Evaluation of the agricultural life cycle of organic, conventional and transgenic corn cultures: potential environmental impacts
Abstract
The evaluation of the life cycle is a technique in environmental administration which estimates potential environmental impacts in agriculture. Current study analyzes three culture systems of corn, namely, conventional (CC), transgenic (CT1 and CT2) and organic (CO), in four areas, through the use of agricultural fertilizers to identify and compare potential environmental impacts caused by fertilizers, pesticides and correctives, indicating advantages and disadvantages of each process with regard to environmental issues. Data were collected by questionnaire to quantify and characterize the types of fertilizers and to associate them with the database for the elaboration of a life cycle inventory. Categories of environmental impact, acidification, eutrophication, land and water ecotoxicity, were analyzed. The application of correctives was not needed in any of the four areas. In the case of the application of fertilizers, CT2 had the worst environmental profile in all categories due to higher emission rates of compounds when compared to that in other areas. CO was the culture with the lowest emissions due to the organic compound employed in its production process. With regard to the application of pesticides, CO does not employ any product that is similar to such practice, whilst CT2 had the worst profile even when the least possible amount of pesticides is employed. Results show that the form of management and areas are factors that affect potential impacts caused by the culture system. CO had the highest advantage rates when compared to other areas, but a management mistake may cause environmental risks just the same as others..References
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