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Special Issue "Renewable Agriculture" Quicklinks Special Issue Editors Published Papers Special Issue Information Keywords Planned Papers A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 October 2009) Special Issue Editor Guest Editor Dr. Stephen S. Jones Director, Northwestern Research and Extension Center, Washington State University, Mount Vernon, Washington 98273, USA E-Mail: joness@wsu.edu Published Papers Click here to see a list of 19 papers that have been published in this special issue. Special Issue Information Dear Colleagues, For centuries the perceived need for an immediate and dramatic increase in agricultural production has been a theme throughout the developed world. But only very recently, and with less urgency, has society recognized the need for the true sustainability of agricultural production. For long-term sustainability, agriculture must have the capacity for renewal. Even the most basic forms of agriculture require an input of energy, this in essence is what defines the system as agricultural. Starting with human and animal labor, energy inputs have developed into an industrial system using fertilizers, water, seed, pest control, and other products often brought in from off the farm. While these products may increase production, for the most part they are non-renewable, require vast amounts of fuel to produce and transport, are costly, and may harm the native organisms and environment. Additionally, most seed in industrial agriculture is non-renewable due to legal and genetic mechanisms that make it problematic for farmers to save and replant what they have grown on their farms. Is a renewable agriculture with a high level of productivity possible? What research is underway to test the robustness of current systems when measured against a standard of true long-term sustainability? Stephen S. Jones, Ph. D. Guest Editor   Submission Information All papers should be submitted to

Search About CSDi CSDi is firmly committed to proven, results-based solutions to end suffering and poverty. Our goal is to spread these solutions across the globe through our in-depth field guides and interactive online workshops. Work with us and become the solution. We've trained development professionals... in 103 countries who have developed course projects... impacting over 100,000 people. ~ What our students are saying: I really appreciate the time you have taken to go through correcting assignments.... I am very confident that all your labours are producing lots of learning and stimulation for your students. MATT, IRELAND Facebook Like Box Upcoming Courses ¡Cursos Nuevos en Español! May 17 - July 11 101: From the Ground Up May 17 - July 11 341: Community Based Adaptation to Climate Change May 17 - July 11 Adaptación Basado en la Comunidad-CBA May 17 - July 11 Upcoming Online Development Courses May 2011 Community Based Adaptation: 300 Hands-On Field Activities Donate CSDi, a 501c3, relies on your generous donations for our work, training individuals to be the solution in communities across the globe. News Newsletter: March Newsletter: Project Sustainability: Put the Community in Charge. Field Project of the Month: Rainwater Harvesting: Mexico City Google Translate Translate This Website Powered by Google Tradutor iLearning Experience Student Testimonials International Partnerships Learning Environment Student Field Projects Example Assignment: Kenya Student Countries, Organizations, Project Challenges HANDS-ON FIELD ACTIVITIES FOR COMMUNITY-BASED ADAPTATION Module OL 340: Community-Based Adaptation to Climate Change Posted by Tim Magee CSDi is pleased to present a compilation of Community Based Adaptation Field Activities-complete with links to source materials and technical information-compiled from case studies & from projects developed by CSDi field partners & online students. We encourage you to submit activities: Onl

Food fears: from industrial to sustainable food systems Alison Blay-Palmer 0 Resenhas Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2008 - 185 páginas The industrial food system of the West is increasingly perceived as problematic. The physical, social and intellectual distance between consumers and their food stems from a food system that privileges quantity and efficiency over quality, with an underlying assumption that food is a commodity, rather than a source of nourishment and pleasure.In the wake of various food and health scares, there is a growing demand from consumers to change the food they eat, which in turn acts as a catalyst for the industry to adapt and for alternative systems to evolve. Drawing on a wealth of empirical research into mainstream and alternative North American food systems, this book argues that sustainable, grass roots, local food systems offer a template for meaningful individual activism as a way to bring about change from the bottom up, while at the same time creating pressure for policy changes at all levels of government. This movement signals a shift away from market economy principles and reflects a desire to embody social and ecological values as the foundation for future growth.

This book explores the economic impact of supermarkets on food supply chains in developing countries, with particular emphasis on the generation/displacement of employment, the (re)-distribution of benefits along the food chain and the role of government is attracting, facilitating and regulating the growth of supermarkets in South America, Africa and Asia. Aimed primarily at academics but will appeal to practitioners in developing countries, civil servants, policy-makers and NGOs. The internationalization of food retailing and manufacturing that has swept through the agri-food system in industrialised countries is now moving into middle- and low-income countries with large rural populations, causing significant institutional changes that affect small producer agriculture and the livelihoods of rural communities the world over. Farmers and policy-makers are struggling to keep up with the wave of new demands being made on their supply chains by food manufacturers and retailers. In the process, new questions and challenges are arising: Can small-scale farmers organize to meet the demands of corporate giants? Should governments liberalize Foreign Direct Investment in the retail sector and expose numerous small shops to competition from multinationals? Can distribution systems be adapted to make markets work better for the poor? This book offers a contemporary look at what happens when the modernisation of food supply chains comes face to face with the livelihoods of rural and poor people. The authors are drawn from eighteen countries participating in the 'Regoverning Markets' programme, which aims to not only improve our understanding of the way modernization and re-structuring of food supply chains is affecting food production and distribution systems, but also identify best-practice in involving small-scale producers in supermarket supply chains, and ascertain the barriers to inclusion which need to be removed. Contents: Part One The Economic and Policy Context: The

Between the local and the global: confronting complexity in the contemporary agri-food sector Terry Marsden, Jonathan Murdoch 0 Resenhas Emerald Group Publishing, 2006 - 358 páginas The volume presents a range of critical perspectives on the contemporary agri-food sector. The starting point is the recognition that geography matters in agri-food more than ever, and it plays a diverse range of roles in shaping production-consumption relations. With hindsight, it may be argued that the extensive rural sociological literature on the globalisation of food over the past twenty years has tended to over-emphasise the degree to which food products and processes have indeed been industrialised and standardised. But if diversity and variety have become increasingly significant in distinguishing food commodities, spaces of production, and the practices of consumption, how are we to critically understand and theorise this complexity? What are the features of the institutional, private, public and civic frameworks that work to promote and sustain diversity and complexity in the international food sector both within and between the global and the local? What new or reconfigured sets of power relations are developing through the unfolding of this complexity; and what do these suggest for the sustainability or vulnerability of rural locales and natures? Through the two sections of the book- first concerning Theorising Complexity, and the second, problematising Local development and Local complexities- and bringing together under this theme international theoretical and empirical comparisons, the book begins to explore this rich rural sociological and development field. The chapters examine in detail the ways that constellations of organisations, cultures and entrepreneurial practices become embedded in discrete spatial areas. They show the importance of these areas and their associated institutions to the contemporary, and increasingly contingent development of the international

Globalization and Markets GLOBALIZATION AND MARKETS Background Research Program Major Projects Research Tools Donors Collaborators Contact Us LATEST PUBLICATIONS Discussion Papers April 2010 Rethinking the global food crisis Discussion Papers January 2010 Is SAFTA trade creating or trade diverting? December 2009 Foreign exchange rationing, wheat markets and food security in Ethiopia PREVNEXT DIVISION Markets, Trade and Institutions RESEARCH AREAS Doha Round IFPRI PROJECTS BY COUNTRY AND BENEFICIARY Source: flickr (Curt Carnemark / World Bank) Seaport at Sunrise. China, The overall objective of the globalization and markets research program is to support the adoption of policies for more efficient functioning of the global food, nutrition, and agricultural system. A better-functioning global system will enhance inclusion of low income countries and improve food and nutrition security of poor people. The research program emphasizes issues of global agricultural trade negotiations; regional trade; linkages between globalization and domestic policies as they affect resource allocations and poverty alleviation; the impact of developed-country policies on developing-country food security; and pro-poor policies along the entire food chain, given the growing importance of consumers and retail industries as food system drivers. The historical consequences of trade liberalization are becoming increasingly important in less developed countries. A better understanding of this is critical for further reforms in the domestic and global trading system.

Presenting its sixth volume in 2009, Food Economics continues to provide an international forum on food economics for practitioners and researchers in industry, academia and government. The journal's aim is to enhance the understanding and efficiency of the worldwide food and agribusiness system. The scope of the journal covers: Resource and agribusiness economics and management Food quality and safety Food supply chains Consumer behaviour and preferences Agricultural and food policies Environmental management and policies Markets and international trade Technological change Rural development Organic and integrated food production Acta Agriculturæ Scandinavica, Section C - Food Economics forms part of a trilogy of titles published on behalf of the Nordic Association of Agricultural Scientists (NJF). The series also includes Section A - Animal Science and Section B - Soil & Plant Science. Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica A, B and C are available to purchase as a combined subscription.  This provides access to all three journals in the series, and is available to institutional subscribers only. For full pricing information, please view the Taylor & Francis Journals Price List here.

This book analyses the gradual shift in the distribution of power in agri-food supply chains, away from the manufacturers of branded food products to the global supermarket chains such as Wal-Mart and Tesco. This transformation has had a profound effect on the food we eat, together with the ways in which food is produced, processed and marketed. The authors assess the causes and consequences of this transformation, and evaluate theimpacts along the whole supply chain. The book considers a variety of theoretical and cultural approaches to the analysis of change in the organization and management of the agri-food supply chain, and presents a series of studies focusing upon the effects of changes in Europe, North America and less developed countries. The impacts on farmers and workers, and implications for the environment, are also considered. The contested nature of these changes suggests a number of possible future scenarios for the global agri-food system, which are also analysed and evaluated.This book will be of great interest to postgraduate and undergraduate students in business studies, sociology, politics, geography, and cultural studies. Academic researchers and teachers, and policy makers and researchers in business, government and industry will also find much of interest.

his book analyses the gradual shift in the distribution of power in agri-food supply chains, away from the manufacturers of branded food products to the global supermarket chains such as Wal-Mart and Tesco. This transformation has had a profound effect on the food we eat, together with the ways in which food is produced, processed and marketed. The authors assess the causes and consequences of this transformation, and evaluate theimpacts along the whole supply chain. The book considers a variety of theoretical and cultural approaches to the analysis of change in the organization and management of the agri-food supply chain, and presents a series of studies focusing upon the effects of changes in Europe, North America and less developed countries. The impacts on farmers and workers, and implications for the environment, are also considered. The contested nature of these changes suggests a number of possible future scenarios for the global agri-food system, which are also analysed and evaluated.This book will be of great interest to postgraduate and undergraduate students in business studies, sociology, politics, geography, and cultural studies. Academic researchers and teachers, and policy mak

Abstracts for papers and proposals for sessions (no more than 500 words) will be considered by the conference Scientific Committee. For sessions an overview and 3-4 abstracts should be proposed, and a session chair identified. Both, paper abstracts and session proposals should be submitted to it-apn2010@ivm.vu.nl by 15 October 2010. The conference Scientific Committee will provide decisions on selected papers and sessions by the 30 October 2010. Those invited to present will be asked to provide short papers by 15 December 2010. These will be made available on the conference website: http://umconference.um.edu.my/it-apn2011 prior to the meeting. Authors of accepted papers will be invited to make 15 minute presentations at the conference. Guidelines for Fullpaper Submission The full papers should be up to 8000 words and include title, authors names and affiliations incl. address, telephone and email, abstract, main text and references. Pls number your pages. Figures and tables should be part of the text and not a separate file. We do not define font, spacing or format - just be reasonable by avoiding extremes. The full papers should rather be submitted as pdfs for better protection but of course word files will also be accepted. Papers Accepted for Presentation 012 The development of biofuel in Indonesia from diffusion and stakeholder interactions - Joni Jupesta   014 Niche management policy to increase the market share of Alternative Fuel Vehicles : A system dynamics model of the policy effect - Tae-Hyeong Kwon   015 Enhancing Sustained Adoption of Innovations: The Case of Bio-nitrogen Fertilizer in the Philippines - Linda Penalba   016 Enabling poverty relevant bio-fertilizer bio-innovation systems - lessons from India - Sunita Sungar   017 Ethical Market: Ethnographic Encounter with Global Market, CML patients, and Glivec in South Korea - Eun Jeong Ma   018 Surge of high-input vegetable production in northern Thailand: Is the innovation pro-poor and gende

he hunger of 800 million happens at the same time as another historical first: that they are out-numbered by the one billion people on this planet who are overweight.' - Raj Patel Who really decides what we eat and how we think about food? How did the stuffed come to outnumber the starved and why are so many of them poor?Stuffed & Starved is a groundbreaking inquiry into the global food industry. To reveal the stories behind the products in our shopping trolleys, Raj Patel visits rice-paddies in India, coffee farms in Africa, protestor-packed streets in South Korea, UN agencies and corporate boardrooms. As he connects the dots between these places and our plates, he uncovers the real reasons for famine in Asia and Africa, the false choices given us by supermarkets, and a handful of middlemen in control of the world's food supply. He also encounters a growing resistance to this control, from the farmer co-ops of Brazil to the Slow Food kitchens of Italy, and offers a recipe for a healthier, tastier and more equitable food system.

How can starving people also be obese? Why does everything have soy in it? How do petrochemicals and biofuels control the price of food? It's a perverse fact of modern life: There are more starving people in the world than ever before (800 million) while there are also more people overweight (1 billion). To find out how we got to this point and what we can do about it, Raj Patel launched a comprehensive investigation into the global food network. It took him from the colossal supermarkets of California to India's wrecked paddy-fields and Africa's bankrupt coffee farms, while along the way he ate genetically engineered soy beans and dodged flying objects in the protestor-packed streets of South Korea. What he found was shocking, from the false choices given us by supermarkets to a global epidemic of farmer suicides, and real reasons for famine in Asia and Africa. Yet he also found great cause for hope-in international resistance movements working to create a more democratic, sustainable and joyful food system. Going beyond ethical consumerism, Patel explains, from seed to store to plate, the steps to regain control of the global food economy, stop the exploitation of both farmers and consumers, and rebalance global sustenance.

Although modern agriculture has increased food production faster than population growth in recent decades, there are concerns that existing models of 'industrial agriculture' are unsustainable due to long-run trends towards increased fossil energy costs. This has led to suggestions that food production in future will need to be based on smaller-scale and more labour-intensive farming systems. This paper examines political economy arguments that large-scale capital-intensive agriculture has proved more productive. It counterposes these to ecological economics approaches that emphasize the low energy efficiency of capital-intensive mechanized agriculture. The paper argues that discussion of a 'post-industrial' agriculture remain polarized between visions of a more energy-efficient mechanized agriculture on the one hand, and labour-intensive farming by 'new peasantries', on the other. The paper identifies questions that are neglected by this debate, in particular those concerning the productivity of labour in food production and its implications for food prices and the livelihood basis of farming.

Over the past decade there has been a dramatic increase in the quantity and quality of research focused on the processes through which technological capabilities are acquired by countries significantly behind the economic frontier, and the institutions that effectively support the catching up process. This book is a splendid contribution to this literature. The concept of a "sectoral innovation system" is well suited for framing studies of these kinds of questions, and serves well to unify the many interesting empirical studies in the book. Some of those studies are success stories, others of less successful cases. Readers new to this body of research will find this book a great introduction. All readers will learn a lot from it about what is required for and involved in economic development.' Richard R. Nelson, Columbia Earth Institute, US and University of Manchester, UK This book examines in detail the features and dynamics of sectoral systems of innovation and production in developing countries. Processes of rapid growth are usually associated with specific sectors such as automobiles, electronics or software, as well as with the transformation of traditional sectors such as agriculture and food. The book shows, however, that the variations across all these sectors in terms of structure and dynamics is so great that a full understanding of these differences is necessary if innovation is to be encouraged and growth sustained. The expert contributors promote this understanding by drawing upon empirical evidence from a wide range of sectoral systems, from traditional to high technology, and across a number of countries. They explore how these systems change and evolve, highlighting policy lessons to be drawn from the analysis. Case studies include the Brazilian aeronautical, pulp and paper industries, the Korean machine tool sector, motorbike manufacture in Thailand and Vietnam, pharmaceuticals and telecommunication equipment in India, ICT in Taiwan, the biofuels s

Donovan Campbell and Clinton Beckford Article: Negotiating Uncertainty: Jamaican Small Farmers' Adaptation and Coping Strategies, Before and After Hurricanes-A Case Study of Hurricane Dean Sustainability 2009, 1(4), 1366-1387; doi:10.3390/su1041366 Received: 29 October 2009 / Accepted: 10 December 2009 / Published: 16 December 2009 Show/Hide Abstract | Download PDF Full-text (1801 KB) (This article belongs to the Special Issue Renewable Agriculture) Philip H. Howard Article: Visualizing Consolidation in the Global Seed Industry: 1996-2008 Sustainability 2009, 1(4), 1266-1287; doi:10.3390/su1041266 Received: 28 October 2009 / Accepted: 4 December 2009 / Published: 8 December 2009 Show/Hide Abstract | Download PDF Full-text (933 KB) (This article belongs to the Special Issue Renewable Agriculture) Hossein Mousazadeh, Alireza Keyhani, Hossein Mobli, Ugo Bardi and Toufic El Asmar Article: Sustainability in Agricultural Mechanization: Assessment of a Combined Photovoltaic and Electric Multipurpose System for Farmers Sustainability 2009, 1(4), 1042-1068; doi:10.3390/su1041042 Received: 9 September 2009 / Accepted: 6 November 2009 / Published: 17 November 2009 Show/Hide Abstract | Download PDF Full-text (910 KB) (This article belongs to the Special Issue Renewable Agriculture) Madhu Subedi, Trevor J. Hocking, Michael A. Fullen, Alison R. McCrea and Eleanor Milne Article: Lessons from Participatory Evaluation of Cropping Practices in Yunnan Province, China: Overview of the Effectiveness of Technologies and Issues Related to Technology Adoption Sustainability 2009, 1(3), 628-661; doi:10.3390/su1030628 Received: 9 August 2009 / Accepted: 9 September 2009 / Published: 16 September 2009 Show/Hide Abstract | Download PDF Full-text (195 KB) (This article belongs to the Special Issue Renewable Agriculture) Travis A. Smith, Biing-Hwan Lin and Chung L. Huang Article: Growth and Development in the U.S. Retail Organic Food Sector Sustainability 2009, 1(3), 573-591

Tadeusz W. Patzek Article: A Probabilistic Analysis of the Switchgrass Ethanol Cycle Sustainability 2010, 2(10), 3158-3194; doi:10.3390/su2103158 Received: 24 August 2010; in revised form: 26 September 2010 / Accepted: 29 September 2010 / Published: 30 September 2010 Show/Hide Abstract | Download PDF Full-text (857 KB) (This article belongs to the Special Issue Renewable Agriculture) Crystal Snyder and Dean Spaner Review: The Sustainability of Organic Grain Production on the Canadian Prairies-A Review Sustainability 2010, 2(4), 1016-1034; doi:10.3390/su2041016 Received: 2 March 2010; in revised form: 29 March 2010 / Accepted: 12 April 2010 / Published: 14 April 2010 Show/Hide Abstract | Download PDF Full-text (215 KB) (This article belongs to the Special Issue Renewable Agriculture) Masakazu Komatsuzaki and M. Faiz Syuaib Article: Comparison of the Farming System and Carbon Sequestration between Conventional and Organic Rice Production in West Java, Indonesia Sustainability 2010, 2(3), 833-843; doi:10.3390/su2030833 Received: 1 February 2010; in revised form: 20 February 2010 / Accepted: 1 March 2010 / Published: 22 March 2010 Show/Hide Abstract | Download PDF Full-text (719 KB) (This article belongs to the Special Issue Renewable Agriculture) David Conner, Kathryn Colasanti, R. Brent Ross and Susan B. Smalley Article: Locally Grown Foods and Farmers Markets: Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors Sustainability 2010, 2(3), 742-756; doi:10.3390/su2030742 Received: 9 February 2010; in revised form: 4 March 2010 / Accepted: 10 March 2010 / Published: 12 March 2010 Show/Hide Abstract | Download PDF Full-text (301 KB) (This article belongs to the Special Issue Renewable Agriculture) Hossein Shabanali Fami, Javad Ghasemi, Rahil Malekipoor, Parinaz Rashidi, Saeede Nazari and Arezoo Mirzaee Article: Renewable Energy Use in Smallholder Farming Systems: A Case Study in Tafresh Township of Iran Sustainability 2010, 2(3), 702-716; doi:10.3390/su2030702 Received: 28

Big Macs, chickens and cut flowers are commodities beginning to dominate the global agro-food system. Using case studies from the US, Britain, India, South Africa, New Zealand and Latin America,Globalising Foodaddresses the key themes that are transforming the character of the traditional agricultural communities, ranging from multinational food corporations and World Bank policies, to regulation of pollution and labor relations.

The emergence of a world economy depends on the reorganization of agriculture and food systems to provision the work force and the industries associated with the division of labor. This work emphasizes the central role played by food and agriculture in the world economy. The book includes a historical dimension along with the formulation of the challenges that face the world today. Social scientists of all kinds, but especially economists, sociologists, environmentalists, and political scientists, should be interested in this volume.

Peter Rosset argues that what is at stake is the very future of our global food system, of each country's unique agricultural and farming systems, and the livelihoods of rural people in both the rich industrial countries and the South. He unravels the complex ways in which agriculture in the North is supported, subsidized etc. and argues for the future of agriculture to be taken completely out of the WTO's ambit since food is not just another commodity, but something which goes to the heart of human livelihood, local cultures and national security.

ombining theory, research and policy Consuming Interests provides a topical interdisciplinary exploration into the nature of food provision, policy and regulation. The book provides a detailed examination of corporate retailers, state agencies and consumer organisations involved in the food sector. The analysis explores questions including: * what can the public expect from the state * what limits are there on state action * what are the most appropriate balances between public and private interests in the provision of 'quality' foods.