Food and Fuel Consumption the Biggest Environmental Stressors

Today is World Environment Day. On that occasion, UNEP (United Nations Environmental Programme) this week released a report "Assessing Environmental Impacts of Production and Consumption" (press release: here, also in The Guardian). The report looks at the compound environmental impacts for human health, ecosystem health, and natural resources from industrial/agricultural production and also from a human consumption point of view. The report concludes that use of fossil fuels and consumption of foods have the most significant environmental impacts including impacts on the availability and quality of water resources:

Pathogens, Water, and Animal Agriculture

This week, I am participating in a USDA funded workshop at beautiful Cornell University to discuss waterborne disease occurrence, management and control in agricultural regions. The workshop, put together by Cornell University with funding from the USDA, brings together regulators and industry experts with pathogen researchers across various disciplines that have been funded over the past five years under the National Institute of Food and Agriculture research program. The workshop is peppered with a number of very interesting overview presentations related to waterborne disease. The talks are very accessible to the public and I highly recommend them if you are interested: