INNOVATION IN AGRIBUSINESS

Natural disasters and extreme events in agriculture: impacts and mitigation M. V. K. Siva Kumar, Mannava V. K. Sivakumar, Raymond P. Motha, Haripada P. Das 0 Resenhas Springer, 2005 - 367 páginas Agricultural production is highly dependent on weather, climate and water availability and is adversely affected by the weather and climate-related disasters. Droughts and natural disasters such as floods can result in crop failures, food insecurity, famine, loss of property and life, mass migration and negative national economic growth. It may not be possible to prevent the occurrence of these natural disasters, but the resultant disastrous effects can be reduced considerably through proper planning and effective preparation. Vulnerability associated with the hazards of natural disasters can be controlled to some extent by accurate and timely prediction and by taking counter-measures to reduce their impacts on agriculture. This book based on an expert meeting held in Beijing, China should be of interest to all organizations involved in disasters reduction and mitigation of extreme events. TOC:Preface.- Impacts of Natural Disasters in Agriculture.- The Role of Disaster Preparedness in National Planning.- The Occurrence and Predictability of Extreme Events.- Accessibility of Database Information.- Tools for Forecasting or Warning.- Agrometeorological Impact Assessment.- Damage Assessment of Agrometeorological Relevance.- Impacts of Tropical Cyclones on Chinese Lowland Agriculture.- Frost and High Temperature Injury in China.- Impacts of Sand Storms/Dust Storms on Agriculture.- Disaster Reduction Planning and Response.- Agricultural Drought Policy and Practices in Australia.- Agrometeorological Disaster Risk Management in China.- Degradation of Vegetation and Agricultural Productivity.- Agricultural Drought Mitigation.- Early Detection and Monitoring of Drought and Flood in China.- The Decision of the Center of a Tropical Cyclone.- Application of Remote Sensing and GIS fo

Relações contratuais na cadeia produtiva da soja: um estudo de caso fundamentado na economia dos custos de transação Dario de Oliveira Lima-Filho, Renato Luiz Sproesser, Cícero Antônio Oliveira Tredezini, Eduardo Anton Resumo Este artigo aborda um estudo de caso de relações contratuais na cadeia da soja, envolvendo uma esmagadora, uma cooperativa agrícola e uma operadora de transportes rodoviários. O objetivo é verificar se o arranjo contratual adotado foi satisfatório para a competitividade dos agentes envolvidos. Foram entrevistados gerentes e funcionários das três empresas envolvidas. O contrato, envolvendo 24.000 t de soja-grão entre a processadora e a cooperativa, foi cumprido apenas parcialmente, porque: (a) a estrutura de governança de quase-integração adotada pela processadora não atendeu a essa relação e, portanto, precisa de revisão para reduzir ou evitar futuros conflitos contratuais; e (b) a empresa processadora negligenciou o impacto do ambiente sobre a cooperativa que não cumpriu totalmente suas obrigações contratuais em função de complicações na sua situação financeira agravada pelo cenário político e econômico da década de 1990. Texto Completo: PDF

PESQUISA, INOVAÇÃO E APRENDIZAGEM: A EXPANSÃO DA SOJA NOS CERRADOS E A CONTRIBUIÇÃO DA EMBRAPA Carlos Otavio Zamberlan, Claudia Maria Sonaglio, João Fernando Zamberlan Resumo A agropecuária vem passando por diversas mudanças tecnológicas nos últimos anos, o que modificou significativamente o padrão de produtividade. Com o esgotamento de terras disponíveis para a ocupação da agropecuária nas regiões sul e sudeste, a produção foi direcionada para novas áreas de expansão agrícola como o centro-oeste brasileiro, onde a partir da década de 1960 iniciou-se o cultivo de soja. A expansão da ocupação das terras com soja foi possibilitada pelo desenvolvimento de sementes adaptadas ao clima e ao solo da região, o que ocorreu na década de 1970. Este artigo tem como objetivo investigar a influência da Embrapa (Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisas Agropecuárias) e suas inovações no crescimento da produtividade e aumento da área plantada com soja na região do Cerrado. Para tanto, foi necessário uma investigação documental associada a uma análise da taxa de crescimento da produção e produtividade da cultura da soja na região. Concluiu-se que as pesquisas foram fundamentais para o crescimento da produtividade da soja no centro-oeste, sendo que a EMPRABA tem dado grande contribuição para que isso tenha ocorrido. Também fica evidente a necessidade de um processo de aprendizagem junto ao produtor para explorar o potencial das cultivares. Texto Completo: PDF

