Policy distortions, farm size, and the overuse of agricultural chemicals in China.

Understanding the reasons for overuse of agricultural chemicals is critical to the sustainable development of Chinese agriculture. Using a nationally representative rural household survey from China, we found that farm size is a strong factor that affects the use intensity of agricultural chemicals across farms in China. Statistically, a 1% increase in farm size is associated with a 0.3% and 0.5% decrease in fertilizer and pesticide use per hectare (P < 0.001), respectively, and an almost 1% increase in agricultural labor productivity, while it only leads to a statistically insignificant 0.02% decrease in crop yields. The same pattern was also found using other independently collected data sources from China and an international panel analysis of 74 countries from the 1960s to the 2000s. While economic growth has been associated with increasing farm size in many other countries, in China this relationship has been distorted by land and migration policies, leading to the persistence of small farm size in China. Removing these distortions would decrease agricultural chemical use by 30-50% and the environmental impact of those chemicals by 50% while doubling the total income of all farmers including those who move to urban areas. Removing policy distortions is also likely to complement other remedies to the overuse problem, such as easing farmer's access to modern technologies and knowledge, and improving environmental regulation and enforcement.

Glycolipid biosurfactants: main properties and potential applications in agriculture and food industry.

Glycolipids, consisting of a carbohydrate moiety linked to fatty acids, are microbial surface active compounds produced by various microorganisms. They are characterized by high structural diversity and have the ability to decrease the surface and interfacial tension at the surface and interface, respectively. Rhamnolipids, trehalolipids, mannosylerythritol lipids and cellobiose lipids are among the most popular glycolipids. They have received much practical attention as biopesticides for controlling plant diseases and protecting stored products. As a result of their antifungal activity towards phytopathogenic fungi and larvicidal and mosquitocidal potencies, glycolipid biosurfactants permit the preservation of plants and plant crops from pest invasion. Also, as a result of their emulsifying and antibacterial activities, glycolipids have great potential as food additives and food preservatives. Furthermore, the valorization of food byproducts via the production of glycolipid biosurfactant has received much attention because it permits the bioconversion of byproducts on valuable compounds and decreases the cost of production. Generally, the use of glycolipids in many fields requires their retention from fermentation media. Accordingly, different strategies have been developed to extract and purify glycolipids. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.

[Tobacco farming in Italy receives more funds in comparison to tobacco control]. / La tabacchicoltura in Italia riceve più fondi del controllo del tabagismo.

In the European Union almost 300,000 tons of raw tobacco are produced every year, contributing for 4% of the world production. In Italy, tobacco crop produces around 90,000 tons/year and is concentrated in Veneto, Tuscany, Umbria and Campania Regions. In 1970, Common Market Organisation provided a virtually unlimited support for European tobacco production. After 2004, funds progressively has been cut by half, even though the other half has been given for restructuring or reconversion of tobacco farms through the Rural Development Plan. The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control recommends conversion of tobacco crops, although there are no effective measures. Tobacco production requires large quantities of chemicals (pesticides, growth regulators, fertilisers), with significant workers' exposure if applied without personal protective equipments. Pesticides may have genotoxic, teratogenic, immunotoxic, hormonal, and carcinogenic effects. Tobacco itself may cause also a disease called "Green tobacco sickness" syndrome, as a consequence of nicotine dermal absorption due to skin exposure to tobacco leaves. In Italy, financial resources for tobacco production and restructuring/conversion to other crops of previously tobacco planted fields are available. On the contrary, anti-smoking media interventions do not receive funds comparatively relevant as those for tobacco production.

The Campesino-to-Campesino agroecology movement of ANAP in Cuba: social process methodology in the construction of sustainable peasant agriculture and food sovereignty.

