• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.245-256
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• 2008

The current legislation in South Korea clearly states that the tolerance threshold on the adventitious presence of GMO in environment-friendly agricultural products is 3.0% and no GM seed should be detected in their planting seed batches. To date, in Korea, there is no approved GM crop for commercial cultivation in field. However, several GM crops including rice, Chinese cabbage, potato and wild turf grass are currently under risk assessment for their environmental release. Also Korean government (Rural Development Administration, RDA) announced that 11 institutes including universities have been currently certified to carry out a risk assessment of GM crops. Meanwhile, the cultivated area and certified quantities of environment-friendly crops (organic, pesticide-free and low-pesticide) are sharply increasing every year according to the report of National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service (NAQS). In detail, in 2007, the certified quantities of environment-friendly agricultural products were elevated up to 100-fold for organic, 171-fold for pesticide-free and 2,324-fold for low-pesticide crops when compared with those in 1999. The total certified quantity of environment-friendly cereal crops in 2007 was equivalent to 6.4% of total production of cereal crops. Moreover, 24% of total production of root and tuber crops such as potato and sweet potato were certified for environment-friendly agricultural products. In these circumstances, I strongly suggest that current legislations on GM crop's safety management should be revised to include strategies for the coexistence of GM with non-GM crops, especially environment-friendly crops before GM crop is approved to be cultivated for commercialization. Since all types of crops are grown in an open environment, the adventitious presence of GM crops among non-GM crops is inevitable if appropriate measures for coexistence are not established for species by species such as isolation distance, workable management measures to minimize admixture.

• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.235-246
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• 2012

Reusing livestock manure have various advantages in securing soil organic resources. In this study, the N-loading and recycling capacity assessment of animal manure was analyzed by comparing between the cultivated areas of crops and the amount of manure units that are generated from livestock manure. From this assessment, the possibility of recycling resources of livestock manure was evaluated. The amount generated of livestock manure in Gyeonggi-do were evaluated by applying the manure units to the number of livestock manure. The analysis of manure unit per ha shows that the N loading by MU is quite different by region. When it comes to nitrogen loading, the MU per ha of cultivated land in excess of the N-amount was the highest in the Gyeonggi-do province with 2.70 MU/ha, which is higher than the appropriate level. The Chungcheongnam-do province came next with 2.31 MU. So the recycling capacity assessment was carried out mainly based on areas of forage crops, rice that can be provided by recycling livestock manure. The recycling capacity ware highest in Jeollanam-do and Jeollabuk-do. In order to properly apply the livestock manure into organic resources, the seasonal situation that effects the nitrogen demands of crops along with the regional effects crop cultivation should be seriously analyzed. In addition, a system that can effectively produce and manage fertilizer should be established.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.89-99
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• 2005

The golf courses more than about 200 are operating in Korea. From the golf courses, a great amount of turfgrass clippings tend to increase, steadily. Materials used in the experiment were Creeping Bentgrass(CB), Kentucky Bluegrass(KB), Korean Lawngrass(KL), rice bran and composted chicken drop. Treatments are CB, KB, and KL. The temperature during the composting of all treatments increased rapidly and reached at the highest temperature($57.9^{\circ}C$, $67.8^{\circ}C$, $74.3^{\circ}C$) within 20 days, and then stabilized to the range of $35.2{\sim}41.6^{\circ}C$ at the 30th day. The pH values of all treatments decreased on the first day. However, they were increased rapidly after three days and decreased again on 10~20 days. The pH values of all treatments at the final day were stabilized to the low alkali levels. The contents of total carbon during the period of composting tend to decrease and total nitrogen was increased for factor of reduction of volume. CEC value of all treatments during the period of composting tends to increase. The round paper chromatogram of extracted solution of KL sample was the sharpest and clearest among all treatments. The G.I. values of CB, KB, and KL in 30th day of composting were about 95.1, 77.7, and 98.7 in germination test using chinese cabbage, respectively. Conclusively, all turfgrass clippings used in this experiment were composted well, suitable as composting products standardized by KSC. The maturity of the final compost samples is best in KL, followed by CB and KB treatments. The turfgrass compost can contribute to the plant cultivation for environment-friendly farm, and the results of this study can become the basic data of turfgrass clippings compost. Further research on the mixing ratio of each material is required to produce compost of good quality.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.66-74
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• 2005

