Towards Sustainable Farm Production System: A Case Study of Corn Farming

Many recent studies show that most of the crop production systems in developing countries are not environmentally sustainable. This study uses the life cycle assessment (LCA) to investigate the potential impacts of corn production in Pakistan on global warming and human health damages and also suggests mitigation strategies to reduce environmental impacts towards sustainable crop production based on the results. Land-based, mass-based, and energy-based functional units were used. IMPACT 2002+ methodology—a combination of IMPACT 2002, Eco-Indicator 99, CML, and intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC)—is used for the impact assessment. The results demonstrated that the global warming potential of one-ton production of corn, one-hectare corn farm, and production of 1000 MJ energy were 354.18, 34,569.90, and 1275.13 kg CO2 equivalents, respectively. The off-farm and on-farm emissions of nitrogen-based chemical fertilizers were the hotspots in the most impact categories. Moreover, human health damages followed by global warming as environmental externalities were also associated with corn production. We also highlighted the production areas with light, medium and extreme environmental externalities with Toba Tek Singh and Okara districts in the Punjab province of Pakistan being the most and least contributing districts towards global warming, respectively. Results further indicated that a 5 to 100% reduction of chemical fertilizers would mitigate the environmental impacts of corn production by 4.38 to 87.58% and 2.16 to 43.30% in terms of aquatic acidification and global warming, respectively. Modern farming systems and conservation technologies were suggested to reduce emissions and improve the environmental performance of corn production. Furthermore, agricultural extension and the ministry of agriculture should pay more attention to farmers’ education on emissions from farming inputs and their impact on climate.

Boons or boondoggles: An assessment of the Salton Sea water importation options

Several ways to address the looming ecological disaster that is the Salton Sea have been proposed — including water importation. Here we considered two options: importing ocean water from the Sea of Cortés and leasing water from agricultural users in the Imperial Valley. We estimated the monetary costs for importing Sea of Cortés water to the Salton Sea and compared that with the costs of transferring water from agricultural users to the Salton Sea. We found that leasing water from agriculture would be substantially cheaper than ocean water imports. Additionally, all the infrastructure for leasing water from growers exists, which means water transfers could begin immediately. That is important given the present and increasing environmental and human health damages that are occurring at the Salton Sea.

Radiological impact assessment approaches for Life Cycle Assessment: a review and possible ways forward

Many industrial processes routinely release radionuclides into the environment. Such emissions may be recognised in the inventory phase of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), but they are rarely carried forward to the Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) phase because a standard approach for assessing their impact is still lacking. The aim of this article is to collect and critically analyse radiological impact assessment methodologies to establish a basis for developing a standard approach. Seven methodologies are reviewed. Amongst these, the human health damages approach is the only methodology to date to be included in LCIA methodologies. Furthermore, five of the reviewed methodologies are concerned with impacts on humans, whilst the remaining two address effects on the environment. The article concludes that even though a number of methodologies are currently available, none is suitable as the basis for a standard procedure in LCIA. Two main features have been identified as crucial: the ability to treat all types of waste forms by which radionuclides can be released and the use of a fate analysis that returns average (rather than worst case) estimates of impacts. In light of the findings of this review, a novel framework for radiological impact assessment on humans has been devised; its development is being pursued by the authors.

Prioritizing Invasive Species Threats Under Uncertainty

Prioritizing exotic or invasive pest threats in terms of agricultural, environmental, or human health damages is an important resource allocation issue for programs charged with preventing or responding to the entry of such organisms. Under extreme uncertainty, program managers may decide to research the severity of threats, develop prevention or control actions, and estimate cost-effectiveness in order to provide better information and more options when making decisions to choose strategies for specific pests. We examine decision rules based on the minimax and relative cost criteria in order to express a cautious approach for decisions regarding severe, irreversible consequences, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of these rules, examine the roles of simple rules and sophisticated analyses in decision making, and apply a simple rule to develop a list of priority plant pests.