Food Citizenship: Is There a Duty for Responsible Consumption?

Labeling of food consumption is related to food safety, food quality, environmental, safety, and social concerns. Future politics of food will be based on a redefinition of commodity food consumption as an expression of citizenship. “Citizen-consumers” realize that they could use their buying power in order to develop a new terrain of social agency and political action. It takes for granted kinds of moral selfhood in which human responsibility is bound into human agency based on knowledge and recognition. This requires new kinds of food labeling practices. Existing research on consumer’s preferences often fails to recognize the full complexity of the motivations and intentions through which the identity of the moral self is built up in relation to food consumption practices. For citizens, not only food production practices matter but also the impact of what we eat on who we are and the ecological foot print of our food stuff. Two major drivers for this are the idea that we ourselves have to take care of our own bodies (“We are what we eat”) and that we are responsible for Planet Earth. Since both obesity and climate change have become major public concerns, also governments develop an increasing interest in defining how citizens ought to behave as consumers and how retailers and producers should facilitate such responsible behavior. Since they are supposed to defend the “bonum commune,” e.g., the public health of their citizens and a sound common future for all, a new consensus on “appropriate” consumption choices has to be found, balancing beneficence and autonomy.     

A phytoremediation approach using Calamagrostis ligulata and Juncus imbricatus in Andean wetlands of Peru

Emergent plant species growing in Andean natural wetlands have shown efficient phytoremediation capabilities in wetlands polluted by acid mine drainage. However, the types and amounts of heavy metals accumulated by native plant species are not well understood. In this study, we focused on determining heavy metal concentrations and bioaccumulation factors in Calamagrostis ligulata and Juncus imbricatus. Two acid wetlands located above 3,500 m a.s.l. in Ancash, Peru were assessed. Physico-chemical parameters and heavy metals concentrations in control and experimental plant samples were measured in dry and rainy seasons. Results indicated that C. ligulata and J. imbricatus aerial parts accumulated higher amounts of Fe, Zn, As and Al. Also, bioaccumulation factors revealed notable increases in As, Pb and Al, but less so in Cd, Fe and Zn. On the other hand, physico-chemical parameters of water quality (pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen, sulphides) between inflow and outflow of wetlands indicated significant differences in the presence of metals in comparison with their maximum permissible limits. Both emergent plant species showed an accumulation of heavy metals and thus the ability to recovery of water quality in wetland outflows.     

Seismic response mitigation of chemical plant components by passive control techniques

This paper deals with the applicability of seismic passive control in major-hazard chemical installations. The objective is to show numerically and experimentally the applicability of Passive Control Techniques (PCT) in industrial plants. Consequently, the main components of a process plant are classified and collected into a limited number of classes; for each class, the main damages caused by past earthquakes are described and the most vulnerable components are identified. A synthesis of the effects of earthquakes on the different typologies of process components is also presented and the most suitable innovative seismic protection systems, in particular passive control techniques (PCT), are acknowledged. Finally, the effectiveness of PCT in reducing the seismic response of process plant components is proved by three representative case studies: a base isolated above-ground storage tank, a distillation column connected by elastoplastic dampers to the adjacent service frame and an application of non-conventional Tuned Mass Dampers to a support frame.     

Environmental fate of glyphosate and aminomethylphosphonic acid in surface waters and soil of agricultural basins

Argentinian agricultural production is fundamentally based on a technological package that combines no-till and glyphosate in the cultivation of transgenic crops. Transgenic crops (soybean, maize and cotton) occupy 23 million hectares. This means that glyphosate is the most employed herbicide in the country, where 180–200 million liters are applied every year.     

