Social Equity and the Genetically Engineered Crops Controversy

Crop Production/Industries, Labor and Human Capital, Y80,

岡山県の集落社会の構造変化

Rural communities in Okayama Prefecture, like those throughout Japan and the remainder of the industrialized world, have undergone rapid economic and social changes in the post-war period. Both policy makers and scholars who are interested in social change in rural areas need to develop an understanding of what those changes have been, what they might be leading to and what the impacts of those changes have been on communities and the people who live there, if they are to effectively promote the social health of these communities. This paper is the first in a series of articles which will carry out such an investigation using the hamlet communities of Okayama Prefecture as the primary data base. This first paper, through an analysis of data on these communities collected by the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry will present findings which will delineate the main structural changes which these hamlets underwent in the 1960 to 1980 period. Basically, it will be shown that the two most important factors explaining the evolution of the current structure of these communities are their size and their proximity to major urban areas. While the effects of rapid industrialization have led to a decrease in the importance of agriculture throughout all of the hamlets of the prefecture, the new form into which a hamlet has evolved depends in large measure on its physical location within the prefecture, and its size, as measured by the number of houses and area of cultivated land

PRODUCT CHARACTERISTICS AFFECTING CONSUMERS' FRESH BEEF CUT PURCHASING DECISIONS IN THE UNITED STATES, JAPAN, AND AUSTRALIA

The effects of product and economic characteristics on consumers who purchase six cuts of fresh beef (blocks/parts, steak, thinly sliced, diced, chopped, and ground) in urban areas of the United States, Japan, and Australia will be examined in this paper. Certain product characteristics (such as product freshness and display case cleanliness) were important to consumers of beef in all three countries while other product characteristics (such as price considerations for ground beef consumers) were important for consumers of different beef cuts in all three countries. Some product characteristics varied in importance across consumers from different countries and consumers of different beef cuts.Consumer/Household Economics,

Managing Wicked Herbicide-Resistance: Lessons from the Field

Herbicide resistance is ‘wicked’ in nature; therefore, results of the many educational efforts to encourage diversification of weed control practices in the United States have been mixed. It is clear that we do not sufficiently understand the totality of the grassroots obstacles, concerns, challenges, and specific solutions needed for varied crop production systems. Weed management issues and solutions vary with such variables as management styles, regions, cropping systems, and available or affordable technologies. Therefore, to help the weed science community better understand the needs and ideas of those directly dealing with herbicide resistance, seven half-day regional listening sessions were held across the United States between December 2016 and April 2017 with groups of diverse stakeholders on the issues and potential solutions for herbicide resistance management. The major goals of the sessions were to gain an understanding of stakeholders and their goals and concerns related to herbicide resistance management, to become familiar with regional differences, and to identify decision maker needs to address herbicide resistance. The messages shared by listening-session participants could be summarized by six themes: we need new herbicides; there is no need for more regulation; there is a need for more education, especially for others who were not present; diversity is hard; the agricultural economy makes it difficult to make changes; and we are aware of herbicide resistance but are managing it. The authors concluded that more work is needed to bring a community-wide, interdisciplinary approach to understanding the complexity of managing weeds within the context of the whole farm operation and for communicating the need to address herbicide resistance

Managing Herbicide Resistance: Listening to the Perspectives of Practitioners. Procedures for Conducting Listening Sessions and an Evaluation of the Process

Seven half-day regional listening sessions were held between December 2016 and April 2017 with groups of diverse stakeholders on the issues and potential solutions for herbicide-resistance management. The objective of the listening sessions was to connect with stakeholders and hear their challenges and recommendations for addressing herbicide resistance. The coordinating team hired Strategic Conservation Solutions, LLC, to facilitate all the sessions. They and the coordinating team used in-person meetings, teleconferences, and email to communicate and coordinate the activities leading up to each regional listening session. The agenda was the same across all sessions and included small-group discussions followed by reporting to the full group for discussion. The planning process was the same across all the sessions, although the selection of venue, time of day, and stakeholder participants differed to accommodate the differences among regions. The listening-session format required a great deal of work and flexibility on the part of the coordinating team and regional coordinators. Overall, the participant evaluations from the sessions were positive, with participants expressing appreciation that they were asked for their thoughts on the subject of herbicide resistance. This paper details the methods and processes used to conduct these regional listening sessions and provides an assessment of the strengths and limitations of those processes

Managing Wicked Herbicide-Resistance: Lessons from the Field

Herbicide resistance is ‘wicked’ in nature; therefore, results of the many educational efforts to encourage diversification of weed control practices in the United States have been mixed. It is clear that we do not sufficiently understand the totality of the grassroots obstacles, concerns, challenges, and specific solutions needed for varied crop production systems. Weed management issues and solutions vary with such variables as management styles, regions, cropping systems, and available or affordable technologies. Therefore, to help the weed science community better understand the needs and ideas of those directly dealing with herbicide resistance, seven half-day regional listening sessions were held across the United States between December 2016 and April 2017 with groups of diverse stakeholders on the issues and potential solutions for herbicide resistance management. The major goals of the sessions were to gain an understanding of stakeholders and their goals and concerns related to herbicide resistance management, to become familiar with regional differences, and to identify decision maker needs to address herbicide resistance. The messages shared by listening-session participants could be summarized by six themes: we need new herbicides; there is no need for more regulation; there is a need for more education, especially for others who were not present; diversity is hard; the agricultural economy makes it difficult to make changes; and we are aware of herbicide resistance but are managing it. The authors concluded that more work is needed to bring a community-wide, interdisciplinary approach to understanding the complexity of managing weeds within the context of the whole farm operation and for communicating the need to address herbicide resistance

Agricultural Trade, Firms and the State: Extrapolations From the Case of Japanese Beef Imports

Until a tariffication policy on beef imports was implemented on April 1, 1991, the Japanese government played a direct role in managing beef imports into that country through it's quasi-independent subsidiary, the livestock Industry Promotion Corporation. Liberalization substantially reduced the role of the Japanese government in regulating beef imports by permitting Japanese and American firms to trade with one another directly. Yet, in spite of this change, many academics and journalists continue to describe the trade of beef that flows from the United States and other countries into Japan as though it takes place between countries, rather than between the organizations that organize the production, trading and marketing of beef. Building upon a review of the theoretical discussions about the relationship between firms and markets, as well as globalization and the transformation in the global economy from fordism to postfordism, this study analyses the establishment of business ties between Japanese and non-Japanese firms, including a case study of how American producers are attempting to produce Japanese-style Wagyu beef in order to gain a foothold in the Japanese market. These data demonstrate the need to employ an analytical approach in the social sciences for examining international trade that conceptualizes trade as taking place between firms and not in unregulated markets across international boundaries. The paper concludes with a discussion about the relationship between markets and inter-firm networks in the global economy

Considering Structural, Individual and Social Network Explanations for Ecologically Sustainable Agriculture: An Example Drawn from Washington State Wheat Growers

As acceptance of the concept of agricultural sustainability has grown, it has become increasingly recognized that notions of sustainability and how to promote it will necessarily vary depending on the commodity in question. It thus becomes important to investigate how movements towards sustainability are emerging for different commodities. The objective of our paper is to present the results of an analysis of Washington wheat producers that investigates the degree to which interest in sustainability exists amongst those farmers and whether structural factors and farmer personal characteristics are more or less significant than social network factors in explaining farmers’ views of possible sustainable methods. