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Books > Business & Economics > Industry & industrial studies > Primary industries
This book examines how safety failings during the use of any designed product or system-be it a car, a building, or a chemical plant-can be mitigated through effective understanding of the conditions and controls surrounding its use. Drawing on historical failures and their own real-world experience, Dr Andy Painting and David England explain how corporate culture, engineering safety, personnel selection, and proper safety auditing are key ingredients to maintaining safety in all aspects of an organization's operations. This effective strategy is also crucial to linking back to the design of future products in establishing where operational failures have been identified and can therefore be "designed out" in future iterations. The book challenges silo thinking among the various safety-related disciplines and shows how this can be counter-productive to effective safety management. Effectively Managing the Case for Safety draws on key features from engineering, design, and health and safety processes, which, when used cohesively, promote a better working environment for everyone and help to reduce wasted time, money, and effort for any organization. Safety is tracked from the initial design stage through any product's entire service life and includes evidence of how safety affects, and is affected by, all those who interact with a product, system, or project. Following their first book, An Effective Strategy for Safe Design in Engineering and Construction, which demonstrated how current construction regulations can be used as a framework to ensure that safety is embedded into the design of virtually any product from machinery to buildings, this follow up book defines what safe is, how it is initially derived, and how the operational safety of any product, during its in-use phase, can be managed and assessed. The result is not only to ensure compliance with relevant regulations but also to actively ensure the ongoing safety of all those who interact with a product or project.
This book analyses the drivers of specific common pool resource problems, particularly in fisheries and forestry, examining the way in which private and public regulation have intervened to fight the common pool resource problem by contributing to the establishment and maintenance of property rights. It focuses on the various forms of regulation that have been put in place to protect fisheries and forestry over the past decades - both from a theoretical as well as from a policy perspective - comparing the concrete interaction of legal and policy instruments in eight separate jurisdictions.
Extractive Relations explores the nature of industrial power and its role in shaping what we understand to be the global mining sector. The authors examine issues at the forefront of contemporary debates: corporate obligations in safeguarding the rights of people displaced by mining, the recognition of community rights and interests in supporting or opposing mining developments, the handling of non-judicial grievances and workability of corporate remedy systems, and the logic of community relations departments in navigating these issues inside and outside of the typical modern mining establishment.The authors develop a unique theoretical approach that highlights the different types and uses of power in these settings. This perspective is supported by the authors' own sustained engagement with the mining sector over many years, drawing on cases from over twenty countries. The analysis of these issues from both 'inside' and 'outside' the sector is a key point of differentiation. For readers seeking to understand how mining companies interpret and interact with the communities and interests around their operations, this book provides invaluable insight and analysis.
This new volume studies the impact and management of environmental pollution on plants, often resulting in plant abiotic stress physiology, which causes reduction in growth due to alterations in biochemical and physiological processes, thus threatening food security, the ecosystem, and the plants themselves. This volume details the harm to plants caused primarily by heavy metal contamination in soils, by pesticides use, and by air pollution and presents several mitigation strategies as well. Soils contaminated with heavy metals is a major challenge worldwide due to increase in anthropogenic and geologic activities. Despite the effectiveness of pesticides in preventing pest invasions and yield decline, pesticides and other air pollutants cause biochemical changes that can instigate leaf damage, stomatal impairment, early senescence, decrease in photosynthetic efficiency, interruption of membrane perviousness, and decrease of growth and yield in sensitive plant types. Chapters in this volume address these issues. Topics include the antioxidant, photosynthesis, and growth characteristics of plants grown in polluted soils; the benefits and hazards of pesticides; microbe-assisted bioremediation and biotechnological advances for plant pollution control; genetically modified plants and their potential resistance to environmental pollution; and more.
Food is a contentious and emotive issue, subject to critiques from multiple perspectives. Alternative food movements - including the different articulations of local, food miles, seasonality, food justice, food knowledge and food sovereignty - consistently invoke themes around autonomy, sufficiency, cooperation, mutual aid, freedom, and responsibility. In this stimulating and provocative book the authors link these issues to utopias and intentional communities. Using a food utopias framework presented in the introduction, they examine food stories in three interrelated and complementary ways: utopias as critique of existing systems; utopias as engagement with experimentation of the novel, the forgotten, and the hopeful in the future of the food system; and utopias as process that recognizes the time and difficulty inherent in changing the status quo. The chapters address theoretical aspects of food utopias and also present case studies from a range of contexts and regions, including Argentina, Italy, Switzerland and USA. These focus on key issues in contemporary food studies including equity, locality, the sacred, citizenship, community and food sovereignty. Food utopias offers ways forward to imagine a creative and convivial food system.
