IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v39y2011i3p1101-1112.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Resource consumption in Japanese agriculture and its link to food security

Author

Listed:
  • Gasparatos, Alexandros

Abstract

Energy security and food security are two key policy objectives of the Japanese government. However, their study and the policies that have targeted them have been disjointed at best. This paper explores the links between these two policy objectives by quantifying the resources used in (a) the agricultural sector as a whole and (b) two very resource intensive sub-sectors, beef and pork production. Emergy synthesis is used as the analytical approach for the period 1975-2005 with the results suggesting that not only is more natural capital currently being used within the agricultural sector but the efficiency of the agricultural production has declined considering the increase in transformity during the same period. What is more important though is that agricultural yield is strongly correlated with resource use (quantified as emergy). This finding suggests that sudden changes in resource supply can affect agricultural production and as an extension national food security. Overall the evidence presented in this paper shows that energy security and food security are indeed interconnected and that integrated policy responses will be required if these issues are to be tackled effectively.

Suggested Citation

  • Gasparatos, Alexandros, 2011. "Resource consumption in Japanese agriculture and its link to food security," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 1101-1112, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:39:y:2011:i:3:p:1101-1112
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301-4215(10)00855-4
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gasparatos, Alexandros & El-Haram, Mohamed & Horner, Malcolm, 2009. "The argument against a reductionist approach for measuring sustainable development performance and the need for methodological pluralism," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 245-256.
    2. Pingali, Prabhu, 2007. "Westernization of Asian diets and the transformation of food systems: Implications for research and policy," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 281-298, June.
    3. Takahashi, Fábio & Ortega, Enrique, 2010. "Assessing the sustainability of Brazilian oleaginous crops - possible raw material to produce biodiesel," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 2446-2454, May.
    4. Ingwersen, Wesley W., 2010. "Uncertainty characterization for emergy values," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 221(3), pages 445-452.
    5. Alexandros Gasparatos & Mohamed El-Haram & Malcolm Horner, 2009. "The argument against a reductionist approach for measuring sustainable development performance and the need for methodological pluralism," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(3), pages 245-256, September.
    6. Dong, Xiaobin & Ulgiati, Sergio & Yan, Maochao & Zhang, Xinshi & Gao, Wangsheng, 2008. "Energy and eMergy evaluation of bioethanol production from wheat in Henan Province, China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(10), pages 3882-3892, October.
    7. Pingali, Prabhu, 2004. "Westernization of Asian diets and the transformation of food systems: Implications for research and policy," ESA Working Papers 23795, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Agricultural Development Economics Division (ESA).
    8. Gasparatos, Alexandros & Gadda, Tatiana, 2009. "Environmental support, energy security and economic growth in Japan," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(10), pages 4038-4048, October.
    9. Zhang, L.X. & Yang, Z.F. & Chen, G.Q., 2007. "Emergy analysis of cropping-grazing system in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 3843-3855, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wang, Xiuhong & Shen, Jianxiu & Zhang, Wei, 2014. "Emergy evaluation of agricultural sustainability of Northwest China before and after the grain-for-green policy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 508-516.
    2. Ghisellini, Patrizia & Zucaro, Amalia & Viglia, Silvio & Ulgiati, Sergio, 2014. "Monitoring and evaluating the sustainability of Italian agricultural system. An emergy decomposition analysis," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 271(C), pages 132-148.
    3. Zeke Marshall & Paul E. Brockway, 2020. "A Net Energy Analysis of the Global Agriculture, Aquaculture, Fishing and Forestry System," Biophysical Economics and Resource Quality, Springer, vol. 5(2), pages 1-27, June.
    4. Russeil, Valentin & Lo Seen, Danny & Broust, François & Bonin, Muriel & Praene, Jean-Philippe, 2023. "Food and electricity self-sufficiency trade-offs in Reunion Island: Modelling land-use change scenarios with stakeholders," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    5. Shah, Syed Mahboob & Liu, Gengyuan & Yang, Qing & Casazza, Marco & Agostinho, Feni & Giannetti, Biagio F., 2021. "Sustainability assessment of agriculture production systems in Pakistan: A provincial-scale energy-based evaluation," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 455(C).
    6. Gavin Parker, 2014. "Social innovation in local food in Japan: Choku-bai-jo markets and Teikei cooperative practices," Real Estate & Planning Working Papers rep-wp2014-08, Henley Business School, University of Reading.
    7. Houshyar, Ehsan & Zareifard, Hamid Reza & Grundmann, Philipp & Smith, Pete, 2015. "Determining efficiency of energy input for silage corn production: An econometric approach," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 93(P2), pages 2166-2174.
    8. Ma, Chih-Ming & Chen, Ming-Hue & Hong, Gui-Bing, 2012. "Energy conservation status in Taiwanese food industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 458-463.
