Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
In the United States alone, consumers waste 10 times more food per capita than those in
Southeast Asia. The first there is a lot to be done for reduce unneeded food waste and then if
food waste appears as a by-product this could be the reasonable source for biofuels
production. Overall food losses and waste are higher in developed countries than those in
developing countries, with an average of 280-300 kg per capita per year food loss in Europe
and North America and an average of 120-170 kg per capita per year food loss in Sub-
Saharan Africa and South and Southeast Asia. In developing countries, the majority of the
food losses occur in the first stages of the food supply chain [72]. This is due to poor
harvesting technologies, lack of transport and poor storage in combination with extreme
climatic conditions. In developed countries food waste during the consumption stage accounts
for over 40% of the total food losses and waste in the food supply chain. This challenge of
food security will only increase, while the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO) forecasts that food production must increase by 70 percent by 2050 to feed an
expected global population of 9.1 billion people with increasingly meat-dependent diets.
H EALTH A SPECTS OF B IOFUELS
As mention before, sustainable development must balance environmental, economic, and
social concerns at multiple scales [76]. This also includes health-related impacts. Many
developing countries are expanding biofuel production as a strategy to reduce their
dependence on petroleum, increase opportunities for the agricultural sector, and mitigate
global climate changes. The total area planted to biofuel crops has been growing rapidly, but
the health consequences of biofuel production are not studied in details [77]. Since it was first
discovered that we could control fire and combust fuels, we have had to deal with the by-
products of organic fuel combustion including carbon dioxide along with a variety of trace
gasses and aerosol emissions that have many impacts on human health [78].
Although there is scarce of biofuels health research, some of the studies indicates that the
combustion of biofuels can result in adverse health effects [79-81]. Studies that analyse
impact of biofuel combustion on human health take account of only combustion emissions of
biofuels, but do not take into account the emissions that are released in production stage.
Since in the process of biofuel feedstock cultivation and processing, several substances that
are hazardous to health are released, the whole life cycle of the fuel should be included [82].
Inorganic respirable compounds like PM 10 , PM 2.5 , SO 2 , CO, NO x , which are emitted during
the production of fossil and biofuels, can result in adverse health effects including asthma,
lung cancer, cardiovascular issues and premature death [83]. On the positive side, the use of
alcohols and alcohol/petroleum blends in diesel engines has been shown to reduce emissions
of potentially carcinogenic carbonaceous soot particles [84, 85]. Fewer studies have dealt
with the effects of moderate long-term particle concentrations that cause most of the years of
life lost due to air pollution. Several epidemiological studies of health impact mechanisms
have shown that exposure is mostly associated with respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. It
is usually assumed that most of the negative effects are caused by fine particles [86]. Fine
particles, usually measured as mass concentration with an aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5
μm, (PM 2.5) can reach the lung alveoli and are likely the dominant factor in health effects
(Nel, 2005).
Search WWH ::




Custom Search