Agriculture impact on environment

Agriculture has a massive impact on the environment, particularly in the mechanized farms of the United States, where acres of natural grasslands and forests were torn down or burnt to make way for farms over the past few centuries. Another issue is the use of farmland in producing biofuels instead of foodgrain. Agri pulse reports on the 2012 Farm Bill and its impact on the conservation of the environment.

On February 28, the Senate Committee on Agriculture farm bill hearing will focus on conservation and the environment. Downsize the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and use the savings to adequately fund other conservation programs. Protect the most fragile 10 million acres, the most marginal land, with filter strips, contour strips, grass waterways and buffers. But permit grazing or forage crops on the other 10 million acres, at a reduced payment, and you’ll retain most of the wildlife, soils and water benefits currently afforded under CRP. Then send the remaining 10 million acres—largely prime farmland—back into production and encourage farmers to use no-till and precision agriculture to responsibly manage these lands.

Conservation should help us produce food and fiber to feed and clothe people with the smallest possible environmental footprint. Let's leave production choices—conventional/organic/natural—to farmers and their customers. Our conservation programs should be neutral on these matters as well as farm size beyond whatever Congress decides on payment limits and farm organization structure. We also need more research on conservation, focusing on cover crops and on double crops, on improving manure utilization and searching for a technological solution to legacy nutrients in sediments at the bottoms of our lakes and streams.

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Canada regulations coal power

Two climate scientists from the University of Victoria in Canada, Andrew Weaver and Neil Swart, identified coal burning power plants as a major contributor to greenhouse-gas emissions that are trapping heat in the atmosphere. Environment Canada department notes that two-thirds of coal power plants, would near the end of their economic life by 2025. Mike Beale, an assistant deputy minister at Environment Canada, says, "Absent government regulations, industry may build new coal-fired units, which would increase the cost of future emissions reductions and lead to stranded generation assets."

Last year Canada had introduced draft regulations to crack down on pollution from coal plants, but these regulations span a time period of 15 years, and only require newer coal power plants to match lower greenhouse gas emissions of power plants that run on natural gas. If a new coal-burning plant were to be constructed and begin operating before 2015, the regulations would not apply until the end of the life of that plant. Meanwhile there is little regulation on Canada's booming oil and gas sector. And Canada remains the leading exporter of raw coal at 28 million tonnes of coal, which goes to the coal power plants of 20 other countries. This kind of defeats the battle against greenhouse gas emissions, which are a global problem and not local to Canada.

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Pets overload economy environment

People love pets and treat them as their own children. Brad Weston, chief merchandising officer for pet-products retailer Petco, tells USA Today: "Pets are increasingly thought of as family members, so not only are we willing to dig deeper into our pockets for our pets, the choices we make for them are a direct reflection of our personal preferences, values and ideals." A large pet population requires hefty healthcare and food costs, which can be frightening in this economy. More than humans, pets overload the economy and environment because of the amount of meat they eat. Some people love pets when they're little and manageable, but abandon them when they become full grown and hard to take care of, leading to a huge population of strays.

A 2011 survey suggested there are about 8.30 million dogs in Britain and it costs millions of pounds to take strays off the streets. A huge population of strays is bad for the natural environment and wildlife. A study in the United States by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases (EEID) Program, found that domestic cats and wild cats that share the same outdoor areas in urban environments also can share diseases such as Bartonellosis and Toxoplasmosis. "As human development encroaches on natural habitat, wildlife species that live there may be susceptible to diseases we or our domestic animals carry and spread," said Kevin Crooks, a biologist at Colorado State and co-leader of the study. Huge amounts of pet waste overload the environment and pollute the air and water with the eggs of roundworms, tapeworms, Salmonella, Campylobacter, Escherichia coli, coronavirus and parvovirus.

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