Economics of Energy Use in Organic Agriculture


2014 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 280-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence G. Smith ◽  
Adrian G. Williams ◽  
Bruce. D. Pearce

AbstractGrowing populations and a constrained fossil-manufactured energy supply present a major challenge for society and there is a real need to develop forms of agriculture that are less dependent on finite energy sources. It has been suggested that organic agriculture can provide a more energy efficient approach due to its focus on sustainable production methods. This review has investigated the extent to which this is true for a range of farming systems. Data from about 50 studies were reviewed with results suggesting that organic farming performs better than conventional for nearly all crop types when energy use is expressed on a unit of area basis. Results are more variable per unit of product due to the lower yield for most organic crops. For livestock, ruminant production systems tend to be more energy efficient under organic management due to the production of forage in grass–clover leys. Conversely, organic poultry tend to perform worse in terms of energy use as a result of higher feed conversion ratios and mortality rates compared to conventional fully housed or free-range systems. With regard to energy sources, there is some evidence that organic farms use more renewable energy and have less of an impact on natural ecosystems. Human energy requirements on organic farms are also higher as a result of greater system diversity and manual weed control. Overall this review has found that most organic farming systems are more energy efficient than their conventional counterparts, although there are some notable exceptions.



1982 ◽  
Vol 27 (10) ◽  
pp. 768-770
Author(s):  
Stuart Oskamp
Keyword(s):  




“We regard the recent science –based consensual reports that climate change is, to a large extend, caused by human activities that emit green houses as tenable, Such activities range from air traffic, with a global reach over industrial belts and urban conglomerations to local small, scale energy use for heating homes and mowing lawns. This means that effective climate strategies inevitably also require action all the way from global to local levels. Since the majority of those activities originate at the local level and involve individual action, however, climate strategies must literally begin at home to hit home.”



Author(s):  
R.G. Nelson, ◽  
C.H. Hellwinckel, ◽  
C.C. Brandt, ◽  
T.O. West, ◽  
D.G. De La Torre Ugarte, ◽  
...  




2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Ahmad Ghazali Ismail ◽  
Arlinah Abd Rashid ◽  
Azlina Hanif

The relationship and causality direction between electricity consumption and economic growth is an important issue in the fields of energy economics and policies towards energy use. Extensive literatures has discussed the issue, but the array of findings provides anything but consensus on either the existence of relations or direction of causality between the variables. This study extends research in this area by studying the long-run and causal relations between economic growth, electricity consumption, labour and capital based on the neo-classical one sector aggregate production technology mode using data of electricity consumption and real GDP for ASEAN from the year 1983 to 2012. The analysis is conducted using advanced panel estimation approaches and found no causality in the short run while in the long-run, the results indicate that there are bidirectional relationship among variables. This study provides supplementary evidences of relationship between electricity consumption and economic growth in ASEAN.



2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-109
Author(s):  
E. S. Dremicheva

This paper presents a method of sorption using peat for elimination of emergency spills of crude oil and petroleum products and the possibility of energy use of oil-saturated peat. The results of assessment of the sorbent capacity of peat are presented, with waste motor oil and diesel fuel chosen as petroleum products. Natural peat has been found to possess sorption properties in relation to petroleum products. The sorbent capacity of peat can be observed from the first minutes of contact with motor oil and diesel fuel, and significantly depends on their viscosity. For the evaluation of thermal properties of peat saturated with petroleum products, experimental studies have been conducted on determination of moisture and ash content of as-fired fuel. It is shown that adsorbed oil increases the moisture and ash content of peat in comparison with the initial sample. Therefore, when intended for energy use, peat saturated with petroleum products is to be subjected to additional drying. Simulation of net calorific value has been performed based on the calorific values of peat and petroleum products with different ratios of petroleum product content in peat and for a saturated peat sample. The obtained results are compared with those of experiments conducted in a calorimetric bomb and recalculated for net calorific value. A satisfactory discrepancy is obtained, which amounts to about 12%. Options have been considered providing for combustion of saturated peat as fuel (burnt per se and combined with a solid fuel) and processing it to produce liquid, gaseous and solid fuels. Peat can be used to solve environmental problems of elimination of emergency spills of crude oil and petroleum products and as an additional resource in solving the problem of finding affordable energy.



Think India ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 757-767
Author(s):  
J. ELANCHEZHIAN ◽  
Dr. K. KALAICHELVI

Consumers’ interest in organic products is increasing globally. As IFOAM 2016 report, only 1.2 % of the land has been utilized in organic agriculture method. The overall organic market has achieved 89.7 billion $ in 2016 in that, & 48.4 a billion in sales accounted for the USA and German alone. Total registered organic producer in the worldwide is 2.7 million in that India is the leading country which has 835,200 organic producers. But many of them are a small farmer, and they had shared 1.49 million hectares only. The Government of India (GOI) and the state governments have taken several steps to improve the regulatory mechanism and frame several schemes to incentivize organic farming. 2017 December, Food Standards and Safety Authority of India (FSSAI) have recognized both the certification systems (NPOP and PGS-India) valid for organic food products. From these steps, GOI has tried to create confidence in the organic products, so that, domestic consumers and export countries can trust Indian organic products. But still, the organic sector in India suffered from some unique characteristic that is the absence of proper branding, package, consumer awareness, purchasing power, and supply chain issues (Agarwal, 2018).



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