Workshop on the Implications of Declining Net Energy for Complex Food/Energy/Water Systems

工业化农业严重依赖负担得起的化石燃料为食品供应链的每一步提供动力-移动水，生产和应用关键投入（肥料，农药），种植，收获，加工和分配来自各种作物的食物和纤维，最后为准备和消费这些材料以及管理由此产生的废物流的所有步骤提供动力。然而，可能需要从化石燃料过渡到其他能源（例如生物燃料、太阳能），以改变气候变化的主要驱动因素。这一转变可能对粮食-能源-水（FEW）系统的净能源供应产生严重影响。净能源是减去获取和加工或提炼能源资源的能源成本后剩余的能源。人们没有充分注意到，在少数几个联系中，电力系统可用的净能源减少对社会可能产生的巨大影响。此外，虽然高能量化石燃料可能有替代品，但水的替代品并不存在。由于少数经济发展战略取决于水的可用性，未来研究的重点将需要旨在了解净能源下降如何影响工业化农业的水需求，特别是在美国，解决这些瓶颈并提高少数系统可持续性的有效措施将需要将更大的社会，政治和经济进程与净能源现实联系起来。非常需要将社会、行为和经济学科直接纳入对FEW系统净能源影响的研究。 林菲尔德学院将举办为期两天半的会议，探讨FEW系统面临的净能源挑战以及FEW系统背景下净能源的社会、政治和经济层面。具体而言，本次研讨会将讨论FEW关系的两个关键要素：1）为粮食和水系统提供动力的净能源趋势的影响，以及2）通过粮食系统工作的净能源下降所带来的社会挑战。本次研讨会还将确定当前FEW系统知识的差距，特别是那些与净能量下降有关的系统性和外源性因素所产生的差距。研讨会的参与者将包括来自社会和物理科学的净能源和复杂系统专业知识的科学家，包括：经济学家，人类学家，社会学家，政治学家，物理学家，化学家和工程师。该研讨会还将包括来自美国和其他国家的具有应用FEW关系经验的从业人员。

Industrial agriculture is heavily dependent on affordable fossil fuels to power every step of the food supply chain - to move water, produce and apply critical inputs (fertilizer, pesticides), cultivate, harvest, process and distribute food and fiber from a diverse array of crops, and finally to power all the steps around preparing and consuming these materials and manageing the resultant waste streams. However, a transition from fossil fuels to other energy sources (e.g. biofuels, solar) may be needed to modify key drivers of climate change. This transition may have serious implications for net energy availability in food-energy-water (FEW) systems. Net energy is the energy that remains after the energy costs of procuring and processing or refining an energy resource are subtracted. There has been insufficient attention to the potentially enormous implications for society of a decline in the net energy available to power systems within the FEW nexus. Additionally, while there may be substitutes for energy-dense fossil fuels, substitutes for water do not exist. Since FEW economic development strategies hinge on water availability, a key focus of research ahead will need to be aimed at understanding how net energy decline may impact water needs in industrial agriculture, especially in the U.S. Effective measures to address these bottlenecks in and enhance sustainability of FEW systems will need to link larger social, political, and economic processes with net energy realities. There is great need to bring social, behavioral, and economic disciplines squarely into research on net energy implications for the FEW system. Linfield College will host a two and half day conference to examine net energy challenges facing FEW systems and the social, political, and economic dimensions of net energy in the context of FEW systems. Specifically, this workshop will discuss two key elements of the FEW nexus: 1) implications of trends in the net energy available to power food and water systems, and 2) societal challenges stemming from declining net energy working through food systems. This workshop will also identify gaps in current FEW system knowledge, particularly those that emerge from systemic and exogenous factors relating to declining net energy. Workshop participants will include scientists with net energy and complex systems expertise drawn from the social and physical sciences, including: economists, anthropologists, sociologists, political scientists, physicists, chemists, and engineers. This workshop will also include practitioners with applied FEW nexus experience from the US and other countries.