In recent years, Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) have been a key issue both in the scientific community and in public debates. This is due to their profound implications for rural development, local sustainability, and bio-economics. This edited collection discusses what the main determinants of the participation of operators - both consumers and producers - in AFNs are, what the conditions for their sustainability are, what their social and environmental effects are, and how they are distributed geographically. Further discussions include the effect of AFNs in structuring the food chain and how AFNs can be successfully scaled up. The authors explicitly take an interdisciplinary approach to analyse AFNs from different perspectives, using as an example the Italian region of Piedmont, a particularly interesting case study due to the diffusion of AFNs in the area, as well as due to the fact that it was in this region that the 'Slow Food' movement originated.

Cocoa & Chocolate, charts the economic consequences of the addition of chocolate to Western diets, and the consequent boom in cocoa sales, over 150 years. While the cocoa boom might have been expected to transform the economic conditions of the cocoa producers from rural poverty into prosperity, it somehow failed to achieve this.
This pioneering study examines all aspects of the history of cocoa and chocolate and the effect of these commodities globally. William Gervase Clarence-Smith looks at the effects of increased production of cocoa on the environment and on land distribution, at the coercion of labour to work the plantations, at the manufacture of chocolate, at taxation and at consumption.

eBook available with sample pages: 020346186X

Agriculture is one of the most politically powerful sectors in Japanese national politics. This book provides the first comprehensive account of the political power of Japanese farmers. This definitive text analyses the organisational and electoral bais of farmers' political power, including the role of agricultural interest groups, the mobilisation of the farm vote and links between farmers and politicians in the Diet. Agrarian power has helped to produce the distinctly pro-rural, anti-urban bias of postwar Japanese governments, resulting in a general neglect of urban consumer interests and sustained opposition to market opening for farm products. This book represents a major study of Japanese agricultural organisations in their multifarious roles as interest groups, agents of agricultural administration, electoral resource providers and mammouth business groups. It describes the policy issues that engage farmers' concerns and identifies the agricultural commodities that carry the greatest political significance.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203464451

This volume presents technical papers devoted to development and practical use of computer methods in geotechnical and geoenviromental engineering. It covers issues on space use and construction, soil and rock mechanics, and mining applications amongst other topics.

This volume considers current and future challenges for nature law and policy in Europe. Following the Fitness Check evaluation of the Birds and Habitats Directives, in 2017 the EU adopted an Action Plan for nature, people and the economy to rapidly improve the Directives' implementation and accelerate progress towards the EU's biodiversity targets for 2020. More recently, the EU has adopted a Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and proposed an EU Nature Restoration Law. This book makes a timely contribution by examining the current state of play in light of recent and historical developments, as well as the post-2020 nature law and policy landscape. While evidence suggests that Natura 2000 and the Habitats and Birds Directives have delivered conservation benefits for wildlife in Europe, biodiversity loss continues apace. The book reviews the requirements for an effective international nature conservation system, with reference to the Birds and Habitats Directives. It examines regulatory regimes, current legal issues in the fields of site protection and species protection, the protection of areas outside Natura 2000, recent developments in the EU and the UK, including the implications of Brexit, agriculture and nature conservation, litigation, science and access to justice. Written by leading experts in the field, from a range of stakeholder groups, the volume draws on diverse experiences as well as providing interdisciplinary perspectives. This volume will be essential reading for students and scholars interested in European environmental policy and law, including lawyers, ecologists, environmental scientists, political scientists, natural resource managers, and planners. It will also be of interest to conservation practitioners, policy-makers and NGOs.

"Green Revolution" technologies have transformed the countryside of many less developed countries. This book examines the processes involved in the adoption of these new technologies and their socio-economic impacts. It provides an integrated view of the effects of "Green Revolution" technologies on economic growth and returns, distribution of income and resources, stability of agricultural production and returns and their sustainability in Bangladesh. Bangladeshi experiences are compared with those elsewhere, especially in India. Sources of increased agricultural growth in Bangladesh are identified, patterns and determinants of adoption of high yielding varieties of cereals at both the farm and regional level are identified and the consequences of the new agricultural technology for diets and for the welfare of Bangladeshi consumers are discussed. Implications for rural poverty, income and resource distribution and security of income of the "Green Revolution" in Bangladesh are given attention as is the impact of the "Green Revolution" on fluctuations in cereal yields. Long term sustainability problems are raised - high yielding varieties of crops are driving out traditional variet

