Public and Private Institutional Responses to Advocacy Attacks: The Case of the Global Cocoa Industry and Child Labour Abuse

Over the past decade the global agri-food industry has come under increasing attack by advocacy groups related to their production and marketing processes (Bowmar and Gow, 2009). Advocacy groups have used these attacks to exploit the growing intergenerational disconnect between consumers and farming to campaign for narrowly defined political ideals while challenging traditional agricultural practices (Olin, 1999). This disconnect has provided advocacy groups the opportunity to use boycotts and other media attacks to severely adverse impact not only branded manufacturers and retailers, but their farmer suppliers. The agri-food industry’s challenge is to understand how to develop appropriate individual and collective responses to these attacks that minimize their current and future adverse impact and provide mutually beneficial outcomes for all of the channel members. Using an instrumental case study of the international cocoa and chocolate industry’s response to the child labour abuse and trafficking claims, we analyse and evaluate the alternative individual and collective responses that firms can implement to minimize their current and future adverse impact from advocacy attacks and provide mutually beneficial outcomes for all of the channel members. This paper follows a comparative institutional analysis methodology to analyse the multiple nested case studies and evaluate the impact and implications of each alternative.Certification, Advocacy, Cocoa, Chocolate, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Environmental Economics and Policy, International Development, Marketing,

Feminisms and activisms: reflections on the politics of writing and the editorial process

This article addresses the questions and dilemmas that each of us has brought to the project. It traces their modulation, refinement and manifestation as they became part of a shared creative dynamic and thus subject to our personal experience and reflection thereon. The initial idea was to produce one text with multiple voices, yet considering our theoretical diversity, the geographical distance between us and the short time at hand we realized this, for the moment, was a too ambitious project. Hence as a tribute to the diversity of our perspectives and reflecting the actual dilemma of seeking to "speak in one powerful voice" while allowing heterogeneity, this article presents itself as a tentative pastiche of our four distinct yet overlapping and intersecting contributions

Denitrification and availability of carbon and nitrogen in a well-drained pasture soil amended with particulate organic carbon

A well-drained soil in N-fertilized dairy pasture was amended with particulate organic carbon (POC), either sawdust or coarse woody mulch, and sampled every 4 wk for a year to test the hypothesis that the addition of POC would increase denitrification activity by increasing the number of microsites where denitrification occurred. Overall mean denitrifying enzyme activity (DEA), on a gravimetric basis, was 100% greater for the woody mulch treatment and 50% greater for the sawdust treatment compared with controls, indicating the denitrifying potential of the soil was enhanced. Despite differences in DEA, no difference in denitrification rate, as measured by the acetylene block technique, was detected among treatments, with an average annual N loss of ∼22 kg N ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹ Soil water content overall was driving denitrification in this well-drained soil as regression of the natural log of volumetric soil water content (VWC) against denitrification rate was highly significant (r ² = 0.74, P < 0.001). Addition of the amendments, however, had significant effects on the availability of both C and N. An additional 20 to 40 kg N ha⁻¹ was stored in POC-amended treatments as a result of increases in the microbial biomass. Basal respiration, as a measure of available C, was 400% greater than controls in the sawdust treatment and 250% greater than controls in the mulch. Net N mineralization, however, was significantly lower in the sawdust treatment, resulting in significantly lower nitrate N levels than in the control. We attribute the lack of measured response in denitrification rate to the high temporal variability in denitrification and suggest that diffusion of nitrate may ultimately have limited denitrification in the amended treatments. Our data indicate that manipulation of denitrification by addition of POC may be possible, particularly when nitrate levels are high, but quantifying differences in the rate of denitrification is difficult because of the temporal nature of the process (particularly the complex interaction of N availability and soil water content)

End games, time inconsistency and European economic and monetary union

The vision of a monetary union in Europe is as old as the European Community itself, and yet despite the vast amounts of time, effort and political capital spent to build such a system, little progress has to date been made. Most recently, the Maastricht Treaty has set out a strategy and a timetable for monetary union in the Community. One can only ask if there is the likelihood that the process be once more obstructed and if so what the causes might be. This paper, presented in the form of a descriptive analysis of the issues, was motivated by this line of thought. Clearly, there would be endless adjustment difficulties involved in the transitionary process: most have been well documented. To date though, the consequences of the uncontrollable behaviour of rational economic agents within the context of this situation has been left largely unchallenged. The aim of this paper is to attempt to shed light on this issue. The analysis described is within a simple game theoretic framework. When it is declared that monetary union is to be formed. the various games begin. Unlike before, rational agents - or the players in the game - now face finite time horizons. They engage in activities that enable them to exploit the incentives that have become available to them under these conditions. These end game activities have detrimental effects on the old and new regimes and invariably render the plan (proposed monetary union) time inconsistent. And they, clearly are inevitable: rational agents will always seek to maximise their welfare no matter what the circumstances are. As such and depending of course on the type of end game played. monetary union in its transitionary phases will always be in danger of being derailed. All that the policy makers and negotiators can do is to seek ways of minimising these activities. While strongly endorsing the convergence criteria and the penalties for any intentional deviating activity, every attempt should be made by these bodies to build up a credible reputation for the transitionary process and institutional set up once the monetary union has been established. If the monetary union is deemed credible, i.e. the players perceive it to be a worthwhile goal, then rational agents will seek to avoid engaging themselves in these activities

Dendroanthropological applications in adaptive management: a multi-methodical approach for interpreting cultural landscape change at MVS-YEE-SE’-NE

This thesis combined GIS analysis, archival research, and dendrochronological methods to provide a means for interpreting how the Mvs-yee-se’-ne cultural landscape has changed since the period of European contact circa 1850. By employing dendrochronological methods, a unique stand of Oregon white oak (Quercus garryana) was found to be present at Mvs-yee-se’-ne by at least 1809. Since 1850, factors such as American colonization, homesteading, mining, fire suppression, and logging have had an effect on cultural landscapes such as Mvs-yee-se’-ne regionally, but this research localized such effects in a site-specific context. Aerial imagery analysis conducted for this thesis documented extractive activities, such as logging, occurring on the parcel. The effect being that in some areas of Mvs-yee-se’-ne, nearly 50% of open grassland spaces were lost to encroaching conifers. This type of environmental reconstruction can assist land managers and Tribal governments in visualizing ecological restoration goals they hope to accomplish at Mvs-yee-se’-ne and provide an informative baseline from which a site management plan for Mvs-yee-se’-ne can be developed in the near future

Leaving Judicial Review with the Judiciary: The Misplaced Role of Agency Deference in Tunney Act Public Interest Review

This Note explores the Tunney Act’s mechanism for judicial review of consent decrees negotiated by the U.S. Department of Justice and merging parties to remedy alleged antitrust issues. The Tunney Act requires that the reviewing court only approve a consent decree if it is “in the public interest.” This Note argues, however, that courts have improperly circumscribed their review by affording too much deference to the Department of Justice when reviewing these consent decrees. This deference subverts Congress’s intent in imposing judicial review and allows the government and merging parties the opportunity to skirt meaningful judicial review. As such, this Note concludes that courts should reanimate their role in reviewing consent decrees under the Tunney Act by affording a lower degree of deference to the Department of Justice. It is the correct reading of both the statute and the legislative history, it does not pose an unconstitutional imbalance between the judicial and executive branches, and it is critical to containing the harmful effects of anticompetitive mergers