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.
How to translate text using browser tools
1 June 2009
The Value of Producing Food, Energy, and Ecosystem Services within an Agro-Ecosystem
John Porter,
Robert Costanza,
Harpinder Sandhu,
Lene Sigsgaard,
Steve Wratten
ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE
It is not available for individual sale.
This article is only available to subscribers.
It is not available for individual sale.
It is not available for individual sale.
AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment
Vol. 38 • No. 4
June 2009
Vol. 38 • No. 4
June 2009
