Face the challenge of change in the global agricultural trade market!This insightful book presents a comprehensive overview of the trade situation facing agriculture in the 21st century. This esteemed collection of the field?s foremost researchers evaluates anticipated changes to the agricultural trade market and the competitiveness of commodities and products resulting from existing and potential international policies. Agricultural Trade Policies in the New Millennium provides an in-depth understanding of multilateral trade negotiations (past, present, and future) and the impact of regionalism on agricultural trade. It also analyzes trade issues specific to individual commodities, such as rice, wheat, and cotton.Agricultural Trade Policies in the New Millennium consolidates essential trade research into a one-of-a-kind reference source for economists, academics, and agriculture professionals. The book provides a detailed overview of current and potential trade situations, divided into three concise sections: key issues influencing trade negotiations from the perspective of developed and developing countries and the environment; commodity trade and trade policy issues concerning competitiveness and the international policy environment for coarse grains, cotton, rice, sugar, and wheat; and general issues related to multilateral and regional trade agreements, including policy tools within the World Trade Organization, anti-dumping actions, regionalism, price volatility, and the macroeconomic effects of trade liberalization. Agricultural Trade Policies in the New Millennium examines: key issues influencing trade negotiations commodity trade and trade policy issues issues and concerns related to multilateral and regional trade negotiations challenges facing trade policy prospects for the agricultural sector in the new millennium With international policy issues like the WTO's Millennium Round and the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) in negotiation and a new United States farm bill pending, Agricultural Trade Policies in the New Millennium provides much-needed textbook analysis by expert researchers. This vital book will keep you in touch with current trade negotiations and policy decisions that are certain to hold major implications for the agricultural sector.

A much-needed contemporary analysis of the Common Agricultural Policy and Germany's role within it. The authors investigate the effect of reunification on German policy today, and ask whether she has acted as leader, partner or obstructor in the formation of policy. Their analysis includes social and environmental aspects, as well as the economic and political, with a special focus on the "green agenda" in European agriculture

This volume brings together a set of studies analyzing different aspects of food and agriculture in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). This sector is of crucial importance to the MENA economies, especially in terms of employment. Agriculture is particularly important for the poor, both on the consumption side - large parts of their budget is allocated to food - and as a source of incomes as most of the poor live in rural areas where agriculture dominates. Agriculture production in MENA is severely constrained by water scarcity and low, irregular rainfall. Sustainability is a major concern in many parts of the region as the quality of land and water resources is deterioration and scarcity becomes more severe due to growing competition from other parts of the economy. The fact that the region relies on imports for a large share of its food consumption is a major concern for policymakers who view this as a threat to national food security and a source of political vulnerability.

The studies included in this volume range from regional overview to micro studies. The chapters with a country focus cover issues that are recurrent in many MENA countries, giving them a broader relevance. The analyses cover policy issues in a wide range of areas - water, drought management, agricultural technology, producer and consumer subsidies, domestic food distribution, and foreign trade - and discusses how coordinated policies in these and other areas can contribute to more rapid, sustainable growth and poverty reduction.

Learn to heal your cattle by treating the cause and not the symptoms. Holistic veterinarian Richard "Doc" Holiday shares the secrets he's learned from more than fifty years of experience in animal nutrition and health.

Herbicide resistance has become an important constraint on modern agricultural practices. An alarming increase in weed biotypes that are resistant to herbicides has also been reported. Opportunity exists for a novel weed management technology, which is also compatible with no-till agricultural practices. Microwave heating can kill both emerged weed plants and weed seeds in the soil. When the intensity of the microwave fields is moderate, plants, which have already emerged, are susceptible to microwave treatment. If the microwave field is intense enough, very rapid volumetric heating and some thermal runaway in the plant structures cause micro-steam explosions in the plant cells, which rupture the plant structures, leading to death. Soil treatment requires significantly more energy; however, there are secondary benefits for crops growing in microwave treated soil. These include: significant reduction of the dormant weed seed bank; significant reduction of nematode populations; significant reduction of fungal populations; better availability of indigenous nitrogen for the plants; more rapid humification; and significant increases in crop growth and yield. Microwave weed management and soil treatment is not restricted by weather conditions; therefore, the technology may offer some timeliness and environmental benefits, which are yet to be quantified in a cropping system.

Wood and wood products are essential to large areas of the world economy and yet there has until now been no single definitive reference source to which those new to or requiring a strategic overview of the industry could turn for a comprehensive picture of the market chain from forest to consumer. The international timber trade provides a detailed overview of the entire timber and timber products business.
It is arranged in three sections: Chapters 1 to 3 provide a background starting with an historical perspective, an overview of the worldwide forest resource and going to examine the properties of wood, types of products, trends in production and consumption and uses.Chapters 4,5 and 6 examine the role of wood industries and wood products in the global economy and provide an overview of world trade both by commodity groups and by country, as well as a detailed analysis of the main trading patterns and the trends, both at the inter-continental and inter-regional levels.The third section, chapters 7 to 10, looks at the structure of trade, market and market-related features, environmental factors such as forestry management, sustainability and certification, waste and recycling and energy and climate change, as well as offering an outlook for the industry in the 21st century.Written by one of the leading international authorities on the timber trade, The international timber trade is essential reading for a wide range of interested groups including managers in the timber industry and trade, the financial community with interests in the sector, academics and students in forestry management and related studies, government agencies and their advisers in helping to develop policies for the sector and international trade, and finally those working in international development organisations and in national and international non-governmental bodies.

"The Forest and the Marine Stewardship Councils constitute new global governance institutions using voluntary certification and labelling as market incentives to encourage sustainable management. Utilizing a comparative political economic framework, the authors analyze shifting British, Canadian and Australian responses to the stewardship councils"--

Efforts to commercialize agriculture in peasant societies through investments in technology and various pricing strategies have failed to create the food surpluses needed to forestall famine and support industrialization in East Africa. Seavoy explores this problem, basing his study on the case of Tanzania, a country that experiences recurrent peacetime famines associated with failures in subsistence agriculture. Providing an analysis of East African subsistence culture, he investigates the failures of national agricultural policies and defines strategies for inducing subsistence farmers to shift to commercial production. Seavoy looks at various development initiatives involving technological inputs, political pressure, taxation, and land tenure provisions and their effects on the political economy of subsistence agriculture. He presents a detailed survey of subsistence culture, its agricultural and pastoral practices, and such variables as labor, topography, rainfall, and population density. The shaping of the East African political economy under colonial rule is discussed, together with the economic, social, and political legacy that has persisted to the present day. Seavoy examines Tanzanian agricultural policy, which has aimed at facilitating the transition to commercial agriculture. He finds that the country is a long way from achieving the assured food surpluses that would enable the nation to support an urban industrial workforce. Among the underlying causes he notes the continuing population explosion, the farmers' objections to commercialized agriculture, and deficiencies in the physical infrastructure, trained personnel, and political institutions. He argues that surpluses will not be created until political leaders use the power of national government to enforce the shift to commercial production. A noteworthy and original contribution to development literature, this work is relevant to studies in modern political economy, Third World development, agricultural economy, and related disciplines.

Presenting the first book to focus on the importance of silicon for plant health and soil productivity and on our current understanding of this element as it relates to agriculture.

Long considered by plant physiologists as a non-essential element, or plant nutrient, silicon was the center of attention at the first international conference on Silicon in Agriculture, held in Florida in 1999.

Ninety scientists, growers, and producers of silicon fertilizer from 19 countries pondered a paradox in plant biology and crop science. They considered the element Si, second only to oxygen in quantity in soils, and absorbed by many plants in amounts roughly equivalent to those of such nutrients as sulfur or magnesium. Some species, including such staples as rice, may contain this element in amounts as great as or even greater than any other inorganic constituent. Compilations of the mineral composition of plants, however, and much of the plant physiological literature largely ignore this element. The participants in Silicon in Agriculture explored that extraordinary discrepancy between the silicon content of plants and that of the plant research enterprise.

