Environmental SWOT for agricultural and livestock activity scenarios

Most of the environmental impacts resulting from the production technologies used on farms are shared by the different ecoregions of Argentina and Latin America, such as emissions of sediments due to erosion, organic matter from effluents, or agrochemicals that are discharged into the large basins that share navigation channels, dams, ports, and water intakes for drinking water treatment. The advance of the agricultural frontier into marginal areas of the different ecoregions generates changes in the ecosystems that are still being evaluated by different organizations. Information on the environmental impact of the intensification of agriculture and livestock farming is currently scarce and incipient. Another relevant aspect is that the systems for valuing environmentally sound production through the application of environmental certification protocols (e.g. ISO 14000 standards) show that although global awareness of environmental protection is growing, it remains to be seen whether the implementation of these methodologies will integrate all countries in an equitable manner at the production and commercial level.