 | |
| Industry | Environmental consultancy and services |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1997 |
| Headquarters | |
| Revenue | c.£31m |
Number of employees | 450+ (2014) |
| Website | http://www.adas.co.uk/ |
ADAS is a UK-based independent agricultural and environmental consultancy and provider of rural development and policy advice. [1]
The UK's National Agricultural Advisory Service (NAAS) was established in 1946 as the advisory and research arm of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) due to harsh food rationing of World War II that continued in the UK into the early 1950s. Plant pathology, entomology, soil and other specialist advisers throughout the country advised farmers and growers how to maximise their output.
The NAAS was rebranded as the Agricultural Development Advisory Service (ADAS) in 1971. In 1992, ADAS became an Executive Agency of MAFF until the business was privatised in 1997.[ citation needed ]
A collection of drainage tiles used in underground water management were donated to The Museum of English Rural Life in 1994. [2]
In 2016 the business, operating assets and employees of ADAS were acquired by environmental consultancy, RSK Group. [3]
ADAS operates from 16 principal UK sites. It employs over 400 staff on permanent or fixed-term contracts and calls on a further 250 on contingent terms. [4] Its customers range from small rural enterprises to major corporations, government departments, and agencies.
Previous projects include:
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to sustainable agriculture:
Sustainable agriculture is farming in sustainable ways meeting society's present food and textile needs, without compromising the ability for current or future generations to meet their needs. It can be based on an understanding of ecosystem services. There are many methods to increase the sustainability of agriculture. When developing agriculture within sustainable food systems, it is important to develop flexible business processes and farming practices. Agriculture has an enormous environmental footprint, playing a significant role in causing climate change, water scarcity, water pollution, land degradation, deforestation and other processes; it is simultaneously causing environmental changes and being impacted by these changes. Sustainable agriculture consists of environment friendly methods of farming that allow the production of crops or livestock without causing damage to human or natural systems. It involves preventing adverse effects on soil, water, biodiversity, and surrounding or downstream resources, as well as to those working or living on the farm or in neighboring areas. Elements of sustainable agriculture can include permaculture, agroforestry, mixed farming, multiple cropping, and crop rotation.
Under United States law, pesticide misuse is considered to be the use of a pesticide in a way that violates laws regulating their use or endangers humans or the environment; many of these regulations are laid out in the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). Pesticide misuse encompasses a range of practices, including overapplication, incorrect timing, and the use of banned substances. This global issue not only threatens environmental safety but also undermines efforts towards sustainability. The risk of pesticide pollution at a global scale necessitates a concerted effort to understand and mitigate misuse. The most common instances of pesticide misuse are applications inconsistent with the labeling, which can include the use of a material in any way not described on the label, changing dosage rates, or violating specific safety instructions. Pesticide labels have been criticized as a poor risk communication vehicle, leading some officials and researchers to question whether "misuse" is an appropriate term for what are often "unintended uses" resulting from a poor understanding of safety and application instructions. Other kinds of pesticide misuse include the sale or use of an unregistered pesticide or one whose registration has been revoked and the sale or use of an adulterated or misbranded pesticide. Under most jurisdictions, it is illegal to alter or remove pesticide labels, to sell restricted pesticides to an uncertified applicator, or to fail to maintain sales and use records of restricted pesticides.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) was a United Kingdom government department created by the Board of Agriculture Act 1889 and at that time called the Board of Agriculture, and then from 1903 the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, and from 1919 the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. It attained its final name in 1955 with the addition of responsibilities for the British food industry to the existing responsibilities for agriculture and the fishing industry, a name that lasted until the Ministry was dissolved in 2002, at which point its responsibilities had been merged into the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
Integrated pest management (IPM), also known as integrated pest control (IPC) that integrates both chemical and non-chemical practices for economic control of pests. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization defines IPM as "the careful consideration of all available pest control techniques and subsequent integration of appropriate measures that discourage the development of pest populations and keep pesticides and other interventions to levels that are economically justified and reduce or minimize risks to human health and the environment. IPM emphasizes the growth of a healthy crop with the least possible disruption to agro-ecosystems and encourages natural pest control mechanisms." Entomologists and ecologists have urged the adoption of IPM pest control since the 1970s. IPM is a safer pest control framework than reliance on the use of chemical pesticides, mitigating risks such as: insecticide-induced resurgence, pesticide resistance and (especially food) crop residues.
In agriculture, polyculture is the practice of growing more than one crop species together in the same place at the same time, in contrast to monoculture, which had become the dominant approach in developed countries by 1950. Traditional examples include the intercropping of the Three Sisters, namely maize, beans, and squashes, by indigenous peoples of Central and North America, the rice-fish systems of Asia, and the complex mixed cropping systems of Nigeria.
