2022 – The Ecological Value of Typical Agricultural Products: An Emergy-Based Life-Cycle Assessment Framework

Resumo (EN)

Agri-products have an impact on food security, ecology protection, and crucial strategic
deployment. With this respect, the economic value of agri-products should be paralleled
with a non-monetary assessment of ecological value for humans. This study set up an
emergy-based life-cycle assessment (Em-LCA) framework to calculate the ecosystem
service (ES) and ecosystem dis-services (EDS) that was applied to six typical crops,
exploring the implementation path of the agricultural eco-product value. The results
showed the agriculture system mainly depends on non-renewable resources. EDS
generated by China’s agri-products is higher than the ES provided by them.
Nevertheless, there is a low correlation between the current price of agri-products and
their greenness, but, economic value presents a rising trend with agri-product greenness
increasing. Further to discussing effective approaches to sustainable agriculture, it can be
seen that 1) sustainable agriculture will lead to increased greenness, but it is impossible to
improve greenness indefinitely. 2) Improving greenness is an effective way to implement
ecological value, another way to preserve and raise ecological value is to reduce EDS
generation. 3) Reducing energy consumption leads to a decrease in EDS but it is not an
appropriate way to achieve sustainable development. These findings provide meaningful
suggestions for decision-makers to realize the ecological value of agri-products.