Environmental Impacts of Modern Agriculture -- Contents -- Editors -- List of Contributors -- Modern Agriculture and Implications for Land Use and Management -- 1 Introduction and Overview -- 2 Agricultural Systems -- 3 Global and Regional Issues -- 3.1 Demand Side Factors -- 3.2 Supply Side Factors -- 4 Agricultural Land and the Role of Science and Technology -- 5 Case Study: UK Agriculture and Land Use -- 5.1 Trends in UK Agriculture -- 5.1.1 Agriculture's Contribution to UK Economy -- 5.1.2 Agricultural Land Use -- 5.1.3 Farm Size -- 5.1.4 Farm Yields -- 5.1.5 Agricultural Commodity Prices -- 5.1.6 UK Farm Incomes -- 5.1.7 Productivity of UK Farms -- 5.1.8 Demand for Food in the UK -- 5.1.9 Food Self-sufficiency and Food Security -- 6 Agriculture and Environment -- 7 Agriculture and Ecosystem Services -- 8 Agriculture and Climate Change -- 9 Agriculture and Energy -- 10 Future Prospects for Land Use in the UK -- 10.1 Scope to Release Land from Agricultural Production -- et al., 2005). -- 10.2 Technology Change and Land Use -- 11 Implications for Policy -- References -- Impacts of Agriculture upon Soil Quality -- 1 Introduction to Soil Quality -- 2 Soil Organic Matter Decline -- 3 Soil Compaction -- 4 Soil Erosion -- 5 Soil Biodiversity -- 6 Soil Contamination -- 6.1 Nutrients -- 6.2 Heavy Metals -- 6.3 Organic Pollutants -- 7 Soil Sealing -- 8 Soil Salinisation -- 9 Conclusions -- References -- Impacts of Agriculture upon Greenhouse Gas Budgets -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Current Agricultural Sources of Nitrous Oxide, Methane and Carbon Dioxide -- 2.1 Nitrous Oxide -- 2.2 Methane -- 2.3 Carbon Dioxide -- 3 International Reporting of Greenhouse Gas Emissions -- 3.1 Indirect Emissions - Is there a Gap between Top-down and Bottom-up Global Budgets? -- 4 Future Mitigation Strategies -- 4.1 Nitrous Oxide -- 4.1.1 Optimising Nitrogen Use by Crop Plants.

4.1.2 Optimising Nitrogen Use by Livestock -- 4.1.3 Inhibitors -- 4.1.4 Soil Management and Tillage -- 4.1.5 Land Use Change -- 4.2 Methane -- 4.2.1 Methane from Ruminant Livestock -- 4.2.2 Dietary Opportunities -- 4.2.3 Avoiding Inefficiencies -- 4.2.4 Livestock Reduction or Replacements -- 4.2.5 Methane from Wetland Rice -- 4.3 Carbon Dioxide -- 4.4 Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Potential: Combined Effects of all Gases -- 4.5 The Economics of Mitigation -- 5 Conclusions -- References -- Impacts of Agriculture on Water-borne Pathogens -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Policy Developments -- 3 Microbial Dynamics -- 3.1 Pathogens, Indicators and Health Risk -- 3.2 Catchment Microbial Flux -- 3.3 Flux Attenuation and Mitigation of Resource Impacts -- 4 Conclusions -- References -- Pesticides in Modern Agriculture -- 1 Introduction -- 2 The Traditional Context of the Agricultural Uses of Pesticides -- 3 The Changing Nature of Pesticide Use from Earliest Agricultural Times to the Present Day -- 4 Risks to Human Health from Pesticide Use in Agriculture -- 5 Pesticide Use in Current Agricultural Systems - A Changing and Challenging Context -- 6 Future Pesticide Use and Approaches to their Regulation and Management -- References -- Balancing the Environmental Consequences of Agriculture with the Need for Food Security -- 1 Preamble -- 1.1 The Need for Food Security -- 1.2 The Importance of Environmental Sustainability and a Role for the UK -- 2 Agriculture's Environmental Impact and a Summary of the Issues -- 2.1 Some Terminology -- 2.2 Man-managed and Natural Ecosystems - Competition for Photosynthate -- 2.3 The Application of Science - Manipulating Genotype and Environment -- 2.4 Impacts from Fossil-fuel Use -- 2.5 Reactive Nitrogen -- 2.6 Water - Excess and Shortage -- 2.7 Contaminants and Pollutants.

2.8 Avoiding Negative Environmental Consequences of Agricultural Practice - A Summary -- 3 Sustainable Intensi cation -- 3.1 Global Land Use -- 3.2 Anthromes and Anthropogenic Ecosystem Processes -- 3.3 Examples of Sustainable Intensi cation -- 3.4 Management of Biodiversity: Land Sharing or Land Sparing? -- 4 Land Use, Resource Management and Deliverables from Land -- 4.1 Understanding Interactions and Trade-offs -- 4.2 Units of Accounting -- 4.3 Some Examples of Trade-offs -- 5 A Systems-based Approach to GHG Balance -- 5.1 Agriculture as Part of the Problem and Part of the Solution -- 5.2 Fossil Fuel Substitution, Carbon Capture and Storage, Food Imports and the Cost of Valued Landscapes -- 6 Conclusions -- References -- Positive and Negative Impacts of Agricultural Production of Liquid Biofuels -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Agricultural Production as Part of Biofuel Life Cycles and Life Cycle Assessment -- 3 Energy -- 3.1 Solar Energy Conversion Efficiency of Current Agricultural Crop-based Liquid Biofuels -- 3.2 Replacement of Fossil Fuels -- 3.3 Energetic Return on Investment (EROI) -- 4 Water Footprints of Current Agricultural Crop-based Liquid Biofuels -- 5 Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the Carbon Debt of Current Agricultural Crop-based Liquid Biofuels -- 6 Life Cycle Emissions of Pollutants Linked to Current Agricultural Crop-based Liquid Biofuels -- 7 Impact of Agricultural Crop-based Liquid Biofuels on Natural Ecosystems and Biodiversity -- 8 Effect of Current Agricultural Crop-based Liquid Biofuels on Food Prices and Hunger -- 9 Liquid Biofuels from Crop Residues -- 10 Conclusions -- References -- Subject Index.