| Popis: |
Nonpoint source pollution from the agricultural sector is forcing regulators to rethink national environmental and agricultural policy. Nonpoint sources include the handling and disposal of animal wastes, application of chemical fertilizers to cropland, soil erosion, and sedimentation from cultural practices, and the use of pesticides in crop production. New policy strategies that are explicitly coordinated between the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) may well be necessary to efficiently reduce human and wildlife risk at minimal impact on agricultural producers. But evaluating these proposed strategies will require both economic and environmental indicators of success. These indicators must be estimated in a timely fashion before policies are finalized. Consequently, there has been increased attention on constructing an integrated agri-ecological economic modeling system that can simulate the potential tradeoffs of new policy strategies. |
