RETIRING MARGINALLY PROFITABLE SECTIONS OF AGRICULTURAL FIELDS IN ONTARIO ECONOMICALLY JUSTIFIED: CASE STUDIES OF TYPICAL FIELDS IN ONTARIO, FINAL REPORT

The dairy industry in Canada was turned on its ear by the release of the WTO decision last fall that Canada's Special Milk Classes constitute an export subsidy. Dairy processors fear the loss of established export markets. At the same time, the decision threatens the role of supply management authorities as the sole marketers of farmers' milk. Will farmers market milk for export directly to processors? What consequences could renewed marketing board involvement in exports have in the international trade arena? The industry is preparing for conflict as it reorients itself in the international market. That conflict is embedded in proposals made by some of the milk marketing agencies and by some processor members of the National Dairy Council (NDCC). Because of the immediate importance of this case and the issues it spawns, the George Morris Centre is releasing this special report. It addresses the following topics: The nature of the challenges to the Special Milk Classes scheme The WTO decision Implications for the dairy industry Marketing board's proposal for export pricing reform NDCC proposal for export pricing reform Evaluation of the alternativesInternational Relations/Trade,

WHAT THE ENVIRONMENT COMMISSIONER REALLY SAID: THE AUDIT OF THE FEDERAL PEST MANAGEMENT REGULATORY AGENCY

Environmental Economics and Policy,

The impact of higher education institution-firm knowledge links on establishment-level productivity in British regions

This paper estimates whether sourcing knowledge from and/or cooperating on innovation with higher education institutions impacts on establishment-level TFP and whether this impact differs across domestically-owned and foreign-owned establishments and across the regions of Great Britain. Using propensity score matching, the results show overall a positive and statistically significant impact although there are differences in the strength of this impact across production and non-production industries, across domestically-owned and foreign-owned firms, and across regions. These results highlight the importance of absorptive capacity in determining the extent to which establishments can benefit from linkages with higher education institutions.Universities; University-Industry knowledge links; Firm-level productivity

Multicultural Considerations for Building Learning Communities

Educational policies call for inclusion and attention to cultural differences in our schools. Administrators, classroom educators, counselors, and other support staff attempt to attend to students through a cooperative effort of connecting with the community beyond the school building, as well as the families represented within it. As Christians, there is a higher calling to truly embrace those often underserved in our learning communities. This paper will address multicultural issues important for United States and United Kingdom school system staff to be mindful of when focusing on students and their families

The Impact of Higher Education Institution-Firm Knowledge Links on Firm-level Productivity in Britain

This paper estimates whether knowledge links with universities impacts on establishment-level TFP. Using propensity score matching, the results show a positive and statistically significant impact although there are across production and non-production industries and domestically- and foreign-owned firms.Universities, Firm-level productivity

WHAT THE ENVIRONMENTAL COMMISSIONER SAID: THE FEDERAL REPORT CARD ON AGRICULTURE IN ONTARIO AND QUEBEC

On October 2nd, 2001 the federal environment commissioner released her annual report. In it, she offered an assessment of the environmental impact of agriculture in the Great Lakes basin and the federal government's role. Specifically, the environment commissioner addressed: * Manure and fertilizer management * Soil erosion * Environmental impact of farm programs * Federal role in sustainable agriculture. Based on environmental audits and other analyses, the commissioner presented the following conclusions: * There is a problem with the accumulation of soil nutrients as a result of manure and chemical fertilizer applications in the Great Lakes basin * Soil erosion is a continuing problem that is not receiving adequate attention or data collection * Agriculture and Agri-food Canada (AAFC) has not adequately taken account of the environmental impact of farm programs, and farm programs can have impacts that conflict with AAFC's stated environmental goals * AAFC has not appropriately targeted funding for the environment by region, and there is a greater need for cross-compliance in farm programs * Certain agricultural practices are unsustainable, and the framework to alter unsustainable farming practices is lacking. But are these conclusions warranted, given the mix of belief and credible evidence that typically permeates discussions of agriculture and the environment? In this special report, we provide a brief analysis of the Environment Commissioner's report as it relates to livestock and sustainability. Specifically, we clarify a misconception in the Commissioner's comparison between livestock waste and human waste, and discuss the sustainability of crop nutrients (loadings and uptake) in Ontario and Quebec as they relate to manure loadings and fertilizer use.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Learning-by-Exporting? Firm-Level Evidence for UK Manufacturing and Services Sectors

