Farm inputs under pressure from the European food industry

The rise of own-brand labels has made retailers more vulnerable and responsive to consumer concerns. In response to widespread protest, the European food industry has sought to exclude GM ingredients and to minimize pesticide usage from their supplies. In particular, retailers have developed common practices or criteria for non-GM grain and lower-pesticide methods. This cooperative approach has several aims: to maintain consumer confidence in product quality, to establish Europe-wide supply chains which meet common or minimum standards, to make supplies interchangeable, and to avoid competition for 'non-GM' or 'low-pesticide' products defined in various ways. The consequent pressures on farm inputs go beyond national boundaries, for both companies and farmers. Overall these commercial pressures favour non-GM products which help reduce chemical pesticide sprays – e.g. pest-resistant seeds, seed treatments, or biopesticides – especially for use as components of ICM methods. There remain many difficulties in basing future products upon other novel seeds. Such constraints go beyond any statutory restrictions on GM products or pesticides. Of course, government policy still influences the use and innovation of farm inputs in Europe. Conversely, however, cooperative efforts from the food industry there provide de facto criteria which could supersede or influence government policy

New Food Technologies in Europe, India and China

The use of technology and innovation in developing long-term global food security, and ensuring sustainable and adequate food production, is contextualized by values and controversies associated with food technologies. The framing and context of these technologies may impact on consumer perceptions and acceptance. In some countries this can influence policy decisions. Analysis of the public discourses on the themes of innovation, risk, power and control, and their socio-economic and ethical implications, is applied to explain the utility of novel and emerging food technologies. Potential differences in stakeholder interests are taken into account in different economic and regulatory environments, contrasting Europe with the emerging economies of China and India. In the case of India, there is considerable public debate on finding a balance between various technological choices for food production, viz transgenic, traditional breeding and organic production. In China, the debate about technological innovation is driven largely by political and scientific elites with relatively little consumer debate. European agri-technological innovation is framed by ‘post-productivism’, which informs both implementation strategies and regulatory and governance issues. Economic values cannot be dismissed as irrelevant to the European innovation process, in particular in relation to investment and scientific endeavour

Re-visualising international relations:Audio-visual projects and direct encounters with the political in security studies tla

In this paper we discuss how an innovative audio-visual project was adopted to foster active, rather than declarative learning, in critical International Relations (IR). First, we explore the aesthetic turn in IR, to contrast this with forms of representation that have dominated IR scholarship. Second, we describe how students were asked to record short audio or video projects to explore their own insights through aesthetic and non-written formats. Third, we explain how these projects are understood to be deeply embedded in social science methodologies. We cite our inspiration from applying a personal sociological imagination, as a way to counterbalance a ‘marketised’ slant in higher education, in a global economy where students are often encouraged to consume, rather than produce knowledge. Finally, we draw conclusions in terms of deeper forms of student engagement leading to new ways of thinking and presenting new skills and new connections between theory and practice

IoT monitoring of water consumption for irrigation systems using SEMMA methodology

The efficient use of water is an issue that has captured the attention of scientists, technicians, and the community at large. The sustainability of water resources has been threatened by the current imbalance between water supply and demand. Intelligent consumption of water would contribute to the balance and reduce the waste in applications such as the agriculture. This paper shows the design of a water consumption monitoring system based on the Internet of Things (IoT). With the implementation of this system could be known in real time the consumption of water in a crop. In addition, the user of the system may take corrective actions that optimize their water consumption; this is achieved by applying the SEMMA methodology to evaluate the data obtained by the system using two cluster algorithms, Simple K-means and GenClus++. With the application of SEMMA it was possible to determine periods of water consumption that were considered as waste in the irrigation of crops, applying data analysis with both algorithms

'We stand in the Luddite legacy': Tracking Patterns of Anti-GM Crop-Trashing in the United Kingdom

Concern over the uncertainty associated with genetically modified (GM) products from the late 1990s in the UK led to an extensive anti-GM campaign. Activists adopted a broad array of tactics from conventional protest marches and rallies through to more unconventional and confrontational actions. An important part of the protest repertoire was the physical damage and destruction of GM crops. These were intensified following the decision of the government to license a series of field scale evaluations (FSE) of GM crops intended to determine their potential impact on biodiversity. The aim of the article is to determine why crop-trashing such a significant tactic. The paper draws on a protest event catalogue of anti-GM protests over the 1996-2016 period to identify their intensity, tactics and locations. The findings suggest that crop-trashing was primarily adopted due to the availability of targets. However, it also points to the rural setting as a space in which different norms and histories provide a justification for destructive acts in the face of uncertainty

Performed and preferred participation in science and technology across Europe: Exploring an alternative idea of "democratic deficit"

Republican ideals of active scientific citizenship and extensive use of deliberative, democratic decision making have come to dominate the public participation agenda, and academic analyses have focused on the deficit of public involvement vis-à-vis these normative ideals. In this paper we use latent class models to explore what Eurobarometer survey data can tell us about the ways in which people participate in tacit or in policy-active ways with developments in science and technology, but instead of focusing on the distance between observed participation and the dominant, normative ideal of participation, we examine the distance between what people do, and what they themselves think is appropriate in terms of involvement. The typology of citizens emerging from the analyses entails an entirely different diagnosis of democratic deficit, one that stresses imbalance between performed and preferred participation

Opening up animal research and science-society relations?: a thematic analysis of transparency discourses in the United Kingdom

The use of animals in scientific research represents an interesting case to consider in the context of the contemporary preoccupation with transparency and openness in science and governance. In the United Kingdom, organisations critical of animal research have long called for more openness. More recently, organisations involved in animal research also seem to be embracing transparency discourses. This article provides a detailed analysis of publically available documents from animal protection groups, the animal research community and government/research funders. Our aim is to explore the similarities and differences in the way transparency is constructed and to identify what more openness is expected to achieve. In contrast to the existing literature, we conclude that the slipperiness of transparency discourses may ultimately have transformative implications for the relationship between science and society and that contemporary openness initiatives might be sowing the seeds for change to the status quo