Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Energy in a woodland-livestock agroecosystem: Prince Edward Island, Canada, 1870–2010

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Regional Environmental Change Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This article presents historic energy profiles in order to understand the changing roles of three critical energy flows in eastern Canadian agroecosystems. The first flow is the societally useful energy that farms produced in crops, animal products, and forest resources. This flow stabilized after colonization and then intensified with the introduction of fossil fuel inputs. The second flow consists of these external inputs, including human labor and the energy embodied in machinery, fuel, and fertilizers. The final flow is the biomass from within the agroecosystem itself. Farmers removed this biomass from their final produce and recycled it as feed for animals, seed for crops, and fencing for livestock management. This article presents evidence on these energy flows from a set of case studies in Northeastern North America. Prince Edward Island (PEI) offers a study of energy transitions in a frontier agroecosystem at the farm, township, county, and the bounded provincial scales. This study uses time points from the 1881, 1931, 1951, and 1996 censuses, as well other statistics. The energy in land produce remained stable during the socio-ecological transition because of the importance of forest products. Results at the sub-county scale demonstrate complementary components within the larger provincial system, and the example of one farm (1877–1892) illustrates specialized energy strategies within the advanced organic regime. After the socio-ecological transition, external inputs remained lower than expected, but together with the steady growth of livestock, they ensured that biomass energy inputs were more productive in the mineral regime than they had been in the organic period.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aguilera E, Guzmán GI, Infante-Amate J, Soto D, Garcia-Ruiz R, Herrera A, Villa I, Torremocha E, Carranza G, Gonzalez de Molina M (2015) Embodied energy in agricultural inputs. Incorporating a historical perspective. Documentos de Trabajo 1507, Sociedad Española de Historia Agraria (SEHA)

  • Arsenault JP (2016) Agriculture and the environment on Prince Edward Island, 1969–2014: an uneasy relationship. In: MacDonald E, MacFadyen J, Novaczek I (eds) Time and a place: an environmental history of Prince Edward Island. McGill-Queen’s University Press, Montreal and Kingston, pp 195–217

    Google Scholar 

  • Barca S (2011) Energy, property, and the industrial revolution narrative. Ecol Econ 70(7):1309–1315. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2010.03.012

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bittermann R, McCallum M (2016) “One of the Finest Grass Countries I Have Met With”: Prince Edward Island’s colonial-era cattle trade. Agric Hist 90(2):173–194. https://doi.org/10.3098/ah.2016.090.2.173

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chandler AD (1972) Anthracite coal and the beginnings of the industrial revolution in the United States. Bus Hist Rev 46(2):141–181. https://doi.org/10.2307/3113503

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark AH (1959) Three centuries and the island: a historical geography of settlement and agriculture in Prince Edward Island, Canada. University of Toronto Press, Toronto

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Cleveland CJ (1995) The direct and indirect use of fossil fuels and electricity in USA agriculture, 1900–1990. Agric Ecosyst Environ 55(2):111–121. https://doi.org/10.1016/0167-8809(95)00615-Y

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cunfer G, Krausmann F (2016) Adaptation on an agricultural frontier: socio-ecological profiles of Great Plains settlement, 1870–1940. J Interdiscip Hist 46(3):355–392. https://doi.org/10.1162/JINH_a_00868

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cussó X, Garrabou R, Tello E (2006) Social metabolism in an agrarian region of Catalonia (Spain) in 1860 to 1870: flows, energy balance and land use. Ecol Econ 58(1):49–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2005.05.026

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Erb KH, Haberl H, Jepsen MR, Kuemmerle T, Lindner M, Müller D, Verburg P, Reenberg A (2013) A conceptual framework for analysing and measuring land-use intensity. Curr Opin Environ Sustain 5(5):464–470. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2013.07.010

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fischer-Kowalski M, Haberl H (2007) Socioecological transitions and global change: trajectories of social metabolism and land use. Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781847209436

  • Galán ES, Padró R, Marco I, Tello E, Cunfer G, Guzmán GI, Gonzalez de Molina M, Krausmann F, Gingrich S, Sacristan V, Moreno D (2016) Widening the analysis of Energy Return on Investment (EROI) in agro-ecosystems: socio-ecological transitions to industrialized farm systems (the Vallès County, Catalonia, c.1860 and 1999). Ecol Model 336:13–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2016.05.012

