Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Ecological Economics
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolecon
Analysis
Agroecosystems History Lab, Pablo de Olavide University, Seville, Carretera de Utrera km 1 sn, Seville, 41013, Spain
Agroecosystems History Lab, Pablo de Olavide University, Seville, Spain
Animal Biology Department, Jan University, Spain
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history:
Received 9 April 2015
Received in revised form 18 January 2016
Accepted 3 April 2016
Available online 6 May 2016
Keywords:
Social metabolism
Agro-ecosystems
Net Primary Productivity (NPP)
Biomass
Spain
material ow analysis
a b s t r a c t
The main aim of this article is to reconstruct the main biomass ows and indicators for the Spanish agriculture
between 1900 and 2008. We reconstruct the Net Primary Productivity for Spanish agro-ecosystems, but also
the main Economy-Wide/material ow accounting indicators as Domestic Extraction of biomass, Physical Balance Trade PTB) and Domestic Material Consumption (DMC) of biomass in Spain. The main results shows that
the transition from agrarian to industrial metabolism has meant a decrease in the per capita consumption of biomass. However, in absolute terms, the consumption of biotic materials has also increased considerably. This has
been due to the changes in the functionality of biomass for social metabolism as a whole: it has gone from being
the main source of energy and materials to specializing in two essential functions, the provision of raw materials
for industry and the supply of food. The Spanish case conrms that the industrialization of agriculture has led to
an increase in pressure on the Spanish agro-ecosystems. But there has also been a transfer of pressure on agroecosystems of other countries through international trade. Spain is a net biomass importer in order to maintain
a diet that is ever richer in meat and dairy products.
2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Very few papers have been published analyzing the production of
biomass and its role in the wider economy from a biophysical point of
view. Their spatial scale has been the nation state and they have studied
the current situation, without a historical perspective. Some of these papers have attempted to adapt Social Metabolism methodology to agriculture (Risku-Norja, 1999; Risku-Norja and Menp, 2007).
Estimates have also been made of the metabolism of the food system
(Wirsenius, 2003) and the agro-food system (Heller and Keoleian,
2003; Infante-Amate et al., 2014a) and the global and continental
ows of biomass have been analyzed (Krausmann et al., 2008), but
none of these papers have studied the role and functionality of biomass
in the transition towards an industrial metabolic regime. Most of the
studies of socio-ecological transition in its historical dimension and on
nation state scale analyze Social Metabolism globally, with no specic
analysis of agriculture. (Schandl and Schulz, 2002; Krausmann et al.,
2009; Kovanda and Hak, 2011; Krausmann et al., 2011; Gierlinger and
Krausmann, 2011; Singh et al., 2012; Infante-Amate et al., 2015). Only
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: dsotfer@upo.es (D. Soto), jinfama@upo.es (J. Infante-Amate),
giguzcas@upo.es (G.I. Guzmn), ajcid@upo.es (A. Cid), emagufer@upo.es (E. Aguilera),
rgarcia@ujaen.es (R. Garca), mgonnav@upo.es (M. Gonzlez de Molina).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2016.04.017
0921-8009/ 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
one paper, from Czechoslovakia, analyses the changes in soil use and
the energy transition in agriculture between 1830 and 2000 (Kusova
et al., 2008).
The main conclusion shown by these papers is that there has been a
progressive fall in the quantitative and qualitative weighting of biomass
in Domestic Extraction (DE) and in Domestic Consumption of materials
per capita (DMC) during the transition and an increased consumption of
abiotic materials (Krausmann et al., 2009). In general, the transition has
meant a considerable increase in per capita consumption of materials
and, at the same time, a reduction in the consumption per inhabitant
of biomass over the 20th century (a 14% reduction worldwide). Recent
estimates, though, of the use of materials in the world from 1900 to
2009 show that although biomass has reduced its relative weighting
within the consumption of materials very signicantly, in absolute
terms it has been growing constantly (Krausmann et al., 2009). Domestic Extraction of biomass grew by 285% in absolute terms in the world
during the 20th century, a not insignicant increase, but less than the
growth in the Domestic Extraction of abiotic materials. The rate of
change has varied greatly in the different countries for which longterm studies are available (Krausmann, 2011).
However, and with exceptions (Krausmann, 2011), we do not have
data on the effect that these trends have had on agro-ecosystems. The
purpose of this article is, therefore, to analyze the evolution of the
ows of terrestrial biomass (we have not considered sheries) in
Spain in the 20th century and the change in the functionality of biomass
within the social metabolism of a developed country which was a late
joiner in the process of industrialization. But this paper also attempts
to demonstrate the changes that have occurred in Spanish agroecosystems during the industrialization of the agrarian sector. These
changes have mainly been studied locally (Krausmann, 2004;
Gonzlez de Molina and Guzmn, 2006; Cunfer and Krausmann, 2009;
Garrabou and Gonzlez de Molina, 2010; Garca Ruiz et al., 2012; Tello
et al., 2012; Infante-Amate, 2014), and so it is useful to know their importance and signicance on a more aggregated scale, at nation state
level. It is well known that this agricultural industrialization process
has generated problems of sustainability related to the increase in
human pressure on ecosystems (Smil, 2013). In this regard, the analysis
of the historical evolution of ows of biomass is of particular interest for
the design of new processes of transition towards more sustainable agriculture (Gonzlez de Molina, 2010). The case of Spain offers the added
interest of a Mediterranean model of agriculture with specic characteristics which distinguish it from the Atlantic and Central European cases
studied to date.
