The industrial agriculture system consumes fossil fuel, water, and topsoil at unsustainable rates. It contributes to numerous forms of environmental degradation, including air and water pollution, soil depletion, diminishing biodiversity, and fish die-offs. Meat production contributes disproportionately to these problems, in part because feeding grain to livestock to produce meat—instead of feeding it directly to humans—involves a large energy loss, making animal agriculture more resource intensive than other forms of food production. The proliferation of factory-style animal agriculture creates environmental and public health concerns, including pollution from the high concentration of animal wastes and the extensive use of antibiotics, which may compromise their effectiveness in medical use. At the consumption end, animal fat is implicated in many of the chronic degenerative diseases that afflict industrial and newly industrializing societies, particularly cardiovascular disease and some cancers. In terms of human health, both affluent and poor countries could benefit from policies that more equitably distribute high-protein foods. The pesticides used heavily in industrial agriculture are associated with elevated cancer risks for workers and consumers and are coming under greater scrutiny for their links to endocrine disruption and reproductive dysfunction. In this article we outline the environmental and human health problems associated with current food production practices and discuss how these systems could be made more sustainable. Key words: diet, environment, health, industrial agriculture, sustainability, sustainable agriculture. Environ Health Perspect 110:445‐456 (2002). [Online 20 March 2002] http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2002/110p445-456horrigan/abstract.html

How Sustainable Agriculture Can Address the Environmental and Human Health Harms of Industrial Agriculture

Insect pathogens as biological control agents: Back to the future.

▪ Abstract Transgenic plants expressing insecticidal proteins from the bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), are revolutionizing agriculture. Bt, which had limited use as a foliar insecticide, has become a major insecticide because genes that produce Bt toxins have been engineered into major crops grown on 11.4 million ha worldwide in 2000. Based on the data collected to date, generally these crops have shown positive economic benefits to growers and reduced the use of other insecticides. The potential ecological and human health consequences of Bt plants, including effects on nontarget organisms, food safety, and the development of resistant insect populations, are being compared for Bt plants and alternative insect management strategies. Scientists do not have full knowledge of the risks and benefits of any insect management strategies. Bt plants were deployed with the expectation that the risks would be lower than current or alternative technologies and that the benefits would be greater. Based on th...

/pdf/economic-ecological-food-safety-and-social-consequences-of-1amli4lwvq.pdf

Economic, ecological, food safety, and social consequences of the deployment of bt transgenic plants.

Despite numerous future promises, there is a multitude of concerns about the impact of GM crops on the environment. Key issues in the environmental assessment of GM crops are putative invasiveness, vertical or horizontal gene flow, other ecological impacts, effects on biodiversity and the impact of presence of GM material in other products. These are all highly interdisciplinary and complex issues. A crucial component for a proper assessment is defining the appropriate baseline for comparison and decision. For GM crops, the best and most appropriately defined reference point is the impact of plants developed by traditional breeding. The latter is an integral and accepted part of agriculture. In many instances, the putative impacts identified for GM crops are very similar to the impacts of new cultivars derived from traditional breeding. When assessing GM crops relative to existing cultivars, the increased knowledge base underpinning the development of GM crops will provide greater confidence in the assurances plant science can give on the risks of releasing such crops.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1046/j.0960-7412.2003.01602.x

The release of genetically modified crops into the environment. Part II. Overview of ecological risk assessment.

Agriculture meets a major human need and both affects and depends on all other life support systems. Current trends point to continued human population growth and ever higher levels of consumption as the global economy expands. This will stress the capacity of agriculture to meet food needs without further sacrificing the environmental integrity of local landscapes and the global environment. Agriculture's main challenge for the coming decades will be to produce sufficient food and fiber for a growing global population at an acceptable environmental cost. This challenge requires an ecological approach to agriculture that is largely missing from current management and research portfolios. Crop and livestock production systems must be managed as ecosystems, with management decisions fully informed of environmental costs and benefits. Currently, too little is known about important ecological interactions in major agricultural systems and landscapes and about the economic value of the ecosystem services assoc...

https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1890/1540-9295%282005%29003%5B0038%3ARAPAEI%5D2.0.CO%3B2

Reconciling agricultural productivity and environmental integrity: A grand challenge for agriculture

