Fresh Water and Smarter Growth: Restoring Healthy Land-water Connections

The paper describes water resources in the United States, discusses the principles of the land-water connection, outlines the current regulatory framework, and explains the impact of climate change. It also introduces the concept of low impact development while providing examples, and highlights how funders are having an impact on sustainable water management. With bibliographical references

Livestock Management for Coexistence with Large Carnivores, Healthy Land And Productive Ranches: A Viewpoint

The livestock – large carnivore coexistence field can be more effective by expanding from a direct focus on carnivores and predation-prevention tools to the context of livestock management and the broader social-ecological systems of ranches and rural communities. Ranchers may be able to apply many of the same approaches that work for rangeland health and livestock production to reduce conflicts with large carnivores. Generally, in the presence of their predators, wild grazing animals tend to form large, dense herds that then move around the landscape to seek fresh forage, avoid fouled areas, and escape predators. They also tend to have their young in short, synchronized birthing seasons (predator satiation). Grazing management involving high stocking density and frequent movement, such as rotational grazing and herding with low-stress livestock handling, can improve rangeland health and livestock production, by managing the distribution of grazing across time, space, and plant species. Short calving seasons can increase livestock production and reduce labor inputs, especially when timed to coincide with peak availability of forage quality. Livestock management, including grazing management and calving in short seasons that correspond with those of wild ungulates, may directly and synergistically reduce predation risk, while simultaneously establishing a management context in which other predationprevention practices and tools can be used more effectively. Pilot projects on summer cattle range in western Montana involving increased stocking density through intensification of existing grazing rotations with herding suggest methods that can be used to improve grazing distribution and prevent depredations

Focus groups of value concepts of producers: National Report Netherlands

The Organic Revision project was funded by the EU with the aim of supporting the further development of the EU Regulation 2092/91 on organic production. As part of the project focus groups were run in five European countries on value concepts of organic producers and other stakeholders, during 2004-2005. The project aims to provide an overview of values held among organic stakeholders, and of similarities and differences among the various national and private organic standards. In the Netherlands four focus groups were held, one pre-test with researchers, and three groups with established organic producers both of livestock and horticulture. It was not possible to recruit any newly converted producers to a meeting in the Netherlands. The following conclusions were reached: Summarising the values in the words of the participants of these focus groups, organic agriculture could be defined as follows: "Organic agriculture is about producing endlessly, with care and respect for humans, animals, plants and soil. Organic farmers produce healthy and tasty food without harming the environment or the development of others. Their farms and agriculture in general are inter-connected with small and big world problems." Overall there seem to be many similarities between the groups. Values related to all principles were discussed in all the groups; the differences observed were related to the different backgrounds. The researchers spoke about their own experiences from work but also about their ideas from a consumer’s point of view. For the dairy farmers animal welfare was an important value while soil was more important to the arable farmers. Also with regard to the values nearness and proximity, differences between arable and dairy farmers seemed to reflect their daily practice. Arable farmers are faced with an anonymous market, with high and changing quality standards of the trade, and regard local production and consumption as a solution to their problems. The other groups of farmers also support this quest for another economic system. The researchers mention the unrealistic ideas of consumers concerning organic agriculture and they wonder how to make consumers more aware. The farmers would like to educate the consumer more, also about the relation of production in their country compared with production and development elsewhere. The farmers see the inter-connectedness of agriculture with income and development in developing countries very clearly and for some this was an important argument to convert. The farmers have a great feeling of responsibility for the world (ecologically and socially). For all of them the intentions are more important than the norms. On the basis of the coding, it appears that values in relation to three principles were most important in the discussion. These are the ecology principle, holism and systems approach and professional pride, in order of importance. The following values were mentioned in relation to the principle of ecology: Recycling (the cycle) and saving energy were of major importance and nature conservation or nature integration on the farm was an important aim for some farmers. Co-operation between arable and animal production is seen as a very important means to close the cycle. And in the Netherlands with far going specialisation of farms this is sometimes a real challenge. Conflicts with the economy easily arise but also conflicts with national legislation restrict the farmers in their development. The values itself are not experienced as restricting. All groups except for the arable farmers see a combination and balance of all principles as important in the future. Arable farmers see the soil as most important and other values as complementary. All groups of experienced farmers were worried about new converters, who seem to stick to the minimum values, as a threat to their profession. All participants seem to have the feeling to be part of the good guys and are being recognised by society in that way. They are proud of their profession and the sector. For the continuation of the sector a clear distinction from conventional agriculture is needed, but they are not afraid that conventional moves in the direction of organic. For the future, steady development and growth is preferred above fast growth. Others should also get the chance and time to develop in the way they did, but the new converters should not decrease the credibility of organic. Therefore, acceptable minimum rules should do justice to the values held by the sector as a whole

An Ideological War of \u27Blood and Soil\u27 and Its Effect on the Agricultural Propaganda and Policy of the Nazi Party, 1929-1939

“One then builds a whole system of thought on such a brief, crisply formulated idea. The idea does not remain limited to this single statement; rather it is applied to every aspect of daily life and becomes the guide for all human activity. It becomes a worldview.” Dr. Joseph Goebbels spoke those words on January 9, 1928 to an audience of party members at the “Hochschule fuer Politik,” a series of talks that investigated the role of propaganda in the National Socialist movement. A few months prior to this event, voters had elected a farmer, Werner Willikens, in the South Hanover-Brunswick district of the Reichstag over a railroad worker. Seemingly, this election was unrelated to Goebbels’s speech on the purpose of propaganda; however, Willikens’s election to the Reichstag reflected Goebbels’s call for diversified propaganda that would highlight “every aspect of daily life.