This study empirically assesses the microeconomic exporting-productivity nexus for both the UK manufacturing and services sectors during 1996-2004, based on a weighted FAME dataset. Our results show that firms that are older, that possess intangible assets or that have higher (labour) productivity in the year prior to exporting, are significantly more likely to sell overseas. In testing the post-entry ‘learning-by-exporting’ effect, we employ three approaches to controlling for endogeneity and sample selection, viz. instrumental variables, control function and matching, and find that this effect is present in many industries but not universal, and also varies amongst different types of exporting firms. Our overall estimate for the UK economy suggests a substantial post-entry productivity effect for firms new to exporting; a negative effect for firms exiting overseas markets; and large productivity gains while exporting for those that both enter and exit.exports; control function; GMM; matching; TFP; sample selection

Revision of The Genus Eria (Orchidaceae) in Peninsular Malaysia

The genus Eria which was reported consists of 49 species in 11 sections in Peninsular Malaysia was revised. Findings from previous studies, ranging from diversity, vegetative architecture to molecular and morphological evidences have been used to solve the taxonomic problems in this genus. However, the sections and species delimitation for genus Eria are still obscure especially Section Aeridostachya, Urostachya, Mycaranthes and Hymeneria, despite of the many approaches attempted to delimit them. This study was carried out based on traditional taxonomic analysis on. fresh and dried herbarium specimens and spirited collections targeted to investigate and gather as much as possible gross morphological characteristics of vegetative and floral organs that could be utilized to delimit sections and species of Eria in Peninsular Malaysia. The vegetative characters investigation includes the growth habit, stem or pseudoulbs and leaves whilst; the floral characters include the inflorescences, the details of flower parts like sepals, petals and lip. There are two types of growth habit observed, the creeping and aggregate either with stems or pseudobulbs. A total of six leaf shape found, which are attached to the stem or peseudobulb by sheathing or auriculate-clasping. The investigation on the inflorescence shows that Eria has four inflorescence types, the solitary, bifloral, raceme and compound corymb. The inflorescence insertions were observed with three kinds, the terminal, subterminal and axillary. The flower characteristics include the shape of the flower, lip and pollinia has been studied under the light microscope for each species from every section. The ventral lip surface and pollen were studied under the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). There are 11 types of flower shapes representing each section ranging from Stellate A, Stellate B, Stellate C, Stellate D, Stellate E, Palmate, Campanulate A, Campanulate B, Campanulate C, Conical and Peltate. There are 11 types of lip shape representing each section, ranging from hastate, praemorse, lingulate, obovate, 'pendulum' shape, rotund, 'tie' shape, obstrullate, 'mushroom' shape, lobatus and rhomboid. Five types of pollinia shapes have been discovered are clavate, conical, square, narrow pyriform and compress conical. The flower shape and lip shape are good characters for section delimitation, while the pollinia shape is a good character for species delimitation. The SEM on pollen for Eria shows similar results for all species, the monolete shape with irregular ridges of sexine and laevigate sculpture, thus SEM on Eria pollen is a bad character for species and section delimitation. The SEM on ventral lip surface for Eria shows homogeneous or heterogeneous glabrous or with six types of papillae hairs. The shape of the papillae hairs are conical, narrow spatulate, broad spatulate, spherical, clavate and villiform. The SEM for ventral lip surface is bad taxonomic character for species and section delimitation. E. ochracea is added as a new record for Peninsular Malaysia, The taxonomic keys were successfully developed using the vegetative and floral characteristics gathered in this study