Fundaments for the Implementation of the Emergetic Synthesis Methodology/Fundamentos teorico-metodologicos para la implementation de la sintesis emergetica en sistemas agropecuarios

All processes involved in food production involve an energy amount from various sources; in the form of solar energy, fossil fuels, renewable resources, services and energy invested in the production of the materials of the economy. Some flows involved in agrarian processes, such as the contributions of nature, are not considered by the Classical Economy when defining market prices; what has caused the devaluation and depletion of non-renewable resources. The emergetic analysis is the methodology of scientific base that counts the environmental value and the economic value, under a common unit (solar emJoule); making use of Environmental Economics, Systems Theory, Thermodynamics, Biology and the new principles of the operation of open systems. It is developed in four stages: design of the System Diagram, Emergetic Evaluation Table, Calculation of Emergetic Indexes and Interpretation of the results. These indices allow us to know the efficiency of the systems in the use of resources, evaluate sustainability, establish comparisons between various scenarios and, therefore, serve as support for management. This review aims to establish the foundations for the implementation of this methodology.