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"Agricultural innovations United States Social aspects"
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Agribusiness and Innovation Systems in Africa
This book examines how agricultural innovation arises in four African countries Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda through the lens of agribusiness, public policies, and specific value chains for food staples, high value products, and livestock. Determinants of innovation are not viewed individually but within the context of a complex agricultural innovation system involving many actors and interactions. The volume is based on qualitative interviews with agribusiness representatives that were designed to shed light on their experiences on public policies that either enhances or impedes innovation in Africas agriculture sector.Following are the volume's main messages on policies, institutions and strategies that nurture innovation in the agriculture sector: 1) agribusiness innovation is in many cases driven by the need to maintain grades and standards within the value chain, not only in the case of export markets, but also in evolving domestic and urban markets and value chains; 2) that staple food sector has potential to be a source of growth, innovation and poverty reduction; 3) successes in value chain innovation and agribusiness production depend critically on the structure of the whole agricultural innovation system and are highly context specific; 4) especially successful innovation were dependent on creating synergies between market-based and knowledge-based interactions and strong linkages within and beyond the value chain; and 5) the public sectors innovation support has to extend to interactions, collective action and broader public-private partnership programs.This book will be of interest to policymakers, agribusiness leaders, farmer organizations, NGOs, and researchers.
eBook
Whitewash : the story of a weed killer, cancer, and the corruption of science
It's the pesticide on our dinner plates, a chemical so pervasive it's in the air we breathe, our water, our soil, and even found increasingly in our own bodies. Known as Monsanto's Roundup by consumers, and as glyphosate by scientists, the world's most popular weed killer is used everywhere from backyard gardens to golf courses to millions of acres of farmland. For decades it's been touted as safe enough to drink, but a growing body of evidence indicates just the opposite, with research tying the chemical to cancers and a host of other health threats. In Whitewash, veteran journalist Carey Gillam uncovers one of the most controversial stories in the history of food and agriculture, exposing new evidence of corporate influence. Gillam introduces readers to farm families devastated by cancers which they believe are caused by the chemical, and to scientists whose reputations have been smeared for publishing research that contradicted business interests. Readers learn about the arm-twisting of regulators who signed off on the chemical, echoing company assurances of safety even as they permitted higher residues of the pesticide in food and skipped compliance tests. And, in startling detail, Gillam reveals secret industry communications that pull back the curtain on corporate efforts to manipulate public perception. Whitewash is more than an exposâe about the hazards of one chemical or even the influence of one company. It's a story of power, politics, and the deadly consequences of putting corporate interests ahead of public safety.--AMAZON.
Book
Fighting for the farm
In North America industrial agriculture has now virtually displaced diversified family farming. The prevailing system depends heavily on labor supplied by migrants and immigrants, and its reliance on monoculture raises environmental concerns. In this book Jane Adams and contributors-anthropologists and political scientists among them-analyze the political dynamics that have transformed agriculture in the United States and Canada since the 1920s. The contributors demonstrate that people become politically active in arenas that range from the state to public discourse to relations between growers and their contractors or laborers, and that politics is a process that is intimately local as well as global. The farm financial crisis of the 1980s precipitated rapid consolidation of farms and a sharp decline in rural populations. It brought new actors into the political process, including organic farmers and environmentalists.Fighting for the Farm: Rural America Transformedconsiders the politics of farm policy and the consequences of the increasing alignment of agricultural interests with the global economy. The first section of the book places North American agriculture in the context of the world system; the second, a series of case studies, examines the foundations of current U.S. policy; subsequent sections deal with the political implications for daily life and the politics of the environment. Recognizing the influence of an array of political constituencies and arenas,Fighting for the Farmcharts a decisive shift since the early part of the twentieth century from a discursive regime rooted in economics to one that now incorporates a variety of environmental and quality-of-life concerns.
eBook
Increasing resilience to climate change in the agricultural sector of the Middle East
The increasing resilience to climate change in the agricultural sector report presents local-level priorities, informed by stakeholder input, to build agricultural resilience in both countries. The objectives of this study were threefold: (1) to improve the understanding of climate change projections and impacts on rural communities and livelihoods in selected regions of Jordan and Lebanon, specifically the Jordan River Valley and Lebanon's Bekaa Valley; (2) to engage local communities, farmers, local experts, and local and national government representatives in a participatory fashion in helping craft agricultural adaptation options to climate change; and (3) to develop local and regional climate change action plans that formulate recommendations for investment strategies and strategic interventions in local agricultural systems. The climate challenges confronting development in the Middle East are particularly stark. This region, and in particular its rural people, face what might be called a `triple threat` from climate change. First, the Middle East is already one of the driest and most water-scarce regions of the world (World Bank 2011) and faces severe challenges posed by high temperatures and limited water supplies. This report to assist Jordan and Lebanon in understanding the specific challenges and opportunities posed by climate change in the agricultural sector.
eBook
changing face of rural space
The book presents a strategic policy framework to governments in the Western Balkans and the international donor community for facilitating the development of a modern agrifood sector and a vibrant rural space in the Western Balkans in the context of the region??s integration process with the European Union.
eBook
Higher Education Grants or Gifts of Interest to African Americans
Here is this week’s news of grants or gifts to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.
Journal Article
Sociological Look at Biofuels: Ethanol in the Early Decades of the Twentieth Century and Lessons for Today
This article develops a broad sociological understanding of why biofuels lost out to leaded gasoline as the fuel par excellence of the twentieth century, while drawing comparisons with biofuels today. It begins by briefly discussing the fuel-scape in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, examining the farm chemurgic movement, New Deal agricultural policies, mechanization trends within agriculture, and, finally, the invention of leaded gasoline. The second half of the article applies insights from that historical analysis to the biofuel craze currently under way. By employing a political-economy interpretation of the socioeconomic context combined with a path-dependency-informed analysis of the technological trajectories, the article reveals the social forces that structured the trends and outcomes in biofuel innovations across the two eras.
Journal Article
Population Change and Farm Dependence: Temporal and Spatial Variation in the U.S. Great Plains, 1900-2000
I investigate the relationship between county population change and farm dependence in the Great Plains region during the twentieth century, using spatial data analysis techniques. This research is rooted in a long-standing sociological and demographic interest in population responses to economic transitions and informs the theoretical understanding of urbanization processes. Using census and environmental data, the analysis challenges earlier assertions of a simple transition in the relationship between farm dependence and population change that accompanied modern technological advancements, namely tractors (the mechanization thesis). Rather than observing the proposed positive-to-negative shift, study results show a negative association throughout the pre- and post-mechanization periods. Partial support is found if the thesis is revised to consider the relationship between population change and the change in farm dependence rather than the level of farm dependence. Findings show mixed support for an alternative argument that nonfarm industries moderate the influence of farm dependence (the industry complex thesis). In contrast to earlier applications of the thesis, industrial relations in the Great Plains context are characterized by specialization rather than cooperation.
Journal Article