Perceived Legitimacy of Agricultural Support Schemes: An Investigation Using Factorial Survey Experiments

Agricultural support payments are a significant position in public budgets, and the legitimacy of such payments is subject to continuing debate. The legitimacy rests on the social acceptance of citizens for support payments to farmers, which is the focus of this study. Social acceptance is investigated using evaluations of farm and farmer descriptions in a factorial survey experiment. The results reveal higher acceptance of payments for farms demonstrating enhanced animal welfare, biodiversity and a lower carbon footprint. The acceptance of support payments is negatively associated with payment amount, but payments to farmers who are financially struggling are more accepted than payments to profitable farmers; indicating respondent preferences that align with the need justice principle. Study findings can be used to inform priorities for legitimate policies of agricultural support schemes, to identify areas of consensus or disagreement regarding social acceptance of support, and to facilitate effective communication on agricultural support policy

American Edibles: How Cannabis Regulatory Policy Rehashes Prohibitionist Fears and What to do About It

Why can’t we buy a cannabis muffin with our morning coffee? For much of the past century, the answer was simple: cannabis was illegal. Now, however, with more and more states legalizing cannabis for adult use, the answer is far less clear. Even in those states that have legalized cannabis, the simple action of buying and eating edibles at the same location has somehow remained a pipe dream despite consumer demand. Digging a little deeper, we can see how contemporary alarmism, by rehashing the same prohibitionist rhetoric demonizing cannabis for over eighty years, has once again arisen with a new target: cannabis-infused edibles. From journalists to policymakers to legal scholars, the rekindling of prohibitionist arguments against edibles has had real world impacts on the regulation of cannabis edibles, to the harm of all involved.This Article explores contemporary cannabis edibles regulation using historical, scientific, and legal frameworks to explain why current edibles regulation is so problematic, and what to do about it. By delving into the history of cannabis prohibition, this Article shows how the very same arguments propping up prohibitionist edibles policies are rooted in bad-faith arguments made decades ago that themselves were merely thin veils for racism. Applying this historical perspective and a rational understanding of contemporary cannabis edibles, this Article explores how states have used prohibition-inspired regulations to address two main concerns—overconsumption and inadvertent consumption— and how such regulations need to be revisited and revised. This Article then argues that social consumption sits at the crux of edibles regulation, and that states must implement social consumption imminently to address the harms that current regulations do not address, or even worse, perpetuate

Can Mass Balance Be Trusted in Estimating N Loss for Meat-Poultry Housing?

Quantification of ammonia loss from animal feeding operations by measuring gaseous concentration and air exchange through the emitting source is not always practical, e.g., under natural ventilation conditions. Mass balance over an extended period of time may offer possibilities of remedy. This study compares two NH3-N emission estimate approaches for a commercial turkey grow-out house over one year period: a) a concentration-flow-integration (CFI) method (considered as the reference method), and b) a nitrogen (N) mass-balance method. The CFI NH3-N emission was determined by continuously measuring the NH3 concentration and exhaust air flow rate through the turkey house with a state-of-the-art mobile air emission unit. The mass-balance N emission was calculated by balancing the total N inputs (new bedding, young birds, feed) and N output (litter cake removed between flocks, litter removed at cleanout, amount of marketed birds, mortality, and body N content). The production-related data were acquired from the records kept or presented to the cooperative producer. The results revealed unexpectedly large discrepancy in NH3-N loss between the two methods. The outcome of this study cast serious doubt about the adequacy of using mass balance for estimating NH3 emissions from a dynamic production system such as turkey houses