permaculture

[Victor Guest <vic@daena.eepo.com.au>]

From: "John Vickery" <jvickery@iatp.org>
To: Multiple recipients of list <ag-impact@freedom.mtn.org>

Ag-Impact Colleagues:

The following is a short summary of a 1-page article by fellow Ag-Impact
subscriber, Kathy Lewis, UK, that appeared in the Sept. 1997 (no. 37) issue
of Pesticide News.

A consortium of eleven European Union institutions is evaluating different
approaches for assessing the environmental impacts of pesticides.   This
article focuses on the Pesticide Eco-rating System developed at the
University of Hertfordshire, UK.  This is a computer-based system for
agricultural best practices, a part of which is dedicated to pesticides.
The software considers field applications and farm management issues.   For
field applications, a rating on a scale of 0 to 100 is assigned based on
the properties of the chemical, site characteristics, and the target
organism.  The quantitative outputs are grouped into three qualitative
categories:  best practice (0-40), improvements possible? (40-70), and poor
practice (70-100).  A score of zero represents no environmental impact.
Farm management issues such as chemical storage,   handling, and
application techniques are assessed using a multiple choice questionnaire.
Noncrop usage (e.g., sheep dips, rodenticides) are evaluated similarly.
Software should be available in spring, 1998.

Dr. Lewis has graciously agreed to respond to queries for more more
information. 
Contact:  

Kathy Lewis
Head - Applied Eco-management Research Unit
Department of Environmental Sciences
University of Hertfordshire
College Lane
Hatfield
Herts  AL10 9AB  UK
K.A.Lewis@herts.ac.uk; +44 1707 284 000, Fax +44 1707 284 115

Pesticide News is published by The Pesticide Trust, Eurolink Centre, 49
Effra Road, London SW2 1BZ UK  Tel: +44 (0)171 274 8895; Fax: +44 (0)171
274 9084 
Email:  pesttrust@gn.apc.org London.  Their homepage is at
http://www.gn.apc.org/pesticidestrust     
The article summarized above is not available at this www site, but you can
find an abbreviated listing with short summaries of the contents from prior
issues.

Cordially, john


John Vickery, Environment & Agriculture
Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy
2105 1st Ave., S., Minneapolis, MN  55404-2505
612-870-3430; FAX -4846    jvickery@iatp.org
http://www.iatp.org/iatp  
http://www.sustain.org/enviroag/ and  /bulletins/