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gales B, Kander A, Malanima P, Rubio M de M (2007) North versus south: energy transition and energy intensity in Europe over 200 years. Eur Rev Econ Hist 11(2):219–253. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1361491607001967

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gentilcore R, Matthews GA (1993) Historical atlas of Canada: volume 2, the land transformed, 1800–1891. University of Toronto Press, Toronto

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Giampietro M (2003) Multi-scale integrated analysis of agroecosystems. CRC, Boca Raton

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gingrich S, Schmid M, Gradwohl M, Krausmann F (2013) How material and energy flows change socio-natural arrangements: the transformation of agriculture in the Eisenwurzen region, 1860–2000. In: Singh SJ, Haberl H, Chertow M, Mirtl M, Schmid M (eds) Long term socio-ecological research. Studies in society-nature interactions across spatial and temporal scales. Springer, New York, pp 297–313. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1177-8

    Google Scholar 

  • Gonzalez de Molina M, Toledo VM (2014) The social metabolism. A socio-ecological theory of historical change. Springer, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06358-4

  • Guzmán GI, Aguilera E, Soto D, Infante-Amate J, Garcia-Ruiz R, Herrera A, Villa I, Gonzalez de Molina M (2014) Methodology and conversion factors to estimate the net primary productivity of historical and contemporary agroecosystems. Documentos de Trabajo 1407, Sociedad Española de Historia Agraria (SEHA)

  • Haberl H, Winiwarter V, Andersson K, Ayres RU, Boone C, Castillo A, Cunfer G, Fischer-Kowalski M, Freudenburg WR, Furman E, Kaufmann R, Krausmann F, Langthaler E, Lotze-Campen H, Mirtl M, Redman CL, Reenberg A, Wardell A, Warr B, Zechmeister H (2006) From LTER to LTSER: conceptualizing the socioeconomic dimension of long-term socioecological research. Ecol Soc 11(2):13 [online]. http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol11/iss2/art13/

  • Hamilton A, Balogh SB, Maxwell A, Hall CA (2013) Efficiency of edible agriculture in Canada and the US over the past three and four decades. Energies 6(3):1764–1793. https://doi.org/10.3390/en6031764

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harding L (2006) The descendants of Neil Munn and Elizabeth MacLeod. Island Register. Online: http://www.islandregister.com/munn1.html (accessed 6 July 2017)

  • Hatvany MG (2001) Wedded to the marshes: salt marshes and socio-economic differentiation in early Prince Edward Island. Acad Ther 30(2):40–55 http://www.jstor.org/stable/30303220

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones CF (2014) Routes of power: energy and modern America. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kander A, Malanima P, Warde P (2014) Power to the people: energy in Europe over the last five centuries. Princeton University Press, Princeton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400848881

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Krausmann F (2001) Land use and industrial modernization: an empirical analysis of human influence on the functioning of ecosystems in Austria 1830–1995. Land Use Policy 18(1):17–26. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0264-8377(00)00042-9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krausmann F, Schandl H, Sieferle RP (2008) Socio-ecological regime transitions in Austria and the United Kingdom. Ecol Econ 65(1):187–201. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2007.06.009

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuskova P, Gingrich S, Krausmann F (2008) Long term changes in social metabolism and land use in Czechoslovakia, 1830–2000: an energy transition under changing political regimes. Ecol Econ 68(1–2):394–407. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2008.04.006

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MacDonald E (2016) Economic dislocation and resiliency on Prince Edward Island: small producer, distant markets. Lond J Can Stud 31(1):19–34. https://doi.org/10.14324/111.444.ljcs.2016v31.003

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MacDonald E, MacFadyen J, Novaczek I (eds) (2016) Time and a place: an environmental history of Prince Edward Island. McGill-Queen’s University Press, Montreal and Kingston

    Google Scholar 

  • MacFadyen J (2016a) Hewers of wood: a history of wood energy in Canada. In: Sandwell RW (ed) Powering up Canada: a history of power, fuel, and energy from 1600. McGill-Queen’s University Press, Montreal and Kingston, pp 129–161

