Environmental Impacts of Spanish Agriculture’s Industrialization

Abstract

This chapter is focused in the environmental consequences of the industrialization of the Spain’s agriculture. The changes in the quantity and quality of energy and material flows described in the previous chapters have contributed to the deterioration of the quality of the land fund element, which supports the provision of ecosystems services, including the production of biomass. Contribution of recycled N, P, and K to total nutrient inputs in Spanish agroecosystems declined along the twentieth century with a clear surplus of N, P, and K, resulting in a lower nutrient efficiency use and a generalized environmental pollution (e.g. nitrate leaching, NH3,and N2O emissions). Soil organic carbon in Spanish agroecosystems is relatively low, indicating that these soils are at a degradation threshold. The increase in NPP resulting from intensification, together with massive feed imports do not compensate the lost of soil organic carbon due to an increased mineralization predicted under a scenario of climate change and the spread of irrigation, because of the breakdown of the balance between the uses of biomass and the preferential use of feed to nourish poultry and pigs. Agriculture intensification not only has resulted in a progressive decline of energy returns in the form of biomass, but also in the externalization of the environmental impact due to the outsourcing of the land cost of food through massive imports of biomass from other regions, mainly South America.