This survey was conducted to assess the consumer perceptions of food-related hazard in 500 housewives from all over Korea. The subjects were selected by stratified random sampling method. The survey was performed using structured questionnaire through telephone interview by skilled interviewers. The results showed that 34.6% of the respondents felt secure and were not concerned about food safety, and 65.4% were concerned about food safety. Logistic regression analysis showed that the increasing concern on food brands, food additives (such as food preservatives and artificial color), and imported foodstuffs indicated the current increasing concern on food safety. Other related factors indicating the increasing concern on food safety were education level and care for children's health. The respondents who cared about food safety expressed a high degree of concern on processed foodstuffs such as commercial boxed lunch (93.3%), imported foods (92.7%), fastfoods (89.9%), processed meat products (88.7%), dining out (85.6%), cannery and frozen foods (83.5%), and instant foods (82.0%). The lowest degree of concern was on rice. All the respondents perceived that residues of chemical substances such as pesticides and food additives, and endocrine disrupters were the most potential food risk factors, followed by food-borne pathogens, and GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms). However, these results were not consistent with scientific judgment. Therefore, more education and information were needed for consumers' awareness of facts and myths about food safety. In addition, the results showed that consumers put lower trust in food products information such as food labels, cultivation methods (organic or not), quality labels, and the place of origin. Nevertheless, the respondents expressed their desire to overcome alienation, and recognized the importance of knowing of the origin or the producers of food. They identified that people who need to take extreme precautions on food contamination were the producers, government officials, food companies, consumers, the consumer's association, and marketers, arranged in the order of highest to lowest. They also believed that the production stage of agriculture was the most important step for improving the level of food safety Therefore, the results indicated that there is a need to introduce safety systems in the production of agricultural products, as follows: Good Agricultural Practice (GAP), Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP), and Traceability System (75).

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.968-972
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• 2012

Soil chemical properties of agricultural soils in Korea were investigated at four-years interval in order of paddy, plastic film house, upland, and orchard soils since 1999. Paddy soil samples were taken from the surface 15 cm at 4,047, 2,010, 2,110 and 2,110 sites in all provinces of South Korea in 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2010, respectively. Soil chemical properties in Korea except Jeju province were measured. Soil pH and exchangeable calcium and available silicate contents increased with increasing the application rate of silicate fertilizer and with decreasing its application interval. Soil organic matter content also increased from $22.0g\;kg^{-1}$ in 1999 to $26.0g\;kg^{-1}$ in 2011. Average concentration of available phosphate in 2011 was higher than the upper limit of its optimal range for rice cultivation. However, exchangeable magnesium and available silicate contents were below the lower limit of their optimal ranges, which were 80% and 92% of them, respectively.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.273-282
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• 2004

Composting animal manure is one of feasible treatments that reserves some portion of nutrients of manure. Although the application of compost to arable land has many advantages, the repeated cultivation of the agriculture land will accumulate the level of heavy metals in the soil which is potentially hamful to people and animals. Therefore it is important to know the characteristics concentration and species of heavy metals in a variety of chemical fonns than just total content of the metal. Because the metals in different forms have different mobilities and bioavailabilites. The aim of this study was to examine the total content and the chemical forms of the heavy metals; Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Cd and Pb in the animal manure composted with sawdust or rice hull as a bulking agent. A total of 75 compost samples were collected throughout the country and classified into the three groups in accordance with the characteristics of raw materials: swine manure, poultry manure, and mixed(swine + poultry + cattle)manure. The compost samples were analyzed for total metal content and fractionated by sequential chemical extractions to estimate the quantities of metals: exchangeable, adsorbed, organically bound, carbonate and residual. The results showed that the heavy metal concentrations in all compost samples were lower than the maximum acceptable limits by the Korea Compost Quality Standards. The concentrations of heavy metals in the swine manure compost were higher than those of both the poultry and the mixed manure compost except for Cr. Zn and Cu concentrations of three different compost ranged from 157 to 839 mg Zn/kg DM(dry matter) and from 47 to 458 mg Cu/kg DM, depending on the composition of animal manures. The predominant forms for extracted metals were Cr, Ni, Zn, As and Ph, residual; Cu, organic; and Cd, carbonate. The results suggested that the legal standards for composts should be reexamined to revise the criteria on the total metal content as well as metal speciation.