Trade in the US and Mexico helps reduce environmental costs of agriculture
Increasing international crop trade has enlarged global shares of cropland, water and fertilizers used to grow crops for export. Crop trade can reduce the environmental burden on importing countries, which benefit from embedded environmental resources in imported crops, and from avoided environmenta...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2016-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/5/055004 |
| _version_ | 1797748624394813440 |
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| author | Luz A Martinez-Melendez Elena M Bennett |
| author_facet | Luz A Martinez-Melendez Elena M Bennett |
| author_sort | Luz A Martinez-Melendez |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Increasing international crop trade has enlarged global shares of cropland, water and fertilizers used to grow crops for export. Crop trade can reduce the environmental burden on importing countries, which benefit from embedded environmental resources in imported crops, and from avoided environmental impacts of production in their territory. International trade can also reduce the universal environmental impact of food production if crops are grown where they are produced in the most environmentally efficient way. We compared production efficiencies for the same crops in the US and Mexico to determine whether current crop trade between these two countries provides an overall benefit to the environment. Our economic and environmental accounting for the key traded crops from 2010 to 2014 shows that exports to Mexico are just 3% (∼16 thousand Gg) of the total production of these crops in the US, and exports to US represent roughly 0.13% (∼46 Gg) of Mexican total production of the same crops. Yields were higher in US than Mexico for all crops except wheat. Use of nitrogen fertilizer was higher in US than in Mexico for all crops except corn. Current trade reduces some, but not all, environmental costs of agriculture. A counterfactual trade scenario showed that an overall annual reduction in cultivated land (∼371 thousand ha), water use (∼923 million m ^3 ), fertilizer use (∼122 Gg; ∼68 Gg nitrogen) and pollution (∼681 tonnes of N _2 O emissions to the atmosphere and ∼511 tonnes of leached nitrogen) can be achieved by changing the composition of food products traded. In this case, corn, soybeans and rice should be grown in the US, while wheat, sorghum and barley should be grown in Mexico. Assigning greater economic weight to the environmental costs of agriculture might improve the balance of trade to be more universally beneficial, environmentally. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T16:07:27Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-52dea7e05a04461985ba54379380d7b9 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T16:07:27Z |
| publishDate | 2016-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-52dea7e05a04461985ba54379380d7b92023-08-09T14:16:40ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262016-01-0111505500410.1088/1748-9326/11/5/055004Trade in the US and Mexico helps reduce environmental costs of agricultureLuz A Martinez-Melendez0Elena M Bennett1Department of Natural Resources Sciences and McGill School of Environment, McGill University , 21111 Lakeshore Rd., Ste.-Anne-de-Bellevue, QC, Canada , H3X 3V9Department of Natural Resources Sciences and McGill School of Environment, McGill University , 21111 Lakeshore Rd., Ste.-Anne-de-Bellevue, QC, Canada , H3X 3V9Increasing international crop trade has enlarged global shares of cropland, water and fertilizers used to grow crops for export. Crop trade can reduce the environmental burden on importing countries, which benefit from embedded environmental resources in imported crops, and from avoided environmental impacts of production in their territory. International trade can also reduce the universal environmental impact of food production if crops are grown where they are produced in the most environmentally efficient way. We compared production efficiencies for the same crops in the US and Mexico to determine whether current crop trade between these two countries provides an overall benefit to the environment. Our economic and environmental accounting for the key traded crops from 2010 to 2014 shows that exports to Mexico are just 3% (∼16 thousand Gg) of the total production of these crops in the US, and exports to US represent roughly 0.13% (∼46 Gg) of Mexican total production of the same crops. Yields were higher in US than Mexico for all crops except wheat. Use of nitrogen fertilizer was higher in US than in Mexico for all crops except corn. Current trade reduces some, but not all, environmental costs of agriculture. A counterfactual trade scenario showed that an overall annual reduction in cultivated land (∼371 thousand ha), water use (∼923 million m ^3 ), fertilizer use (∼122 Gg; ∼68 Gg nitrogen) and pollution (∼681 tonnes of N _2 O emissions to the atmosphere and ∼511 tonnes of leached nitrogen) can be achieved by changing the composition of food products traded. In this case, corn, soybeans and rice should be grown in the US, while wheat, sorghum and barley should be grown in Mexico. Assigning greater economic weight to the environmental costs of agriculture might improve the balance of trade to be more universally beneficial, environmentally.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/5/055004environmental accountingcrop production efficienciestrade scenarios |
| spellingShingle | Luz A Martinez-Melendez Elena M Bennett Trade in the US and Mexico helps reduce environmental costs of agriculture Environmental Research Letters environmental accounting crop production efficiencies trade scenarios |
| title | Trade in the US and Mexico helps reduce environmental costs of agriculture |
| title_full | Trade in the US and Mexico helps reduce environmental costs of agriculture |
| title_fullStr | Trade in the US and Mexico helps reduce environmental costs of agriculture |
| title_full_unstemmed | Trade in the US and Mexico helps reduce environmental costs of agriculture |
| title_short | Trade in the US and Mexico helps reduce environmental costs of agriculture |
| title_sort | trade in the us and mexico helps reduce environmental costs of agriculture |
| topic | environmental accounting crop production efficiencies trade scenarios |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/5/055004 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT luzamartinezmelendez tradeintheusandmexicohelpsreduceenvironmentalcostsofagriculture AT elenambennett tradeintheusandmexicohelpsreduceenvironmentalcostsofagriculture |