This book attempts to explain the failure of Ethiopia's land reform and the problem of transformation of the peasantry through a holistic approach, by pulling together numerous factors and themes. The book first defines a comprehensive land reform as a process that influences the deprived peasant masses economically and politically. It then attempts to establish the relevance of such a process to the transformation of the peasant mode of production to a surplus producing exchange economy and consequently, to socioeconomic development of less developed countries. Ethiopia: Failure of Land Reform and Agricultural Crisis also attempts to identify specific attributes of successful democratization processes (comprehensive land reforms) on the basis of which it evaluates and explains the failure of the Ethiopian land reform. Suitable for research, this book should appeal to scholars and students of development in general and African political economy and African revolutions in particular.

This title includes a number of Open Access chapters. This book looks at a range of topics covering a variety of animals, including how macaques teach their offspring, how rats transmit avoidance behavior, how supplementary feeding of tree frogs affects their breeding behavior, and more. Studies in animal behavior can have far-reaching implications for animals and humans alike, such as how humans can improve conservation efforts, how to better protect animals-both in the wild and in captivity (zoos), and what can be learned about humans from animals, such as how the human brain and behaviors might work.

- Natural scientists, social scientists and humanists to assess if (or how) we may begin to coexist harmoniously with the mosquito. - Chapters assess polarizing arguments for conserving and preserving mosquitoes, as well as for controlling and killing them, elaborating on possible consequences of both strategies. - This book provides informed answers to the dual question: could we eliminate mosquitoes, and should we? Offering insights spanning the technical to the philosophical, this is the 'go to' book for exploring humanity's many relationships with the mosquito-which becomes a journey to finding better ways to inhabit the natural world.

Focusing especially on the 1970s and 1980s in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, this work provides an overview of reforms in socialist agrarian systems. Empirical evidence is used by the contributors to provide an assessment of how agrarian economies performed in different communist countries. The Soviet and Eastern European experience is contrasted with reforms in China, Vietnam and Cuba to provide a detailed account of agricultural restructuring after the collapse of communism in Europe and Asia.

This book is notable for its coverage of the entire range of food safety economics issues from "farm to table," including consumer issues, production supply chain coordination, and international trade.
It is the first to provide a comprehensive look at emerging issues such as tracking and tracing, product liability, and the interface between risk assessment and economic analysis. The book is also notable for providing international perspectives on these issues from both the European Union and the United States. It is intended for technical specialists and policy makers in agricultural economics, food safety, or risk assessment.

First published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Dramatically revised and greatly expanded, the second edition of Forensic Botany features triple the amount of images, including a 16-page color insert to aid with macro and micro identification. This edition also features new high profile cases involving the use of botanical evidence, analysis and updating of plant databases, and database sampling. New chapters provide coverage of plant poisons and toxicology, plant bioinformatics, use of plants for death investigation and clandestine grave identification, and the applications of botany to archeology. The book discusses plant biology from a forensic point of view and offers practical guidelines for how to use botanical evidence in a case.

If you feel you have a disjointed, or unbalanced, view of the global system of demand and supply, you are probably correct. Most studies leave out a very important part of the system--the marketing channel. That is why Laurens van der Laan developed and wrote this book, The Trans-Oceanic Marketing Channel. To help you understand what happens to export crops, such as cocoa, coffee, cotton, groundnuts, tea, and tobacco, between their country of origin and consumer markets, this book analyzes the roles of different actors in trans-oceanic trade, inherent differences between world markets, export diversification policies, and the commercial and institutional forces at play.The Trans-Oceanic Marketing Channel will give you a strong background in marketing channel concepts, and because of its focus on the exporter rather than on the government, it will provide you with an excellent model for microanalysis. As you read about the special features of trans-oceanic trade, you will also learn about: trade associations and their role in shaping world markets for trans-oceanic crops the uneasy relationship between exporters and shipping companies the selling conduct of agricultural exporters in Africa the tendency of actors in Africa to accelerate the trans-oceanic product flow the effectiveness of export marketing boards as channel leaders private enterprise, the chief agent of development the theory of "exporter preference"The Trans-Oceanic Marketing Channel invites policymakers, international businessmen, professors, and students to examine the opportunities, problems, and policies that confront the various players in trans-oceanic trade, especially the exporters. As the book discusses the divergent institutional arrangements in the world markets for agricultural products and their differential effect on African exports, you will become keenly aware of how vertical marketing systems differ from conventional marketing channels. No other book brings together the three fundamental sections of export agriculture, the country of production, the channel through which the products flow, and the country of destination, to provide you with a complete understanding of trans-oceanic marketing.

