Ecological Footprint Applied in Agro-Ecosystems: Methods and Case Studies

Covering over a fourth of global land area, agriculture has been outlined as one of the most relevant human activities associated with ecosystem degradation. A major cause of environmental impacts from agriculture is due to the high quantity of resource used in terms of water consumption and soil degradation: the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment estimates that 70% of total available water is used in agriculture and the extent of cultivated systems covers 24% of the terrestrial surface. Furthermore, just in the past 100 years, agriculture has been drastically transformed from a resource-based subsistence activity to a highly technological and resource demanding sector. This rapid industrialisation of agriculture, which is based on the use of fossil fuels, produces wastes and residuals that exceed the assimilative capacities of ecosystems and results in alterations to global climate and deterioration of land, air and water in many parts of the world. This study is motivated by the premise that if agricultural practices degrade ecosystems, they cannot be sustainable, but how can we measure the sustainability of an agricultural system? In this study some key issues in the evaluation of sustainability of agricultural systems thorough the Ecological Footprint (EF) approach are discussed. More particularly, the first part gives a brief overview of the sustainability concept and the relation between environmental sustainability and agriculture. The second part introduces the Ecological Footprint Analysis (EFA) from a methodological point of view. The third part discusses the application of the EFA in agriculture thorough a review of some case studies in food production systems. The fourth part presents a detailed application of the EFA in an original case study, outlining strength and weakness of the method in the specific application. The fifth part briefly describes how this method can be used as a teaching and outreach tool to make students and stakeholders conscious about the ecosystem demand of our food consumption pattern.