Les types d'agriculture économisant l'énergie ; une critique de l'orientation mécanique et chimique de l'agriculture

Of all man's deliberate activities, agriculture is by far the largest user of solar energy. The agricultural systems of the developed world are also heavily dependent on the use of support energy (« fossil » fuels). There are many ways in which the energetic efficiency of farming systems could be improved and there is no need to visualise this as « going back » or a return to earlier practices ». The problem is how to go forward but in a different direction, that takes account of the effect of high oil prices on the relevance of measures of productivity. Many of these changes do not necessarily imply changes in what Agriculture produces, simply in the ways in which production is carried out. However, there is no doubt that the biggest reductions in support energy use in Agriculture, and the biggest increases in all aspects of energetic efficiency, would result from a shift in the balance of crop and animal production (away from the latter)