Organic Agriculture and the Environmental Stability of Food Supply

CONCLUSIONS Organic production systems can make important contributions to food supply stability and farmer livelihoods by establishing soil fertility, providing diversity and, therefore, resilience to food production systems in light of the many uncertainties of climate change. In particular, they contribute positively to food stability in terms of fertile and well structured soils, improved water retention, protection of biodiversity with beneficial side-effects on phytomedical stability and nutrients, and water use efficiency. Agricultural production methods specifically adapted to microclimates, production of diverse products, and cropping methods emphasizing soil carbon retention are most likely to withstand climatic challenges and contribute to food stability, particularly in those countries most vulnerable to increased climate change. Organic agriculture is emphatic about making use of farmer and farmer-community knowledge, particularly about farm organization, crop design, manipulation of natural and seminatural habitats on the farm, use or even selection of locally appropriate seeds and breeds, on-farm preparation of natural plant strengtheners and traditional drugs and curing techniques for livestock, innovative and low budget technology, etc. It is unique in modern agriculture that a food production system is so strongly based on adaptive management. So far, no practical options other than organic agriculture have been proposed to address climate instability. Currently, it is an option which is based and more scientific evidence and field implementation than inexistent or untested technologies such as genetically improved crops that can withstand drought/flood and that can maintain a high resilience in order to cope with unpredictable impacts of climate change. This paper recognizes the deficits of organic agriculture that are mainly related to lower productivity and yield losses. However, the deficits should not be exaggerated. The massively lower yields, those in the range of more than 20 to 30 percent compared to conventional agriculture, occur only in cash-crop-focused production systems and under most favourable climate and soil conditions. Such deficits highlight needs in the current international and national research activities. European countries, leaders in organic agriculture research, spend approximately €60 million per year on specific problems of organic food and farming (Lange, et al., 2006), supplemented with roughly € 4 million per annum by the European Commission. This represents less than 1 percent of total food and agriculture research. In order to improve the performance of organic production, more research is needed on: - soil fertility management and crop growth and health; - habitat management with improved manipulation and exploitation of diversity at all levels; - crop breeding programmes focusing on the adaptability of plants to low input situations in soils, in weed competition, and in pest and disease tolerance; - improved techniques and compounds for plant protection from natural sources; - organic livestock production breeding concepts and programmes for adaptability to management and environmental stress situations; and - reduced tillage organic systems; Organic agriculture represents a positive example of how farmers can help mitigate climate change and adapt to its predictable and unpredictable impacts. It could be used as an indicator for allocating national or international development resources to climate change adaptation (e.g. Adaptation Fund) or to measure progress in implementing climate-related multilateral environment agreements (such as already done in 2010 targets of the Convention on Biological Diversity)

From the invalidity of a General Classification Theory to a new organization of knowledge for the millennium to come

Proceedings der 10. Tagung der Deutschen Sektion der Internationalen Gesellschaft für Wissensorganisation. Wien, 3-5 Juli 2006The idea of organizing knowledge and the determinism in classifícation structures implicitly involve certain limits which are translated into a General Theory on the Classifícation of Knowledge, given that classifícation responds to specific parameters and structures more than to a theoretical concept. The classifícation of things is a refiection of their classifícation by man, and this is what determines classifícation structures. The classifícation and organization of knowledge are presented to us as an artificial construct or as a useful fiction elaborated by man. Positivist knowledge reached its peak in the 20* century when science classifications and implemented classifícation systems based on the latter were to be gestated and Consolidated. Pragmatism was to serve as the epistemological and theoretical basis for science and its classifícation. If the classifícation of the sciences has given rise to clastification systems, the organisation and representation of knowledge has to currendy give rise to the context of the globalisation of electronic information in the hypertextual organisational form of electronic information where, if in information the médium ivas the message, in organisation the médium is the structure. The virtual reality of electronic information delves even deeper into it; the process is completed as the subject attempts to look for information. This information market needs standards of an international nature for documents and data. This body of information organization will be characterized by its dynamic nature. If formal and material structures change our concept of knowledge and the way it is structured, then this organization will undergo dynamic change along with the material and formal structures of the real world. The semantic web is a qualitative leap which can be glimpsed on tiie new knowledge horizon; the latter would be shaped with the full integration of contents and data, the language itself would include data and its rules of reason or representation system. The new organisation of knowledge points to a totally nCw conception; post-modern epistemology has yet to be articulated. In the 21 st century, the organization of electronic information is presenting a novel hypertextual, non-linear architecture that will lead to a new change in the paradigm for organization of knowledge for the mülennium to come.Publicad

Using the Asian Knowledge Model “APO” as a Determinant for Performance Excellence in Universities- Empirical Study at Al -Azhar University- Gaza