Why plant a vegetable garden with the same old tomato and cucumber plants that everyone else has? Small Fruits in the Home Garden is your home gardener?s guide to growing and harvesting small fruit for personal enjoyment. The contributors to this book provide the necessary information and helpful hints for you to grow many new varieties of small fruits, that have wonderful flavor but may not be suitable for commercial production, right at home. Now you can harvest the tastiest varieties at their peak flavor! In Small Fruits in the Home Garden, you?ll see how small fruits can enhance not only your diet, but also your garden and landscape. You?ll learn how strawberry plants, for example, make wonderful perennial borders along paths and walkways and how currants, gooseberrries, and blueberries serve as "edible" hedges that are especially lovely in the summer when their branches are laden with colorful fruit. Each chapter of this unique handbook provides detailed background and growing information on a particular fruit, with special attention to: climate soil pests water table preplant operations planting management pruning fertilizing liming wateringSee how growing and harvesting small fruit can provide you with something nutritious and beautiful that doesn?t demand too much free time. With Small Fruits in the Home Garden, you, too, can easily manage and enjoy small fruit growing.

With the conclusion of the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture in 1994, agriculture has for the first time been integrated into world trade rules and disciplines. WTO Members have made a commitment to continue the reform process initiated during the Uruguay Round by starting new WTO negotiations on agriculture by the year 2000. This book combines academic analysis with practical expertise to discuss, in an accessible and systematic way, some of the principal aspects of these agricultural negotiations, and aims to make recommendations for viable and successful negotiating positions in the new WTO talks on agricultural trade. Several expert articles outline the historical and political background of previous negotiations and policy developments in agricultural trade. Others provide an overview of the key issues for the new round of negotiations.

In an era of globalization, private markets are expected to dominate the distribution of goods worldwide. Yet surprisingly little empirical work is conducted on them. The sensitive and secret nature of trading information, the complexity of real markets and the lack of official data other than that on price can all cause problems. This book seeks to overcome these in examining arguably the most difficult markets of all - agricultural markets under conditions of underdevelopment. Case-studies from nine countries covering all three underdeveloped continents offer a comprehensive overview of the lessons to be learnt from field experience.

This book provides an up-to-date assessment of sustainable agri-food systems and rural development in the Mediterranean countries. It examines and reviews the impact of EU and national policies on environmental and trade issues in agricultural and rural organizations in the southern and eastern Mediterranean region. The book also reflects key socio-economic and political issues such as resource management, income distribution, employment and migration trends, and sustainability aspects. It demonstrates technical and methodological tools used for the analysis and explains their application. The book presents the collective work of a research consortium funded by an EU (FP7) project.

'An important and timely book' from the Foreword by Stanley Johnson 'A complete and absorbing history of a decade of intense international politics offers many insights for future negotiators of sustainable solutions' Stephen Bass, International Institute for Environment and Development 'Skillfully navigates the jungle of forest politics, leaving us in no doubt that the verbal commitment to save the world's forests has yet to be translated into action on the ground. The way forward must clearly lie in political commitments and international cooperation if forests are to continue to preserve life on Earth' Francis Sullivan, World Wide Fund for Nature Global deforestation and its attendant processes - including soil degradation, climate change and the loss of biological diversity - emerged as international political issues during the 1980s, prompting politicians to seek consensus on programmes and policies for the conservation and sustainable management of forests. Yet global initiatives have been bedevilled by tensions between the North and South and between governments, industry, local communities and indigenous peoples. Meanwhile, rates of deforestation in the tropics are increasing, and international political efforts are demonstrably failing. Forest Politics carefully traces the evolution of international cooperation on forests, from the inception of the controversial International Tropical Timber Organization and the failed Tropical Forestry Action Programme in the mid-1980s, to the creation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests in the mid-1990s. The book also provides a detailed analysis of the negotiating stances of the parties involved in the divisive negotiations that rook place prior to the 1992 'Earth Summit' in Rio de Janeiro and the equally factious negotiations for the International Tropical Timber Agreement of 1994. It provides a fascinating insight into the nature of such processes, illustrating the difficulties that arise when concepts such as 'global commons' come into conflict with national sovereignty. Complete with annexes of important political documents, and making extensive use of primary source material and interviews with participants. Forest Politics presents case studies of all the major forest negotiations over the last 13 years. It is an essential reference point for policy makers, environmental campaigners and students, and required reading for all those who care about the future of the world's forests. David Humphreys is Research Fellow in Global Environmental Change at the Open University. Originally published in 1996