2. Concepts, Methods and Data Sources
2.1. Concepts and Methods
The methodology used in this paper is an adaptation of EconomyWide Material Flow Accounting, a well-known methodology that has
proved to be a powerful tool for demonstrating the biophysical relationships between territories, describing the consumption of resources, the
means of appropriation of those resources and for describing socioecological transitions. However, its adaptation to agriculture and, specifically, to the analysis of biomass ows raises problems that have obliged
us to introduce certain modications into the methodology and to
complement it with some supplementary calculations which clearly
establish the different uses of the biomass from the productive and reproductive point of view. The main problem with the standard methodology is that it considers part of the produce as fresh matter and another
part (mainly pasture and forage plants) as dry matter (EUROSTAT, 2015.
We have opted to consider all of the different types of biomass as dry
matter, as is the usual practice in specic studies of agriculture
(Krausmann et al., 2008; Smil, 2013), in order to avoid the distortions
produced by the varying water content values of the different types of
biomass, above all, pasture and crops (between 15% and 95%). This consideration, furthermore, is necessary when studying, as is our case, the
evolution of agricultural production in which the crops with a higher
water content have become more relevant (for example, horticultural
production), to the detriment of others with a lower water content (cereal and leguminous crops). This change is also necessary when studying a country with a semi-arid climate, where irrigation has had a
decisive role in its evolution and, therefore, in the water content of its
crops. Nevertheless, we also offer the results using standard methodology (EW-MFA) to enable comparison with the evolution observed in
other countries.
To give an overall idea of the changes seen in Spanish agroecosystems, we have estimated the evolution of the net primary
productivity (NPP) of these agro-ecosystems from 1900 to 2008. We
take NPP to be the amount of net energy incorporated into plant tissues
(increase in accumulated biomass) and it is the result of the opposed
processes of photosynthesis and respiration. In contrast with other
methodological approaches (Schandl et al., 2002; Imhoff et al., 2004;
Haberl et al., 2007; Smil, 2013) which only take into account the
harvested, reused or utile biomass, we have also taken into account
the root biomass, the biomass accumulated over time in woody species,
together with unharvested biomass.
NPP is the result of adding the plant biomass which is directly appropriated by society (Socialised Vegetal Biomass, SVB), the biomass that is
recirculated through the agro-ecosystem either by intentional
131
132
Fig. 1. Spain NPP a) Land uses (000 ha). b) Origin of NPPact in Mt. dm. Sources: see Data Sources section.
the currently available estimates of the HANPP (Smil, 2013). In our calculation, we make estimates of the belowground biomass on the basis of
a compilation of specic converters for different crops, pasture and forests trees (Guzmn et al., 2014). Likewise, part of the NPP of agroecosystems is not cultivated, but is part of the adventitious ora which
escapes the control of the farmer. For a long-term analysis, it is of
great importance to count this biomass. Though in today's agriculture
this biomass is very scarce owing to the use of herbicides, in traditional
agriculture it was very signicant, playing a relevant role in the functioning of agro-ecosystems. To calculate this biomass in traditional
agrarian systems, we have used data from trials in organic agriculture
and, for more recent times, data from conventional agriculture
(Guzmn et al., 2014).
To calculate the DMC, we have considered all of the exports and imports of primary and transformed biomass. As in other sections, we have
used ve-year means. In the case of overseas trade, we have continuous
series for the entire period, although the methodology used and the categorization available have varied signicantly over the years. Between
2000 and 2008, we used the DATACOMEX database of Spanish overseas
trade (Ministerio de Economa y Competitividad, 2015). For 1960 and
1990, we used the FAO database (FAOSTAT, 2015). Lastly, for the period
from 1900 to 1950, we used overseas trade statistics for Spain.2 We distinguished it between ve categories: food, feed, seeds, wood and fuel
wood, and other raw materials.
3. Results
3.1. NPP and Domestic Extraction of Biomass
Fig. 1 shows the evolution of land use. Cropland area increased 1.25
times from 1900 (16.5 Mha) to 1933 (20.0 Mha), decreased during
Spanish Civil War and increased again up to 21 Mha in 1970 (Fig. 1a).
Onward cropland area has fallen down to 17 Mha. All of the land uses
grouped under Forestlands, have increased by 33% along the studied period. The increase seen in closed forest is notable, with its area almost
tripling. All of these have been mainly due to the reduction of pastureland area (23%) and of cropland in recent times (17% since 1970).
