GCAM v6 Documentation: Demand for food, forestry, etc.

Documentation for GCAM
The Global Change Analysis Model

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Demand for food, forestry, etc.

Table of Contents

Inputs to the Module

Table 1: Inputs required by the demand module 1

Name Resolution Unit Source
Historical demand for agriculture (used for calibration) By region, demand, commodity, and year Mt/yr Exogenous
Historical demand for livestock (used for calibration) By region, demand, commodity, and year Mt/yr Exogenous
Historical demand for forest (used for calibration) By region and year billion km3/yr Exogenous
Commodity prices By region, commodity, and year 1975$/kg or 1975$/m3 Marketplace
Income and price elasticity (for non-food, non-feed) By region, demand, and year unitless Exogenous
Scale parameter, self-price elasticity, cross-price elasticity, income elasticity, regional bias, price scaling parameters (for food demand) By region unitless Exogenous
Logit exponents By region and sector or subsector unitless Exogenous
GDP per capita By region and year thous 1990$ per person Economy module
Population By region and year thousand Economy module
1: Note that this table differs from the one provided on the Demand Inputs Page in that it lists all inputs to the land demand module, including information passed from other modules. Additionally, the units listed are the units GCAM requires, rather than the units the raw input data uses.


Description

Food demand

Food demand is based on the approach documented in Edmonds et al. (2017).

Feed demand

Shares of feed are determined by a logit sharing approach, which depends on the relative costs of the different feed options. Demand for feed is determined by the scale of livestock demand and these feed shares

Non-food, non-feed demand

Non-food, non-feed demand, including forestry demand, is determined by price, income, and population size.

Equations

The equations that determine food, feed, and forest demand are described here.

Food demand

\[q = A * (x^{h(x)}) * (w_{self}^{e_{self}(x)}) * (w_{cross}^{e_{cross}(x)})\]

where \(A\) is a scale parameter, \(x\) is the income divided by price of materials, \(h(x)\) is the income elasticity, and \(w_i\) is the price of the food input divided by the price of materials times some scale factor, and \(e_i\) are price elasticities.

\(x^{h(x)}\) is calculated all together depending on the type of FoodDemandInput. See StaplesFoodDemandInput::calcIncomeTerm and NonStaplesFoodDemandInput::calcIncomeTerm in food_demand_input.cpp.

\(e_{self} = g_{self} - \alpha * f(x)\), \(e_{cross} = g_{cross} - \alpha_{cross} * f(x)\), where \(g_{self}\) is self price elasticity parameter, \(g_{cross}\) is the cross price elasticity, \(\alpha\) is the share of the total budget for the good, and \(f(x)\) is the derivative of the income term. See StaplesFoodDemandInput::getCrossPriceElasticity, NonStaplesFoodDemandInput::getCrossPriceElasticity, StaplesFoodDemandInput::calcIncomeTermDerivative, and NonStaplesFoodDemandInput::calcIncomeTermDerivative in food_demand_input.cpp.

See also food_demand_function.cpp

Non-food, non-feed demand

Per-capita non-food, non-feed demands (D) from time period t-1 to time period t.

\[D_t = D_{t-1} * (\frac{pcGDP_t}{pcGDP_{t-1}})^{\alpha^i_t} * (\frac{P_t}{P_{t-1}})^{\alpha^p_t}\]

where \(pcGDP\) is per-capita GDP, \(P\) is the commodity price, \(\alpha^i_t\) is the income elasticity in time \(t\) and \(\alpha^p_t\) is the price elasticity at time t

See calcDemand in minicam_price_elasticity_function.cpp.

Policy options

One of the main policy options is the usage of the food preference elasticity for SSPs (especially SSP1) which increases the demand for certain food types which correspond to a more sustainable diet which reduces meat consumption. Moreover, the bio-externality cost adds restrictions to the amount of bio-energy that will be demanded. This is also a user modifiable parameter.

Insights and intuition

A food demand model that is responsive to changes in incomes and prices

Future food demand is determined dynamically by changes in income and prices. This also dictates changes in demand for land since preferences of food dictates the amount of land that is dedicated to crop production. (Edmonds et al. 2017)

Land conservation effectively limits the supply of productive land, while biofuel consumption increases the demand and competition for that land

This paper looked at demand pathways across sectors under different land scarcity scenarios. (Dolan et al. 2022)

IAMC Reference Card

Agriculture and forestry demands

References

[Edmonds et al. (2017)] EDMONDS, J. A., R. LINK, S. T. WALDHOFF, and R. CUI, 2017: A GLOBAL FOOD DEMAND MODEL FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF COMPLEX HUMAN-EARTH SYSTEMS. Clim. Chang. Econ., 08, 1750012, https://doi.org/10.1142/S2010007817500129.