This book includes a collection of papers on both natural (biological) and artificial (computer) approaches to several facets of intelligent behavior from the primary viewpoint of the convergence of computer science and biology in the theory of cognitive science. .
This book, first published in 1986, examines the miners’ strike of 1984-5 – an event that formed the decisive break with a forty-year-old British tradition of political and industrial compromise. The stakes for the main parties were so high that the price each was willing to pay, the loss each was willing to sustain, exceeded anything seen in an industrial dispute in half a century. This book examines and assesses the strike’s full implications, and puts it into its historical and political context.
Using a political-economic approach supplemented with insights from human ecology, this volume analyzes the long-term dynamics of food security and economic growth. The book begins by discussing the nature of preindustrial food crises and the changes that have occurred since the 19th century with the ascent of technical science and the fossil fuel revolution. It explains how these changes improved living standards but that the realization of this improvement was usually dependent on government support for smallholder modernization. The author sets out how the evolution of food security in different regions has been influenced by farm policy choices and how these choices were shaped by local societal characteristics, international relations and changing configurations in metropolitan countries. Separate chapters are devoted to the interaction of this evolution with debates on food security and economic growth and with international economic policies. The final chapters highlight the new challenges for global food security that will arise as traditional sources of biomass production and the more easily extractable reserves of fossil biomass become depleted or can no longer be used. Overall, the book emphasizes the inadequacy of current explanations with regard to these challenges. It explores what is needed to ensure a sustainable future and calls for a rethinking of these issues; a necessary reflection in today's unstable global political situation.
Understanding of the dynamics of plant nutrients in the soil provides scientific basis for efficient nutrient management. Soil organic matter not only provides the nutrients required by the crop but also improve the biological and physical properties of the soil. This book collects and discusses information on production and management of organic manures, biofertilizers, integrated nutrient management in cropping systems and nutrient management in problematic soils. Print and electronic editions not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bhutan).
Being the public voice of over 180 member organisations across nearly 90 countries, La Via Campesina, the global peasant movement, has planted itself firmly on the international scene. This book explores the internationalisation of the movement, with a specific focus on the engagement of peasants in the processes of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS). Since the reform of the CFS in 2009, civil society actors engage in the policy processes of this UN Committee from a self-designed and autonomous global Civil Society Mechanism. The author sheds light on the strategies, tensions, debates, and reconfigurations arising from rural actors moving between every day struggles in the fields and those of the UN arena. Whereas most theories in the dominant literature on social movements expect them to either disappear or institutionalise in a predetermined pattern, the book presents empirical evidence that La Via Campesina is building a much more sophisticated model. The direct participation of representatives of peasant organisations in the CFS is highlighted as a pioneering example of building a more complex, inclusive and democratic foundation for global policy-making. Foreword by Olivier De Schutter, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food (2008-2014).
- Provides an up to date and comprehensive introduction to forest policy and governance in the US - Written in an accessible and engaging tone, with a strong emphasis on real-world case studies - Appropriate for undergraduate and postgraduate students on forestry, natural resources and environmental governance courses, as well as professionals working in the forestry industry
This informative book reviews the challenges of agribusiness in the Southeast Mediterranean. The author focuses on sugarcane cultivation in Egypt to illustrate the impact of climate change on agribusiness, and his method and findings may be helpful for other studies in other regions as well. As climate change creates new risks to human populations and food security, a better analysis is needed to understand this new level of uncertainty and to understand how it will impact agriculture and its relationship with economies, livelihoods, and development. Africa emits low greenhouse gases but is hit the hardest by global warming, posing a serious challenge to increasing agricultural productivity in the Southeast Mediterranean. Sugarcane in Egypt is used as a local food source, for international trade, for the balance of payments, for land and water use, and as a basic product for food and fiber manufacturing. Hence every aspect of the economic structure of Egypt relates to agriculture. The book examines the causes and effects of climate change on agribusiness in the Southeast Mediterranean region, such as its effect on prosperity and net farm incomes crop yields. It considers how to promote agribusiness development in the area and the potential to alleviate poverty in rural areas. It looks at the future of the sugarcane industry in Upper Egypt as a case study of agribusiness, with implications that can be applied globally.
