Spatial Difference of Solarshare in Taiwan Food Consumption

This study integrates emergy evaluation with GIS (Geographic Information Systems) to investigate the renewable resources, the cost of food consumption, and the solarshare of Taiwan in 2006. Taiwan is an island country with limited natural resources and high population density; consequently, it is important to give consideration to the sustainable environment for food production while simultaneously satisfying the demand for food consumption. First, the renewable resources in Taiwan were assessed. The food items consumed in 2006 were then estimated based on the food balance sheet (FBS), demographic data, and the Nutrition and Health Survey in Taiwan (NAHSIT). Finally, this study incorporates the concept of solarshare to analyze the environmental carrying capacity for food, and discusses the spatial differences. The results of the emergy synthesis revealed the following: (1) The renewable emergy of Taiwan in 2006 was about 1.31 E+22 sej, with mountain areas receiving higher renewable emergy; (2) the energy for the dietary behavior related to Taiwanese food consumption was about 3.77 E+22 sej (4.53 E+12 sej per capita per day) in 2006; (3) the estimated solarshare of Taiwan was about 1.57 E+12 sej per day in 2006, which was only about a quarter of the global standard (6.0 E+12 sej per day); (4) the results of the Solar Cost Index of each kind of food (SCIF) indicate that consumption of eggs, fruits and fish are the three highest emergy-intensive food items; and (5) the resources used for food consumption in Taiwan were much higher than the natural environment (renewable resources) could provide (2.88 times).