The participants, all of whom are active in agricultural science, with an emphasis on crop production, presented, and were presented with, a wealth of evidence that silicon plays a multitude of functions in the real world of plant life. Many soils in the humid tropics are low in plant available silicon, and the same condition holds in warm to hot humid areas elsewhere. Field experience, and experimentation even with nutrient solutions, reveals a multitude of functions of silicon in plant life. Resistance to disease is one, toleration of toxic metals such as aluminum, another. Silicon applications often minimize lodging of cereals (leaning over or even becoming prostrate), and often cause leaves to assume orientations more favorable for light interception. For some crops, rice and sugarcane in particular, spectacular yield responses to silicon application have been obtained. More recently, other crop species including orchids, daisies and yucca were reported to respond to silicon accumulation and plant growth/disease control. The culture solutions used for the hydroponic production of high-priced crops such as cucumbers and roses in many areas (The Netherlands for example) routinely included silicon, mainly for disease control. The biochemistry of silicon in plant cell walls, where most of it is located, is coming increasingly under scrutiny; the element may act as a crosslinking element between carbohydrate polymers.

There is an increased conviction among scientists that the time is at hand to stop treating silicon as a plant biological nonentity. The element exists, and it matters.

This book will be a valuable source of information for those concerned with rural and farm tourism, sustainable tourism and the marketing of "Calibri">local gastronomy. It presents cases with an international and interdisciplinary approach in order to provideideas for strategic perspectives in tourism studies. Furthermore, for the first time the complex fields of rural and food tourism are examined from an international (Italy and Germany) viewpoint. This book explores ways in which gastronomical heritage (i.e., regional food, organic food) can be incorporated in rural tourism (above all farm tourism) and development policies as well as in new avenues of research e.g., sensory marketing, online marketing) in order to enhance sustainable practices both in the tourism and in the agri-food sector. Overall, the book presents an overview of benchmark practices for professionals (associations of rural tourism, farmers, etc.), while offering scholars a well-founded source to refer to in order to gain up-to-date insights into the state of the art of studies on rural and food tourism.

The global spread of transnational mining investment, which has been taking place since the 1990s, has led to often volatile conflicts with local communities. This book examines the regulation of these conflicts through national, transnational and local legal processes. In doing so, it examines how legal authority is being redistributed among public and private actors, as well as national and transnational actors, as a result of globalizing forces. The book presents a case study concerning the negotiation of land transfer and resettlement between a transnational mining enterprise and indigenous peasants in the Andes of Peru. The case study is used to explore the intensely local dynamics involved in negotiations between corporate and community representatives and the role played by legal ordering in these relations. In particular, the book examines the operation of a transnational legal regime managed by the World Bank to remedy the social and environmental impacts of projects which receive Bank assistance. The book explores the nature and character of the World Bank regime and the multiple consequences of this projection of transnational law into a local dispute.

In recent years, development policy has responded to an increasing concern about natural resource degradation by setting up innovative payment for environmental services (PES) programs in developing countries. PES programs use market and institutional incentives in order to meet both environmental and poverty alleviation objectives. However, their optimal design, implications for the rural poor, and how these initiatives integrate into international treaties on global warming and biodiversity loss are still being discussed. This book addresses these issues by scrutinizing analytical tools, providing policy insights and stimulating debate on linkages between poverty alleviation and environmental protection. In particular, it turns attention towards the role of environmental services in agricultural landscapes as they provide a living for many poor in developing countries. It serves as a valuable reference for academics and students in various disciplines, as well as for policy makers and advisors. This book is a co-publication between Springer and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

The global wine industry is a continually modifying market impacted by financing, culture, and politics. Economics, Governance, and Politics in the Wine Market follows developments in European agriculture policies on wine legislation and market trend orientation between political power and market structure, from their inception through recent reforms. This political economic analysis seeks to explain the implementation of wine policies applied to production management in Europe. Gaeta and Corsinovi use The Public Choice model to describe bargaining and trade-off in agriculture wine policy by governments, producers, and critical industrial organizations. They argue that market problems cannot be analysed without an understanding of the motives and processes behind upstream policy decisions. With the book's theoretical approaches and famous case studies, readers become agricultural wine experts capable of navigating the current complex wine market of the European Union.