This reduction is closely related to the discontinuation of agricultural
and livestock farming activity which has affected 6 million ha of pastureland and cropland from the sixties. The decline in cropland surface
has been compatible with a more intensive use of it. Thus the use of
chemical fertilizers has increased signicantly over time, from 0.5 to
51.2 kg/ha of N between 1900 and 2008 and from 1.2 to 21.8 P2O5 on
the same dates. The growth of chemical fertilizers between 1900 and
2
The original Trade Yearbooks are available online at the Ministerio de Economa y
Competitividad. website: http://www4.mityc.es/BibliotecaCOM/abwebp.exe. Accessed
April 3, 2015.
1933 was led by phosphoric fertilizers, while after 1960 the industrialization of agriculture made nitrogen fertilizers to grow faster (see Supplementary data).
Seen as a whole, NPP grew moderately between 1900 and 2008
(28%), although its components showed varied behavior. There was a
greater increase in cropland areas (57%) and forests (42%) but an increase of only 8% in pastureland (Fig. 1b). This means that human pressure increased, especially on cultivated cropland, increasing the
production of biomass. It should be borne in mind that the cropland
area hardly grew between 1900 and 2008. On forest land, on the other
hand, the increase was due to more productive use of the land, the increase in the area of forest land and the abandonment of many traditional modes of forest exploitation. The comparatively small rise in the
NPP of pastureland is explained, rstly, by the reduction of the area devoted to this use and, secondly, and contradictorily, by the abandonment and underuse of pastureland in Spain.
The Domestic Extraction of biomass (Fig. 2a) grew over the period
by 38%, somewhat higher than growth in NPP (28%). This explains
why the percentage of DE within total NPP produced by Spanish agroecosystems has hardly changed (from 20.2% in 1900 to 21.8% in 2008).
The period of maximum relative extraction was in the 1950s, coinciding
with the end of traditional agriculture (23.9%).
The breakdown of the analysis also shows, in this case, signicant
changes. The growth in Domestic Extraction was concentrated in primary crops, rising by 236% with respect to 1900, as against a small 8%
growth in residues. Nevertheless, pasture was reduced by 46% and forests by 17%. This evolution shows that there has been a very signicant
change in the different uses of the biomass over the period studied,
which has favored primary crops above other uses. In this regard, it
can be said that the industrialization of agriculture has led to a signicant increase in the biomass produced but, above all, to a concentration
of the biomass extracted from primary crops. Total Domestic Extraction
has risen from 33% of the NPP of crops to 50% in 2008. Cereals, olives, industrial crops and articial meadowland and forage are the crops that
have grown most over the period studied. This is the biophysical translation of the specialization seen in the Spanish agrarian sector in livestock, fruit and vegetable and olive oil production.
There have also been important changes in the nal destination of
Domestic Extraction (Fig. 2b). The biomass used for human foodstuffs
has risen from 9% in 1900 to 14% in 2008. Something similar has occurred in the use of biomass as raw material (for industrial uses, excluding wood), which went from 1% in 1900 to 4% today. The most
signicant change, however, has been seen in the extracted biomass
used for animal feed. In 1900, it represented 56% of the biomass extracted, which is logical bearing in mind that most agricultural work was
done with draft animals. In 2008, this percentage had risen to 57.5%,
having reached its peak in 1960, when almost it reached almost two
thirds of the biomass extracted. Since that decade, even though draft animals are no longer used, around 40 million tons of dry matter has been
133
Fig. 2. Domestic Extraction of biomass in Spain a) DE in Mt. dm. b) Uses of Domestic Extraction in Mt. dm. Sources: See Data Sources section.
134
Table 1
Spain. Trade (Mt. dry matter).
1900
1910
1922
1933
1940
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2008
0,1
0,1
0,0
0,4
0,2
0,8
0,1
0,2
0,0
0,4
0,2
0,8
0,2
0,3
0,0
0,3
0,3
1,2
0,1
0,1
0,0
0,5
0,3
1,0
0,5
0,2
0,1
0,1
0,1
0,9
0,2
0,1
0,0
0,1
0,1
0,5
0,7
0,6
0,1
0,5
0,3
2,2
0,6
3,0
0,0
1,3
0,3
5,3
1,1
6,9
0,1
1,9
0,5
10,5
2,8
5,6
0,1
5,2
0,6
14,3
4,4
10,4
0,4
9,6
1,4
26,2
6,3
13,3
0,6
9,8
2,0
31,9
0,1
0,0
0,0
0,1
0,1
0,3
0,5
0,2
0,0
0,0
0,1
0,1
0,4
0,5
0,2
0,1
0,0
0,1
0,1
0,5
0,7
0,3
0,0
0,0
0,1
0,0
0,4
0,6
0,1
0,0
0,0
0,0
0,0
0,2
0,7
0,4
0,0
0,0
0,0
0,0
0,5
0,0
0,5
0,1
0,0
0,1
0,0
0,6
1,6
0,9
0,2
0,0
0,3
0,1
1,5
3,8
1,1
0,3
0,0
1,1
0,3
2,8
7,6
1,9
1,4
0,1
1,8
0,3
5,4
8,9
3,7
1,4
0,1
4,4
0,4
9,9
16,3
4,0
1,9
0,1
6,2
0,5
12,7
19,3
Until the late 1960s, the DE and DMC evolved together but, as from
the 1970s, consumption grew more and faster than DE, thanks to growing biomass imports for animal feed. In other words, biomass consumption in Spain depended on DE until the late 1960s. From then on, it
began to depend more and more on imports. Today, Spanish biomass
consumption represents a considerable proportion, 27.6%, of NPP, but
part is in fact extracted in other countries, bearing in mind that DE represents 21.8% of the NPP produced by Spanish agro-ecosystems.