Agroecology has played a key role in helping Cuba survive the crisis caused by the collapse of the socialist bloc in Europe and the tightening of the US trade embargo. Cuban peasants have been able to boost food production without scarce and expensive imported agricultural chemicals by first substituting more ecological inputs for the no longer available imports, and then by making a transition to more agroecologically integrated and diverse farming systems. This was possible not so much because appropriate alternatives were made available, but rather because of the Campesino-a-Campesino (CAC) social process methodology that the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP) used to build a grassroots agroecology movement. This paper was produced in a 'self-study' process spearheaded by ANAP and La Via Campesina, the international agrarian movement of which ANAP is a member. In it we document and analyze the history of the Campesino-to-Campesino Agroecology Movement (MACAC), and the significantly increased contribution of peasants to national food production in Cuba that was brought about, at least in part, due to this movement. Our key findings are (i) the spread of agroecology was rapid and successful largely due to the social process methodology and social movement dynamics, (ii) farming practices evolved over time and contributed to significantly increased relative and absolute production by the peasant sector, and (iii) those practices resulted in additional benefits including resilience to climate change.

The effect of calcinated calcium and chlorine treatments on Escherichia coli O157:H7 87-23 population reduction in radish sprouts.

UNLABELLED: The effect of calcinated calcium spray on Escherichia coli O157:H7 87-23 population reduction during radish sprout production was studied. Artificially inoculated radish seeds were soaked in sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) solutions (200 and 20000 ppm), rinsed in distilled water, and sprayed with water or a calcinated calcium solution during sprouting. Microbial plate count was obtained at each step of the process and germination rate was determined after 72 h of sprouting. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was done on treated seeds and sprouts to locate which parts were populated by the E. coli cells. The results showed that the active compound in the calcinated calcium was calcium oxide. The treatment of 200 ppm NaOCl soaking followed by 0.04% calcinated calcium spray resulted in no microbial growth after a 72-h sprouting, while maintaining a high germination rate. The 0.4% calcinated calcium spray significantly reduced the germination rate and is therefore not recommended. Soaking the seeds in a 20000 ppm chlorine solution achieved the highest E. coli count reduction (1.65 log CFU/g). However, the E. coli cells that survived the 20000 ppm chlorine soak grew to 6 log CFU/g sprouts after a 72-h sprouting, significantly higher than the initial count on the seeds. The SEM microimages showed that the bacteria were mostly located in the roots of the radish sprouts and all across the seed surface. The E. coli O157:H7 87-23 cells appeared to be located in biofilms or embedded into the radish sprout tissues during sprouting. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: The seed sanitation treatment with 20000 ppm chlorine solution that is currently used by the sprout industry was once again found to be ineffective in eliminating inoculated pathogenic cells. More importantly, the remaining cells that have survived the chlorine wash would grow during sprouting to reach an alarmingly high cell concentration. The new observation of E. coli cells and sprout tissue interaction manifested as embedding of the cells in sprout tissues, if confirmed, will have a significant impact on the microbial safety intervention strategies used in the sprout industry. This research demonstrated the importance of eliminating all pathogens on the seeds before germination and sprouting.

The politics of biofuels, land and agrarian change: editors' introduction.

This introduction frames key questions on biofuels, land and agrarian change within agrarian political economy, political sociology and political ecology. It identifies and explains big questions that provide the starting point for the contributions to this collection. We lay out some of the emerging themes which define the politics of biofuels, land and agrarian change revolving around global (re)configurations; agro-ecological visions; conflicts, resistances and diverse outcomes; state, capital and society relations; mobilising opposition, creating alternatives; and change and continuity. An engaged agrarian political economy combined with global political economy, international relations and social movement theory provides an important framework for analysis and critique of the conditions, dynamics, contradictions, impacts and possibilities of the emerging global biofuels complex. Our hope is that this collection demonstrates the significance of a political economy of biofuels in capturing the complexity of the "biofuels revolution" and at the same time opening up questions about its sustainability in social and environmental terms that provide pathways towards alternatives.

Agrofuels capitalism: a view from political economy.

This article considers the global expansion of agrofuels feedstock production from a political economy perspective. It considers and dismisses the environmental and pro-poor developmental justifications attached to agrofuels. To local populations and direct producers, the specific destination of the crop as fuel, food, cosmetics or other final uses in faraway places is probably of less interest than the forms of (direct or indirect) appropriation of their land and the forms of their insertion or exclusion as producers in global commodity chains. Global demand for both agrofuels and food is stimulating new forms (or the resurgence of old forms) of corporate land grabbing and expropriation, and of incorporation of smallholders in contracted production. Drawing both on recent studies on agrofuels expansion and on the political economy literature on agrarian transition and capitalism in agriculture, this article raises the question whether "agrofuels capitalism" is in any way essentially different from other forms of capitalist agrarian monocrop production, and in turn whether the agrarian transitions involved require new tools of analysis.