Measurement of carbon storage in landfills from the biogenic carbon content of excavated waste samples

Landfills are an anaerobic ecosystem and represent the major disposal alternative for municipal solid waste (MSW) in the U.S. While some fraction of the biogenic carbon, primarily cellulose (Cel) and hemicellulose (H), is converted to carbon dioxide and methane, lignin (L) is essentially recalcitrant. The biogenic carbon that is not mineralized is stored within the landfill. This carbon storage represents a significant component of a landfill carbon balance. The fraction of biogenic carbon that is not reactive in the landfill environment and therefore stored was derived for samples of excavated waste by measurement of the total organic carbon, its biogenic fraction, and the remaining methane potential. The average biogenic carbon content of the excavated samples was 64.6 ± 18.0% (average ± standard deviation), while the average carbon storage factor was 0.09 ± 0.06 g biogenic-C stored per g dry sample or 0.66 ± 0.16 g biogenic-C stored per g biogenic C_.     

Recovery of manganese oxides from spent alkaline and zinc–carbon batteries. An application as catalysts for VOCs elimination

Manganese, in the form of oxide, was recovered from spent alkaline and zinc–carbon batteries employing a biohydrometallurgy process, using a pilot plant consisting in: an air-lift bioreactor (containing an acid-reducing medium produced by an Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans bacteria immobilized on elemental sulfur); a leaching reactor (were battery powder is mixed with the acid-reducing medium) and a recovery reactor. Two different manganese oxides were recovered from the leachate liquor: one of them by electrolysis (EMO) and the other by a chemical precipitation with KMnO₄ solution (CMO). The non-leached solid residue was also studied (RMO). The solids were compared with a MnO_x synthesized in our laboratory.The characterization by XRD, FTIR and XPS reveal the presence of Mn₂O₃ in the EMO and the CMO samples, together with some Mn⁴⁺ cations. In the solid not extracted by acidic leaching (RMO) the main phase detected was Mn₃O₄.The catalytic performance of the oxides was studied in the complete oxidation of ethanol and heptane. Complete conversion of ethanol occurs at 200 °C, while heptane requires more than 400 °C. The CMO has the highest oxide selectivity to CO₂.The results show that manganese oxides obtained using spent alkaline and zinc–carbon batteries as raw materials, have an interesting performance as catalysts for elimination of VOCs.     

Hydrological benefits in the context of Brazilian environmental services program

The Brazilian program of payment for environmental services (PES) is based on ranges of potential erosion decrease (ED) from soil and water conservation proposals estimated from the Universal Soil Loss Equation. Changes in land use and land cover (LULC) result in many alterations of the basin water balance. Therefore, to contribute to the methodological development of Brazilian PES, this paper proposes a quantification of hydrological benefits based on conservation measures. We propose basing the PES program on adding the potential water storage increase (WSI) parameter estimated from the runoff curve number model. Two LULC change scenarios were run considering conservation measures on degraded areas. We found that indicators of ED and WSI were compatible tools for driving the eligibility of soil and water conservation measures. However, the water storage parameter seems to be better at managing the PES mechanism because it is based on water prices and can contribute to appreciation of the efforts performed by the rural producers. The use of the SCS-CN method presents greater feasibility as a tool for the implementation of PES programs in ungauged basins. Thus, an analysis of the success of the innovation proposal of the Brazilian PES program allows inferences to be made about the quantification and financial valuation of hydrological benefits of the potential storage increase and current water price.     

Using Four Capitals to Assess Watershed Sustainability

The La Antigua watershed drains into the Gulf of Mexico and can be considered as one of the most important areas in Mexico because of its high productivity, history, and biodiversity, although poverty remains high in the area in spite of these positive attributes. In this study, we performed an integrated assessment of the watershed to recommend a better direction toward a sustainable management in which the four capitals (natural, human, social, and built) are balanced. We contrasted these four capitals in the municipalities of the upper, middle and lower watershed and found that natural capital (natural ecosystems and ecosystem services) was higher in the upper and middle watershed, while human and social capitals (literacy, health, education and income) were generally higher downstream. Overall, Human Development Index was negatively correlated with the percentage of natural ecosystems in the watershed, especially in the upper and lower watershed regions. Our results indicate that natural capital must be fully considered in projections for increasing human development, so that natural resources can be preserved and managed adequately while sustaining intergenerational well-being.