The State of Food and Agriculture

Pesticides are widely used in agricultural production to prevent or control pests, diseases, weeds, and other plant pathogens in an effort to reduce or eliminate yield losses and maintain high product quality. Although pesticides are developed through very strict regulation processes to function with reasonable certainty and minimal impact on human health and the environment, serious concerns have been raised about health risks resulting from occupational exposure and from residues in food and drinking water. Occupational exposure to pesticides often occurs in the case of agricultural workers in open fields and greenhouses, workers in the pesticide industry, and exterminators of house pests. Exposure of the general population to pesticides occurs primarily through eating food and drinking water contaminated with pesticide residues, whereas substantial exposure can also occur in or around the home. Regarding the adverse effects on the environment (water, soil and air contamination from leaching, runoff, and spray drift, as well as the detrimental effects on wildlife, fish, plants, and other non-target organisms), many of these effects depend on the toxicity of the pesticide, the measures taken during its application, the dosage applied, the adsorption on soil colloids, the weather conditions prevailing after application, and how long the pesticide persists in the environment. Therefore, the risk assessment of the impact of pesticides either on human health or on the environment is not an easy and particularly accurate process because of differences in the periods and levels of exposure, the types of pesticides used (regarding toxicity and persistence), and the environmental characteristics of the areas where pesticides are usually applied. Also, the number of the criteria used and the method of their implementation to assess the adverse effects of pesticides on human health could affect risk assessment and would possibly affect the characterization of the already approved pesticides and the approval of the new compounds in the near future. Thus, new tools or techniques with greater reliability than those already existing are needed to predict the potential hazards of pesticides and thus contribute to reduction of the adverse effects on human health and the environment. On the other hand, the implementation of alternative cropping systems that are less dependent on pesticides, the development of new pesticides with novel modes of action and improved safety profiles, and the improvement of the already used pesticide formulations towards safer formulations (e.g., microcapsule suspensions) could reduce the adverse effects of farming and particularly the toxic effects of pesticides. In addition, the use of appropriate and well-maintained spraying equipment along with taking all precautions that are required in all stages of pesticide handling could minimize human exposure to pesticides and their potential adverse effects on the environment.

https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/8/5/1402/pdf

Pesticide Exposure, Safety Issues, and Risk Assessment Indicators

Water quality issues are a major challenge that humanity is facing in the twenty-first century. Here, we review the main groups of aquatic contaminants, their effects on human health, and approaches to mitigate pollution of freshwater resources. Emphasis is placed on chemical pollution, particularly on inorganic and organic micropollutants including toxic metals and metalloids as well as a large variety of synthetic organic chemicals. Some aspects of waterborne diseases and the urgent need for improved sanitation in developing countries are also discussed. The review addresses current scientific advances to cope with the great diversity of pollutants. It is organized along the different temporal and spatial scales of global water pollution. Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) have affected water systems on a global scale for more than five decades; during that time geogenic pollutants, mining operations, and hazardous waste sites have been the most relevant sources of long-term regional and local water pollution. Agricultural chemicals and wastewater sources exert shorter-term effects on regional to local scales.

https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev-environ-100809-125342

Global Water Pollution and Human Health

Time is divided by geologists according to marked shifts in Earth's state. Recent global environmental changes suggest that Earth may have entered a new human-dominated geological epoch, the Anthropocene. Here we review the historical genesis of the idea and assess anthropogenic signatures in the geological record against the formal requirements for the recognition of a new epoch. The evidence suggests that of the various proposed dates two do appear to conform to the criteria to mark the beginning of the Anthropocene: 1610 and 1964. The formal establishment of an Anthropocene Epoch would mark a fundamental change in the relationship between humans and the Earth system.

Defining the Anthropocene

[서평]「Component Software」 - Beyond Object-Oriented Programming -

The dissolved organic matter (DOM) released from compost by repeated water extractions was quantified and DOM conformational changes by high performance size-exclusion chromatography (HPSEC) were followed. Three commercial composts were extracted consecutively 4 times with equal water: compost ratios. The total organic carbon content of each DOM sample was analyzed using the chemical oxygen demand method, and the conformational size-distribution assessed by means of HPSEC. Results showed that compost continues to release considerable amounts of DOM with repeated water extractions, and that subsequent DOM extractions resulted in organic matter with increasing molecular dimensions and presumably larger hydrophobicity. This may have important consequences on soil processes and functions such as organic matter dynamics and transport of pollutants.

Conformational Distribution of Dissolved Organic Matter Released from Compost by Repeated Water Extractions

The reconstitution is a pedotecnique producing environmental proper and fertile Technosols, applying chemical-mechanical treatment to alluvial sediments, degraded soils and pedomaterials included waste by different productive processes. By means of reconstitution, the environmental restoration of the covering degraded soil of a closed landfill near Piacenza is made (LIFE10 ENV/IT/000400 NEW LIFE). In order to assess this environmental restoration, LCC and FCC are calculated on 5 soil samples before and after reconstitution. The results, which highlight the transition from worst to best LCC and FCC classes show how reconstitution was able to convert the environmental and agronomic conditions from soil have very severe limitations that restrict the choice of plants or require very careful management, and that limit or restrict its use mainly to pasture, range, forestland, or wildlife food and cover, to soil have moderate limitations that restrict the choice of plants or that require moderate conservation practices or have optimum fertility.

/pdf/the-reconstitution-environmental-restoration-assessment-by-hjtcr4nbmn.pdf

The reconstitution: environmental restoration assessment by means of LCC and FCC

A soil water-balance ‘bucket’ model for paleoclimatic purposes 2. Model application to late Holocene climate

KinGUI: a new software tool for evaluations according to FOCUS Degradation Kinetics.

In this paper a model is proposed for describing persistent organic pollutants (POPs) bioavailability in soil. The model is written in Fortran 90 and describes POPs’ behaviour as resulting from four different processes: sorption-desorption equilibrium, slow diffusion (aged fraction), fast irreversible sorption (bound residues) and biodegradation of the bioavailable fraction.

Marco Trevisan

Papers

Conformational Distribution of Dissolved Organic Matter Released from Compost by Repeated Water Extractions

The reconstitution: environmental restoration assessment by means of LCC and FCC

A soil water-balance ‘bucket’ model for paleoclimatic purposes 2. Model application to late Holocene climate

KinGUI: a new software tool for evaluations according to FOCUS Degradation Kinetics.

A model assessing bioavailability of persistent organic pollutants in soil