However, per capita consumption has fallen, both from the point of
view of EW-MFA methodology, this is the DMC/cap (Fig. 5b), and
from the point of view of biomass directly consumed by society, excluding reused biomass. (Fig. 3c). Between 1900 and 2008, direct consumption by society of plant and animal biomass (that is, without reuse in
agro-ecosystems) fell by 32%, from 1.2 to 0.7 tons, a rate similar to
that of per capita DMC (Fig. 5b). In this case, the evolution has not
been linear. Between 1900 and 1970, per capita consumption fell.
From 1970 to 2000, it grew as a result of the increased imports and
the consumption of foods of animal origin, but fell between 2000 and
2008. However, if we break down the different categories which make
up the consumption of plant and animal biomass, evolution has been
very uneven. Per capita consumption of wood and rewood has declined, while consumption of biomass as raw materials for industrial
uses has grown. But the most signicant growth in consumption per
capita has happened in biomass for foo.
The latter can also be seen in the evolution of the Spanish food balance (Fig. 3d). Food balance gures show a very signicant fall between
1933 and 1960, due to the agricultural policy applied during the dictatorship of Franco. From the 1970s onwards, there was a signicant
Fig. 3. Trade and consumption of Biomass in Spain. a) PTB in Mt. dm. b) DMC in Mt. dm. c) Direct consumption per capita of plant and animal biomass by society in t dm. d) Net Food
Balance in kcal/inhab/yr Sources: see Data Sources section.
change in diet, and foods of animal origin have become more important
both as a source of calories and of proteins (Lassaletta et al., 2013). The
biomass for human consumption has increased in the entire biomass
consumed, from 0.10 to 0.18 t of DMC. However, this improved efciency in food production is something less than that calculated by Singh
et al. (2012) for India.
3.3. Livestock
The evolution described reects the growing importance of livestock
in the Spanish farming sector. Livestock (Fig. 4a) has grown at a much
higher rate than the domestic availability of feed for the animals
(216% in live weight between 1900 and 2008 against 82% for animal
feed). Consequently, not only has the greater part of Domestic Extraction been devoted to animal feed over the entire period in Spain, but
also of biomass DMC. An analysis of the composition of livestock and
its evolution explains this fundamental change.
As with other variables, livestock does not show linear evolution
over the 20th century. Livestock farming grew by 56% between 1900
and 1933, it stagnated from 1940 to 1960 and livestock breeding
grew rapidly between 1970 and 2008 (by 97%). But there have also
been changes in its composition. Working livestock has practically
disappeared. Pigs and poultry today represent 53% of total livestock
compared with 9% in 1900. Bovine had the same weighting in 2008
as in 1900 (32%), but this data hides a signicant change in the
breeds of cattle, which are today much more specialized in milk
and meat. This specialization process has also fostered a change in
the functionality of cattle. The mixed use breeds, providing both
labor, manure and animal food products, have gradually become
marginal. Likewise, the number of monogastric animals has increased signicantly. These animals depend on high-quality processed feed, unlike species able to feed off pasture land and residues
(sheep, goats, cattle on extensive farms). The transition from an
organic livestock farming to an industrial livestock breeding has
meant an overall increase in feed conversion ratio (% animal product
output / input feed) from 1.3 to 7.9 between 1900 and 2008. This
ratio stands at the average in Western Europe in 2000 (7.8) which,
together with the ratio of Eastern Europe, was the highest in the
world (Krausmann et al., 2008).
The feeding of livestock thus depended mainly on pastureland and
crop residues (45% and 25%) until the 1960s. From then on, it began to
depend on high-quality animal feed from crops and industrial processing (Fig. 4b). Since the 1980s, a growing proportion of this feed has been
imported. In 2008, 48% of animal feed came from Domestic Extraction
Primary Crops and 15% of animal feed came from net imports. Meanwhile, a signicant part of the farming area used was abandoned or
the pastureland was underused, as can be seen from the drastic reduction in the amount of grazed biomass (see Fig. 1a).
