Porter, John, Costanza, Robert, Sandhu, Harpinder, Sigsgaard, Lene and Wratten, Steve (2009) The value of producing food, energy, and ecosystem services within an agro-ecosystem. AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment, 38 (4). pp. 186-193. ISSN 0044-7447 (Print), 1654-7209 (Online) (doi:10.1579/0044-7447-38.4.186)

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Abstract

Agricultural ecosystems produce food, fiber, and nonmarketed ecosystem services (ES). Agriculture also typically involves high negative external costs associated with, for example, fossil fuel use. We estimated, via field-scale ecological monitoring and economic value-transfer methods, the market and nonmarket ES value of a combined food and energy (CFE) agro-ecosystem that simultaneously produces food, fodder, and bioenergy. Such novel CFE agro-ecosystems can provide a significantly increased net crop, energy, and nonmarketed ES compared with conventional agriculture, and require markedly less fossil-based inputs. Extrapolated to the European scale, the value of nonmarket ES from the CFE system exceeds current European farm subsidy payments. Such integrated food and bioenergy systems can thus provide environmental value for money for European Union farming and nonfarming communities.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	food production, energy production, ecosystem services, agro-ecosystem
Subjects:	S Agriculture > S Agriculture (General) S Agriculture > SB Plant culture
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Engineering & Science Faculty of Engineering & Science > Natural Resources Institute
Related URLs:	Publisher
Last Modified:	16 Sep 2019 12:23
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/10442

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