We present the first evidence that transgenic Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) corn pollen naturally deposited on Asclepias syriaca; common milkweed, in a corn field causes significant mortality of Danaus plexippus L (Lepidoptera: Danaidae) larvae Larvae feeding for 48 h on A syriaca plants naturally dusted with pollen from Bt corn plants suffered significantly higher rates of mortality at 48 h (20±3%) compared to larvae feeding on leaves with no pollen (3±3%), or feeding on leaves with non-Bt pollen (0%) Mortality at 120 h of D plexippus larvae exposed to 135 pollen grains/cm2 of transgenic pollen for 48 h ranged from 37 to 70% We found no sub-lethal effects on D plexippus adults reared from larvae that survived a 48-h exposure to three concentrations of Bt pollen Based on our quantification of the wind dispersal of this pollen beyond the edges of agricultural fields, we predict that the effects of transgenic pollen on D plexippus may be observed at least 10 m from transgenic field borders However, the highest larval mortality will likely occur on A syriaca plants in corn fields or within 3 m of the edge of a transgenic corn field We conclude that the ecological effects of transgenic insecticidal crops need to be evaluated more fully before they are planted over extensive areas

Field deposition of Bt transgenic corn pollen: lethal effects on the monarch butterfly.

Survival and growth of monarch larvae, Danaus plexippus (L.), after exposure to either Cry1Ab-expressing pollen from three Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) corn (Zea mays L.) events differing in toxin expression or to the insecticide, λ-cyhalothrin, were examined in field studies. First instars exposed to low doses (≈22 grains per cm2) of event-176 pollen gained 18% less weight than those exposed to Bt11 or Mon810 pollen after a 5-day exposure period. Larvae exposed to 67 pollen grains per cm2 on milkweed leaves from within an event-176 field exhibited 60% lower survivorship and 42% less weight gain compared with those exposed to leaves from outside the field. In contrast, Bt11 pollen had no effect on growth to adulthood or survival of first or third instars exposed for 5 days to ≈55 and 97 pollen grains per cm2, respectively. Similarly, no differences in larval survivorship were observed after a 4-day exposure period to leaves with 504–586 (within fields) or 18–22 (outside the field) pollen grains per cm2 collected from Bt11 and non-Bt sweet-corn fields. However, survivorship and weight gain were drastically reduced in non-Bt fields treated with λ-cyhalothrin. The effects of Bt11 and Mon810 pollen on the survivorship of larvae feeding 14 to 22 days on milkweeds in fields were negligible. Further studies should examine the lifetime and reproductive impact of Bt11 and Mon810 pollen on monarchs after long-term exposure to naturally deposited pollen.

https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/98/21/11931.full.pdf

Assessing the impact of Cry1Ab-expressing corn pollen on monarch butterfly larvae in field studies

https://bioone.org/journals/BioScience/volume-51/issue-5/0006-3568(2001)051[0353:TICBIT]2.0.CO;2/Transgenic-Insecticidal-Corn-Beyond-Insecticidal-Toxicity-to-Ecological-Complexity/10.1641/0006-3568(2001)051[0353:TICBIT]2.0.CO;2.pdf

Transgenic Insecticidal Corn: Beyond Insecticidal Toxicity to Ecological Complexity

Occurrence of Danaus plexippus L. (Lepidoptera : Danaidae) on milkweeds (Asclepias syriaca) in transgenic Bt corn agroecosystems

Invasive species often require mutualistic relationships to successfully invade new environments. Insect pollination is an example of a mutualism that is required for seed-set in the invasive species, Rosa multiflora Thunb. (Rosaceae), an obligate outcrosser. To determine the insect pollinators visiting R. multiflora flowers in Iowa, USA, we collected insects on yellow sticky traps placed on plants during the period of blooming and visually observed insects visiting the flowers. The common insect orders that were collected on the sticky traps included Coleoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, Mecoptera, and Thysanoptera. Many of the insects found on the sticky cards were known to feed on pollen. However, we did not collect Apidae (bumble bees and honey bees) on the sticky cards. We observed Bombus spp. and Apis mellifera foraging on the flowers. Syrphid flies were the most commonly observed taxa visiting the flowers. Our results indicate that R. multiflora is utilizing common generalist insect pollinators in Iowa and that pollination is not a limiting factor for this invasive species.

Laura C.H. Jesse

Papers

Field deposition of Bt transgenic corn pollen: lethal effects on the monarch butterfly.

Assessing the impact of Cry1Ab-expressing corn pollen on monarch butterfly larvae in field studies

Transgenic Insecticidal Corn: Beyond Insecticidal Toxicity to Ecological Complexity

Occurrence of Danaus plexippus L. (Lepidoptera : Danaidae) on milkweeds (Asclepias syriaca) in transgenic Bt corn agroecosystems

Insect pollinators of the invasive plant, Rosa multiflora (Rosaceae), in Iowa, USA