Sociopolitical crisis and the reconstruction of sustainable periurban agriculture in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire.

This article examines the effects of the post-2002 sociopolitical crisis in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, on urban and peri-urban agriculture. Based on the case study of Abidjan, it argues for a conceptualization of sustainability that includes social as well as environmental dimensions and focuses on coping strategies of producers and merchants. In Abidjan, these strategies included internal migration within the city and its periphery, the use of organic fertilizers, and changes in market structure. The study illustrates how such strategies allowed producers to continue to supply produce to the market, despite the difficulties of war.

Guatemala's green revolution: synthetic fertilizer, public health, and economic autonomy in the Mayan highland.

Despite extensive literature both supporting and critiquing the Green Revolution, surprisingly little attention has been paid to synthetic fertilizers' health and environmental effects or indigenous farmers' perspectives. The introduction of agrochemicals in the mid-twentieth century was a watershed event for many Mayan farmers in Guatemala. While some Maya hailed synthetic fertilizers' immediate effectiveness as a relief from famines and migrant labor, other lamented the long-term deterioration of their public health, soil quality, and economic autonomy. Since the rising cost of agrochemicals compelled Maya to return to plantation labor in the 1970s, synthetic fertilizers simply shifted, rather than alleviated, Mayan dependency on the cash economy. By highlighting Mayan farmers' historical narratives and delineating the relationship between agricultural science and postwar geopolitics, the constraints on agriculturists' agency become clear. In the end, politics, more than technology or agricultural performance, influenced guatemala's shift toward the Green Revolution.

Look what I found! Poison hunting on eBay.

BACKGROUND: Many substances deemed too dangerous for commercial use are still available to the general public. The purchase of these substances may potentially place members of the general public at risk for serious poisonings. This study was designed to document the large variety of dangerous poisons readily available on a popular online auction Web site. Methods. Over a 10-month period, the online auction Web site eBays was searched daily using the terms "poison" and "contents." Product name, active ingredients, what form the product is in, amount in container, and relative toxicity rating (Clinical Toxicology of Commercial Products, Gosselin, et al.) were recorded. If available, pictures of the products were saved. RESULTS: One hundred twenty-one individual products were identified. Fifty-five were in solid/tablet form, 37 were powders, and 29 were liquids. Product containers were full for 56 items and partially full for 65. Twenty-four products contained ingredients rated as "supertoxic" and included strychnine (10), arsenic trioxide (8), cyanide (2) and nicotine, pilocarpine, phosphorus, powdered conium maculatum (1 each). Sixty-three products contained "extremely toxic" ingredients including thallium, picrotoxin, soluble barium, antimony, mercury, arsenates, podophyllin, fluoride, zinc phosphide, atropine, scopolamine, and plant extracts of gelsemium, aconite, larkspur, and croton. Twenty-one products contained "very toxic" ingredients including lead, copper, camphor, caffeine, theobromine, creosote, pyrogallic acid, sparteine, quinine, lindane, warfarin, phenol, and digitalis. The remaining 13 were "moderately-slightly toxic." CONCLUSION: While the viability of the labeled ingredients could not be verified, the transportation, handling, and potential utilization of these dangerous poisons by the general public could result in serious poisonings.

Improving the quality of data used in environmental economics research.

Valuing environmental goods through contingent valuation and through other survey techniques is difficult because of the lack of traditional markets for those goods. EPA provides leadership in overcoming these challenges, using focus groups, workshops, handbooks, and teams of distinguished economists to obtain more reliable economic data from the surveys. Agency economists have provided leadership in employing production economics tools to identify win-win approaches to solve pervasive and neglected environmental problems. In addition, we exploit the speed of sophisticated computers, building field runoff models into economic models and aggregating results from tens of thousands of field sites. These very flexible models provide much more credible, site-specific analyses than previous models, and they offer flexible and efficient remedies to support Total Maximum Daily Loads and other new programs.