Abstract
This article presents an energy analysis of Quebec agroecoystems at five periods of time: 1871, 1931, 1951, 1981, and 2011, calculating for each year the various energy flows and their resulting Energy Return on Investment (EROI). In the nineteenth century, Quebec agroecosystems were typical examples of historical organic agriculture, with a low dependence on external Inputs but a high dependence on biomass reused, mainly livestock feed and crop seeds. Following the full industrialization of Quebec agriculture by the 1960s, there have been massive injections of external inputs, but also steadily rising amounts of biomass reused due to livestock specialization and the decoupling of domesticated animals from crop farming. As a result of this transformation, the energy efficiency of agroecosystems diminished, despite the significant increases in both final produce and area productivity that were achieved.
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Notes
According to the censuses of agriculture in Canada, improved land is defined as the farmland that has been transformed by the settler for agrarian uses. It includes cropland, fallow area, improved pasture land, and other improved area (the area of barnyards, lanes and roads on farms, and idle cultivated areas). This process of clearing the land could take years or decades (Linteau et al. 1983). On the other hand, the non-improved land is defined as an area inside the farm that has not been transformed and used by the farmer for agrarian use. It includes woodland, natural pasture, and other non-improved land (uncultivated hay land, brush pasture, grazing or waste land, sloughs, marsh, and rocky land).
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Acknowledgements
This work has been supported by le Jour de la Terre Québec and arises from the international research project on Sustainable Farm Systems: Long-Term Socio-Ecological Metabolism in Western Agriculture funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada SFS 895-2011-1020. The authors are also extremely grateful to the help given by Enric Tello, Roc Padró, and Inés Marco in the construction of the EROIs.
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Parcerisas, L., Dupras, J. From mixed farming to intensive agriculture: energy profiles of agriculture in Quebec, Canada, 1871–2011. Reg Environ Change 18, 1047–1057 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-018-1305-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-018-1305-y