The poignant rise and fall of an idealistic immigrant who, as CEO of a major conglomerate, tried to change the way America did business before he himself was swallowed up by corporate corruption. At 8 a.m. on February 3, 1975, Eli Black leapt to his death from the 44th floor of Manhattan's Pan Am building. The immigrant-turned-CEO of United Brands-formerly United Fruit, now Chiquita-Black seemed an embodiment of the American dream. United Brands was transformed under his leadership-from the "octopus," a nickname that captured the corrupt power the company had held over Latin American governments, to "the most socially conscious company in the hemisphere," according to a well-placed commentator. How did it all go wrong? Eli and the Octopus traces the rise and fall of an enigmatic business leader and his influence on the nascent project of corporate social responsibility. Born Menashe Elihu Blachowitz in Lublin, Poland, Black arrived in New York at the age of three and became a rabbi before entering the business world. Driven by the moral tenets of his faith, he charted a new course in industries known for poor treatment of workers, partnering with labor leaders like Cesar Chavez to improve conditions. But risky investments, economic recession, and a costly wave of natural disasters led Black away from the path of reform and toward corrupt backroom dealing. Now, two decades after Google's embrace of "Don't be evil" as its unofficial motto, debates about "ethical capitalism" are more heated than ever. Matt Garcia presents an unvarnished portrait of Black's complicated legacy. Exploring the limits of corporate social responsibility on American life, Eli and the Octopus offers pointed lessons for those who hope to do good while doing business.

Originally published in 1957, The Uniqueness of the Individual is a collection of 9 essays published from the ten years preceding publication. The essays deal with some of the central problems of biology. These are among the questions put and answered from the standpoint of modern experimental biology. What is ageing and how is it measured? What theories have been held to account for it, and with what success? Did ageing evolve, and if so how? Is Lamarckism and adequate explanation of evolutionary process? Does evolution sometimes go wrong? Do human beings evolve in a way peculiar to themselves? Other essays touch upon the problems of scientific method and of growth and transformation. This book will be of interest to natural historians, evolutionists and anthropologists.

There are many introductions to the animal ethics literature. There aren't many introductions to the practice of doing animal ethics. Bob Fischer's Animal Ethics: A Contemporary Introduction fills that gap, offering an accessible model of how animal ethics can be done today. The book takes up classic issues, such as the ethics of eating meat and experimenting on animals, but tackles them in an empirically informed and nuanced way. It also covers a range of relatively neglected issues in animal ethics, such as the possibility of insect sentience and the ethics of dealing with pests. Finally, the book doesn't assess every current practice using standard ethical theories, but tries to evaluate some of them using the moral frameworks endorsed by those involved. So, for instance, there is a chapter on the way that animal care and use committees try to justify some of the educational uses of animals, and the chapter on zoos considers the way that international zoological societies justify compromising animal welfare. The book wraps up with a discussion of the future of animal ethics. Each chapter opens with a helpful initial overview of the chapter and ends with a list of suggested readings to help students go further on their own. Key Features Covers animal ethics from an empirically informed perspective, bringing philosophy into conversation with key issues in animal science, conservation biology, economics, ethology, and legal studies, among other fields Provides ample coverage of the most salient current topics, including, for example: Debates about which animals are sentient The suffering of wild animals Research ethics The boundaries of activism Avoids suggesting that animal ethics is simply the practice of applying the right general theory to a problem, instead allowing readers to first work out the specific costs and benefits of making ethical decisions Impresses upon the reader the need for her to work out for herself the best way forward with difficult ethical issues, suggesting that progress can indeed be made Includes summaries and recommended readings at the end of each chapter

This book highlights various methods of quantifying sustainability indicators in the food sector, highlighting the environmental indicators in the meat chain and agri-food wastes from a bio-refinery perspective. Numerous sustainability indicators that encompass all three pillars - economic, environmental and social areas - as well as individual and joint indicators (e.g. environmental and social) have been developed and quantified to date. Some of these indicators can be utilised for any industrial sector, while others are sector-specific. Behind each indicator developed, there is a unique scientific model, method or assessment technique. This book enumerates these indicators, providing details such as the concept, development methodology, assessment technique, and applications, mainly in the food industry.