The surprisingly small but increasing role of international agricultural trade on the European Union’s dependence on mineral phosphorus fertiliser
Phosphorus (P) is subject to global management challenges due to its importance to both food security and water quality. The European Union (EU) has promoted policies to limit fertiliser over-application and protect water quality for more than 20 years, helping to reduce European P use. Over this ti...
| 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 |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/2/025003 |
| _version_ | 1797748653313490944 |
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| author | Thomas Nesme Solène Roques Geneviève S Metson Elena M Bennett |
| author_facet | Thomas Nesme Solène Roques Geneviève S Metson Elena M Bennett |
| author_sort | Thomas Nesme |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Phosphorus (P) is subject to global management challenges due to its importance to both food security and water quality. The European Union (EU) has promoted policies to limit fertiliser over-application and protect water quality for more than 20 years, helping to reduce European P use. Over this time period, the EU has, however, become more reliant on imported agricultural products. These imported products require fertiliser to be used in distant countries to grow crops that will ultimately feed European people and livestock. As such, these imports represent a displacement of European P demand, possibly allowing Europe to decrease its apparent P footprint by moving P use to locations outside the EU. We investigated the effect of EU imports on the European P fertiliser footprint to better understand whether the EU’s decrease in fertiliser use over time resulted from P demand being ‘outsourced’ to other countries or whether it truly represented a decline in P demand. To do this, we quantified the ‘virtual P flow’ defined as the amount of mineral P fertiliser applied to agricultural soils in non-EU countries to support agricultural product imports to the EU. We found that the EU imported a virtual P flow of 0.55 Tg P/yr in 1995 that, surprisingly, decreased to 0.50 Tg P/yr in 2009. These results were contrary to our hypothesis that trade increases would be used to help the EU reduce its domestic P fertiliser use by outsourcing its P footprint abroad. Still, the contribution of virtual P flows to the total P footprint of the EU has increased by 40% from 1995 to 2009 due to a dramatic decrease in domestic P fertiliser use in Europe: in 1995, virtual P was equivalent to 32% of the P used as fertiliser domestically to support domestic consumption but jumped to 53% in 2009. Soybean and palm tree products from South America and South East Asia contributed most to the virtual P flow. These results demonstrate that, although policies in the EU have successfully decreased the domestic dependence on mineral P fertiliser, in order to continue to limit global potential mineral P supply depletion and consequences of P losses to waterways the EU may have to think about its trading partners. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T16:07:50Z |
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| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T16:07:50Z |
| publishDate | 2016-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-b94dcbaf35494e20a79ce32c5098d4942023-08-09T14:16:53ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262016-01-0111202500310.1088/1748-9326/11/2/025003The surprisingly small but increasing role of international agricultural trade on the European Union’s dependence on mineral phosphorus fertiliserThomas Nesme0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0695-9936Solène Roques1Geneviève S Metson2Elena M Bennett3Bordeaux Sciences Agro, Univ. Bordeaux , UMR 1391 ISPA, F-33175 Gradignan Cedex, France; INRA, UMR 1391 ISPA, F-33882 Villenave d’Ornon Cedex, France; McGill School of Environment, McGill University , Montreal, Quebec, CanadaDepartment of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University , Sainte Anne de Bellevue, Montreal, Quebec, CanadaDepartment of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University , Sainte Anne de Bellevue, Montreal, Quebec, CanadaMcGill School of Environment, McGill University , Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University , Sainte Anne de Bellevue, Montreal, Quebec, CanadaPhosphorus (P) is subject to global management challenges due to its importance to both food security and water quality. The European Union (EU) has promoted policies to limit fertiliser over-application and protect water quality for more than 20 years, helping to reduce European P use. Over this time period, the EU has, however, become more reliant on imported agricultural products. These imported products require fertiliser to be used in distant countries to grow crops that will ultimately feed European people and livestock. As such, these imports represent a displacement of European P demand, possibly allowing Europe to decrease its apparent P footprint by moving P use to locations outside the EU. We investigated the effect of EU imports on the European P fertiliser footprint to better understand whether the EU’s decrease in fertiliser use over time resulted from P demand being ‘outsourced’ to other countries or whether it truly represented a decline in P demand. To do this, we quantified the ‘virtual P flow’ defined as the amount of mineral P fertiliser applied to agricultural soils in non-EU countries to support agricultural product imports to the EU. We found that the EU imported a virtual P flow of 0.55 Tg P/yr in 1995 that, surprisingly, decreased to 0.50 Tg P/yr in 2009. These results were contrary to our hypothesis that trade increases would be used to help the EU reduce its domestic P fertiliser use by outsourcing its P footprint abroad. Still, the contribution of virtual P flows to the total P footprint of the EU has increased by 40% from 1995 to 2009 due to a dramatic decrease in domestic P fertiliser use in Europe: in 1995, virtual P was equivalent to 32% of the P used as fertiliser domestically to support domestic consumption but jumped to 53% in 2009. Soybean and palm tree products from South America and South East Asia contributed most to the virtual P flow. These results demonstrate that, although policies in the EU have successfully decreased the domestic dependence on mineral P fertiliser, in order to continue to limit global potential mineral P supply depletion and consequences of P losses to waterways the EU may have to think about its trading partners.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/2/025003phosphorusnatural resource useinternational tradeEuropean Unionenvironmental footprint |
| spellingShingle | Thomas Nesme Solène Roques Geneviève S Metson Elena M Bennett The surprisingly small but increasing role of international agricultural trade on the European Union’s dependence on mineral phosphorus fertiliser Environmental Research Letters phosphorus natural resource use international trade European Union environmental footprint |
| title | The surprisingly small but increasing role of international agricultural trade on the European Union’s dependence on mineral phosphorus fertiliser |
| title_full | The surprisingly small but increasing role of international agricultural trade on the European Union’s dependence on mineral phosphorus fertiliser |
| title_fullStr | The surprisingly small but increasing role of international agricultural trade on the European Union’s dependence on mineral phosphorus fertiliser |
| title_full_unstemmed | The surprisingly small but increasing role of international agricultural trade on the European Union’s dependence on mineral phosphorus fertiliser |
| title_short | The surprisingly small but increasing role of international agricultural trade on the European Union’s dependence on mineral phosphorus fertiliser |
| title_sort | surprisingly small but increasing role of international agricultural trade on the european union s dependence on mineral phosphorus fertiliser |
| topic | phosphorus natural resource use international trade European Union environmental footprint |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/2/025003 |
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