Lagoons are characterized by an essential quality of uncertainty for use in resource management: these are physically vulnerable to various influences from not only the environment but also the adjacent marine and terrestrial areas. In the areas which are shallower and where less water is exchanges, therefore, fishers are required to develop their capacity of knowledge and skills for how to live with change and uncertainty. The wider realization of complex and dynamic lagoon ecosystem and its fisheries management requires multifaceted aspects to be addressed. Fisheries serve as a basis for people's livelihood and food protein especially in Asian countries. Total amounts of fish landing have maintained an upward trend, but existing fisheries management poses various challenges for ensuring wise use of fishery resources which are becoming fully exploited or over-exploited in the world. Out of variant geographical types of fishery domain, lagoon fisheries need to pay more attention to achieve fisheries management. With these recognitions, the book presents a wide variety of lessons learned from case studies from Asian countries (India, Japan and Thailand). Greater emphasis is placed on understanding the status of lagoon fisheries and its management, and assessing people's adaptive capacities to respond to changes in the ecological-social-economic system. Throughout all case study experience, the book will provide policy makers and practitioners with guidance to build enabling conditions for integrated lagoon fisheries management and related sustainable livelihood which involve a concern with issues of power, institutions, worldviews and values among relevant stakeholders.

In Agriculture, Price Stabilisation and Trade Rules, Irene Musselli offers a comprehensive doctrinal and historical analysis of stabilisation tools and approaches in agriculture. Using her extensive practical experience in the field, she takes up the interface of the tools discussed with trade rules and offers the first comprehensive analysis of WTO rules from the perspective of stabilisation policies. This volume offers a fresh look at the tool box of managed trade in agricultural commodities and develops new and refined solutions that take into account the legal role of equity and of graduation. Musselli offers new insights and is able to invigorate a debate caught in overly ideological entanglements between market oriented and interventionist schools.

Overseas Press Club Award Winner 2016 A shocking investigative journey into the way the resource trade wreaks havoc on Africa, 'The Looting Machine' explores the dark underbelly of the global economy. 'The Looting Machine' is a searing expose of the global web of traders, bankers, middlemen, despots and corporate raiders that is pillaging Africa's vast natural wealth. From the killing fields of Congo to the crude-slicked creeks of Nigeria, a great endowment of oil, diamonds, copper, iron, gold and coltan has become a curse that condemns millions to poverty, violence and oppression. That curse is no accident. This gripping investigative journey takes us into the shadows of the world economy, where secretive networks conspire with Africa's kleptocrats to bleed the continent dry. And like their victims, the beneficiaries of this grand looting have names.

Reserves Estimation for Geopressured Gas Reservoirs aims to introduce the principles and methods for calculating reserves of geopressured gas reservoirs with the material balance method, presenting advantages, disadvantages and applicable conditions of various methods. The book, based on manual analysis, explains methods and calculation steps with more than 30 gas reservoir examples. It will help gas reservoir engineers learn basic principles and calculation methods and familiarize themselves with the content of the software Black Box, which in turn helps improve the level of gas field performance analysis and the level of gas field development.

Emerging from decades of intensive research into alpine timberlines, Trees at their Upper Limit presents a complete modern synthesis of current knowledge on the ecophysiology of tree growth and survival on high mountains in Europe. Including chapters on soil properties and the role of mycorrhiza, carbon assimilation and allocation, phytopathogens, and the impact of global change on photooxidative stress, the book builds on Tranquillini's landmark 1979 publication, Physiological Ecology of the Alpine Timberline. By combining new techniques and insights with existing core knowledge, the authors explore a range of current hypotheses on tree life limitation to promote a greater understanding of the underlying mechanisms determining the upper timberline. A mid growing realization that high elevation forests have a crucial role to play in protection against natural hazards, this book represents a timely contribution to the current literature on timberline research. Drawing together more than 25 years of work, it sets a new standard on the ecophysiology of trees growing at the alpine timberline.

This set of previously out-of-print works is an essential reference collection encompassing a huge array of agricultural topics. These classic texts analyses agricultural change and economics; land use and development; Soviet farming; Indian farming; American farming; and much more besides.