, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
David Pimentel, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
Masae Shiyomi, Ibaraki University, Mito, Japan
Sir Colin R.W. Spedding, Berkshire, England
Moham K. Wali, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

ENERGY IN
AGROECOSYSTEMS
A TOOL FOR ASSESSING SUSTAINABILITY
Gloria I. Guzmán Casado
Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Seville, Spain
Manuel González de Molina
Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Seville, Spain
Boca Raton London New York
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Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data
Names: Guzmán Casado, Gloria I., editor. | González de Molina Navarro,
Manuel, editor.
Title: Energy in agroecosystems : a tool for assessing sustainability /
edited by Gloria Isabel Guzmán Casado and Manuel González de Molina.
Description: New York : Taylor & Francis, 2017. | Series: Advances in
agroecology
Identifiers: LCCN 2016027442 (print) | LCCN 2016041545 (ebook) | ISBN
9781498774765 (hardback) | ISBN 9781315317465 (E-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Agriculture and energy. | Sustainable agriculture. |
Agricultural ecology.
Classification: LCC S494.5.E5 E536 2016 (print) | LCC S494.5.E5 (ebook) | DDC
577.5/5--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016027442
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Contents
Foreword ...................................................................................................................ix
Editors ....................................................................................................................xiii
Contributors .............................................................................................................xv
Introduction ............................................................................................................xvii
Part I
Concept and Methods
Gloria I. Guzmán and Manuel González de Molina
Chapter 1
The Energetic Metabolism of Human Societies ........................................................3
Chapter 2
How to Measure Energy Efficiency in Agroecosystems .........................................33
Chapter 3
The Output Side: Calculating the Net Primary Productivity
and Its Components..................................................................................................57
Chapter 4
The Input Side: Calculating the Embodied Energy of Agricultural Inputs .............79
Eduardo Aguilera, Gloria I. Guzmán, Juan Infante, David Soto, and
Manuel González de Molina
Part II
Case Studies
Chapter 5
Diachronic Analysis at a Local Scale: Santa Fe, Spain .........................................111
Chapter 6
Diachronic Analysis at a National Scale: Spanish Agriculture, 1900–2008 .........133
Gloria I. Guzmán, Manuel González de Molina, David Soto Fernández,
Juan Infante-Amate, and Eduardo Aguilera Fernández
Chapter 7
Energy Return on Investment in Traditional and Modern Agricultures:
Coffee Agroecosystems in Costa Rica from an Agroecological
Perspective (1935–2010) ........................................................................................157
Juan Infante-Amate, Wilson Picado, and Gloria I. Guzmán
vii
viii CONTENTS
Chapter 8
Organic Farming: Between the Relocation of Energy Flows and
Input Replacement.................................................................................................177
Gloria I. Guzmán and Marta Astier
Chapter 9
Energy in Agroecosystems: A Tool for the Sustainable Design of Extensive
Livestock Farms .....................................................................................................197
Gloria I. Guzmán, Eduardo Aguilera, Leticia Paludo Vargas, and
Romina Iodice
Chapter 10
A Few Useful Conclusions for the Design of Sustainable Agroecosystems ..........227
Appendix I .............................................................................................................239
Appendix II ............................................................................................................317
References ..............................................................................................................401
Index ......................................................................................................................441
Foreword
Agroecology is deeply enriched by interaction and communication between
disciplines and different systems of knowledge. This interactive enrichment is called
transdisciplinarity. I remember sitting in a room full of graduate students from Latin
America and Spain listening to Manuel González de Molina (Manolo), a historian,
and Eduardo Sevilla Guzmán, a rural sociologist, lead a discussion on agroecology.
This took place at La Rábida, a center of the Universidad Internacional de Andalucía
near Huelva in southern Spain. The year was 1996, and I had been invited to pres-
ent my ecologically based focus on agroecology in a master’s program entitled
“Agroecology: A Sustainable Approach for Ecological Agriculture.” The students in
the course came primarily from backgrounds in agronomy, with a few from sociol-
ogy and anthropology, and at the time agroecology was a newly emerging focus for
graduate study.
It was amazing to me as an agroecologist to share concepts and understanding
with González de Molina who approached agriculture from the point of view of a
historian with a focus on agroecosystem change over time. I was also impressed by
Guzmán’s views as a Marxist who was deeply moved by the imbalance of power
(political, economic, and social) that had come about in modern day industrial agri-
culture, and how agroecology and its holistic view offered an alternative agrarian
vision. Among the students listening to our transdisciplinary exchange was Gloria
Guzmán, an agronomist who has become one of the leading agroecologists in Spain
and beyond, building and directing programs that are as much about agroecological
farming practices as they are about social change in food systems.
The common ground that I found with Manuel González de Molina and Gloria
Guzmán, as well as Eduardo Sevilla Guzmán, is built on the understanding that
agroecosystems are much more than systems that produce food. They are ecosystems
with a “purpose,” and that purpose is socially constructed and changes over time.
For that purpose, however, to be sustainable, important indicators of sustainability
must be achieved and maintained. The natural resource base on which agriculture
depends must be maintained, providing ecological sustainability. The environmental
services that all ecosystems provide for our planet (such as biodiversity conserva-
tion, soil and water protection, carbon sequestration, etc.) must all be maintained.
The economic viability, affordability, and access for all is also a high priority. But
perhaps most importantly, the social sustainability of the food system must become
a primary focus of food system change, with what we now call food justice, food
security, and food sovereignty being the key goals.
As an ecologist, the concept of metabolism was part of my understanding of
energy. Plants are capable of capturing solar energy through photosynthesis, con-
verting this energy into simple sugars, and then through various metabolic pathways,
transforming these sugars into biomass or primary productivity. Some of this energy-
containing productivity then becomes the energy source for organisms higher up the
food chain, using a part of this biomass energy for their own growth and develop-
ment, but ultimately releasing most of it as the by-products of respiration. Needless
ix