135
4. Discussion
4.1. Four Steps of Socio-Ecological Transition
As we have seen, most of the changes in land use and farming
methods took place in the last three decades of the 20th century. Until
the 1960s, the diet of the Spanish people, most of the energy required
for agrarian activity and most of the energy consumed in the home
were linked to the territory, with very little importation of biomass.
Since then, a process of decoupling these functions from Spanish agroecosystems began, a process that is still continuing and which is the result of agro-food globalization. It is still possible, however, to differentiate various moments in the evolution of Domestic Extraction and the
consumption of biomass in Spain over the period which are directly related to the landmarks in the process of transition from organic to industrial agriculture.
Since the beginning of the 20th century and until 1933, the Domestic
Extraction of crops, pastureland and forestry grew in parallel to the increase in livestock. The introduction of chemical fertilizers, especially
phosphoric fertilizers, which made it possible to overcome the structural shortage of nutrients in Mediterranean agriculture (Garrabou and
Gonzlez de Molina, 2010), explains the growth in the DE of primary
crops, without the growth being at the expense of other uses of the territory, as it had occurred in the 19th century. In this period, there was
also a signicant expansion of irrigation, which also undoubtedly had
an inuence on the growth of crops (Gonzlez de Molina, 2001).
A second phase coincided with the Civil War (19361939) and the
rst decades of the Francoist period. This is a period which can only be
explained in terms of the internal situation of the country. The autarchic
economic policy and the international isolation of the Franco regime
meant that the Spanish chemical industry was unable to supply the
chemical fertilizer needs of an agricultural sector which was by then a
habitual user of such products (Christiansen, 2012). This forced a
rebalancing of land use which caused an increase in the DE of pastureland, even though there was less livestock, and, at the same time,
reduced the DE of primary crops as a result of the difculty in
replenishing soil fertility. The result was a dramatic fall in the availability of food per capita which would not be reversed until well into the
1960s.
The third phase, which began in the 1960s, was characterized by the
industrialization of agriculture, the growth of livestock fattening in
feedlots and the concentration of extraction in the cultivated farmland
area. This coincided, and not by chance, with the rapid growth in the
consumption of abiotics and the massive introduction of inputs into
the agrarian sector. A fourth phase appears to arise with the process of
globalization and the increase in biomass imports which began in the
1970s, but which has developed strongly since the turn of the century
and which can be seen in the growing decoupling of extraction from
the domestic consumption de biomass. The rst and third phases are
Fig. 4. a) Spain. Evolution of livestock in kt of live weigth. b) Origin of animal feed (%) Sources: see Data Sources section.
136
ecosystems have gone from supplying most of the goods and services
required by the Spanish economy to specializing in foodstuffs, both animal and vegetable, and the provision of raw materials for industry. This
explains why Domestic Extraction and, in short, productive effort have
concentrated on primary crops and, to a lesser extent, on forestry production. In this regard, the most signicant transformation that has
been seen in the agro-ecosystems is related to the growing importance
of livestock breeding within the Spanish agrarian sector. There has not
just been a growth in livestock density but also a change in the species
and breeds kept for human food production. Changes in consumption
habits have been very important in this process, which has led to the
partial abandoning of the Mediterranean diet in favor of diets that are
much richer in animal products. It is important to note that this change
in dietary behavior has occurred precisely when the benets of the
Mediterranean diet against excess meat diets have been recognized
(Rodrguez Artalejo et al., 1996; Nicolau and Pujol, 2011; Gonzlez de
Molina et al., 2013).
In comparative terms, the data shows different metabolic proles of
per capita biomass consumption and trends over the 20th century
(Fig. 5c and d). While per capita consumption varies between 3 and
4 t in Spain (similar gures to the world average), consumption in
Japan is between 1 and 2 while in the USA there is greater variation, between 6 and 10 t. These regional differences are similar to those detected in current studies of biomass consumption levels on a regional scale.
Among the explanations put forward are the availability of land, the
productivity of the land, livestock and population density, trade and income (Krausmann et al., 2008). However, the data also demonstrates
the growing importance of international trade in domestic consumption
patterns in recent decades. Countries such as Spain, net biomass importers, have increasingly sustained their consumption thanks to
trade. The case of Japan is even more evident, as it has increased its
per capita DMC for biomass, even though it started from very low consumption levels.
In effect, an increasingly signicant portion of biomass consumption
since 1970 has taken place through imports, and so there is a progressive decoupling of production and biomass consumption. This
Fig. 5. Role of biomass in the social metabolism. a) Spain. DMC in Mt. (EW-MFA Methodology).b) Spain. DMC per capita in t/inhab/yr (EW-MFA Methodology). c) DE per capita of biomass
in some countries (EW-MFA Methodology). d) DMC of Biomass in some Countries in t/inhab/yr (EW-MFA Methodology). Sources: Spain (Infante-Amate et al., 2015); Japan (Krausmann
et al., 2011); India (Singh et al., 2012); USA (Gierlinger and Krausmann, 2011); World (Krausmann et al., 2009).
