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Local and watershed land use controls: A turning point for agriculture and water quality, says commentary

Posted by: Maven on February 19, 2010 at 7:41 am

From Water World:

“Domestic food production and the conservation of limited agricultural resources, such as prime farmland soils, are of critical importance to both the short- and long-term health and welfare of Americans. Typical farming practices today require many inputs, such as fertilizers, pesticides, and mechanized cultivation. Our nation’s industrialized agricultural systems produce essential food products, but also environmental externalities, including excess nutrient runoff from fertilizers and livestock wastes, pesticide runoff, soil erosion and sedimentation, greenhouse gas emissions from farm machinery and livestock manure, and human enteric or intestinal pathogens. These outputs affect not only fish, wildlife, and other ecologically beneficial species, but also human use of water resources, including ground and surface waters, for domestic use and consumption, recreation, and commercial activities.

With few exceptions, there has been limited effective local, state, or federal land use planning, management, and regulation for the long-term conservation of limited agricultural natural resources or regulation of the environmental externalities of industrialized agriculture production. Given the lack of voluntary land stewardship by landowners in general, and farmers in particular, and the lack of a culturally accepted “land ethic,” a new approach is desperately required that blends existing voluntary coordination efforts with public coercion (e.g., police-powerbased regulatory controls).

This commentary recommends that state and local governments, supported by federal guidance, technical assistance, and funding, create and implement a comprehensive and holistic approach to agricultural natural resource conservation, land use planning, and land management, which incorporates watershed-based land use controls and regulation of the effects of agricultural land use on other critical natural resources, specifically water. … “

Continue reading this commentary from Water World by clicking here.

February 19, 2010 · Filed Under Agriculture, Water Quality

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