The value of producing food, energy, and ecosystem services within an agro-ecosystem

Ecosystem Services within an Agro-

Ecosystem

Agricultural ecosystems produce food, fiber, and nonmarketed

ecosystem services (ES). Agriculture also

typically involves high negative external costs associated

with, for example, fossil fuel use. We estimated, via fieldscale

ecological monitoring and economic value-transfer

methods, the market and nonmarket ES value of a

combined food and energy (CFE) agro-ecosystem that

simultaneously produces food, fodder, and bioenergy.

Such novel CFE agro-ecosystems can provide a significantly

increased net crop, energy, and nonmarketed ES

compared with conventional agriculture, and require

markedly less fossil-based inputs. Extrapolated to the

European scale, the value of nonmarket ES from the CFE

system exceeds current European farm subsidy payments.

Such integrated food and bioenergy systems can

thus provide environmental value for money for European

Union farming and nonfarming communities.