Agricultural wastewater treatment is a farm management agenda for controlling pollution from confined animal operations and from surface runoff that may be contaminated by chemicals in fertilizer, pesticides, animal slurry, crop residues or irrigation water. Agricultural wastewater treatment is required for continuous confined animal operations like milk and egg production. It may be performed in plants using mechanized treatment units similar to those used for industrial wastewater. Where land is available for ponds, settling basins and facultative lagoons may have lower operational costs for seasonal use conditions from breeding or harvest cycles. Animal slurries are usually treated by containment in anaerobic lagoons before disposal by spray or trickle application to grassland. Constructed wetlands are sometimes used to facilitate treatment of animal wastes.
Integrated farming (IF), integrated production, or integrated farm management is a whole farm management system which aims to deliver more sustainable agriculture without compromising the quality or quantity of agricultural products. Integrated farming combines modern tools and technologies with traditional practices according to a given site and situation, often employing many different cultivation techniques in a small growing area.
The Central Science Laboratory (CSL) was an executive agency of the UK government branch, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). It is now part of the Food and Environment Research Agency, which is in turn part of DEFRA.
Forest integrated pest management or Forest IPM is the practice of monitoring and managing pest and environmental information with pest control methods to prevent pest damage to forests and forest habitats by the most economical means.
A farmer field school (FFS) is a group-based learning process which has been used by a number of governments, non-governmental organizations, and international agencies to promote integrated pest management (IPM). The first FFSs were designed and managed by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in Indonesia in 1989. Since then, more than two million farmers across Asia have participated in this type of learning.
Protected Harvest is an American non-profit organization headquartered in Soquel, California that certifies sustainably grown crops. The goal of the organization is to provide a standard measurement of what constitutes a sustainable product and use it to assure retailers and consumers that they are pucharsing sustainably grown items. Protected Harvest was founded in 2001 as an independent non-profit organization and merged into SureHarvest in 2008. According to EcoLabeling.org, a non-profit monitoring certification programs, "Protected Harvest is an eco-label with the stated mission of helping farmers meet environmental standards that yield high quality products and preserve healthy land for future generations." Pest-management in particular is among the specialties of Protected Harvest, according to Consumer Reports.
CABI is a nonprofit intergovernmental development and information organisation focusing primarily on agricultural and environmental issues in the developing world, and the creation, curation, and dissemination of scientific knowledge.
The environmental effects of pesticides describe the broad series of consequences of using pesticides. The unintended consequences of pesticides is one of the main drivers of the negative impact of modern industrial agriculture on the environment. Pesticides, because they are toxic chemicals meant to kill pest species, can affect non-target species, such as plants, animals and humans. Over 98% of sprayed insecticides and 95% of herbicides reach a destination other than their target species, because they are sprayed or spread across entire agricultural fields. Other agrochemicals, such as fertilizers, can also have negative effects on the environment.
The environmental impact of agriculture is the effect that different farming practices have on the ecosystems around them, and how those effects can be traced back to those practices. The environmental impact of agriculture varies widely based on practices employed by farmers and by the scale of practice. Farming communities that try to reduce environmental impacts through modifying their practices will adopt sustainable agriculture practices. The negative impact of agriculture is an old issue that remains a concern even as experts design innovative means to reduce destruction and enhance eco-efficiency. Animal agriculture practices tend to be more environmentally destructive than agricultural practices focused on fruits, vegetables and other biomass. The emissions of ammonia from cattle waste continue to raise concerns over environmental pollution.
The term cropping system refers to the crops, crop sequences and management techniques used on a particular agricultural field over a period of years. It includes all spatial and temporal aspects of managing an agricultural system. Historically, cropping systems have been designed to maximise yield, but modern agriculture is increasingly concerned with promoting environmental sustainability in cropping systems.
Hans Rudolf Herren is a Swiss American entomologist, farmer and development specialist. He was the first Swiss to receive the 1995 World Food Prize and the 2013 Right Livelihood Award for leading a major biological pest management campaign in Africa, successfully fighting the cassava mealybug and averting a major food crisis that could have claimed an estimated 20 million lives.
The International Pesticide Application Research Consortium (IPARC), previously known as the International Pesticide Application Research Centre and before that the Overseas Spray Machinery Centre (OSMC), has focused on pesticide application methods appropriate for smallholder farmers since 1955. It is now a research and training group whose purpose is to promote practical and cost-effective techniques, wherever possible, reducing the use of chemical pesticides, as part of Integrated Pest Management (IPM). IPARC has been an integral part of pesticide research and teaching at Silwood Park and has specialised in the needs of smallholder farmers, application techniques for migrant pests and control of disease vectors. IPARC is a World Health Organization (WHO) collaborating centre.
Agriculture is a significant sector in California's economy, producing nearly US$50 billion in revenue in 2018. There are more than 400 commodity crops grown across California, including a significant portion of all fruits, vegetables, and nuts in the United States. In 2017, there were 77,100 unique farms and ranches in the state, operating across 25.3 million acres of land. The average farm size was 328 acres (133 ha), significantly less than the average farm size in the U.S. of 444 acres (180 ha).
RSK Group is a privately held UK-based environmental, engineering and technical services group, comprising over 175 companies employing some 10,500 people and with turnover of £1.22bn in 2023.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
