Environmental policy is the commitment of an organization or government to the laws, regulations, and other policy mechanisms concerning environmental issues.
These issues generally include air and water pollution, waste management, ecosystem management, maintenance of biodiversity, the management of natural resources, wildlife, and endangered species.
Policies concerning energy or regulation of toxic substances, including pesticides and many types of industrial waste, are part of the topic of environmental policy.
This policy can be deliberately taken to influence human activities and thereby prevent undesirable effects on the biophysical environment and natural resources, as well as to make sure that changes in the environment do not have unacceptable effects on humans.
In this article, we shall examine environmental policies and the future of food additives in agriculture; the history of environmental policy making, environmental policy instruments, global policy agreements, and the future of food additives.
Defining Environmental Policy for Agricultural Sustainability
Environmental policy refers to any measure by a government, corporation, or other public or private organization regarding the effects of human activities on the environment, particularly those measures that are designed to prevent or reduce harmful effects of human activities on ecosystems.
Environmental policies are needed because environmental values are usually not considered in organizational decision making. There are two main reasons for that omission. First, environmental effects are economic externalities.
Polluters do not usually bear the consequences of their actions; the negative effects most often occur elsewhere or in the future. Second, natural resources are almost always under-priced because they are often assumed to have infinite availability.
Together, those factors result in what American ecologist Garrett Hardin in 1968 called “the tragedy of the commons.” The pool of natural resources can be considered as a commons that everyone can use to their own benefit.
For an individual, it is rational to use a common resource without considering its limitations, but that self-interested behaviour will lead to the depletion of the shared limited resource and that is not in anyone’s interest.
Individuals do so nevertheless because they reap the benefits in the short term, but the community pays the costs of depletion in the long term.
Since incentives for individuals to use the commons sustainably are weak, government has a role in the protection of the commons.
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Historical Evolution of Environmental Policy in Agriculture
Public policies aimed at environmental protection date back to ancient times. The earliest sewers were constructed in Mohenjo-daro (Indus, or Harappan, civilization) and in Rome (ancient Roman civilization), which date back some 4,500 years and 2,700 years ago, respectively. Other civilizations implemented environmental laws.
The city-states of ancient Greece created laws that governed forest harvesting some 2,300 years ago, and feudal European societies established hunting preserves, which limited game and timber harvesting to royalty, effectively preventing overexploitation, by 1000 CE.
The city of Paris developed Europe’s first large-scale sewer system during the 17th century. When the effects of industrialization and urbanization increased during the late 19th and early 20th centuries and threatened human health, governments developed additional rules and regulations for urban hygiene, sewage, sanitation, and housing, as well as the first laws devoted to protecting natural landscapes and wildlife.
People became aware of the harmful effects of emissions and use of chemicals in industry and pesticides in agriculture during the 1950s and ‘60s. The emergence of Minamata disease in 1956 in Japan, which resulted from mercury discharges from nearby chemical companies, and the publication of Silent Spring (1962) by American biologist Rachel Carson, which highlighted the dangers of pollution, led to a greater public awareness of environmental issues and to detailed systems of regulations in many industrialized countries.
In those regulations, governments forbade the use of hazardous substances or prescribed maximum emission levels of specific substances to ensure a minimum environmental quality.
Such regulative systems succeeded in effectively addressing point sources (i.e., any discernable discrete location or piece of equipment that discharges pollution), such as industrial plants and utilities, where the cause-and-effect relationship between the actors causing the negative environmental effect could be clearly established.
Nevertheless, some environmental problems persisted, often because of the many nonpoint (diffuse) sources, such as exhaust from private automobiles and pesticide and fertilizer runoff from small farms, that contributed to air and water pollution.
Individually, those small sources may not be harmful, but the accumulation of their pollution can exceed the regulative minimum norms for environmental quality. Also, the increasing complexity of chains of cause and effect has contributed to persistent problems.
In the 1980s, the effects of acid rain showed that the causes of environmental pollution could be separated geographically from its effects. Pollution problems of all types underscored the message that Earth’s natural resources were being depleted and degraded.
From the late 1980s, sustainable development (i.e., the fostering of economic growth while preserving the quality of the environment for future generations became a leading concept in environmental policy making.
With nature and natural resources considered as economic drivers, environmental policy making was no longer the exclusive domain of government.
Instead, private industry and nongovernmental organizations assumed greater responsibility for the environment. Also, the concept emphasized that individual people and their communities play a key role in the effective implementation of policies.
Tools and Instruments for Agricultural Environmental Policy
Numerous instruments have been developed to influence the behaviour of actors who contribute to environmental problems. Traditionally, public policy theories have focused on regulation, financial incentives, and information as the tools of government. However, new policy instruments such as performance requirements and tradable permits have been used.
1. Regulation in Agricultural Practices
Regulation is used to impose minimum requirements for environmental quality. Such interventions aim to encourage or discourage specific activities and their effects, involving particular emissions, particular inputs into the environment (such as specific hazardous substances), ambient concentrations of chemicals, risks and damages, and exposure.
Characteristics of Regulation
i. Permit – Often, permits have to be acquired for those activities, and the permits have to be renewed periodically. In many cases, local and regional governments are the issuing and controlling authorities.
However, more-specialized or potentially hazardous activities, such as industrial plants treating dangerous chemical substances or nuclear power stations using radioactive fuel rods, are more likely to be controlled by a federal or national authority.
ii. Strength – The strengths of regulation are that it is generally binding—it includes all actors who want to undertake an activity described in the regulation—and it treats them in the same framework.
iii. Rigidity – Regulations are also rigid: they are difficult to change. That can be considered as a strength, since rigidity ensures that regulations will not change too suddenly. However, rigidity can also be considered a weakness, because it slows down innovation, as actors seek to stay within the letter of the law rather than creating new technologies.
iv. Standards – When regulations demand standards that are difficult or impossible to meet—because of a lack of knowledge, skills, or finances on the part of the actors or mismanagement by policymakers—regulations will not be effective.
v. Performance Requirement – One common improvement in environmental regulation made since the 1970s has been the development of performance requirements, which allow actors to determine their own course of action to meet the standard.
For example, they are not required to purchase a particular piece of equipment to meet an emissions standard. They can do it another way, such as developing a technology or process that reduces emissions.
The advantage of performance requirements is that actors addressed by the regulation are encouraged to innovate in order to meet the requirements. Despite that advantage, performance requirements cannot keep actors who lack incentives from achieving more than the minimum requirements.
2. Financial Incentives for Sustainable Agriculture
Governments can decide to stimulate behavioural change by giving positive or negative financial incentives for example, through subsidies, tax discounts, or fines and levies.
Such incentives can play an important role in boosting innovation and in the diffusion and adoption of innovations. Financial incentives or disincentives can also stimulate professional actors to change.
A potential drawback of financial incentives is that they distort the market. When not used for a limited period, they can make receivers dependent upon the subsidy. A final drawback is that subsidies are expensive instruments, especially when they are open-ended.
3. Environmental Reporting and Ecolabeling in Agriculture
There are several instruments that aim to inform decision makers about the environmental effects of their actions.
i. The Environmental Impact Assessment in Agricultural Projects
The environmental impact assessment (EIA) is an instrument that helps public decision makers to decide on initiatives with a certain environmental impact, such as the construction of roads and industrial plants.
The EIA, which has become a legal requirement in many countries, requires that the environmental effects of a project, such as the building of a dam or shopping mall, be studied and that the actors be informed of how to mitigate environmental damage and what compensation they could receive for doing so.
EIAs allow decision makers to include environmental information in a cost-benefit analysis. Although all EIAs cannot stop initiatives from taking place, they can reduce the negative environmental impacts.
ii. Environmental Management Systems for Agricultural Operations
Environmental management systems are comprehensive approaches that help organizations reduce their use of natural resources while reducing costs and when certified contributing to a positive image.
The most commonly known standard for such systems is the ISO 14000 standards, first issued by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in 1996. Such standards help an organization control its environmental impact, formulate and monitor environmental objectives, and demonstrate that they have been achieved.
iii. Ecolabels for Agricultural Products
Ecolabels and certificates applied to specific products and services inform consumers about their environmental performance. Sometimes governments require such labels and certificates, which certifies that a product has met minimum requirements for consumer safety, health, and environmental friendliness.
To push organizations to develop products and services that perform beyond those minimum requirements, there are labels that specifically express the environmental friendliness of the product or service.
Ecolabels are often applied in the food industry (such as for certified organic or fair-trade certified products) and for energy performance in LEED standards.
The underlying assumption of ecolabeling is that informed consumers buying environmentally responsible products will stimulate industry to innovate and produce cleaner products.
Global Policy Agreements Impacting Agriculture
From the early 1970s, the United Nations (UN) has provided the main forum for international negotiations and agreements on environmental policies and objectives.
The 1972 Stockholm conference was the first international conference on environmental issues and was followed by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) summits in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and in Johannesburg in 2002.
The UN also hosted special conferences on climate change, such as those of 1996 in Kyoto and 2009 in Copenhagen.
Those conferences and summits responded to the global character of some of the most-challenging environmental problems, which would require international cooperation to solve.
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The Future of Food Additives in Agricultural Products
1. Market Overview of Food Additives
Food additives are substances added to foods that help improve the texture, color, taste, or chemical preservatives, appearance, or function of processors. These food additives are often added in minimal amounts to enhance the visual appearance, flavor, texture, and other storage properties.
Food additives offer several advantages, such as preventing spoilage of food during storage, transport, distribution, or processing. More than 3,000 different compounds are used as food additives.
A wide range of food additives such as preservatives, antioxidants, flavour enhancers, colorants, and sweeteners are used in the manufacture or preservation of a variety of foods, packaged foods, functional drinks, bakery products, dairy products, meat, and seafood.
In addition to the list of food additives mentioned above, enzymes, emulsifiers, acidulants, shelf life stabilizers, and fat substitutes are in high demand in the global food additives market.
Food additives are in high demand due to general requirements from the food industry, end consumers, and regulators around the world.
Food additives are used in various applications such as bakery and confectionery, dairy and frozen desserts, beverages, meat and poultry products, and other products including sauces, soups, and baby food to improve the sweetness and enhance or add color and avoid spoilage of food.
2. Drivers of Food Additive Demand in Agriculture
A consumption of high-nutrient foods and beverages with improved visual appeal increases, market demand is assumed to increase during the forecast period. The global food additive industry is expected to witness growth due to changes in consumer taste and interest in product quality and nutritional value.
Increased consumer awareness of different types of flavours is also likely to play an essential role in driving growth. To enhance protection against harmful bacteria and other types of microorganisms to extend shelf life, additives are included in the finished product.
It also imparts properties such as the taste, colour, and taste of foods, as well as increases nutritional content. Food additives are elements added to foods to improve specific features, such as taste, consistency, flavour, light-protection surface, and shelf life.
There are two essential food additives on the market: instant food packaging and indirect food additives. Since there is no real option for food additives, the development of the food and beverage industry may influence decisions in the global market.
The global market for food additives is anticipated to withstand fragmented properties as there are many organizations and a variety of affordable items that add to the food business.
For example, the problem of well-being will help obesity among young people and adults to demand useful food additives in the market.
Interest in natural food additives is assumed to increase markedly as shoppers become more wellness conscious and perceive the detrimental effects of manufactured food tones.
As the demand for packaged products, including ready-to-eat foods, snacks, and frozen meals increases, manufacturers are expected to increase production capacity and increase demand.
The growing consumer demand for exotic flavors and high-value nutritional products is driving manufacturers to develop ingredients that enhance the consumer experience.
Population growth, coupled with rising food demand, is expected to be a significant driver of the global market for food additives. In addition, consumer demand for quality food is foreseen to drive the growth of the food additive business in the coming years.
Emerging markets around the world are expected to offer opportunities for the food additive market in the near future.
3. Restraints on Food Additives in Agricultural Markets
In particular, the increased demand for premium foods in developed countries is estimated to play an essential role in the growth of the food additive market.
However, the strict regulations established by regulatory agencies such as the European Food Safety Authority, the Food and Drug Administration, and the European Union Law on the Safety of Food Additives can serve as a deterrent to the global market for food additives.
Furthermore, the limited solubility and high cost of natural food additives are expected to serve as inhibitors for the food additive market.
The market has been limited due to increased consumer demand for synthetic additives, increased consumer demand for “additive-free” foods or products containing natural additives, limited availability and high cost of natural food additives, and increased consumer conversion to organic food growth in recent years.
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