Business support for farmers: an evaluation of the Farm Cornwall Project

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present an account of a Farm Support Project in Cornwall which provides support, advice and an outreach facility for farmers in the Penwith district of Cornwall. It also discusses how effective such schemes are, particularly in an external environment which poses threats to the farm sector in the UK. Three kinds of questions about the nature of farming and the status of farmers are posed. The first set of questions includes polarisations about the hegemonic position of farmers. Second, macro-economic, and thus policy, questions concerning the economic “footprint” of the farmer and the farm's relationship with the economy are posed in Cornwall. The third set of questions concerns the economic role and entrepreneurial capability of the farmer in Cornwall. Design/methodology/approach – A desk study of the scheme's objectives, a literature review, and interviews with 27 stakeholders were reported on specifically the results of the interviews. Findings – The Penwith Scheme encompasses an integrated approach to providing business support to farmers including: sign-posting specialist advisers, the facilitation of training assistance with major grant applications, the development of “social capital” through to help in accessing sources of social support

Target mass corrections and twist-3 in the nucleon spin structure functions

The Nachtmann moment is employed to study the contribution of twist-3 operator to the nucleon spin structure functions. Target mass corrections to the Cornwall-Norton moments of the spin structure functions $g_{1,2}$ are discussed. It is found that the corrections play a sizeable role to the contribution of the twist-3 $\tilde d_2$ extracted from the Cornwall-Norton moments.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure

On the CJT Formalism in Multi-Field Theories

The issues that arise when using the Cornwall-Jackiw-Tomboulis formalism in multi-field theories are investigated. Particular attention is devoted to the interplay between temperature effects, ultraviolet structure, and the interdependence of the gap equations. Results are presented explicitly in the case of the evaluation of the finite temperature effective potential of a theory with two scalar fields which has attracted interest as a toy model for symmetry nonrestoration at high temperatures. The lowest nontrivial order of approximation of the Cornwall-Jackiw-Tomboulis effective potential is shown to lead to consistent results, which are relevant for recent studies of symmetry nonrestoration by Bimonte and Lozano.Comment: 17 pages, LaTe

Vacuum energy as a c-function for theories with dynamically generated masses

We argue that in asymptotically free non-Abelian gauge theories possessing the phenomenon of dynamical mass generation the $\beta$ function is negative up to a value of the coupling constant that corresponds to a non-trivial fixed point, in agreement with recent AdS/QCD analysis. This fixed point happens at the minimum of the vacuum energy ($\Omega$), which, as a characteristic of theories with dynamical mass generation, has the properties of a c-function.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure

Organic Farming in Cornwall: Results of the 2002 Farmer Survey

A detailed survey of organic farming in Cornwall was completed duing the period August 2002 to February 2003. One of the main objectives of the survey was to describe current practices and constraints to organic production so as to aid the Organic Studies Centre in developing a research and training strategy that meets the needs of Cornish organic farmers. all 130 registered producer members of the Soil Association Certification Ltd (SACert) and Organic Farmers anf Growers Ltd (OF&G) were contacted. Of these, 120 were farming and 119 were interviewed. Data collected through closed questioning reflected a wide range of land-use, enterprise, marketing, husbandry, management, certification, income and environmental issues. Comments from farmers, recorded through open-ended questioning, are quoted and para-phrased throughout the report. The survey has provided the first detailed description of organic production in Cornwall. These data will be used by the Organic Studies Centre at Duchy College to form the basis of a strategy for organic farming research and development relevant to Cornwall. The information gathered will also be used to inform other parties concerned with development of the organic sector in the UK generally, at the south west of England specifically. A second follow-up survey will be conducted during 2005. This survey would not have been possible without the considerable efforts of the data collectors and the goodwill, time and expertise ofthe participating farmers. These contributions are gratefully acknowledged