Harpinder Sandhu - Methods and metrics
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This document presents a sustainability assessment tool to measure the true costs of agricultural production. It discusses key challenges facing global agriculture like declining natural resources and climate change. The tool measures production value, environmental and social benefits, and environmental costs to estimate the true cost of food production. It describes the categories and types of externalities that are valued, such as provisioning services, regulating services, and supporting services. The way forward is to adopt more sustainable technologies and practices to reduce environmental costs, empower consumers to make informed choices, develop uniform metrics for the food industry, and transition to long term sustainable food systems.
Harpinder Sandhu - Methods and metrics
- 1. Sustainability Assessment Tool Dr Harpinder Sandhu Flinders University, Australia Harpinder.Sandhu@flinders.edu.au The True Cost of American Food, San Francisco 15-16, Aril 2016
- 2. Key challenges of global agriculture Declining natural resources Climate change Consumption patterns Market volatility
- 3. Two research/policy gaps 1. Why we need to measure all externalities in agriculture? • To reflect true cost of food production 2. Why we need to estimate economic value of externalities? • To influence economic and policy environment; to improve sustainable farm practices; and to raise consumer awareness.
- 4. YIELDINPUTS OUTPUTS Labour laws Health and safety laws Agriculture production systems
- 5. Soil protection Biological control of pests/diseases Improved biodiversity Soil microbial activity Reduce greenhouse gases Nutrient cycling Water regulation Aesthetics Eco tourism Food Shelter Firewood Global estimates of two farmland ES values $34 billionannually The largest industry on the planet 1.3 billion people involved directly, $4 trillion in global GDP (6 %) Sandhu, Wratten, Costanza, Pretty, Reganold, Porter 2015 PEER J
- 6. Farm Sustainability Assessment Tool Production DistributionConsumption Production
- 7. Ecological and Economic Methods 𝑇𝐶 = (𝑃𝑣+ 𝐸 𝑏 + 𝑆 𝑏) − 𝐸𝑐 𝑇𝐶 = 𝑇𝑟𝑢𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝑡 $ 𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑐𝑟𝑒 𝑃𝑣 = 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 $ 𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑐𝑟𝑒 𝐸 𝑏 = 𝐸𝑛𝑣𝑖𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑏𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑓𝑖𝑡𝑠 $ 𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑐𝑟𝑒 𝑆 𝑏 = 𝑆𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑏𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑓𝑖𝑡𝑠 $ 𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑐𝑟𝑒 𝐸𝑐 = 𝐸𝑛𝑣𝑖𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝑡 $ 𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑐𝑟𝑒
- 8. Categories of externalities • Production value: 𝑃𝑣 = (𝑃𝑣1 + 𝑃𝑣2 … … … … 𝑃𝑣𝑛 ) • Environmental benefits: Water regulation, Carbon sequestration by soil and vegetation, Nitrogen fixation, Nutrient cycling, Soil erosion control, Biological control of pests/diseases. 𝐸 𝑏 = (𝐸 𝑏1 + 𝐸 𝑏2 … … … … 𝐸 𝑏𝑛 ) • Environmental costs: Green house gas emissions, External costs of pesticides and fertilser 𝐸𝑐 = (𝐸𝑐1 + 𝐸𝑐2 … … … … 𝐸𝑐𝑛 ) • Social benefits: Farm employment, Recreation, Education. 𝑆 𝑏 = (𝑆 𝑏1 + 𝐸 𝑏2 … … … … 𝐸 𝑏𝑛 )
- 9. Types Ecosystem services and disservices Description Method used for valuation Production benefits Crop, livestock, milk etc. Provisioning services: These include food and services for human consumption, ranging from raw materials and fuel wood to the conservation of species and genetic material Market value Environmental benefits Water regulation: magnitude of water runoff, flooding, and aquifer recharge, water storage potential Regulating services: Ecosystems regulate essential ecological processes and life-support systems through bio-geochemical cycles and other biospheric processes Avoided cost Local climate regulation by carbon sequestration: Regulation of atmospheric chemical composition Avoided cost Soil erosion control: Role vegetative cover plays in soil retention Avoided cost
- 10. Environmental benefits Nitrogen fixation: Biological nitrogen fixation by legumes in crops and pastures Supporting services: These are the services that are required to support the production of other ecosystem goods and services Avoided cost Nutrient cycling: Organic matter breakdown to release stored nutrients for crop use Avoided cost Biological control of pests/diseases: Predators and parasites that control insect pests and diseases Avoided cost
- 11. Environmental costs Greenhouse gas emissions Carbon-di-oxide equivalent emissions from inputs, tillage, fuel use, livestock on farm Direct cost Damage to water resources Infrastructure to treat pesticide and nitrate in water sources Direct cost Damage to soil resources Soil losses due to management practices Replacement cost Damage to ecosystems and biodiversity Loss of biodiversity and impacts on other species Replacement cost Damage to human health Pathogens and agrochemical that can enter food chain Replacement cost
- 12. Social benefits Employment: Employment generated on farm leads to benefits to wider community: Farm workers, families Cultural services: Cultural services contribute to the maintenance of human health and well-being by providing recreation, aesthetics and education Market value Recreation: Recreational pleasure in agriculture, Farm tours, visits Market value Education: Knowledge generated on farm can be disseminated to wider community through books, presentations at conferences etc Market value
- 13. Way forward • to adopt technologies that have less detrimental impacts on the human health and the environment. • consumers can make informed decisions to choose products that have higher environmental and social benefits and less environmental costs. • to develop a uniform metric system that can be used by food and agriculture industry as a label or a standard. • to develop long term sustainable food and agriculture production systems.