UNLABELLED: Early energy analyses of agriculture revealed that behind higher labor and land productivity of industrial farming, there was a decrease in energy returns on energy (EROI) invested, in comparison to more traditional organic agricultural systems. Studies on recent trends show that efficiency gains in production and use of inputs have again somewhat improved energy returns. However, most of these agricultural energy studies have focused only on external inputs at the crop level, concealing the important role of internal biomass flows that livestock and forestry recirculate within agroecosystems. Here, we synthesize the results of 82 farm systems in North America and Europe from 1830 to 2012 that for the first time show the changing energy profiles of agroecosystems, including livestock and forestry, with a multi-EROI approach that accounts for the energy returns on external inputs, on internal biomass reuses, and on all inputs invested. With this historical circular bioeconomic approach, we found a general trend towards much lower external returns, little or no increases in internal returns, and almost no improvement in total returns. This "energy trap" was driven by shifts towards a growing dependence of crop production on fossil-fueled external inputs, much more intensive livestock production based on feed grains, less forestry, and a structural disintegration of agroecosystem components by increasingly linear industrial farm managements. We conclude that overcoming the energy trap requires nature-based solutions to reduce current dependence on fossil-fueled external industrial inputs and increase the circularity and complexity of agroecosystems to provide healthier diets with less animal products. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13593-023-00925-5.

Agroecosystems History Laboratory Pablo de Olavide University Utrera Road Seville Spain

Barcelona Institute of Regional and Metropolitan Studies Autonomous University of Barcelona Bellaterra Spain

Basque Centre for Climate Change Scientific Campus of the University of the Basque Country Leioa Spain

CEIGRAM Research Centre for the Management of Agricultural and Environmental Risks Polytechnic University of Madrid Madrid Spain

Department de Matemàtiques Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya Barcelona Spain

Department of Applied Economics Faculty of Economics and Business University of Santiago de Compostela Santiago de Compostela Spain

Department of Climate Action Food and Rural Agenda Government of Catalonia Barcelona Spain

Department of Economic History Institutions Policy and World Economy Universitat de Barcelona Barcelona Spain

Department of Economic Theory and Economic History Faculty of Economics and Business University of Granada Granada Spain

Department of Economics and Economic History Economics and Business Autonomous University of Barcelona Bellaterra Spain

Department of Economics Faculty of Economics and Business University of Girona Girona Spain

Department of Environment and Soil Sciences School of Agricultural Engineering University of Lleida Lleida Spain

Department of Environmental Studies Faculty of Social Studies Masaryk University Brno Czech Republic

Department of Geography University of the Balearic Islands Valldemossa Road Mallorca Spain

Department of History College of Arts and Science University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon Canada

Department of Social Sciences and Commerce Marianopolis College Westmount Quebec Canada

Division of Organic Farming BOKU University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna Austria

Faculty of Arts University of Prince Edward Island 550 University Avenue Charlottetown Prince Edward Island Canada

Independent professional researchers Barcelona Spain

Institut des Sciences de la Forêt Tempérée Université du Québec en Outaouais Gatineau Quebec Canada

Institute of Social Ecology BOKU University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna Austria

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