    9. Shortall, O.K. & Raman, Sujatha & Millar, Kate, 2015. "Are plants the new oil? Responsible innovation, biorefining and multipurpose agriculture," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 360-368.
    10. Wojcieszak, Dawid & Przybył, Jacek & Ratajczak, Izabela & Goliński, Piotr & Janczak, Damian & Waśkiewicz, Agnieszka & Szentner, Kinga & Woźniak, Magdalena, 2020. "Chemical composition of maize stover fraction versus methane yield and energy value in fermentation process," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Giannetti, B.F. & Almeida, C.M.V.B. & Bonilla, S.H., 2010. "Comparing emergy accounting with well-known sustainability metrics: The case of Southern Cone Common Market, Mercosur," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(7), pages 3518-3526, July.
    2. Lu, Hongfang & Lin, Bin-Le & Campbell, Daniel E. & Sagisaka, Masayuki & Ren, Hai, 2012. "Biofuel vs. biodiversity? Integrated emergy and economic cost-benefit evaluation of rice-ethanol production in Japan," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 442-450.
    3. Figge, Frank & Hahn, Tobias & Barkemeyer, Ralf, 2014. "The If, How and Where of assessing sustainable resource use," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 274-283.
    4. Malin Falkenmark & Charlotte de Fraiture & Margaret J. Vick, 2009. "Global change in four semi‐arid transnational river basins: Analysis of institutional water sharing preparedness," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 33(4), pages 310-319, November.
    5. Vani S. Kulkarni, 2014. "Global middle class and dietary patterns: a sociological perspective," Chapters, in: Raghbendra Jha & Raghav Gaiha & Anil B. Deolalikar (ed.), Handbook on Food, chapter 20, pages 515-538, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Kostas G. Stamoulis & Prabhu Pingali & Prakash Shetty1, 2004. "Emerging Challenges for Food and Nutrition Policy in Developing Countries," The Electronic Journal of Agricultural and Development Economics, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, vol. 1(2), pages 154-167.
    7. Baral, Nawa Raj & Wituszynski, David M. & Martin, Jay F. & Shah, Ajay, 2016. "Sustainability assessment of cellulosic biorefinery stillage utilization methods using emergy analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 13-28.
    8. Béné, Christophe, 2022. "Why the Great Food Transformation may not happen – A deep-dive into our food systems’ political economy, controversies and politics of evidence," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    9. Jacinto F. Fabiosa, 2005. "Growing Demand for Animal-Protein-Source Products in Indonesia: Trade Implications," Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) Publications 05-wp400, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University.
    10. Raghav Gaiha & Nidhi Kaicker & Katsushi S. Imai & Vani S. Kulkarni & Ganesh Thapa, 2014. "Dietary shift and diet quality in India: an analysis based on the 50th, 61st and 66th rounds of NSS," Chapters, in: Raghbendra Jha & Raghav Gaiha & Anil B. Deolalikar (ed.), Handbook on Food, chapter 8, pages 177-203, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. de Fraiture, Charlotte & Wichelns, D. & Rockstrom, J. & Kemp-Benedict, E. & Eriyagama, Nishadi & Gordon, L. J. & Hanjra, M. A. & Hoogeveen, J. & Huber-Lee, A. & Karlberg, L., 2007. "Looking ahead to 2050: scenarios of alternative investment approaches," Book Chapters,, International Water Management Institute.
    12. Prabhu Pingali & Yasmeen Khwaja, 2004. "Globalization of Indian Diets and the Transformation of Food Supply Systems," Working Papers 04-05, Agricultural and Development Economics Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO - ESA).
    13. de Fraiture, Charlotte & Molden, David & Wichelns, Dennis, 2010. "Investing in water for food, ecosystems, and livelihoods: An overview of the comprehensive assessment of water management in agriculture," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 97(4), pages 495-501, April.
    14. Yang, Jin & Chen, Bin, 2014. "Emergy analysis of a biogas-linked agricultural system in rural China – A case study in Gongcheng Yao Autonomous County," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 173-182.
    15. Fabiosa, Jacinto F., 2006. "Growing Demand for Animal-Protein-Source Products in Indonesia: Trade Implications," 2006 Annual meeting, July 23-26, Long Beach, CA 21417, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    16. Jody Harris & Phuong Hong Nguyen & Lan Mai Tran & Phuong Nam Huynh, 2020. "Nutrition transition in Vietnam: changing food supply, food prices, household expenditure, diet and nutrition outcomes," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 12(5), pages 1141-1155, October.
    17. Hansen, James M., 2012. "Assessing the Impact of Southeast Asia's Increasing Meat Demand on Global Feed Demand and Prices," 2012 Annual Meeting, August 12-14, 2012, Seattle, Washington 124683, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    18. Xing, Yangang & Horner, R. Malcolm W. & El-Haram, Mohamed A. & Bebbington, Jan, 2009. "A framework model for assessing sustainability impacts of urban development," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 209-224.
    19. Anneleen Vandeplas & Bart Minten, 2015. "Food quality in domestic markets of developing economies: a comparative study of two countries," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 46(5), pages 617-628, September.
    20. Holden, Erling & Linnerud, Kristin & Banister, David, 2013. "Sustainable passenger transport: Back to Brundtland," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 67-77.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:39:y:2011:i:3:p:1101-1112. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.