title: The value of producing food, energy, and ecosystem services within an agro-ecosystem.
abstract: Agricultural ecosystems produce food, fiber, and non-marketed 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Agricultural Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen (KU-LIFE), Taastrup, Denmark. jrp@life.ku.dk
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Porter
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Costanza
authors.forename: Harpinder
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sandhu
authors.forename: Lene
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sigsgaard
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wratten
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D000821:Animal Feed / Q000600:supply & distribution; D000818:Animals; D003246:Conservation of Energy Resources; D017753:Ecosystem; D004734:Energy Metabolism; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D005062:European Union; D005523:Food Supply; D006801:Humans; D010865:Pilot Projects