Today the goal of designing highly productive, sustainable agricultural production systems is at the forefront of agricultural research agendas around the world. The key to designing sustainable agricultural production technologies is in understanding their economic, environmental, and human health impacts. This volume presents a methodology designed to quantify such impacts and to represent them as tradeoffs. This tradeoff methodology is proposed as an approach to accomplish two essential elements in achieving agricultural sustainability. First, the tradeoffs method is a key to the design of successful interdisciplinary research projects for assessing sustainability of production systems. Second, the tradeoffs method provides a successful means of communicating research findings to policy makers and the public.
List of Figures. List of Maps. List of Tables. Preface. 1. Introduction and Overview; C.C. Crissman, et al. Part One: Conceptual and Methodological Foundations. 2. Tradeoffs in Policy Analysis: Conceptual Foundations and Disciplinary Integration; J.M. Antle, et al. 3. Conceptual and Methodological Aspects of Assessing Pesticide Environmental Impact in Developing Areas; R.J. Wagenet, et al. 4. Conceptual and Methodological Aspects of Investigating the Health Impacts of Agricultural Pesticide Use in Developing Countries; D.C. Cole, et al. Part Two: An Introduction to Pesticide Policies in the Andean Region and to the Carchi Case Study Site. 5. The Case Study Site: Physical, Health, and Potato Farming Systems in Carchi Province; C.C. Crissman, et al. 6. Economic Reforms and Changing Pesticide Policies in Ecuador and Colombia; D.R. Lee, P. Espinosa. Part Three: Model Development and Analysis. 7. Econometric and Simulation Modeling of the Carchi Potato Production System; J.M. Antle, et al. 8. Describing Pesticide Movement in Potato Production on Carchi Soils; C.E.H. Ducrot, et al. 9. Health Impacts of Pesticide Use in Carchi Farm Populations; D.C. Cole, et al. 10. The Role of Pesticides in Farm Productivity and Farmer Health; J.M. Antle, et al. 11. Integrated Simulation Model and Analysis of Economic, Environmental, and Health Tradeoffs in the Carchi Potato-Pasture Production System; J.M. Antle, et al. About the Mathematical Symbols Used in this Book. Acronyms.