ABSTRACT
Organic farming (OF) has experienced major growth around the world in recent decades. In 2014, 43.7 million hectares were farmed organically worldwide. That same year, the number of organic farms stood at 2.26 million. In both cases, yearon-year growth in the twenty-rst century (1999-2014) reached double-digit gures
CONTENTS
8.1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 177 8.2 Description of the Areas and Crops Studied ................................................ 180
8.2.1 Primary Data Collection of Olive Groves ........................................ 180 8.2.2 Primary Data Collection of Avocado Groves ................................... 182
8.3 Calculation of Net Primary Productivity and Socialized Animal Biomass ........................................................................................... 183
8.3.1 Olive Groves ..................................................................................... 183 8.3.2 Avocado Groves ................................................................................ 184
8.4 Calculation of External Inputs ...................................................................... 185 8.4.1 Nonindustrial Inputs ......................................................................... 185 8.4.2 Industrial Inputs ................................................................................ 186
8.5 Calculation of EROIs .................................................................................... 186 8.6 Results and Discussion ................................................................................. 187
8.6.1 Net Primary Productivity in Olive and Avocado Groves ................. 187 8.6.2 External Inputs.................................................................................. 189 8.6.3 Energy Return on Investments ......................................................... 190
8.7 Conclusions ................................................................................................... 194 Acknowledgment ................................................................................................... 195
(10% and 18%, respectively). This growth in terms of land area covered and number of farming businesses has also been accompanied by growth in the organic food market, with 12% year-on-year growth in the same period, reaching US$80 billion in 2014 (Willer and Lernoud, 2016).
