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ARCHIVED - Cartagena researchers find microplastics in intensively farmed sheep in Murcia Region
A team of researchers from the European Diverfarming project, coordinated by the UPCT, has found microplastics in 92% of the feces of sheep that are fed in areas of intensive agriculture in the Region of Murcia.
After it was discovered that there are as many microplastics in the ocean as plankton over seven years ago, scientists all over the world have looked to study the effect that these tiny fibres are having on the ecosystem as a whole. Indeed since then, more studies have found there to be potentially dangerous amounts of microplastics in the very soil that farmers are using to produce food we eat as well as in the animals we consume.
To try and understand the degree of microplastics contamination in this area, researchers from the Universities of Wageningen and Politécnica de Cartagena analyzed the presence of these plastics in agricultural soil, and also in sheep feces, to determine the possible ingestion of plastics by the livestock habitually fed on the remaining agricultural residues from the harvest. They found that 100% of the soil samples analyzed contained microplastics, as did 92% of the sheep feces samples studied. This, in turn, translates into concentrations of 2,000 microplastic particles per kilo of soil and 1,000 particles per kilo of dry feces.
The practice of mulching is being blamed for the excessive amounts of plastic in the soil as farmers often use plastic sheets to cover young crops in order to increase productivity and reduce the use of water. This plastic is not easily eradicated and leeches into the soil, the action of wind, rain and the sun breaking it down into tiny particles, causing harmful microscopic fibres to enter the diet of livestock which are fed on whatever is left after the harvest.
"Despite the negative effects of plastic and its accumulation in areas of intensive agriculture, it is very difficult to get rid of this material since the use of techniques such as mulching allows saving water and pesticides, something decisive in semi-arid areas and with lack of rainfall as is the case in the Murcian area ", they say.
Microplastics carry with them the potential for bacterial infection. One researcher from the Spanish National Research Council found a correlation between the number of parasites present in an organism’s digestive tract and the amount of microplastics present.
A spokesperson from the Diverfarming Project of the University of Wageningen said that to curb the trend of potentially dangerous practices such as mulching and any other agricultural avenue that results in microplastic contamination, farmers will need to diversify their crops and look to more sustainable methods of farming. The Diverfarming project, funded by the European Commission, sees the need for a change in European agriculture towards a more sustainable and environmentally friendly agriculture. Through the combination of crop diversification and sustainable management practices, it seeks to take care of the planet and ensure economic benefits for farmers.
About Diverfarming
Diverfarming is a project funded by the Horizon 2020 Program of the European Commission, within the challenge of "Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine, maritime and inland water research and bioeconomy" under the agreement 728003 in which the Polytechnic Universities from Cartagena and Córdoba (Spain), Tuscia (Italy), Exeter and Portsmouth (United Kingdom), Wageningen (Netherlands), Trier (Germany), Pecs (Hungary) and ETH Zurich (Switzerland), the research centers Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l'analisi dell'economia agraria (Italy), the Higher Council for Scientific Research (Spain) and the Institute of Natural Resources LUKE (Finland), the agricultural organization ASAJA and the companies Casalasco and Barilla (Italy), Arento , LogísticaDFM and Industrias David (Spain), Nieuw Bromo Van Tilburg and Ekoboerdeij de Lingehof (Netherlands), Weingut Dr. Frey (Germany), Nedel-Market KFT and Gere (Hungary) and Paavolan Kotijuustola and Polven Juustola (Finland) are participating. The project coordinator is the UPCT researcher Raúl Zornoza.