Brenda B. Lin
1
, M. Jahi Chappell
2
, John Vandermeer
3
, Gerald Smith
3
, Eileen Quintero
4
,Rachel Bezner-Kerr
5
, Daniel M. Griffith
6
, Stuart Ketcham
7
, Steven C. Latta
8
, Philip McMichael
9
,Krista L. McGuire
10
, Ron Nigh
11
, Dianne Rocheleau
12
, John Soluri
13
and Ivette Perfecto
14
Address:
1
AAAS Fellow, Global Change Research Program, Environmental Protection Agency, USA.
2
School of Earth andEnvironmental Sciences and the Center for Social and Environmental Justice, Washington State University Vancouver, Vancouver,WA, U.S.A.
3
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, U.S.A.
4
Institute for Researchon Labor, Employment, and the Economy (IRLEE), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, U.S.A.
5
Department of Geography,University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.
6
Department of Forestry, University of Co´rdoba, Co´rdoba, Spain.
7
College of Science and Mathematics, University of the Virgin Islands, U.S.A.
8
Department of Conservation and Field Research, National Aviary,Pittsburgh, PA, U.S.A.
9
Department of Development Sociology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, U.S.A.
10
Department of BiologicalSciences, Barnard College, New York, NY, U.S.A.
11
Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropologı´a Social, SanCristo´bal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Me´xico.
12
School of Geography, Clark University, Worcester, MA, U.S.A.
13
Department of History,Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, U.S.A.
14
School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan,Ann Arbor, MI, U.S.A.
Corresponding author:
Brenda B. Lin. Email: bbclin@gmail.com, Brenda.Lin@csiro.au
Received:
11 March 2011
Accepted:
18 May 2011doi: 10.1079/PAVSNNR20116020The electronic version of this article is the definitive one. It is located here: http://www.cabi.org/cabreviews
g
CAB International 2011 (Online ISSN 1749-8848)
Abstract
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), agriculture is responsiblefor 10–12% of total global anthropogenic emissions and almost a quarter of the continuing increaseof greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Not all forms of agriculture, however, have equivalentimpacts on global warming. Industrial agriculture contributes significantly to global warming,representing a large majority of total agriculture-related GHG emissions. Alternatively, ecologi-cally based methods for agricultural production, predominantly used on small-scale farms, are farless energy-consumptive and release fewer GHGs than industrial agricultural production. Besidesgenerating fewer direct emissions, agro-ecological management techniques have the potential tosequester more GHGs than industrial agriculture. Here, we review the literature on the con-tributions of agriculture to climate change and show the extent of GHG contributions from theindustrial agricultural system and the potential of agro-ecological smallholder agriculture to helpreduce GHG emissions. These reductions are achieved in three broad areas when compared withthe industrial agricultural system: (1) a decrease in materials used and fluxes involved in the releaseof GHGs based on agricultural crop management choices; (2) a decrease in fluxes involvedin livestock production and pasture management; and (3) a reduction in the transportation of agricultural inputs, outputs and products through an increased emphasis on local food systems.Although there are a number of barriers and challenges towards adopting small-scale agro-ecological methods on the large scale, appropriate incentives can lead to incremental stepstowards agro-ecological management that may be able to reduce and mitigate GHG emissionsfrom the agricultural sector.
Keywords:
Industrial agriculture, Agro-ecology, Small-scale agriculture, Greenhouse gases, Land conversion,Mitigation, Climate change, Global warming, Adaptation
