A Latin American Perspective to Agricultural Ethics

The mixture of political, social, cultural and economic environments in Latin America, together with the enormous diversity in climates, natural habitats and biological resources the continent offers, make the ethical assessment of agricultural policies extremely difficult. Yet the experience gained while addressing the contemporary challenges the region faces, such as rapid urbanization, loss of culinary and crop diversity, extreme inequality, disappearing farming styles, water and land grabs, malnutrition and the restoration of the rule of law and social peace, can be of great value to other regions in similar latitudes, development processes and social problems. This chapter will provide a brief overview of these challenges from the perspective of a continent that is exposed to the consequences of extreme inequality in multiple dimensions and conclude by arguing for the need to have a continuous South-South dialogue on the challenges of establishing socially and environmentally sustainable food systems

Critical analysis of life cycle impact assessment methods addressing consequences of freshwater use on ecosystems and recommendations for future method development

International audienceAnthropic water uses can affect aquatic and terres- trial ecosystems through various pathways. To address these impacts in life cycle assessment, an array of impact assessment methods can be applied. The currently well-known re- view of methods carried out by the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative’s WULCAworking group (Kounina et al. Int J Life Cycle Assess 18(3):707–721, 2013) recommends that practitioners simultaneously apply all indicators to evaluate dam- age on ecosystem quality and to cautiously sum up the score into a single metric^. This call for caution is attributed to the fact that methods reviewed cover different ecosystem targets. Their characterisation factors and units also vary. However, the review lacks a detailed analysis of compatibilities and coherence between methods that identifies inconsistencies to be overcome to further method harmonisation. This is precisely the aim of this study. MethodsLes usages humains de l'eau peuvent affecter les écosystèmes aquatiques et terrestres par diverses voies d’impacts. Pour les évaluer dans le cadre d’une approche « cycle de vie », un schéma reliant les causes aux effets peut être construit. Le groupe de travail WULCA, issu de la SETAC Life Cycle initiative, (Kounina et al Int J recommande que les praticiens appliquent simultanément tous les indicateurs permettant d’évaluer les dommages sur la qualité des écosystèmes et éventuellement de les synthétiser en les sommant dans une métrique unique. Cet appel à la prudence est relatif au fait que les méthodes examinées couvrent différentes cibles de l'écosystème et que leurs facteurs de caractérisation et les unités varient également. Toutefois, aucune analyse détaillée des compatibilités et de la cohérence entre ces méthodes et leurs indicateurs ne permettent d'identifier les incohérences à surmonter pour pouvoir les harmoniser. Ceci est précisément le but de cette étude

Creating high challenge/high support academic environments through constructive alignment: student outcomes

Higher education needs to provide challenging yet supportive learning environments catering for students with diverse academic needs. There is also an emphasis on using student-driven outcome measures to determine teaching effectiveness. How can these measures be used to reflect upon and evaluate teaching initiatives? Using an undergraduate occupational therapy programme as the site for exploration, this article reports on an application of constructive alignment principles and describes how available empirical data were used to explore student outcomes. A comparison was made between student evaluations and academic grades prior to, and after the implementation of the initiative. Results provide evidence of improvement in student satisfaction and academic grades as a result of implementing constructive alignment. Whilst it is acknowledged that changes in academic grades and student evaluations can be attributed to a number of factors, findings of this study support a view that constructive alignment facilitates students\u27 learning and experiences