Assessing the role of US agriculture in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and generating additional environmental benefits

This study measures the changes in Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions from US c rop production under a scenario where farmers face higher energy prices wit h the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol. The focus is on predicting the impact on direct and indirect energy, resource use, and measuring the chang es in specific GHGs. The study also assesses the potential for additional e nvironmental benefits from the changes in agricultural resource use. The an alyses rely on the results from a calibrated mathematical programming model of regional US crop production. The model accounts for input substitution when farmers are faced with external shocks. The results suggest that when energy prices increase, there is a relatively small decrease in total harve sted acreage, but a more significant drop in the use of energy-intensive re sources. Overall, GHG emissions from US crop production decrease by 20%, su ggesting agriculture is more effective in abating GHG emissions than the ot her sectors of US economy. There is also a good potential for additional po sitive environmental externalities from the decreases in resources used in crop production. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.