Agriculture and the environment: an economic perspective with implications for nutrition

Agricultural production has harmed environmental quality primarily because of inadequately designed policies and natural resource projects. Hence, most of the harmful side effects of agriculture can be reduced or eliminated by replacing these 'bad' institutions with policies and projects that create financial (dis)incentives for (un)desirable behavior. Provided appropriate policies are followed, environmental constraints should not keep people from meeting nutritional standards that emphasize more fruits, vegetables, and fish. Nutritional well-being can be achieved with policies and projects that give people sufficient access to food that has been produced with methods that minimize adverse impacts on the environment. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.