Abstract
Sustainable development in agricultural production is an issue of growing concern. An energy-flow analysis is proposed for providing parameters for estimating ecological sustainability. Since sustainability has to be assessed over generations, energy flows for total Danish agricultural production from 1936 to 1990 at intervals of 5 years have been calculated. Calculations include energy output (contents of energy in vegetable produce, animal produce and the part of the produce that is used for human consumption) and energy input (consumption of fossil energy for fertilizer, pesticides, labor, horses, machines, fuel and electricity). The ratio of output of the production used for human food to fossil energy input is called the output/input energy ratio. This ratio shows a decline throughout the period, mainly due to a large increase in the use of fertilizers, fuel and electricity. One way to quantify essential parts of agricultural development is the energy-flow method. The output/input energy ratio is proposed as the most comprehensive single factor in pursuing the objective of sustainability. This parameter is one of several recognized for creating the necessary basis for a Danish policy that increases agricultural sustainability.
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