Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
No
Agricultural activities
No
Restructure
activities
Sustain food
supply
Yes
No
Preserve land and water
quality and biodiversity
Yes
No
Minimize adverse impact on
geoenvironment
Meets
sustainability goals
Yes
Yes
No
Economic and social
viability?
FIGURE 6.14
Evaluation of the geoenvironmental sustainability of agricultural activities.
public knowledge and responsibility. To evaluate the sustainability of agricultural activi-
ties, a process as illustrated in Figure 6.14 will need to be followed.
If total costs involved in the production of food are to be determined, one would need to
include not only the cost of physical operations in tilling and reaping the harvest, but also
the cost of all the items needed to mount the effort in production. This would include the
costs for production of the fuel needed to operate the machinery, production costs for the
fertilizer and pesticides, etc. Expressing these all in terms of calories of energy, Pimentel
and Wen (1990) calculated that more than 10 million kcal of energy are required for the
operation of agricultural machines, production of fuel, fertilizer, and pesticide, and for
irrigation and other inputs for 1 ha of U.S. corn. Approximately 3%-5% of total energy is
used for the agricultural sector for OECD countries according to the FAO (2000). This is a
useful basis for determining eficiency of operation and production of food. Government
and nongovernmental organizations, the scientiic community, and farmers must all work
together as outputs in the order of two or three times present levels must be achieved by
2050 (NRC, 1999).
References
Arabi, M., Meals, D.W., and Hoag, D. (2012), Lessons learned from the NIFA-CEAP. Effective educa-
tion to promote conservation practice adoption. North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC.
Barbash, J.E. (2005), The geochemistry of pesticides. In B. Sherwood Lollar (ed.),
Environmental
Geochemistry
, Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 541-612.
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