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/ This study examines similarities and differences between organic and conventional farmers. We explore the factors that underlie farmers' conservation attitudes and behaviors, including demographic and farm characteristics, awareness of and concern for environmental problems associated with agriculture, economic orientation toward farming, and self-reported conservation practices. A series of intensive personal interviews was conducted with 25 farmers in Washtenaw County, Michigan, USA, using both qualitative and quantitative survey methods. The findings indicate that both groups of farmers share a concern for the economic risks associated with farming, although the organic farmers reported a significantly greater concern for long-term sustainability and a greater willingness to incur present risk to gain future benefits. Organic farmers expressed a greater awareness of and concern for environmental problems associated with agriculture. Organic farmers also scored significantly higher on a multifaceted measure of conservation practices, although both groups had a fairly high adoption rate. Implications of these findings are discussed, relative to economic risks of farming, implications for new farmers, effectiveness of conservation education and government programs, and impact of farm size and crop diversity.KEY WORDS: Environmental attitudes; Conservation behaviors; Organic farming; Agricultural sustainability

Poland is one of the largest common carp, Cyprinus carpio, producers in the European Union. Data from 2005_2007 were collected through a survey of 18 carp farms keeping full accounting records of a total pond area of 17 302 ha, accounting for around 34 percent of the total in Poland. The proceeds from the sale of market-size carp had a predominant share of total revenues of the investigated farms. The variable cost consisted of labour (37 percent) and feed (20 percent), while the share of the remaining cost components did not exceed 10 percent of total expenses of fish farms. Only in 2007 was pond fish production profitable (merely 3.95 percent) while in 2005 and 2006, the total costs of the farms were higher than their revenues. The survival rates of market-size carp were much higher than fry. The economic situation of Polish carp farms, within the studied time period, was difficult

This study was carried out to examine the causal relationship between interest rate policy and agricultural production in a deregulated economic setting in Nigeria using time series data covering 1987 to 2011. The data utilized include data on interest rate and agricultural production which were obtained from various publications of central bank of Nigeria. Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) test, Vector autoregression (VAR) lag order selection test and Granger causality test were employed in the data analysis and the result indicated that market driven interest rate was not significant in influencing agricultural production over the period of deregulation and this was attributed to the substantial volatility and high market driven interest rate leading to limited accessibility to credit facilities by small scale farmers. It is recommended that the central bank of Nigeria should strongly exercise some measure of interest rate control that favours investment friendly interest rate policy that is supportive of credit mobilization for sustainable agricultural production and also the realization of the goal of Agricultural Transformation Action Plan (ATAP) in Nigeria.

Capitalizing on the rich historical record of late antiquity, and employing sophisticated methodologies from social and economic history, this book reinterprets the end of Roman slavery. Kyle Harper challenges traditional interpretations of a transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages, arguing instead that a deep divide runs through 'late antiquity', separating the Roman slave system from its early medieval successors. In the process, he covers the economic, social and institutional dimensions of ancient slavery and presents the most comprehensive analytical treatment of a pre-modern slave system now available. By scouring the late antique record, he has uncovered a wealth of new material, providing fresh insights into the ancient slave system, including slavery's role in agriculture and textile production, its relation to sexual exploitation, and the dynamics of social honor. By demonstrating the vitality of slavery into the later Roman empire, the author shows that Christianity triumphed amidst a genuine slave society.

