Converting Europe - the potential for organic farming as mainstream

Organic farming is increasingly recognised, by consumers, farmers, environmentalists and policy-makers, as one of a number of possible models for environmental, social and financial sustainability in agriculture. It has taken a long time to get this far. Organic farming’s roots can be traced back more than 100 years. Certified organic production dates back 25-30 years (70 years in the case of Demeter-certified bio-dynamic production). Yet little more than one percent of agriculture in Europe is organic, and much less than that in other parts of the world. Many have argued that organic farming will never capture the hearts and minds of the majority of farmers, because it is too idealistic and restrictive. What is needed, they argue, is an intermediate approach, such as integrated crop management or an ill-specified ‘low-input’ or ‘sustainable’ agriculture that is not as ‘extreme’ as organic farming and is therefore more likely to be acceptable to the majority of farmers. Policy-makers face a difficult choice. Should they encourage more organic farming, which, as research increasingly demonstrates, often offers more environmental and other benefits than the intermediate approaches, but is believed to be only a minority interest? Or should they encourage the intermediate approaches, which, although the environmental benefits are more limited, may be adopted by more farmers, with possibly greater overall impact? And if, contrary to expectations, organic farming did become widely adopted, how could we feed a growing global population? It is time to dispel the myths and challenge the assumptions behind some of these statements in order to permit a fairer assessment of the potential of organic farming to meet sustainability goals in a European context, while also contributing to the pressing need to feed a growing global population in the next century. This paper discuses the growth of organic farming in Europe, and the potential, pre-conditions and implications for widespread conversion

The Segregated Lambda-coalescent

We construct an extension of the Lambda-coalescent to a spatial continuum and analyse its behaviour. Like the Lambda-coalescent, the individuals in our model can be separated into (i) a dust component and (ii) large blocks of coalesced individuals. We identify a five phase system, where our phases are defined according to changes in the qualitative behaviour of the dust and large blocks. We completely classify the phase behaviour, including necessary and sufficient conditions for the model to come down from infinity. We believe that two of our phases are new to Lambda-coalescent theory and directly reflect the incorporation of space into our model. Firstly, our semicritical phase sees a null but non-empty set of dust. In this phase the dust becomes a random fractal, of a type which is closely related to iterated function systems. Secondly, our model has a critical phase in which the coalescent comes down from infinity gradually during a bounded, deterministic time interval.Comment: Updated to accepted article - to appear in the Annals of Probability. 36 pages, 2 figure

A new spinwave expansion for the ordered Kondo lattice

We present a concise introduction to a new spinwave expansion scheme for magnetically ordered Kondo lattice models. This is motivated by consideration of the ferromagnetically ordered phase of the "double exchange" system La(1-x)Ca(x)MnO3. A brief overview is given of the consequences of quantum and thermal fluctuation effects for the magnetic properties of the double exchange ferromagnet.Comment: Introductary lecture given at VI Vietri Training Course, October 2001 10 pages latex, 10 eps figures, uses AIP macro

Development of organic farming Europe – implications for Agenda 2000. Paper presented to Soil Association seminar, Organic Farming and Agenda 2000 CAP Reform, Highgrove, 18th February 1999

Organic farming is increasingly recognised, by consumers, farmers, environmentalists and policy-makers, as one of a number of possible models for environmental, social and financial sustainability in agriculture. It has taken a long time to get this far. Organic farming’s roots can be traced back more than 100 years. Certified organic production dates back 25-30 years (70 years in the case of Demeter-certified bio-dynamic production). Yet little more than one percent of agriculture in Europe is organic, and much less than that in other parts of the world. Many have argued that organic farming will never capture the hearts and minds of the majority of farmers, because it is too idealistic and restrictive. What is needed, they argue, is an intermediate approach, such as integrated crop management or an ill-specified ‘low-input’ or ‘sustainable’ agriculture that is not as ‘extreme’ as organic farming and is therefore more likely to be acceptable to the majority of farmers. Policy-makers face a difficult choice. Should they encourage more organic farming, which, as research increasingly demonstrates, often offers more environmental and other benefits than the intermediate approaches, but is believed to be only a minority interest? Or should they encourage the intermediate approaches, which, although the environmental benefits are more limited, may be adopted by more farmers, with possibly greater overall impact? This paper discuses the growth of organic farming in Europe, the potential and pre-conditions for widespread conversion, integraed action plans and the policy challenge for farmers

“He was my best subaltern#8221;: The Life and Death of Lieutenant Herrick S. Duggan, 70th Field Company, Royal Engineers

At 0400 hours on 21 October 1915, 24 year–old First Lieutenant Herrick “Heck” Stevenson Duggan died of wounds in Béthune, France. One of the 61,000 casualties suffered by the British Army during its failed Loos offensive (25 September to 19 October 1915), Herrick differed from the vast majority of the dead and wounded because he was Canadian, not British. Based primarily on correspondence between Herrick Duggan and his family during the years 1913–15, this article explores Duggan’s life and experiences leading up to, and during, the Great War. In doing so it examines how the “war to end all wars” impacted one Canadian and his family, as well as exploring the nature of British society during the early years of the war. Indeed, Duggan’s letters are a valuable source for understanding the social and military aspects of the Great War. Duggan was a candid and observant writer who held little back. He was not afraid to tender criticism and concern about the Allied war effort and objectives—not to mention government figures—when he felt it was necessary to do so. Furthermore, he was often quite open with his own feelings and emotions with regard to the position in which he found himself