The economics of broiler, grain, and trout production as a risk diversification strategy

AbstractA comprehensive farm-level stochastic and dynamic capital budgeting simulation model (AQUASIM) is used to evaluate the economic benefits of incorporating a small-scale trout enterprise with a grain and broiler farm. The simulation results indicate that combining aquaculture production with traditional agriculture increased expected income and reduced risk substantially. The use of external debt capital improved the after-tax net present values and internal rates of return but lowered net cash farm income. This study shows the importance of enterprise diversification in stabilizing variability in expected income

Charter Schools and Urban Regimes in Neoliberal Context: Making Workers and New Spaces in Metropolitan Atlanta

In this article, we demonstrate the neoliberalism and multiscalar economic perspective of the charter school movement in Atlanta, Georgia, through examination of news articles and editorials about charter schools in the "Atlanta Journal-Constitution" from 1998 to 2004. We posit three interrelated dynamics which explain the editorial board's interest in charter schools as part of a broader urban regime agenda. First, charter schools represent part of a neoliberal shift in education that parallels shifts in urban governance, emphasizing flexibility, public-private partnerships, and 'market'-oriented consumer choice and accountability. Second, the newspaper is issuing a challenge to educational structures, to adopt more neoliberal policies and shed a bureaucratic, liberal governance framework. Finally, we find critical evidence that the charter school movement draws on a multiscalar discourse which simultaneously references responsiveness to local, neighborhood needs, and at the same time highlights the economic imperatives of a global, competitive city to differentially skill students/workers in order to capture mobile and fractured (global) capital. Copyright (c) 2006 The Authors. Journal Compilation (c) 2006 Joint Editors and Blackwell Publishing Ltd..