In addition to constituting an evolving area of inquiry within the social sciences, agricultural certification, and particularly its Fair Trade and organic components, has emerged as a significant tool for promoting rural development in the global South. This book is unique for two reasons. First, in contrast to existing studies that have tended to examine Fair Trade and organic certification as independent systems, the studies presented in this book reveal their joint application within actual production settings, demonstrating the greater complexity entailed in these double certification systems through the generation of contradictions and tensions compared with single certification systems. Second, the authors, who are both Asian, reveal the realities of applying Fair Trade and organic certification systems within Asian agriculture. In doing so, they challenge the fact that most Fair Trade studies have been undertaken by Western scholars who have tended to focus on Latin American and African producers. Drawing on a wealth of grounded case studies conducted in India, Thailand, and the Philippines, this pioneering study on double certification makes a significant contribution to studies on Fair Trade and organic agriculture beyond Asia.
This book focuses on the current and potential applications of microalgae and cyanobacteria in pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, and cosmeceuticals. The book deals with the very recent and advanced techniques and technologies in algal cultivation and extraction for its application. The chapters discuss the biological importance, properties, and uses of algal metabolites and microalgae-based compounds in drug development, in food nutrition enhancement, and in the development of cosmetics with medicinal properties. The chapter authors cover a range of diverse topics on algal biological resources, such as: algae as a nutraceutical and functional food ingredient the extraction of food bioactive compounds from microalgae spirulina-derived nutraceuticals and their applications in the food industry anticancer compounds from freshwater microalgae cosmetic applications of microalgal and cyanobacterial pigments and more This unique book, Algal Genetic Resources: Cosmeceuticals, Nutraceuticals, and Pharmaceuticals from Algae, will enlighten readers on the vast usefulness of microalgae and cyanobacteria as an important resource for the cosmeceutical, pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industries for their broad biotechnological potential industrial applications. The volume will be a valuable reference for scientists and researchers in these areas as well as for advanced students and faculty in ecology, phycology, botany, agriculture, biotechnology, microbiology, environmental biotechnology, plant science, and life sciences.
Provides a contemporary view of the impact of climate change on cultivation of various fruit species. Offers modern approaches for mitigating the adverse impact of climate change on fruits cultivation. Describes case studies, empirical experiments and observations emphasizing the research progress of understanding and combating the impact of climate change on fruits production. Illustrates presented concepts with relevant figures and tabulated data.
Discusses the importance, threats, and management of biodiversity of freshwater ecosystems Provides detailed coverage of modern and updated techniques used in the evaluation and conservation of freshwater biodiversity Looks at the impact of pesticides pollution on freshwater environs on aquatic and terrestrial life Reviews how global climate change affects freshwater biodiversity
Medicinal Agroecology: Reviews, Case Studies and Research Methodologies presents information on applications of 'green therapies' in restoration towards global sustainability. These practices connect the world of medicinal plants with ecologic farming practice creating a compassionate socio-political worldview and heartfelt scientific research towards food sovereignty and a healthier future on planet Earth. The book communicates benefits of using plant-based solutions to manage the challenges of unsustainable practices in human healthcare, veterinary medicine, agriculture, forestry, and water management. The contributions introduce advances around plants and their active components to potentially treat disease, regulate dysfunction, and balance ecosystems. These practices are explored in further depth through three sections - I. POLICIES & FRAMEWORKS, II. INSIGHTS & OVERVIEWS, III. CASE STUDIES & RESEARCH METHODS. Edited by Immo Fiebrig, Medicinal Agroecology: Reviews, Case Studies and Research Methodologies appeals to those in various disciplines including agriculture and agroecology, healthcare, environmental sciences, and veterinary medicine.
Land quality and land degradation affect agricultural productivity and food security, but quantifying these relationships has been difficult. Data are extremely limited and outcomes are sensitive to the choices that farmers make. The contributors to this book - including soil scientists, geographers, and economists - analyse data on soils, climate, land cover, agricultural inputs and outputs, and a variety of socio-economic factors to provide new insights into three key issues: * the extent to which differences in land quality generate differences in agricultural productivity across countries * how farmers' responses to differences or changes in land quality are influenced by economic, environmental, and institutional factors, and * whether land degradation over time threatens productivity growth and food security at local, regional, and global levels. This book can be thoroughly recommended to policymakers, public and private sector researchers, university faculty and graduate students, and non-profit organizations for use in research, education, and decision-making.
This book is a celebration of the humble gudgeon, the angler's favourite 'tiddler'. This much-loved little fish is long overdue a little book all of its own. Scientist, author and broadcaster Dr Mark Everard tells tales about the biology of the gudgeon, gudgeon fishing, and the diverse social quirks and values of this most popular of little fishes.
