Hostname: page-component-669899f699-rg895 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-25T23:22:04.715Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Circuits of calories: flows of food and energy in Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Sweden 1960–1990

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2009

Anne Buttimer  and
Taeke Stol
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A dramatic increase in volumes of commodity flow during the latter part of the 20th century reflects the fulfilment of postwar ideals of economic growth, but also imply serious challenges to the social and ecological integrity of places and regions. The record of imports and exports of food and energy products for Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Sweden during the 1960–90 period illustrate some of the built-in contradictions between rhetoric and reality. Those very societies which proclaim definitions of sustainable development as the harmonization of economic, social and ecological values demonstrate—at national scales—ways of life which, according to these criteria, are not sustainable. Calorie counting at national and regional scales might offer useful catalysts for reflection on theoretical as well as practical dimensions of sustainable development.

Type
Research Article
Information
European Review , Volume 4 , Issue 3 , July 1996 , pp. 193 - 214
Copyright
Copyright © Academia Europaea 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

1.Wilbanks, T. J. (1994) ‘Sustainable development’ in geographic perspective. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 84, 547.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2.Pimentel, D. and Pimentel, M. (1979) Food, Energy and Society. Edward Arnold, London, 12–13.Google Scholar
3.Soussan, J. G. (1992) Sustainable development. In A. M. Mannion and S. R. Bowlby, Environmnetal Isues in the 1990s. Wiley, New York, 34.Google Scholar
4.Dahlberg, K. A. (1993) Regenerative food systems: broadening the scope and agenda of sustainability. In Allen, P. (Ed.), Food for the Future. Conditions and Contradictions of Sustainability. Wiley, New York, 79; and Soussan, Sustainable development, 22–23, 35.Google Scholar
5.Pimentel, D. and Hall, C. W. (Eds) (1984) Food and Natural Resources. Academic Press, San Diego, 35 (Assuming petroleum was the only source of energy for food production).Google Scholar
6.O'Cearbhaill, D. (1992) Ireland's integrated rural development pilot project 1988–90: process, performance and prelude. In Cinnéide, M. and Grimes, S. (Eds), Planning and development of marginal areas. Galway: University College Galway, Centre for Development Studies, Galway, 123–134.Google Scholar
7.WCED—World Commission on Environment and Development (1987) Our Common Future. Oxford University Press, Oxford; and Douglas, 1984, cited in Dahlberg, Regenerative food systems, 81.Google Scholar
8.Gonggrijp, H. A. et al. (1994) Duurzame landbouw. Naar een landbouw die past in duurzame ontwikkeling. Ministerie van Landbouw, Natuurbeheer en Visserij, Den Haag.Google Scholar
9. Ibidem.Google Scholar
10.LEI-DLO (1994) Voorbij het verleden. Drie toekomstbeelden voor de Nederlandse agribusiness, 1990–2015. LEI-DLO (Landbouw Economisch Instituut–Dienst Landbouwkundig Onderzoek), Wageningen.Google Scholar
11. Most of the data are derived from Eurostat publications (Basic Statistics of the Community; Energy 1960–1988; Energy—Yearly statistics) and the annual reports of the EU Directorate-General for Energy (DG XVII). Additional data came from literature and OECD-reports.Google Scholar
12.Roads Bulletin (1993) Department of the Environment, Dublin, 6.Google Scholar
13.O'Rourke, K. (1992) Overview of energy trends and prospects. In Freehan, J. (Ed.) Environment and Development in Ireland. University College Dublin, The Environmental Institute, Dublin, 188.Google Scholar
14.CSO—Central Statistics Office (1994) Census of Agriculture, June 1991. Government Publications, Dublin; and A. A. Horner, J. A. Walsh, and J. A. Williams (1984) Agriculture in Ireland, A Census Atlas. University College Dublin, Department of Geography, Dublin.Google Scholar
15.Culleton, N., Tunney, H. and Coulter, B. (1994) Sustainability in Irish Agriculture, Irish Geography, 27, 36–47; and ENFO, River water quality. Fact sheet 4. The Environmental Information Service, Dublin.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
16.Breathnach, P. and Walsh, J. A. (1994) Industrialisation and regional development in Ireland. Acta Universitatis Carolinae–Geographica, 29, 47–66.Google Scholar
17.McGettigan, M. F., O'Donnell, C. and Bowman, J. J. (1993) Air Qualify in Ireland. A Review 1981–1991. Environmental Research Unit, Dublin, 10.Google Scholar
18. Ibidem, 9.Google Scholar
19.Collier, U. (1993) Global warming and energy policy in the Netherlands: towards sustainable development? Dutch Crossing. A Journal of Low Countries Studies, 50, 76.Google Scholar
20.Special Issue at the International Peat Conference(1994)IPS Newsletter, 2.Google Scholar
21.WCED–World Commission on Environment and Development (1987) Our Common Future. Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
22.Shier, C. (1994) Peatlands, carbon cycling and policy issues. In Feehan, J. (Ed.), Climate Variation and Climate Change in Ireland. University College Dublin, Environmental Institute, Dublin, 96.Google Scholar
23.Rae, J. (1993) Alternative energy sources: the European story. In Cartledge, B. (Ed.), Energy and the Environment. The Linacre Lectures 1991–92. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 97.Google Scholar
24.Greenpeace Nederland (1993) Fossiele brandstoffen in een veranderend klimaat. Naar een stabiel wereldklimaat zonder gas, olie en kolen. Greenpeace Nederland, Amsterdam.Google Scholar
25. Interview with Georges Dupont-Roc, Head Energy, Shell Planning Department in London (Nieuwe Rotterdamse Courant, 26-1-1995). Sustained Growth scenario, assuming an annual global increase in energy use of 2%. The second scenario, named Dematerialization, assumes an annual growth of 1%, as a result of higher taxation of energy and the application of more efficient technologies.Google Scholar
26.Haq, G. (1993) Transport and the environment: a Dutch perspective, Dutch Crossing: A Journal of Low Countries Studies, 50, 46–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
27.Wilbanks, T. J. (1994) ‘Sustainable development’ in geographic perspective. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 84, 550.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
28.World Development Report. 1995 (1995) Workers in an Integrating World. Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
29.Mjφset, L. (1992) The Irish Economy in a Comparative Institutional Perspective. National Economic and Social Council, Dublin, 18.Google Scholar
30.Anderson, T. (1994) Trade when the environment matters, in Bengtsson, A. et al. (Eds), The Environment and Free Trade. Department of Social and Economic Geography (EPOS), Uppsala, 21.Google Scholar
31.NESC (1994) New Approaches to Rural Development. National Economic and Social Council, Dublin, xvii and 141.Google Scholar