An Assessment of the Total External Costs of UK Agriculture
Abstract
This trans-disciplinary study assesses total external environmental and health costs of modern agriculture in the UK. A wide range of datasets have been analysed to assess cost distribution across sectors. We calculate the annual total external costs of UK agriculture in 1996 to be £2343 m (range for 1990–1996: £1149–3907 m), equivalent to £208/ha of arable and permanent pasture. Significant costs arise from contamination of drinking water with pesticides (£120 m/year), nitrate (£16 m), Cryptosporidium (£23 m) and phosphate and soil (£55 m), from damage to wildlife, habitats, hedgerows and drystone walls (£125 m), from emissions of gases (£1113 m), from soil erosion and organic carbon losses (£106 m), from food poisoning (£169 m), and from bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) (£607 m). This study has only estimated those externalities that give rise to financial costs, and so is likely to underestimate the total negative impacts of modern agriculture. These data help to identify policy priorities, particularly over the most efficient way to internalise these external costs into prices. This would imply a redirection of public subsidies towards encouraging those positive externalities under-provided in the market place, combined with a mix of advisory and institutional mechanisms, regulatory and legal measures, and economic instruments to correct negative externalities. Further work examining the marginal costs and benefits of UK agriculture would help to inform future policy development.
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- "Some of the health benefits of organic farming, including the lower contamination of drinking water by pesticides and safer foods because of the prohibited use of chemicals, were not considered because of the complicated relationship between health and pesticide applications and the lack of appropriate methods for quantification (Tuomisto et al., 2012 ). This is in line with the findings of Pretty et al. (2000), that the total positive externalities leading to the environmental benefits were likely underestimated in most comparative studies, and they asked for more observations and studies in the future (Schader et al., 2012 ). The other uncertainty is the crop yield decrease of organic agriculture. "
[Show abstract] [Hide abstract] ABSTRACT: Organic agriculture has developed rapidly in China since the 1990s, driven by the increasing domestic and international demand for organic products. Quantification of the environmental benefits and production performances of organic agriculture on a national scale helps to develop sustainable high yielding agricultural production systems with minimum impacts on the environment. Data of organic production for 2013 were obtained from a national survey organized by the Certification and Accredi-tation Administration of China. Farming performance and environmental impact indicators were screened and indicator values were defined based on an intensive literature review and were validated by national statistics. The economic (monetary) values of farming inputs, crop production and individual environmental benefits were then quantified and integrated to compare the overall performances of organic vs. conventional agriculture. In 2013, organically managed farmland accounted for approximately 0.97% of national arable land, covering 1.158 million ha. If organic crop yields were assumed to be 10% e15% lower than conventional yields, the environmental benefits of organic agriculture (i.e., a decrease in nitrate leaching, an increase in farmland biodiversity, an increase in carbon sequestration and a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions) were valued at 1921 million RMB (320.2 million USD), or 1659 RMB (276.5 USD) per ha. By reducing the farming inputs, the costs saved was 3110 million RMB (518.3 million USD), or 2686 RMB (447.7 USD) per ha. The economic loss associated with the decrease in crop yields from organic agriculture was valued at 6115 million RMB (1019.2 million USD), or 5280 RMB (880 USD) per ha. Although they were likely underestimated because of the complex relationships among farming operations , ecosystems and humans, the production costs saved and environmental benefits of organic agriculture that were quantified in our study compensated substantially for the economic losses associated with the decrease in crop production. This suggests that payment for the environmental benefits of organic agriculture should be incorporated into public policies. Most of the environmental impacts of organic farming were related to N fluxes within agroecosystems, which is a call for the better management of N fertilizer in regions or countries with low levels of N-use efficiency. Issues such as higher external inputs and lack of integration cropping with animal husbandry should be addressed during the quantification of change of conventional to organic agriculture, and the quantification of this change is challenging.- "Tackling these issues also requires more researches in social sciences and economy to improve the way combinations of services, disservices and ecological costs are targeted and to determine how the corresponding manipulations/practices may be implemented within the actual socio-economical context. Agronomy has not waited for our framework to assess impacts and benefits of agriculture practices (Pimentel et al., 2005; Pretty et al., 2000; Tilman, 1999 ). More recent studies linking agriculture and ecosystem services mention the fact that disservices and negative environmental consequences of ecosystem manipulations have to be taken into account (Dale and Polasky, 2007; Swinton et al., 2007 ). "
[Show abstract] [Hide abstract] ABSTRACT: The notion of ecosystem service is meant to better link human societies to ecological systems and to serve has a tool for decision making. However, the notion has never been applied in a comprehensive and consistent way to anthropized ecosystems while most ecosystems are indeed anthropized. This means that in initiatives of ecosystem service assessment anthropized ecosystems are either neglected or their services assessed in a misleading way. For example, services from cultivated lands are usually valued through the value of the agricultural production, while this production highly depends on inputs (fertilizers, pesticides, non-renewable sources of energy) and human work that cannot be assimilated to ecological factors. Moreover, these practices have negative impacts such as the emission of greenhouse gases, nutrient leaching to other ecosystems or loss of soil fertility. Hence, we present here a general framework that could be used to assess the ecosystem services provided by anthropized ecosystems. This framework is based on the joint assessment of ecological services, disservices, losses of natural capital and impacts on other ecosystems. We show that this framework is required to assess different practices to manipulate an ecosystem, e.g. low- vs high-input agriculture, or different ecosystems with different levels of anthropization, e.g. manage forest vs. cropland. Indeed, ecosystems function in such a complex way that human manipulations and natural ecological processes are tightly intermingled so that services and disservices arising solely from ecological processes cannot be separated from the result of human manipulations.- "Excessive nitrate concentrations in water bodies can cause serious long-term environmental issues and threaten both economy and human health (Bryan, 2006; Defra, 2002 Defra, , 2006a Pretty et al., 2000; Thorburn et al., 2003; Ward, 2009 ). Nitrate in freshwater remains an international problem (European Environment Agency, 2000 Hinkle et al., 2007; Rivett et al., 2008; Sebilo et al., 2006; Thorburn et al., 2003; Torrecilla et al., 2005; Wang et al., 2012a; Wang and Yang, 2008; Yang and Wang, 2010). "
[Show abstract] [Hide abstract] ABSTRACT: Nitrate water pollution, which is mainly caused by agricultural activities, remains an international problem. It can cause serious long-term environmental and human health issues due to nitrate time-lag in the groundwater system. However, the nitrate subsurface legacy issue has rarely been considered in environmental water management. We have developed a simple catchment-scale approach to investigate the impact of historical nitrate loading from agricultural land on the nitrate-concentration trends in sandstones, which represent major aquifers in the Eden Valley, UK. The model developed considers the spatio-temporal nitrate loading, low permeability superficial deposits, dual-porosity unsaturated zones, and nitrate dilution in aquifers. Monte Carlo simulations were undertaken to analyse parameter sensitivity and calibrate the model using observed datasets. Time series of annual average nitrate concentrations from 1925 to 2150 were generated for four aquifer zones in the study area. The results show that the nitrate concentrations in ‘St Bees Sandstones’, ‘silicified Penrith Sandstones’, and ‘non-silicified Penrith Sandstones’ keep rising or stay high before declining to stable levels, whilst that in ‘interbedded Brockram Penrith Sandstones’ will level off after a slight decrease. This study can help policymakers better understand local nitrate-legacy issues. It also provides a framework for informing the long-term impact and timescale of different scenarios introduced to deliver water-quality compliance. This model requires relatively modest parameterisation and is readily transferable to other areas.
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