Environmental Impacts of Pasture-based Farming

Book excerpt: Focusing on the different types of grassland farming and their impact on the environment, Environmental Impacts of Pasture-based Farming takes a broad and interdisciplinary view of the subject. The text is organized into two sections, the first addressing issues facing environmental quality, namely soil, water and air quality and socioeconomic impacts. The second section offers commentary on how the different pastoral sectors influence environmental issues. With highly tuned farm productive systems comes the risk of environmental impacts, and the purpose of this text is to highlight the areas with which these risks are associated and how best to mitigate them. While drawing attention to potential problems, chapter authors always remain conscious of the socio-economic needs of land users and the increasing world population and keep in mind that intense mitigation may be too restrictive on the farming system. This book takes an unbiased approach to improving management of grazed land and incorporates research from environmental science, agriculture, soil science and ecology.