Les pesticides en milieu de travail : état de la situation Nicole Goyer / IRSST René Garneau / Garneau Inc. 0095-2120 : Terminé Résumé non disponible Publications IRSST Garneau, René; Goyer, Nicole Les pesticides en milieu de travail Bilans de connaissances / Rapport  B-050, Montréal, IRSST, 1996, 81 pages. Téléchargement gratuit   Plus d'info Goyer, Nicole Validation d'une méthode d'évaluation des insecticides organophosphorés en milieu de travail Études et recherches / Guide technique  T-11, Montréal, IRSST, 1989, 20 pages. Téléchargement gratuit   Plus d'info

Reflexive governance for sustainable development Jan-Peter Voss, Dierk Bauknecht, René Kemp 0 Resenhas Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006 - 457 páginas This book deals with the issue of sustainability in a novel and innovative way. It examines the governance aspects of reflexive modernisation, and moves away from endless quarrels about the rightness of normative claims and from attempts to define sustainability on the basis of biophysical principles.

novation by demand: an interdisciplinary approach to the study of demand and its role in innovation Andrew McMeekin 0 Resenhas Manchester University Press, 2002 - 214 páginas This book brings together a range of sociologists and economists to study the role of demand and consumption in the innovative process. It begins with a broad conceptual overview of ways that the sociological and economics literatures address issues of innovation, demand, and consumption. It goes on to offer different approaches to the economics of demand and innovation through an evolutionary framework, before reviewing how consumption fits into evolutionary models of economic development.

The politics of food Marianne E. Lien, Brigitte Nerlich 1 Resenha Berg Publishers, 2004 - 244 páginas Is shopping for food really a political act? Why is it that, in a world with enough food for everyone, more people than ever go hungry? Why did the French resistance against genetically modified foods become a fight against McDonalds? Why did the foot-and-mouth epidemic in the UK become a problem for consumers? Capable of connecting human bodies to abstract nations, and techno-science to moral concerns, food has become one of the most contested fields of our time. It is high on the political agenda throughout the world. With disease, contamination, famine, hunger and imbalanced food markets all unfortunate realities, a book that interrogates the politics of food is long overdue. From the BSE outbreak in the 1990s through to cultural taboos and the genetic modification of produce and livestock, this timely book raises provocative questions about how we relate to food in the 21st century. Recent food scandals and genetically modified organism controversies have shattered the idea that 'food is food' as we have always known it, and exposed fundamental dilemmas related to risk and control. Taking as its starting point the premise that food is politicized in arenas not commonly thought of as political, The Politics of Food explores issues surrounding the development of global food markets in underdeveloped nations and addresses recent events that have had a profound impact on how consumers feel about what they eat. The epidemic of foot-and-mouth disease that swept through the UK in 2001 spawned a series of questions concerning the real costs of cheap food. What lessons have been learned? And how are food choices linked to the politics of food markets? With globalization, food has increasingly become entangled in webs of political significance. Through ethnographic case studies, this book reveals how food has come to serve a key role in political resistance, grassroots

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.

lobal governance of food production and consumption: issues and challenges Peter Oosterveer 0 Resenhas Edward Elgar Publishing, 2007 - 294 páginas The provision of food is undergoing radical transformations throughout the global community. Peter Oosterveer argues that, as a consequence, conventional national governmental regulations can no longer adequately respond to existing and emerging food risks and to environmental concerns. This book examines these challenges. Translating recent innovative thinking in the social sciences - as seen in the work of Manuel Castells and John Urry amongst others - to the world of food, this book reviews the challenges facing global food governance and the innovative regulatory arrangements that are being introduced by different governments, NGOs and private companies. The analysis includes case-studies on the European BSE crisis, GM-food regulation, salmon and shrimp farming and food labelling. The author highlights how contemporary governance arrangements also have to acknowledge increasing consumer demand for food produced with care for the environment, animal welfare and social justice. Developing and implementing adequate global food governance arrangements therefore demands the active involvement of private firms, consumers, and civil society organisations with national governments. Peter Oosterveer's book will appeal to scholars - postgraduate and above - involved in industrial organization, agricultural studies and environmental sciences as well as those with an interest in the globalisation and governance of this important and topical area.

Qualities of food Mark Harvey, Andrew McMeekin, Alan Warde 0 Resenhas Manchester University Press, 2004 - 214 páginas In this book, the complexity and the significance of the foods we eat are analyzed from a variety of perspectives, by sociologists, economists, geographers and anthropologists. The first part of the book focuses on theoretical and conceptual issues, the second part considers processes of formal and informal regulation, while the third part examines social and political responses to industrialised food production and mass consumption.

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

Worlds of food: place, power, and provenance in the food chain Kevin Morgan, Terry Marsden, Jonathan Murdoch 0 Resenhas Oxford University Press, 2006 - 225 páginas Three leading scholars in the field explain why place and provenance are assuming more importance in the food chain to producers, consumers, and regulators. They examine how these concerns influence debates on the future of food and farming, exploring the implications for three very different regions: California, Tuscany, and Wales

Geographies of commodity chains Alex Hughes, Suzanne Reimer 0 Resenhas Routledge, 2004 - 276 páginas Geographies of Commodity Chainsdraws together contributions concerned with the production, circulation, and consumption of commodities. Not only do these case study examples seek to transcend older understandings of production and consumption, but they also explicitly tap into wider public debate about the meanings, origins, and biographies of commodities. The book takes a geographical approach to the analysis of links between producers and consumers, focusing on the ways in which these ties increasingly are stretched across spaces and places. Critical engagements with the ways in which these spaces and places affect the economies, cultures, and politics of the connections between producers and consumers are threaded through each section.

Alternative food geographies: representation and practice Damian Maye, Lewis Holloway, Moya Kneafsey 0 Resenhas Emerald Group Publishing, 2007 - 358 páginas Since the late 1990s, agro-food researchers have identified attempts to re-configure food provision around more ethically sound, economically and ecologically sustainable relationships between food producers, processors and consumers. Largely in the context of developed market economies, notions of relocalization and the quality turn have figured prominently in discussions about these alternative food geographies. Emerging empirical research, however, is now challenging some of the assumptions embedded within such discussions. This book critically reflects on the great diversity of debates and practices surrounding efforts to reform contemporary food provision in different places and spaces. The book is organized into three parts. Following a contextual introduction written by the editors, Part One focuses on theoretical and conceptual issues/debates, especially in relation to power, representations and discourses of the alternative. In other words, how, where and why is the term alternative deployed? Part Two considers the relationship between public policy and alternative food projects, with case studies that examine some of the ways institutions enroll, represent, support and, in some instances, impede the development of certain forms of alternative food provision. Part Three addresses perspectives and practices from different actors and spaces in the food chain, including producers, retailers, consumers and local communities. Going beyond the usual focus on the global north, the book considers the relevance of debates about alternative food networks to the global south. It includes empirically-rich case studies from Europe, North and South America, Australia and Africa, whichcollectively emphasize the variety of representations and practices involved in constructing alternative food geographies. *Critic

ntroduction: On the nature and scope of dynamic capabilities Katkalo et al. Ind Corp Change.2010; 0: dtq026v1-dtq026