Jc. Pluimers et al., Quantifying the environmental impact of production in agriculture and horticulture in The Netherlands: which emissions do we need to consider?, AGR SYST, 66(3), 2000, pp. 167-189
This study focuses on the environmental impact of agricultural production.
The aim of the study is to identify the most important sources of greenhous
e gases, acidifying and eutrophying compounds in Tomato Cultivation, Greenh
ouse Horticulture and Total Agriculture in The Netherlands. Within each of
these three sectors we distinguish two systems. The System Agriculture (Sys
tem A) includes the first-order processes of the agricultural production ch
ain and the System Industry (System I) includes some second-order processes
. Results indicate that, in general, System A emissions exceed System I emi
ssions. However, in some cases emissions from System I are relatively high
compared to System A emissions, and need to be considered when quantifying
the total environmental impact of agricultural production. For example, aci
difying emissions from the production of electricity and rockwool (both sec
ond-order processes) contribute almost 25% to the total acidifying emission
s from System Greenhouse Horticulture A+I. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. A
ll rights reserved.