INVESTIGADORES
WUNDERLIN Daniel Alberto
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Food Production. Facing challenges at the third millennium.
Autor/es:
WUNDERLIN D.A.
Lugar:
Berlin
Reunión:
Congreso; SETAC World Congress Berlin, Mayo 2012; 2012
Institución organizadora:
SETAC
Resumen:
The world population is growing faster than in the last century. Some
countries have opened their commerce overseas. In particular, food commerce has
been increased to satisfy increasing demands of their populations, resulting in
a less controlled grow of food production, particularly food commodities. This
higher demand of commodities has been partially satisfied by improving the
production technology but also increasing cultivated areas, which result in the
use of areas previously occupied by wild biota. Also cattle production has been
shift to less favourable areas as an additional consequence of increased
production of crops and soya. Modern agricultural practices make intensive use
of agrochemicals to warrantee both productivity and health of cultivars. On the
other hand, cattle production uses veterinary drugs, accelerated grow systems
(feed lot and similar), sometimes using non authorized anabolic products.
Within this framework,
South America (SA) is probably the
area showing the highest and fastest increase in food production, which result
in almost uncontrolled augment of areas dedicated to the production of soya and
crops (Lindell et al., 2010). Particularly Brazil and Argentina but also
Uruguay and Chile have been strongly increased their national incomes arising
from the exportation of food commodities, in addition to a growing production
of bio-fuels (Smeets et al., 2008). The increase of international prices for
soya and maize have been the main argument used for small and big farmers to
increase the cultivated area, affecting native forest, spreading agrochemicals
in the proximity of cities, controlling pests and weeds but also affecting non
target organisms (Ortiz-Santaliestra et al., 2011). In addition to SA, many other countries dedicated
to the production of food commodities are also facing this problem, including
China, USA and Europe. The increased cultivated area is only a part of the
problem, the second part is the intensive use of agrochemicals (herbicides,
pesticides, fungicides, fertilizers, etc.), which affect the biota of soil,
water and surrounding forest. Modern agrochemicals are designed to reduce toxic
effects on the environment; however, non-target organisms are affected by their
intensive and extended use, even though low doses could be used. Moreover, the
combined use of several agrochemicals represents a threat to the wild biota,
which has been not enough studied yet.
Water scarcity and droughts have increased in number
and intensity in the European Union, and it is foreseen that these conditions
will increase with climate change. The direct implications of global change on
hydrological regime are certain. The Mediterranean
Basin is one of the most vulnerable to climate changes and one of the most
prominent ?hot spots? for changes in water availability due to human
abstraction.
It is foreseen (IPCC) that these changes will probably not be
limited to catchments draining into the Mediterranean Sea, but will affect all
Mediterranean-type regions world wide. The session will discuss key issues concerning
the effects of water scarcity on
chemical water quality, as it relates to nutrients, organics and pollutants and
on the effects on water supply and
sanitation services, as well as water management practices. Also this session should bring
additional discussion on the effects in biodiversity conservation and the
services provided by ecosystems.
(Barcelo and Sabater, 2010
The main goal of this
special session is to face scientist with these problems, which are
particularly critical in developing countries (continents) as well the
Mediterranean area. Presentation on increased use of land for agriculture and
biofuels and its consequences on wild biota and biodiversity at different part
of the planet are expected as well as the problems associated with water
scarcity in the freshwater ecosystems of the Mediterranean region. Particularly, the negative effect of
deforestation and indiscriminate use of ?low toxic? agrochemicals on non-target
species as well as the assessment to freshwater ecosystems under scarcity should
be highlighted.
A
one day seminar,
half o it devoted to South America and the other half to the Mediterranean
countries divided into two sessions with different perspectives should be
enough for this first time to present the problem to the SETAC community.