The technical solutions for the installation of heat pumps in individual houses are well known, but its integration in the existing systems in dwelling houses is not common. Heat pump technology is referred to as renewable but would have technical, economic and environmental impact on the whole existing heat supply system in a dwelling house. The aim of this article is to investigate the possibility of using heat pumps for supplying heat to the existing residential buildings. This article examines the possibilities to supplement the engineering systems with additional heat pumps. The smallest heat pump end-user group is the dwelling stairwell. The possibility to use heat pumps in a separate apartment has not been analysed. This article analyses the integration of heat pumps for residential heat supply in the building. The primary heat source is the exhaust air or wastewater. All calculations have been made for several real existing dwelling houses in Birštonas town (Lithuania) within the framework of the CONCERTO Eco-Life project. The analysis also provides economic and environmental assessment of the alternatives. This research was supported by EC FP7 CONCERTO program (‘‘Sustainable Zero Carbon ECO-Town Developments Improving Quality of Life across EU - ECO-Life’’ (ECO-Life Project) Contract No. TREN/FP7EN/239497/\"ECOLIFE\"). Tehniskie risinājumi siltuma sūkņu uzstādīšanai privātmājās ir labi pazīstami, bet to integrācija jau esošās sistēmās daudzdzīvokļu ēkās notiek diezgan reti. Siltuma sūkņa tehnoloģiju bieži sauc par atjaunojamo, bet to integrācija daudzdzīvokļu ēkas esošajā siltumapgādes sistēmā sekmē tehnisko, ekonomisko un ekoloģisko izaugsmi kopumā. Darba mērķis ir siltuma sūkņu integrācijas iespēju izpēte esošajās siltuma/sanitārajās sistēmās daudzstāvu dzīvojamās ēkās. Vismazākā telpa, kurā iespējams integrēt siltuma sūkni, ir daudzstāvu ēkas kāpņu telpa. Siltuma sūkņu izmantošanas iespējas atsevišķā dzīvoklī netika aplūkotas. Detalizēti tika analizētas trīs alternatīvas: HP_R1 – siltuma sūknī saražotā gaisa siltuma izmantošana karstā ūdens sagatavošanai; HP_R2 – siltuma sūknī saražotā gaisa siltuma izmantošana telpu apsildei, pieslēdzoties rekuperatora vai mehāniskās ventilācijas sistēmai; HP_R3 – ēkas notekūdeņu siltuma izmantošana siltuma sūknī karstā ūdens sagatavošanai. Alternatīvu analīze un aprēķini tika veikti reālām daudzdzīvokļu ēkām Brištonas pilsētā (Lietuva) projekta CONCERTO Eco-Life ietvaros. Analīzē iekļauti arī alternatīvu ekonomiskie un ekoloģiskie novērtējumi.

La mayoría de los países están madurando a una gran velocidad y el envejecimiento de la población junto con la mejora en la esperanza y la calidad de vida ha propiciado la aparición de un rentable nuevo mercado: los mayores de 65 años, personas que cada vez están más alejadas de los estereotipos que teníamos hasta ahora: son activos, digitales, gozan de buena salud y de una libertad financiera mayor. Este escenario demográfico ha abierto un campo de oportunidades para el mundo empresarial que es la economía de las personas mayores o silver economy. El autor, Juan Carlos Alcaide, presenta las nuevas oportunidades de negocio y las ventanas que se abren en el contexto del envejecimiento poblacional con enfoques que van desde el marketing hasta el envejecimiento activo y la salud, desde el turismo y el ocio hasta la biogerontología y las terapias antienvejecimiento, los hogares y las residencias, la tecnología o los servicios financieros: productos ageing friendly, servicios de ayuda a domicilio, plataformas de ocio, reformas del hogar, nuevos modelos de movilidad, tecnología adaptada, viviendas turísticas, ayuda psicológica, envases de apertura fácil, etc. «Silver economy. Mayores de 65: el nuevo target», te anima a poner el foco en un segmento de crecimiento que es el pilar de la economía del futuro y que precisa y precisará de productos y servicios silverizados.

/ The rural West of the United States is considered strongly antienvironment. The traditional economic reliance of the area on natural resources has long explained this antienvironment stance. The region consistently elects federal officials who as a group consistently vote against environmental bills and seek to undo existing federal environmental regulation. These politicians defend their antienvironment actions based on their perception of the economic composition and interests of the region. Recent studies, however, have suggested that rural residents are increasingly concerned about environmental issues. These studies, however, lack a consistent theoretical basis. This article uses an alternative economic typing system to examine the economic composition of rural Idaho and suggests that the results found using the alternative typing system might provide a theoretical basis to explain why some studies are finding increased rural environmental support. The results show that rural Idaho is much more economically diverse using this alternative typing methodology compared to the outcomes of traditional USDA economic methodologies. The policy and research implications of these findings are examined.KEY WORDS: Rural; Environmental policy; Economic composition

In this paper, we describe and compare the employment, wages and prices in the agricultural and other rural sectors in Central and East European countries. We point out the lack of statistical information limiting the possibilities of the comparison. We comment the marked decrease in both production and employment in these sectors during the transition period. Together with low wages and the unfavourable development of the relation between the purchase and producer prices, this situation causes the retardation in the growth of the living standard of the rural population, in comparison with other sectors of the national economy. Therefore, the necessity of restructuring agricultural production arises, and first of all, the multifunctional character of the agriculture and the development of non-agricultural activities must be supported by the rural municipalities. It concerns, of course in different rates, all discussed countries.