Enhancing the efficiency of local government in the context of reducing the administrative expenditures

The concerns on enhancing the efficiency of public administration, in particular the local government, are moreover present in the concerns of local authorities and specialised literature. Those concerns become more important taking into consideration the conditions of the actual economic crisis. Approached concurrently with public sector performance, enhancing the efficiency may have various resources. Among those resources it is worth to mention “better regulation” concerning public administration and reducing the administrative expenditures. Those two resources are not disjunctive, they are characterised by direct link and determination. Structured on three chapters, the paper focuses on a model aimed to determine the impact of reducing the administrative expenditures on the efficiency of local public services. This model inscribes in the efforts aiming to measure the efficiency in the public sector, efforts visible in the specialised literature.efficiency,administrative expenditures

A resurgent rural economy spurs farmland values

The rural economy broke free from the reins of recession in 2004 with an especially strong performance in the farm sector. Net farm income easily surpassed the record high of 2003. And the weakness that plagued the nonfarm rural economy in recent years appears to have been replaced with stronger job growth and higher incomes. Strong performances in the farm and nonfarm sectors have led to soaring land values. Rising incomes are often capitalized into asset values, and the past year was no exception. Rising rural incomes quickly led to strong land value gains. Since real estate is rural America’s most important asset, strong land values are often viewed as an indicator of a healthy rural economy. Looking ahead to 2005, healthy rural incomes in agriculture and on Main Street will continue to underpin farmland value gains. While farm incomes are expected to remain strong, the industry must keep a close watch on trade developments and an emerging disease threat to the soybean crop. The nonfarm economy is expected to strengthen with the rest of the nation. Growth in jobs and wages in high-skilled industries is a welcome sign for rural America in its quest to build new economic engines in high-skilled activities. Henderson and Novack review the performance of the rural economy in 2004 and look ahead to the prospects for 2005. First, they focus on the booming farm economy in the past year. Second, they discuss the recovery in the nonfarm rural economy. Third, they examine the influence of stronger farm and nonfarm incomes on farmland values. Finally, they look at the issues facing the rural economy in the coming year.Farms - Valuation ; Rural areas ; Rural development ; Farm income ; Farm produce ; Agricultural prices ; Agricultural productivity

THE SYNDEMIC LANDSCAPE: A NEW PARADIGM FOR MONTANA SUICIDE PREVENTION GROUNDED IN AGRICULTURAL RENEWAL

Montana has had one of the highest suicide rates in the nation for half a century, and since 2000, it has risen almost 50%. Despite suicide’s alarming persistence in the state, there has been minimal academic study of suicide or mental health specifically in Montana, so this thesis attempts to answer a few questions: Why does Montana have such a high suicide rate? Is there something culturally, historically, or socially unique about Montana that contributes to suicide? Are current prevention efforts helpful, harmful, or lacking? Could a consideration of culture and land benefit an understanding of suicide in Montana? What has caused the recent increase in rate? Employing a medical anthropology perspective, this thesis reviews Montana suicide factors and suicide prevention efforts, with particular emphasis on how local history and place might influence health—given Montanans’ close ties to land. It proposes the new idea that Montana’s especially high suicide in rural communities might be linked to industrial agriculture, which has had pervasive harmful effects on rural society. Finally, it offers a potential healing alternative in the form of paradigm-shifting agricultural efforts across Montana that seek to reverse the harms of industrial agriculture and instead emphasize community, healthy land, and rural vitality

Trout Creek Mountain project, Oregon

The Trout Creek Mountain experience is an example of how the land and the people can win by building bridges of understanding and common interest between concerned constituencies. Love of the land, its natural resources, and realization of a need for changing grazing practices to reverse the degradation of riparian areas were the common interests that caused environmentalists, ranchers, the BLM, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to work together to find solutions. The result was a new management plan that was biologically sound and had diverse public support-this is what ecosystem management is all about. the social-political factors which allowed all this to happen were trust and respect between constituencies, recognition of the problem by concerned publics who together asked federal participation in finding solutions, strong support by BLM through all managerial levels, keeping communication open between constituencies, and having one BLM person in the position of Rangeland Manager Specialist/Ecologist so that trusting relationships can be built. The lessons learned from this are that public citizens have the power and obligation to take responsibility for the destiny of private and public lands, and that success comes when diverse individuals in the public accept each other and work together to make a healthy land and community