    Google Scholar 

  • MacFadyen J (2016b) The fertile crescent: agricultural land use on Prince Edward Island, 1861–1971. In: MacDonald E, MacFadyen J, Novaczek I (eds) Time and a place: an environmental history of Prince Edward Island. McGill-Queen’s University Press, Montreal and Kingston, pp 161–194

    Google Scholar 

  • MacFadyen J, Glen W (2014) Top down history: delimiting forests, farms, and the census of agriculture on Prince Edward Island using aerial photography, ca.1900–2000. In: Bonnell J, Fortin M (eds) Historical GIS research in Canada. University of Calgary Press, Calgary

    Google Scholar 

  • McCalla D (1993) Planting the province: the economic history of upper Canada, 1784–1870. University of Toronto Press, Toronto

    Google Scholar 

  • McInnis M (1984) Marketable surpluses in Ontario farming, 1860. Soc Sci Hist 8(4):395–424. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0145553200020228

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Melosi MV (1985) Coping with abundance: energy and the environment in industrial America. Temple University Press, Philadelphia

    Google Scholar 

  • Munn, R (1912) Ledger of Roderick Munn. Prince Edward Island provincial archives and records office, Charlottetown, Acc4325

  • Oltjen JW, Beckett JL (1996) Role of ruminant livestock in sustainable agricultural systems. J Anim Sci 74(6):1406–1409. https://doi.org/10.2527/1996.7461406x

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Russell PA (2012) How agriculture made Canada: farming in the nineteenth century. McGill-Queen’s University Press, Montreal and Kingston

    Google Scholar 

  • Sandwell RW (2016) Canada’s rural majority: households, environments, and economies, 1870–1940. University of Toronto Press, Toronto

    Google Scholar 

  • Sieferle RP (1982) The subterranean forest: energy systems and the industrial revolution. White Horse Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Smil V (2000) Feeding the world. A challenge for the twenty-first century. MIT Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Smil V, Nachman P, Long TV (1983) Energy analysis and agriculture: an application to US corn production. Westview Press, Colorado

    Google Scholar 

  • Soto D, Infante-Amate J, Guzmán GI, Cid A, Aguilera A, Garcia-Ruiz R, Gonzalez de Molina M (2016) The social metabolism of biomass in Spain, 1900–2008: from food to feed-oriented changes in the agro-ecosystems. Ecol Econ 128:130–138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2016.04.017

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Statistics Canada (n.d.) Table 001-0021 grain consumption, semi-annual (tonnes). CANSIM (database). Last Modified May 19, 2015

  • Steffen W, Crutzen PJ, McNeill JR (2007) The Anthropocene: are humans now overwhelming the great forces of nature. AMBIO J Hum Environ 36(8):614–621. https://doi.org/10.1579/0044-7447(2007)36[614:TAAHNO]2.0.CO;2

  • Tello E, Galán E, Sacristán V, Cunfer G, Guzmán GI, González de Molina M, Krausmann F, Gingrich S, Padró R, Marco I, Moreno-Delgado D (2016) Opening the black box of energy throughputs in farm systems: a decomposition analysis between the energy returns to external inputs, internal biomass reuses and total inputs consumed (the Vallès County, Catalonia, c.1860 and 1999). Ecol Econ 121:160–174. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2015.11.012

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Watson A (2016) Coal in Canada. In: Sandwell RW (ed) Powering up Canada: a history of power, fuel, and energy from 1600. McGill-Queen’s University Press, Montreal and Kingston, pp 213–250

    Google Scholar 

  • Wrigley EA (2004) Poverty, progress, and population. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank Simone Gingrich and other members of the Sustainable Farm Systems energy working group, the editors of the “Energy in Agroecosystems” special issue, and the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable input. We thank Geoff Cunfer for his help developing the energy model diagrams.

Funding

We acknowledge the support from the Canadian Social Science and Humanities Research Council (“SFS”, Partnership Grant 895-2011-1020).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Historical Philosophical and Religious Studies and School of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Joshua MacFadyen

  2. Department of History, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada

    Andrew Watson

Authors
  1. Joshua MacFadyen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Andrew Watson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Joshua MacFadyen.

Electronic supplementary material

ESM 1

(DOCX 30 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

MacFadyen, J., Watson, A. Energy in a woodland-livestock agroecosystem: Prince Edward Island, Canada, 1870–2010. Reg Environ Change 18, 1033–1045 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-018-1315-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-018-1315-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation