PEOPLE LEFT BEHIND: TRANSITIONS OF THE RURAL POOR

Compared to their urban counterparts, the rural poor are more likely to be employed, more apt to be members of married-couple families, less likely to be children, less likely to be minority, and more likely to have assets but a negative income. This paper examines poverty rates and factors that affect mobility in and out of poverty among major categories of the rural poor. Particular attention is paid to farm workers and the rural farm population in the South. It endeavors to identify both structural conditions that perpetuate rural poverty and government interventions that ameliorate human suffering and break the cycle of poverty reproduction.Community/Rural/Urban Development,

ATTITUDES TOWARD GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT IN AGRICULTURE: RESULTS OF A NATIONAL SURVEY

This study reports results from a nationwide survey of public attitudes toward agriculture. The study focuses on attitudes toward government involvement in agriculture across regions of the county and residential categories.Political Economy,

A Common-Pool Resource Approach to Forest Health: The Case of the Southern Pine Beetle

The southern pine beetle, Dendroctonus frontalis, is a major threat to pine forest health in the South, and is expected to play an increasingly important role in the future of the South’s pine forests (Ward and Mistretta 2002). Once a forest stand is infected with southern pine beetle (SPB), elimination and isolation of the infested and immediately surrounding trees i

AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS STUDENTS AT SOUTHERN LAND GRANT UNIVERSITIES

Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Economics of Fish Marketing in Central Uganda: A Preliminary Analysis

The paper examines profitability and market performance of small-scale fish traders selected randomly from a cross-section of nine fish markets in four districts in Central Uganda. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire which was designed to solicit information on traders’ socio-economic characteristics, marketing characteristics, operating costs and returns, and problems associated with fish marketing in the study area. Percentages were used to describe the socio-economic characteristics, market characteristic and problems associated with fish marketing while gross profit and marketing performance models were used to determine profitability, marketing margin and operational efficiency, respectively. The results suggest that fish trade is carried out by both men and women. More men are involved in the trade of fresh fish while more women are involved in the processed (sundried/smoked) fish trade. Some traders dealt in more than one species of fish although a majority sold exclusively in one species. Gross profit was estimated at USh358.40/kg and USh234.73/kg for wholesalers and retailers, respectively, with marketing margins of 19.32% and 16.67% for wholesalers and retailers, respectively. The market operational efficiency was 279.27 percent, implying high efficiency in fish marketing in the study area. The major pressing concerns which included high supply cost, low prices, low fish supply and increased arrests for selling immature fish were common to both retail and wholesale marketing channels.Fish marketing, survey data, gross profit, market margin, operational efficiency, Uganda, Agribusiness, International Development, International Relations/Trade, Marketing, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Consumer Purchasing Behaviors and Attitudes toward Shopping at Public Markets

This paper identifies and empirically evaluates factors that explain the variations in consumers’ attitudes toward shopping at farmers markets in general and public markets in particular. The analysis draws on data from a telephone survey conducted in Jefferson County, Alabama. Logit model results point to several factors that seem to be strongly correlated with consumer purchasing behaviors and attitudes toward shopping at public markets, including income, education, age of household head, household size, and price and quality of produce. The insights gained from the study should help farmers increase the profitability of their operations and improve the likelihood that they will continue farming.Consumer/Household Economics,

Passing the Cluck, Dodging Pullets: Corporate Power, Environmental Responsibility, and the Contract Poultry Grower

Broiler production is concentrated in a few southem states where farmers are highly dependent on contract arrangements for income and livelihood. Poultry is the first animal industry to industrialize and its model of contract farming has been emulated by other animal industries. Environmental standards are becoming increasingly stringent and many farmers are faced with crossroad decisions about investments in dead bird and manure disposal facilities. Asymmetrical power relationships shift waste management responsibilities to growers in a number of ways. This paper details maneuvers poultry integrators use to avoid environmental risk and transfer it to their contract growers. Corporations pass the cluck when they shift responsibility for achieving regulatory compliance to the farmer who then must seek technical and financial assistance from public agencies. Poultry integrators dodge pullets when they retain ownership of live animals, but dead birds become the farmer\u27s property and disposal problem. Based on fieldwork conducted in Alabama and North Carolina, we develop a perspective for anticipating and understanding the environmental compliance dilemmas facing growers

New Opportunities for Social Research on Forest Landowners in the South

Many of the issues of importance to forest management and policy have important social components. Yet, in the South, social research on forests has lagged behind economic and biophysical research. In this paper we identify some important new opportunities for social research on forests in the South, focusing on non industrial private forests because they represent the majority of the South\u27s timberland. We identify six important areas for social research. One, research on diversity of forest land owners and how different landowners relate to and use their forests. Two, social relationships of forest landowners, including household and family structure and social network analysis. Three, research that applies recent advances in common pool resource management to issues such as forest health and water quality. Four, qualitative research that seeks to understand how environmental values are constructed and operate in complex decision-making processes and social relationships. Five, work on forest-related rural development, particularly the in poor, non-urbanizing areas of the South that have been affected by globalization and declines in agriculture. Six, research on urbanization and forests

Leadership and management, the solution to the construction industry crisis

CIVINS (Civilian Institutions) Thesis documentThe business roundtable report describes the construction industry as an industry in crises. The crisis is centered on the downward trend in quality and productivity, the dwindling numbers of trained, skilled craftsmen, and the uncontrolled, escalating cost of construction. The issue is very complex, and complex problems, typically, have complex solutions. It is not my contention to trivialize the problem with simplistic observations but to hopefully shed the light of common sense and understanding that might lead to viable solutions. The focus of the roundtable report is economic in nature; the crisis is defined and described in economic terms. In this report the economic crisis is translated into the terms of a moral crisis. The Business Roundtable Report also goes to great lengths rationalizing the problems in the industry by using the make up of the industry as an excuse for poor performance. It's that way because we are set up different from other industries like manufacturing and sales, and there I believe is the genesis of the problem. This quote is in essence accepting the circumstances and limiting the potential solutions. Before effective change can happen, there must be an understanding that change is required. Fulfilled potential comes from the potential of unlimited change. This report is not the big picture fix to the complex issues of the industry, but more of a beginning of how individual leadership skills affect our industry, and how the development of those skills during the education process will lead to viable solutions. The research begins with a discussion of integrity, ethics, and character leading to a working definition of leadership. The working definition of leadership is used to measure the ability of the education process to develop the industry's future leaders. The measurement was accomplished by surveying the Leadership and Management attitudes among current graduate studentshttp://www.archive.org/details/leadershipmanage00molnCIVIN