The environmental costs and benefits of high-yield farming

Andrew Balmford (), Tatsuya Amano, Harriet Bartlett, Dave Chadwick, Adrian Collins, David Edwards, Rob Field, Philip Garnsworthy, Rhys Green, Pete Smith, Helen Waters, Andrew Whitmore, Donald M. Broom, Julian Chara, Tom Finch, Emma Garnett, Alfred Gathorne-Hardy, Juan Hernandez-Medrano, Mario Herrero, Fangyuan Hua, Agnieszka Latawiec, Tom Misselbrook, Ben Phalan, Benno I. Simmons, Taro Takahashi, James Vause, Erasmus Ermgassen and Rowan Eisner
Additional contact information
Andrew Balmford: University of Cambridge
Tatsuya Amano: University of Cambridge
Harriet Bartlett: University of Cambridge
Dave Chadwick: Environment Centre Wales
Adrian Collins: Rothamsted Research
David Edwards: University of Sheffield
Rob Field: The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
Philip Garnsworthy: University of Nottingham
Rhys Green: University of Cambridge
Pete Smith: University of Aberdeen
Helen Waters: University of Cambridge
Andrew Whitmore: Rothamsted Research
Donald M. Broom: University of Cambridge
Julian Chara: Centre for Research on Sustainable Agricultural Production Systems
Tom Finch: University of Cambridge
Emma Garnett: University of Cambridge
Alfred Gathorne-Hardy: University of Edinburgh
Juan Hernandez-Medrano: National Autonomous University of Mexico
Mario Herrero: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
Fangyuan Hua: University of Cambridge
Agnieszka Latawiec: Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio)
Tom Misselbrook: Rothamsted Research
Ben Phalan: University of Cambridge
Benno I. Simmons: University of Cambridge
Taro Takahashi: Rothamsted Research
James Vause: UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre
Erasmus Ermgassen: University of Cambridge
Rowan Eisner: University of Cambridge

Nature Sustainability, 2018, vol. 1, issue 9, 477-485

Abstract: Abstract How we manage farming and food systems to meet rising demand is pivotal to the future of biodiversity. Extensive field data suggest that impacts on wild populations would be greatly reduced through boosting yields on existing farmland so as to spare remaining natural habitats. High-yield farming raises other concerns because expressed per unit area it can generate high levels of externalities such as greenhouse gas emissions and nutrient losses. However, such metrics underestimate the overall impacts of lower-yield systems. Here we develop a framework that instead compares externality and land costs per unit production. We apply this framework to diverse data sets that describe the externalities of four major farm sectors and reveal that, rather than involving trade-offs, the externality and land costs of alternative production systems can covary positively: per unit production, land-efficient systems often produce lower externalities. For greenhouse gas emissions, these associations become more strongly positive once forgone sequestration is included. Our conclusions are limited: remarkably few studies report externalities alongside yields; many important externalities and farming systems are inadequately measured; and realizing the environmental benefits of high-yield systems typically requires additional measures to limit farmland expansion. Nevertheless, our results suggest that trade-offs among key cost metrics are not as ubiquitous as sometimes perceived.

Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-018-0138-5 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natsus:v:1:y:2018:i:9:d:10.1038_s41893-018-0138-5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/natsustain/

DOI: 10.1038/s41893-018-0138-5

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Sustainability is currently edited by Monica Contestabile

More articles in Nature Sustainability from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().