Although the history of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is dominated by a process of centralisation, growing pressures to integrate agri-environmental problems into the CAP have revealed the need to embrace decentralised approaches in an efficient federal structure. Indeed, in recent years it has become increasingly evident that the agricultural sector must undergo fundamental changes in order to enter an era of sustainable development. The authors do not believe that this will be an easy process, not only because agricultural policies in Europe are dominated by specific interest groups, but primarily because integrating environmental aspects into the CAP requires difficult institutional change at different levels. Centralised decision making at the EU level has characterised recent agricultural policy and the authors argue that centralised and hierarchical governance structures may fail to produce adequate solutions if they are not linked to regional and more diverse institutional arrangements. They demonstrate how these new institutional arrangements should be designed and how this change can be organised. In particular, they highlight the need for cooperation, and the participation of farmers, as a strategy to cope with agri-environmental issues and resource management problems. Addressing the value of co-operative strategies to achieve sustainable development and cope with agri-environmental problems, this book will be of great interest to agricultural economists and those with an interest in ecological reforms of agricultural policies. It will also be particularly relevant to policymakers within EU nations, as well as policymakers within the countries of Eastern and Central Europe who will be amongst the first to be admitted to the EU in the next wave of expansion.
Biocontrol Systems and Plant Physiology in Modern Agriculture: Processes, Strategies, Innovations focuses on new production alternatives that do not include pesticides, herbicides, and chemicals for primary food production and instead rely on biologically controlled systems of production. The book also relates a number of advances and innovations in the use of agricultural technologies that employ the study of the physiology of plants to know their resistance to different environments in modern agriculture. The book presents research offering viable alternatives for the control of pests for safe food production that are environmentally friendly and that facilitate the reduction of production costs and improve the quality and yield of produce. The volume addresses innovative biocontrol systems to reduce or eliminate the use of agrochemicals by controlling plant diseases by minimizing environmental damage through the use of antagonistic organisms. It also presents new strategies of cultivation that maximize production by optimizing light, temperature, humidity, nutrients and humidity in a controlled environment. The diverse topics in the volume include botanical compounds as adjuvants as an alternative to reduce the pesticide use, on-site production of bio-control agents, plant factory systems that offer controlled safe environments for plant cultivation, promising bio-nematicides for sustainable agriculture, wastewater reclamation for agricultural purposes, the recovery of phytochemicals from plants, using LED lights on plants and microgreens production, and much more. Covering the new trends in biological control, plant factories, and plant metabolism for application in modern agriculture, this volume provides important research and knowledge that facilitates environmentally friendly plant systems, advances the reduction of production costs, and improves the quality and yield of produce.
There has been an increased awareness of the need to establish and maintain small-scale forestry in tropical countries. This is due to concerns over continued deforestation, as well as the long-term environmental and economic resources these plantations can contribute if managed successfully. This book examines the constraints that limit the development of small-scale forestry in tropical environments and how they can be overcome. The authors first explain the background to their research and demonstrate how, in contrast to industrial plantations, small-scale forestry has a wide variety of objectives, including the production of fuelwood and a wide variety of non-wood products, and the protection of degraded watersheds and wildlife habitats. They examine a broad range of socio-economic topics under the broad themes of policy development, market considerations, the evolution of small-scale forestry systems, and timber and non-wood benefits. In developing countries for example, small-scale forestry is often regarded as a means of facilitating sustainable regional development. As a result of seven years extensive research they have developed a strong policy line, examining measures such as tax provisions and the targeting of subsidy and extension programs that can help promote the growth of non-industrial forest industries. The authors present an integrated socio-economic analysis of the opportunities, impediments and challenges to small-scale forestry in the tropics. As such, this book will be required reading for scholars of environmental economics and science, land resource economists, and environmental, forestry and resource managers.
Presents a major case study of how agriculture and biodiversity conservation can work in harmony towards more sustainable outcomes for both the environment and local communities. Shows how Cuba has provided a unique testbed for such approaches through its specific political status and focus on traditional agricultural methods. Provides the essential background for understanding future options for agriculture and conservation in Cuba, as it emerges from economic and political isolation.
Covers the various pharmacological and therapeutic aspects of bioactive compounds. Analyses their methods of extraction, their phytochemistry, their pharmacological and biological activities, their medicinal properties, and their applications for disease management and prevention. |
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