5. Conclusions
The transition from agrarian to industrial metabolism has meant a
very signicant increase in the consumption of abiotic materials, especially in the second half of the 20th century. In parallel, the per capita
consumption of biomass has fallen in general terms. This has not been
due to a complete substitution of biotic materials by abiotic materials,
but only to a partial substitution caused by the replacement of biotic
fuels with fossil fuels for domestic consumption. However, in absolute
terms, the consumption of biotic materials has also increased considerably, though at a lower rate. This has been due to the changes in the
functionality of biomass for social metabolism as a whole: it has gone
from being the main source of energy and materials to specializing in
two essential functions, the provision of raw materials for industry
and the supply of food with a high share of animal products. The case
of Spain, presented in this paper, conrms this behavior, although it
was late, being a Mediterranean country and a late joiner in
industrialization.
The Spanish case also conrms that this absolute increase in the
consumption of biomass, which has been seen in most of the developed countries for which data is available, has supposed an increase
in the biomass DE and, therefore, an increase in pressure on agroecosystems. In Spain, this increase has been concentrated on croplands and, to a lesser degree, on forest land. Nevertheless, DMC has
grown much more than DE thanks to international trade. Spain
shares with other developed countries the fact that it is a net biomass
importer in order to maintain a diet that is ever richer in meat and
dairy products, while much pastureland and some cultivated areas
inland are underused or have been abandoned due to their
unprotability.
137
Acknowledgments
The results of the research contained in this paper was due to the nancial support granted by two organizations: the Social Sciences and
Humanities Research Council of Canada to the research project "Sustainable farm systems: long-term socio-ecological metabolism in western
agriculture", SSHRC 895-2011-1020, and Spanish Ministerio de
Economa y Competitividad to the project Sustainable farm systems
and transitions in agricultural metabolism: social inequality and institutional changes in Spain (1750-2010), HAR2012-38920-C02-01.
References
Almoguera Milln, J., 2007. Modelo dehesa sobre las relaciones pastizal-encinar-ganado
(Final Degree dissertation) Universidad Politcnica de Madrid, Madrid.
Carreras, A., Tafunell, X. (Eds.), 2005. Estadsticas histricas de Espaa siglos XIX-XX.
Fundacin BBVA, Madrid.
Centro de Investigacin y Formacin Agrarias de Cantabria, 2007. Los pastos de Cantabria
y su aprovechamiento. Produccin y calidad: Consejera de Desarrollo rural,
Ganadera. Biodiversidad, Santander, Pesca y.
Christiansen, T., 2012. The Reason Why: The Post-civil-war Agrarian Crisis in Spain.
Prensas universitarias de Zaragoza-SEHA, Zaragoza.
Correal, E., Robledo, A., Erena, M. (Eds.), 2007. Tipicacin, cartografa y evaluacin de los
recursos de la Regin de MurciaInforme 18. Consejera de Agricultura, Murcia.
Cunfer, G., Krausmann, F., 2009. Sustaining soil fertility: agricultural practice in the old
and new worlds. Glob. Environ. 4, 847.
Dittrich, M., Bringezu, S., 2010. The physical dimension of international trade: part 1: direct global ows between 1962 and 2005. Ecol. Econ. 69, 18381847.
Dittrich, M., Bringezu, S., Schtz, H., 2012. The physical dimension of international trade,
part 2: indirect global resource ows between 1962 and 2005. Ecol. Econ. 79, 3243.
Erb, K.-H., Krausmann, F., Lucht, W., Haberl, H., 2009. Embodied HANPP: mapping the spatial disconnect between global biomass production and consumption. Ecol. Econ. 69,
328334.
EUROSTAT, 2015. Economy-wide material ow accounts (EW-MFA). Compilation Guide
2013. Luxembourg, European Statistical Ofce.
FAOSTAT, 2015. FAOSTATFAO Database for Food and Agriculture. Food and Agriculture
Organisation of United Nations (FAO), Rome. (Available: http://faostat3.fao.org/
Accessed 15 January 2015).
Garca Ruiz, R., Gonzlez de Molina, M., Guzmn, G., Soto, D., Infante-Amate, J., 2012.
Guidelines for constructing nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium balances in historical agricultural systems. J. Sustain. Agric. 36 (6), 650682. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/
10440046.2011.648309.
Garrabou, R., Gonzlez de Molina, M. (Eds.), 2010. La reposicin de la fertilidad en los
sistemas agrarios tradicionales, Icaria, Barcelona.
GEHR, 1991. Estadsticas histricas de la produccin agraria espaola, 18591935.
Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentacin, Madrid.
Gierlinger, S., Krausmann, F., 2011. The physical economy of the United States of America
extraction, trade, and consumption of materials from 1870 to 2005. J. Ind. Ecol. 16 (3),
365377. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1530-9290.2011.00404.x.
