Publications

@article{Matthews2021,

title = {Old Wine in New Bottles: Exploiting Data from the EU's Farm Accountancy Data Network for Pan-EU Sustainability Assessments of Agricultural Production Systems},

author = {Keith B. Matthews and Ansel Renner and Kirsty L. Blackstock and Kerry A. Waylen and Dave G. Miller and Doug H. Wardell-Johnson and Alba Juarez-Bourke and Juan Cadillo-Benalcazar and Joep F. Schyns and Mario Giampietro},

url = {https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/18/10080/htm https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/18/10080},

doi = {10.3390/su131810080},

issn = {2071-1050},

year  = {2021},

date = {2021-09-01},

journal = {Sustainability},

volume = {13},

number = {18},

pages = {10080},

publisher = {Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute},

abstract = {The paper presents insights from carrying out a pan-EU sustainability assessment using Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) data (the old wine) with societal metabolism accounting (SMA) processes (the new bottles). The SMA was deployed as part of a transdisciplinary study with EU policy stakeholders of how EU policy may need to change to deliver sustainability commitments, particularly to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The paper outlines the concepts underlying SMA and its specific implementation using the FADN data. A key focus was on the interactions between crop and livestock systems and how this determines imported feedstuffs requirements, with environmental and other footprints beyond the EU. Examples of agricultural production systems performance are presented in terms of financial/efficiency, resource use (particularly the water footprint) and quantifies potential pressures on the environment. Benefits and limitations of the FADN dataset and the SMA outputs are discussed, highlighting the challenges of linking quantified pressures with environmental impacts. The paper concludes that the complexity of agriculture's interactions with economy and society means there is great need for conceptual frameworks, such as SMA, that can take multiple, non-equivalent, perspectives and that can be deployed with policy stakeholders despite generating uncomfortable knowledge.},

keywords = {common agricultural policy, Energy, FADN, food nexus, Societal metabolism, sustainability, Water},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Marcos-Valls2020,

title = {Isolated yet open: A metabolic analysis of Menorca},

author = {Alejandro Marcos-Valls and Zora Kovacic and Mario Giampietro and Giorgos Kallis and Joan Rieradevall},

url = {https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0048969720327388},

doi = {10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139221},

issn = {00489697},

year  = {2020},

date = {2020-10-01},

journal = {Science of The Total Environment},

volume = {738},

pages = {139221},

publisher = {Elsevier},

abstract = {Small islands are vulnerable to climate change, and at the same time contribute to local and global environmental problems with the intensification of tourist activities. Whereas there are many studies on the resource requirements or environmental impacts of small islands, there are few efforts to integrate information that is often analysed separately. Metabolic analysis, beyond quantifying biophysical flows, studies how society transforms these flows to reproduce the identity of the whole. This study applies the Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM) approach, to analyse the environmental and economic performance of different economic activities in the Mediterranean island of Menorca (Spain). The openness of the metabolic system (observed in the dependence on imports) and externalization of environmental impact are illustrated using the examples of the cheese and tourist industry. The results show that a higher economic performance in terms of value added is associated with activities in industry and services with a larger dependence on imports of “external resources” \textendash fuel for transportation, milk for cheese, seasonal workers and “paying capacity” of tourists. This dependence reduces local environmental pressures and also adaptation capacity, since decisions made in Menorca may have limited impact elsewhere. Local agriculture depends less on external resources but it is limited by the low economic productivity of land and labour. An integrated analysis of the relations between metabolic rates and densities of flows in the different compartments of the society provides a holistic picture of sustainability issues and can contribute to decision-making by avoiding partial information.},

keywords = {Energy, Human activities, Mediterranean islands, MuSIASEM, Socio-ecological metabolism, Water},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}