Commercial Agriculture and the Environment: An Evolutionary Perspective
| Autor: | Tim T. Phipps |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 1991 |
| Předmět: |
Federal Insecticide
Fungicide and Rodenticide Act education.field_of_study Food security Intensive farming business.industry 05 social sciences Population General Medicine Environmental Economics and Policy Agriculture Environmental protection 0502 economics and business 050202 agricultural economics & policy Business 050207 economics Agricultural productivity Conservation Reserve Program education Water resource management Farm programs |
| Zdroj: | Northeastern Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics. 20:143-150 |
| ISSN: | 2398-4643 0899-367X |
| DOI: | 10.1017/s0899367x00002968 |
| Popis: | The decade of the 1980s saw a resurgence of concern over the environmental and health effects of agricultural production that exceeded even the concern in the sixties generated by the publication of Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring. Consumers worried about the health effects of pesticide residues on foods; conversion of wetlands to crop production was blamed for the decreased population of migratory waterfowl; rural residents womiedabout the effects of nitrates and pesticides found in their groundwater supplies; and sediment, nutrients, and pesticides in surface waters were blamed for the decline of estuaries such as the Chesapeake Bay and contributed to problems in freshwater and coastal fisheries. As a result of this concern, many changes occurred. The first involved changes in policies. New farm programs designed to protect the environment, such as the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), and sodbuster and swampbuster restrictions, were incorporated into the Food Security Act of 1985 (FSA). The Federal Insecticide Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FTFRA)was revised to speed up the timetable for reviewing older pesticides. The revised Water Quality Act of 1987 directed states to develop management plans to control nonpoint source pollution. States became ve~ active in passing legislation to protect groundwater or to restrict agricultural activities in environmentally sensitive areas. There were also changes in technology, including widespread adoption of reduced tillage for corn, and new environmentally safer products, such as pesticides that break down rapidly in the environment. Consumer markets evolved to provide organic or certified pesticide-free produce alongside produce grown using pesticides. Many baby-food producers have limited the number of pesticides their |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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