Gonzlez de Molina, M., 2001. The limits of agricultural growth in the nineteenth century:
a case study from the Mediterranean world. Environ. Hist. 7, 473499.
Gonzlez de Molina, 2010. A guide to studying the socio-ecological transition in European
agriculture (DT-SEHA n. 10-06. https://ideas.repec.org/p/seh/wpaper/1006.html.
Accesed 2 April 2015).
Gonzlez de Molina, M., Guzmn, G., 2006. Tras los pasos de la insustentabilidad:
agricultura y medio ambiente en perspectiva histrica (siglos XVIII-XX). Icaria,
Barcelona.
Gonzlez de Molina, M., Soto, D., Infante-Amate, J., Aguilera, E., 2013. Una o varias
transiciones? Nuevos datos sobre el consumo alimentario en Espaa (19002008).
XIV SEHA Conference (Badajoz, November 2013 http://seha.info/congresos/
articulos/C.1.%20Gonz%C3%A1lez%20de%20Molina%20y%20otros.pdf (Accesed 2
April 2015).
Gonzlez de Molina, M., Soto, D., Infante-Amate, J., Aguilera, E., 2014. Crecimiento agrario
en Espaa y cambios en la oferta alimentaria, 1900-1933. Hist. Soc. 80, 157183.
Guzmn, G., Aguilera, E., Soto, D., Cid, A., Infante-Amate, J., Garca Ruiz, R., Herrera, A.,
Villa, I., Gonzlez de Molina, M., 2014. Methodology and Conversion Factors to Estimate the Net Primary Productivity of Historical and Contemporary Agroecosystems.
(DT-SEHA n. 1407. https://ideas.repec.org/p/seh/wpaper/1407.html. Accesed 2 April
2015).
Haberl, H., Erb, K.H., Krausmann, F., Gaube, V., Bondeau, A., Plutzar, C., Fischer-Kowalski,
M., 2007. Quantifying and mapping the human appropriation of net primary production in earth's terrestrial ecosystems. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 104 (31), 1294212947.
Heller, M.C., Keoleian, G.A., 2003. Assesing the sustainability of the US food system: a life
cycle perspective. Agric. Syst. 76, 10071041.
138
Imhoff, M.L., Bounoua, L., Ricketts, T., Loucks, C., Harriss, R., Lawrence, W.T., 2004. Global
patterns in human consumption of net primary production. Nature 429 (6994),
870873.
Infante-Amate, J., 2014. Quin levant los olivos? Historia de la especializacin olivarera
en el sur de Espaa (ss. XVIII-XX). Ministerio de Agricultura, Alimentacin y Medio
Ambiente, Madrid.
Infante-Amate, J., Aguilera, E., Gonzlez de Molina, M., 2014a. La gran transformacin del
sector agroalimentario espaol. Un anlisis desde la perspectiva energtica. (DTSEHA 1403. https://ideas.repec.org/p/seh/wpaper/1403.html. Accesed 2 April 2015).
Infante-Amate, J., Soto, D., Iriarte Goi, I., Aguilera, E., Cid, A., Guzmn, G., Garca Ruiz, R.,
Gonzlez de Molina, M., 2014b. La produccin de lea en Espaa y sus implicaciones
en la transicin energtica. Una serie a escala provincial (19002000) (DT-AEHE No.
1416. http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/ahedtaehe/1416.htm. Accesed 2 April
2015).
Infante-Amate, J., Soto, D., Aguilera, E., Garca Ruiz, R., Guzmn, G., Cid, A., Gonzlez de
Molina, M., 2015. The Spanish transition to industrial metabolism long-term material
ow analysis (18602010). J. Ind. Ecol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jiec.12261.
Iriarte Goi, I., 2013. Forests, fuelwood, pulpwood, and lumber in Spain, 1860-2000: a
non-declensionist story. Environ. Hist. 18 (2), 333359.
Kovanda, J., Hak, J., 2011. Historical perspectives of material use in Czechoslovakia in
18552007. Ecol. Indic. 11, 3751384. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2011.02.
016.
Krausmann, F., 2004. Milk, manure, and muscle power. Livestock and the transformation
of preindustrial agriculture in Central Europe. Hum. Ecol. 32 (6), 735772. http://dx.
doi.org/10.1007/s10745-004-6834-y.
The socio-metabolic transition. Long term historical trends and patterns in global material
and energy use. In: Krausmann, F. (Ed.), Social Ecology Working Paper, 131 http://
www.uni-klu.ac.at/socec/downloads/WP131FK_webversion.pdf (Accesed 2 April
2015).
Krausmann, F., Erb, K.-E., Gringrich, S., Lauk, C., Haberl, H., 2008. Global patterns of socioeconomic biomass ows in the year 2000: a comprehensive assessment of supply,
consumption and constraints. Ecol. Econ. 65, 471487. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.
ecolecon.2007.07.012.
