Trophically balanced sustainable agriculture

dc.contributor.author	Schramski, JR	en
dc.contributor.author	Rutz, ZJ	en
dc.contributor.author	Gattie, DK	en
dc.contributor.author	Li, K	en
dc.date.accessioned	2014-06-06T06:51:05Z
dc.date.available	2014-06-06T06:51:05Z
dc.date.issued	2011	en
dc.identifier.issn	09218009	en
dc.identifier.uri	http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2011.08.017	en
dc.identifier.uri	http://62.217.125.90/xmlui/handle/123456789/5307
dc.subject	Agroecology	en
dc.subject	Energy	en
dc.subject	Energy return on energy invested	en
dc.subject	Sustainable agriculture	en
dc.subject.other	agroecology	en
dc.subject.other	alternative agriculture	en
dc.subject.other	diet	en
dc.subject.other	ecological economics	en
dc.subject.other	economic activity	en
dc.subject.other	ecosystem management	en
dc.subject.other	energy budget	en
dc.subject.other	energy conservation	en
dc.subject.other	energy use	en
dc.subject.other	farm	en
dc.subject.other	fossil fuel	en
dc.subject.other	sustainability	en
dc.title	Trophically balanced sustainable agriculture	en
heal.type	journalArticle	en
heal.identifier.primary	10.1016/j.ecolecon.2011.08.017	en
heal.publicationDate	2011	en
heal.abstract	Considering an economy without fossil fuels, literally built from the ground, then up, we developed several interactive research models of biointensive farms that use no fossil fuels. Quantifying and summarizing total human labor-energy input and total caloric energy output, we demonstrate that a successfully designed farm can produce a positive energy-return-on-investment (EROI) leaving excess caloric energy available for building economic-community structures (e.g., schools and hospitals). Farm products with negative EROI must be coupled with other products with positive EROI to assure nutritionally balanced diets are maintained while still achieving an overall positive EROI for the total agroecological operation. We show that similar to the ecosystem, energy budgets are tight which makes for difficult decisions on diet, farm plot diversity, and energy profitability for future growth. Considering the totality of this low energy agro-system based economy, we simplify many operational variables into a unique graphical solution space, which reveals both reasonable expectations of agroecological EROI performance, and extreme asymptotes, beyond which indicate regions of system failure. © 2011 Elsevier B.V.	en
heal.journalName	Ecological Economics	en
dc.identifier.volume	72	en
dc.identifier.doi	10.1016/j.ecolecon.2011.08.017	en
dc.identifier.spage	88	en
dc.identifier.epage	96	en