Towards a green economy 1.2 Conventional/industrial agriculture

Conventional (industrial) agriculture is characterised by farming practices that rely on use of external farming inputs. Most of the large scale industrial farming is considered energy-intensive (using 10 calories of energy for every calorie of food produced), whose high productivity (kg/ha) relies on the extensive use of chemical fertilisers, herbicides, pesticides, fuel, water, and continuous new investment (e.g. in advanced seed varieties and machinery).

The impressive productivity gains of the Green

Revolution of the last few decades took place mainly in conventional agriculture. These productivity gains were triggered by investment in agricultural research and expansion in public-sector extension services.9

fertilisers, pesticide/herbicide use and fossil fuel-based farm machinery.

The

productivity increases of the Green Revolution relied primarily on the development of higher-yield varieties of major cereal crops (i.e. wheat, rice and corn/maize), a significant increase in the use of irrigation, inorganic

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9. For an overview refer to Ruttan (1977), and for a critique refer to Shiva (1989).

Despite substantial gains in total crop production, the consequences of the revolution have not been entirely positive. Production gains have been highly correlated with increased use of non-renewable resource inputs, and have often entailed significant environmental costs due to their overuse (Figure 3). Industrial agriculture consumes on average 10 exosomatic energy calories (derived from fossil fuel energy resources) for every food endosomatic energy calorie (derived from human metabolism of food) that is produced and delivered to the consumer (Giampietro and Pimentel 1994). This energy-intensity, in many cases, is encouraged by subsidising inorganic fertiliser, fuel and electric power used on farms. In addition, biodiversity losses have resulted from production subsidies targeted at a limited number of crops. Industrial agriculture has also resulted in shrinking the agricultural labour force even as farm outputs have dramatically increased, a trend intensified to some extent by subsidies for farm mechanisation. (Lyson 2005; Dimitri et al. 2005; Knudsen et al. 2005; ILO 2008).

Global trends in cereal and meat production

380 360 340 320 300 280

1960 Meat Cereals

38 34 30 26 22

1970 1980 1990 2000

Global total use of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilisers

80 60 40 20 0

1960

Nitrogen

Phosphorus 1970 1980 1990 2000

Increased use of irrigation

0.28 0.24 0.20 0.16 0.12

1960 1970 1980

Total global pesticides production 3.0 Water 2.0 1.0 0 1990 2000 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 Figure 3: Global trends in cereal and meat production, nitrogen and phosphorus fertiliser use, irrigation

and pesticide production Source: Tilman et al. (2002) and IAASTD/Ketill Berger, UNEP/GRID-Arendal (2008). Available at: http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/global-trends-in-cereal-and-meat-production-total-use-of- nitrogen-and-phosphorus-fertilisers-increas

Pesticides

40

Global irrigation (billions [109] ha)

Per capita cereal and meat production (kg)

Per capita meat production (kg) Millions tonnes

Millions tonnes. World, excluding former USSR