Krausmann, F., Gingrich, S., Eisenmenger, N., Erb, K.H., Haberl, H., Fischer-Kowalski, M.,
2009. Growth in global materials use, GDP and population during the 20th century.
Ecol. Econ. 68, 26962705.
Krausmann, F., Gringrich, S., Nourbakhch-Sabet, R., 2011. The metabolic transition in
Japan a material ow account for the period from 1878 to 2005. J. Ind. Ecol. 15 (6),
877892. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1530-9290.2011.00376.x.
Kusova, P., Gringrich, S., Krausmann, F., 2008. Long term changes in social metabolism and
land use in Czechoslovakia, 18302000: an energy transition under changing political
regimes. Ecol. Econ. 68, 394407. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2008.04.006.
Lassaletta, L., Billen, G., Romero, E., Garnier, J., Aguilera, E., 2013. How changes in diet and
trade patterns have shaped the N cycle at the national scale: Spain (19612009). Reg.
Environ. Chang. 14 (2), 785797. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10113-013-0536-1.
MARM, 2008. Inventario de emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero de Espaa 1990
2006. Ministerio de Medio Ambiente, Medio Rural y Marino, Madrid.
Mayer, A., Schaffartzik, A., Haas, W., Rojas-Seplveda, A., 2015. Patterns of global biomass
tradeimplications for food sovereignty and socio-environmental conicts. EJOLT Report No. 20 (106 p).
Ministerio de Economa y Competitividad, 2015. DATACOMEX- Estadsticas del comercio
exterior espaol. Ministerio de Economa y Competitividad, Madridhttp://datacomex.
comercio.es/principal_comex_es.aspx (Accesed 2 April 2015).
Nicolau, R., Pujol, P., 2011. Aspectos polticos y cientcos del modelo de la transicin
nutricional, evaluacin crtica y nuevos desarrollos, DT-SEHA n. 1105. https://
ideas.repec.org/p/seh/wpaper/1105.html (Accessed April 3 2015).
Risku-Norja, H., 1999. The total material requirement-concept applied to agriculture: a
case study from Finland. Agric. Food Sci. Finl. 8, 393410.
Risku-Norja, H., Menp, 2007. MFA model to assess economic and environmental consequences of food production and consumption. Ecol. Econ. 60, 700711. http://dx.
doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2006.05.001.
Rodrguez Artalejo, F., Banegas, J.R., Graciani, M.A., Hernndez Vecino, R., Rey Calero, J.,
1996. El consumo de alimentos y nutrientes en Espaa en el perodo 19401988.
Anlisis de su consistencia con la dieta mediterrnea. Med. Clin. Vol. 106 (5),
pp. 161168.
Los pastos de la comunidad de Madrid. Tipologa, Cartografa y Evaluacin. In: San Miguel
Ayanz, A. (Ed.), Consejera de Medio ambiente, Vivienda y Ordenacin del Territorio.
Comunidad de Madrid, Madrid.
Schandl, H., Schulz, N.B., 2002. Changes in United Kingdom's natural relations in terms of
society's metabolism and land use from 1850 to the present day. Ecol. Econ. 41 (2),
203221.
Schandl, H., Grnbhel, C., Haberl, H., Weisz, H., 2002. Handbook of physical accounting.
Measuring bio-physical dimensions of socio-economic activities MFAEFAHANPP.
Social Ecology Working Paper 73. IFF, Vienna.
Singh, S.J., Krausmann, F., Gingrich, S., Haberl, H., Erb, K.-H., Lanz, P., 2012. India's biophysical economy, 19612008. Sustainability in a national and global context. Ecol. Econ.
76, 6069. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2012.01.022.
Smil, V., 2013. Harvesting the Biosphere What We Have Taken From Nature. The MIT
Press, London and Cambridge MA.
Tello, E., Garrabou, R., Cuss, X., Olarieta, J.R., Galn, E., 2012. Fertilizing methods and nutrient balance at the end of traditional organic agriculture in the Mediterranean bioregion: Catalonia (Spain) in the 1860s. Hum. Ecol. 40 (3), 369383. http://dx.doi.org/
10.1007/s10745-012-9485-4.
Wirsenius, S., 2003. The biomass metabolism of the food system. A model-based survey of
the global and regional turnover of food biomass. J. Ind. Ecol. 7 (1), 4780.
Witzke, H., Noleppa, S., 2010. EU agricultural production and trade: can more efciency
prevent increasing land grabbing outside of Europe? OPERA Research
Centerhttp://np-net.pbworks.com/f/Von_Witske+%282010%29+EU+agri_prod_
trade.pdf (Accessed 3 April 2015)
Wurtenberger, L., Koellner, T., Binder, C.R., 2006. Virtual land use and agricultural trade:
estimating environmental and socio-economic impacts. Ecol. Econ. 57, 679697.