This study aims to use the Asian knowledge model “APO” as a determinant for performance excellence in universities and identifying the most effecting factors on it. This study was applied on Al-Azhar University in Gaza strip. The result of the study showed that (APO) model is valid as a measure and there are four dimensions in the model affecting significantly more than the others (university processes, KM leadership, personnel, KM outputs). Furthermore, performance excellence produced though modernizing the means of education, curriculum development, technology and flexibility in the organizational structure. The study recommends expanding the usage of (APO) model, enhancing the role of knowledge leadership, technology, organizational flexibility, sharing culture and incentive systems that encouraging innovation

Seshat: The Global History Databank

The vast amount of knowledge about past human societies has not been systematically organized and, therefore, remains inaccessible for empirically testing theories about cultural evolution and historical dynamics. For example, what evolutionary mechanisms were involved in the transition from the small-scale, uncentralized societies, in which humans lived 10,000 years ago, to the large-scale societies with an extensive division of labor, great differentials in wealth and power, and elaborate governance structures of today? Why do modern states sometimes fail to meet the basic needs of their populations? Why do economies decline, or fail to grow? In this article, we describe the structure and uses of a massive databank of historical and archaeological information, Seshat: The Global History Databank. The data that we are currently entering in Seshat will allow us and others to test theories explaining how modern societies evolved from ancestral ones, and why modern societies vary so much in their capacity to satisfy their members’ basic human needsPeer reviewedFinal Published versio

THE KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT – NECESSITY FOR THE MODERNIZATION OF THE ORGANIZATIONS

If individuals and technologies can harmonize their intelligence under various forms, only the intelligent organizations will have the capacity to transform and coordinate these abilities for their own advantage by using informational technologies, by combining the most advanced software technologies with the newest management instruments in order to produce extremely efficient organizations. The information excess is a chronic phenomenon for the modern organization, so that the lack of the capacity to filter and use relevant information is a consequence of the inefficiency to manage the knowledge fund, of the lack of a clear strategy with a common purpose for personnel and team. Today, almost the intelligent organizations must manage and apply the entire knowledge fund, they must use instruments and technologies in order to build an informational architecture, having as a purpose the competitiveness in a turbulent and changing environment. The apportion of the information and knowledge of the organization, the exchange of information between employees, departments and even other companies are facilitated by the information and communication technology. Not all information are valuable, but in order to establish what information respond to the questions What? Where? How? When? and Why? instruments of knowledge management are needed in order to determine what knowledge is qualified to be intellectually active.knowledge, knowledge management, intelligent organization, informational technologies, knowledge exchange, collaborative networks, apportion intelligent instruments

One Health in food safety and security education: Subject matter outline for a curricular framework.

Educating students in the range of subjects encompassing food safety and security as approached from a One Health perspective requires consideration of a variety of different disciplines and the interrelationships among disciplines. The Western Institute for Food Safety and Security developed a subject matter outline to accompany a previously published One Health in food safety and security curricular framework. The subject matter covered in this outline encompasses a variety of topics and disciplines related to food safety and security including effects of food production on the environment. This subject matter outline should help guide curriculum development and education in One Health in food safety and security and provides useful information for educators, researchers, students, and public policy-makers facing the inherent challenges of maintaining and/or developing safe and secure food supplies without destroying Earth's natural resources

Strategies for sustainable socio-economic development and mechanisms their implementation in the global dimension

The authors of the book have come to the conclusion that it is necessary to effectively use modern approaches to developing and implementation strategies of sustainable socio-economic development in order to increase efficiency and competitiveness of economic entities. Basic research focuses on economic diagnostics of socio-economic potential and financial results of economic entities, transition period in the economy of individual countries and ensuring their competitiveness, assessment of educational processes and knowledge management. The research results have been implemented in the different models and strategies of supply and logistics management, development of non-profit organizations, competitiveness of tourism and transport, financing strategies for small and medium-sized enterprises, cross-border cooperation. The results of the study can be used in decision-making at the level the economic entities in different areas of activity and organizational-legal forms of ownership, ministries and departments that promote of development the economic entities on the basis of models and strategies for sustainable socio-economic development. The results can also be used by students and young scientists in modern concepts and mechanisms for management of sustainable socio-economic development of economic entities in the condition of global economic transformations and challenges

Revisiting the archival finding aid

Archivists have been creating finding aids for generations, and in the last three decades they have done this work via a succession of standardized formats. However, like many other disciplines, they have carried out such work in violation of systems analysis. Although purporting to have the users of finding aids systems first and foremost in their mind, archivists have carried out their descriptive work apart from and with little knowledge of how researchers find and use archival sources. In this article, questions are raised about the utility of archival finding aids and how they will stand the test of time. Indeed, archivists, purportedly concerned with considering how records function and will be used over time, ought to apply the same kind of analysis and thinking to their finding aids. In this article, we explore three ways archival finding aids might be examined by outsiders, namely, those concerned with museum exhibitions, design experts, and accountability advocates. Doing this should assist archivists to reevaluate their next wave of experimentation with descriptive standards and the construction of finding aids. Archivists should expand the notion of what we are representing in archival representation. © 2007 by The Haworth Press