The Social Metabolism of Spanish Agriculture, 1900 2008

This open access book provides a panoramic view of the evolution of Spanish agriculture from 1900 to the present, offering a more diverse picture to the complex and multidimensional reality of agrarian production. With a clear transdisciplinary ambition, the book applies an original and innovative theoretical and methodological tool, termed Agrarian Social Metabolism , combining Social Metabolism with an agroecological perspective. This integrative analysis is especially interesting for environmental scientists and policy makers being the best way to design sustainable agroecosystems and public policies capable of moving us towards a more sustainable food system.

Spanish agricultural production has experienced impressive growth during the 20th century which has allowed it to ensure the supply of food to the population and even to transform some crops into important chapters in foreign trade. However, this growth has had its negative side since it was based on the injection of large amounts of external energy, on the destruction of employment and the loss of profitability of agricultural activity. But perhaps the most serious part is the strong impact of the current industrialised agriculture model on Spanish agroecosystems, exposed to the overexploitation of hydric resources, pollution of the water by nitrates and pesticides, high erosion rates and an alarming loss of biodiversity; damage which in the immediate future will end up reducing production capacity.

Provides a panoramic view of the evolution of Spanish agriculture from 1900 to the present from biophysical and social perspective, unusual in the Sustainable Science studies and the History of Agriculture, offering a more diverse picture to the complex and multidimensional reality of agrarian production With a clear transdisciplinary ambition, the book applies an original and innovative theoretical and methodological tool, termed Agrarian Social Metabolism, combining Social Metabolism with an agroecological perspective There is no such a detailed and complete study on environmental and institutional aspects of industrialization process of agriculture worldwide. In this sense, the can be an important tool for searching agrarian sustainability and, therefore, for designing a more sustainable agriculture and food system

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Contenu
Introduction.- 1. Agrarian Metabolism: the metabolic approach applied to agriculture.- 1.1. Agriculture and Social Metabolism: The metabolism of agroecosystems.- 1.2. Funds and flows in Agrarian Metabolism.- 1.3. The appropriation of biomass and colonization of the territory. Biophysical funds (land and livestock).- 1.4. Social fund elements (human work and technical means of production).- 1.5. The organization and dynamics of agrarian metabolism.- 1.6. The forces of change.- 1.7. Sources and methods.- 1.7.1. The specificities of AM.- 1.7.2. Scale and delimitations of the study.- 1.7.3. Sources of information.- 2. Intensification and Specialization: from Agricultureto Livestocking, 1900-2008.- 2.1. Traditional historiographical accounts of agricultural transformations during the twentieth century.- 2.2. The evolution of land uses.- 2.3. Evolution of real net primary productivity.- 2.4. Evolution of Domestic Extraction.- 2.5. The specialization of Spain's agricultural production.- 2.6.Spanish livestock in the twentieth century.- 2.7. Livestock production.- 2.8. An overview of Spanish agriculture industrialization.- 3. Agricultural inputs and their energy costs 1900-2010.- 3.1. Comments on methodology.- 3.2. Traction.- 3.2.1 Mechanical traction.- 3.2.2. Combustibles.- 3.3. Irrigation.- 3.3.1. Irrigation systems.- 3.3.2. Installed mechanical power.- 3.3.3. Combustibles.- 3.3.4. Electricity.- 3.4. Fertilizers.- 3.5. Crop protection.- 3.5.1. Pesticides.- 3.5.2. Greenhouses.- 3.6. Use of inputs in the agricultural sector (Imports).- 4. Decreasing income and reproductive problems of the agricultural population.- Introduction.- 4.1. The agricultural population during the first half of the twentieth century.- 4.2. An estimate of the agricultural sector's macromagnitudes (1950-2008).- 4.3. The agricultural population and changing living standards.- 4.4. The state of the agriculturalpopulation.- 4.5. Changes in farm structures.- 4.6. Breakdown of agricultural income andcoverage of household expenditure.- 4.7. Conclusions.- 5. Environmental Impacts of Spanish Agriculture's Industrialization.- 5.1. Functioning of the agroecosystem.- 5.2. The energy efficiency of agricultural production.- 5.3. State of the components of the land fund element.- 5.4. A diet rich in food of animal origin: the outsourcing of its land costs.- 6. The Metabolism of Spanish Agriculture.- 6.1. The agrarian sector in the metabolism of the Spanish economy.- 6.2. Foreign trade and domestic consumption of biomass.- 6.3. The main indicators of agrarian metabolism.- 6.4. The pace of intensification and specialization (I+S).- 6.5. The drivers of I+S .- 6.5.1. Supply side drivers of I+S.- 6.5.2. Demand side drivers of I+S.- 6.6. Conclusions.- Epilogue.- Appendix I. Calculation of the physical production series of Spanish agriculture.- A.1.1. Sources and methodological decisions to calculate the Domestic Extraction of Vegetal Biomass.- A.1.2. The reliability of livestock censuses.- A.1.3. Adjusting Spanish livestock in the first third of the twentieth century.- Appendix II. Historical evolution of the Spanish Agrarian Metabolism and the Spanish Economy Metabolism.- A.2.1. Historical evolution of the Spanish Agrarian Metabolism.- A.2.2. Historical evolution of Spanish Economy Metabolism.- Bibliography.- Index. <p