Market governance for safe food in developing countries: The case of low-pesticide vegetables in Vietnam

In many developed countries private arrangements have emerged in food governance. Following limited successes of state regulation, market actors and mechanisms are increasingly included in the environmental and safety governance of domestic and global food chains and networks. But do such private governance arrangements also work in domestic markets in developing countries? Pesticide use in vegetable supply is taken as a case to explore the role of market actors and dynamics in food safety governance in Vietnam. The so-called safe vegetable production system in the Red River Delta, introduced 10 years ago as a domestic alternative to conventional vegetable production, is analyzed through detailed monitoring of farmers, surveys of retailers and consumers, and in-depth interviews with state officials and vegetable traders. The paper finds limited success of this low-pesticide vegetable production, distribution and consumption system. This private arrangement in food governance lacked trust from market actors (especially consumers), and was short of an active state that organized transparency and got market actors involved. As such, market governance in food safety needs to be strong.     

Environmental performance improvement for small and medium-sized slaughterhouses in Vietnam

Slaughtering cattle and pigs is good business nowadays in Vietnam and in Ho Chi Minh City alone there are already 42 slaughter units. Though slaughtering has for a long time been considered a low-technology operation and thus not the sort of subject to be taken seriously by researchers, the recent increase of public awareness on environmental problems caused by this activity however attracts more attention. This article provides an analysis of the environmental impacts caused by the small- and medium-sized slaughterhouses in the Ho Chi Minh City and describes the shortcomings and causes of its present poor environmental performance and management. The main environmental problems caused by the small- and medium-sized slaughterhouses are the uncontrolled use of ground water and the discharge of untreated wastewater with high concentrations of organics including animal feces and blood, parasite eggs and pathogenic bacteria that might easily contaminate the receiving environment and endanger human health. The article concludes that the application of a pollution-prevention concept is crucial to improve the environmental performance of small- and medium-sized slaughterhouses in Vietnam.     

Phytoremediation potential of indigenous plants from Thai Nguyen province, Vietnam

This study was focused on determining Arsenic (As), Lead (Pb), Cadmium (Cd) and Zinc (Zn) in 33 indigenous plants and 12 soil in-situ plant samples in Thai Nguyen Province, Vietnam. The results showed that the soils of surveyed mining areas contained 181.2- 6754.3 mg kg(-1) As, 235.5-4337.2 mg kg(-1) Pb, 0.8- 419 mg kg(-1) Cd and 361.8-17565.1 mg kg(-1) Zn depending on the characteristics of each mining site. These values are much higher than those typical for normal soil. The heavy metal uptake into shoots and roots of 33 indigenous plant species was also determined. Two species of the plants investigated, Pteris vittata L. and Pityrogramma calomelanos L. were As hyperaccumulators, containing more than 0.1% heavy metals in their shoots. Eleusine indica L., Cynodon dactylon L., Cyperus rotundus L. and Equisetum ramosissimum (Vauch) accumulate very high Pb (0.15-0.65%) and Zn (0.22-1.56%) concentration in their roots. Additional experiments to clarify the potential of six these plants as good candidates for phytoremediation of heavy metal pollution soil are being carried out in our laboratory.     

Software for Sustainability Assessment: a Case Study in Quang Tri Province,Vietnam

Sustainable development is a widespread concept. Indicator selection and sustainability assessment are basic methods to analyse the sustainable development process. This study aims to develop a software application to select indicators and to allocate weightings to the indicators and the sub-indexes, so that they can be listed in a sustainability assessment. The Visual Basic software is used to develop a software package based on Delphi, analytic hierarchy, normalization and combination processes. Software for sustainability assessment was developed. Thirty-five indicators are selected as a first step of which eight health indicators and eight environmental ones and their sub-indexes are given weightings. The indicators are normalized. Sub-indexes are combined into a composite sustainable development index. The model is validated showing the ‘main features’ of the sustainability situation on health and environmental aspects in the Quang Tri province during the period 2000–2005. The results support the decision-making process of the competent authorities.     

Soils and sediments of the Thua Thien-Hue Province (central Vietnam): recognizing trace element sources and the likely influence of natural events

Trace element concentrations have been measured in soil and sediment samples taken from the Thua Thien Hue (TT-H) Province and the Tam Giang-Cau Hai (TG-CH) Lagoon in 2002 and 2004. Results show that the lagoon is only slightly contaminated by elements such as Ag, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn, whereas As, probably naturally enriched in this Asian region, reaches values above the lowest internationally accepted sediment quality guidelines. Concentrations in soils are ascribable to natural sources and distributions in the TG-CH Lagoon are mainly influenced by river inputs, with Ag and Cd undergoing estuarine desorption processes. However, concentration-depth profiles of most trace elements in sediments show a recent increasing trend that might be linked to the economic development of the area. The comparison of porosity and (210)Pb depth profiles (confirmed also by Cd and As) from repeated samplings of the same core locations in the TG-CH Lagoon seems to account for a loss of 5-10 cm of surficial sediment that took place during the time interval between the two samplings. It is hypothesized that extreme meteorological events (e.g. a major typhoon that hit the area in November 2003) could be responsible for such sediment displacement.     

Linearized and nonlinearized modellings for comparative uptake assessment of metal-organic framework-derived nanocomposite towards sulfonamide antibiotics

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The emergent occurrence of sulfonamide species involving sulfadiazine (SDZ) and sulfamethazine (SMZ) in aquatic systems can cause a wide range of...     

Antibiotic and antiparasitic residues in surface water of urban rivers in the Red River Delta (Hanoi,Vietnam): concentrations,profiles, source estimation,and risk assessment

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Antibiotic residues and antimicrobial resistance in surface water are issues of global concern, especially in developing countries. In this study, the...     

Pesticides in stormwater runoff−A mini review

• The sources and pathways of pesticides into stormwater runoff were diverse. • Factors affecting pesticides in stormwater runoff were critically reviewed. • Pesticides mitigation strategies were included in this review. • The current knowledge gap of the pesticides in stormwater runoff was identified. Recently, scientific interest has grown in harvesting and treating stormwater for potable water use, in order to combat the serious global water scarcity issue. In this context, pesticides have been identified as the key knowledge gap as far as reusing stormwater is concerned. This paper reviewed the presence of pesticides in stormwater runoff in both rural and urban areas. Specifically, the sources of pesticide contamination and possible pathways were investigated in this review. Influential factors affecting pesticides in stormwater runoff were critically identified as: 1) characteristics of precipitation, 2) properties of pesticide, 3) patterns of pesticides use, and 4) properties of application surface. The available pesticide mitigation strategies including best management practice (BMP), low impact development (LID), green infrastructure (GI) and sponge city (SC) were also included in this paper. In the future, large-scale multi-catchment studies that directly evaluate pesticide concentrations in both urban and rural stormwater runoff will be of great importance for the development of effective pesticides treatment approaches and stormwater harvesting strategies.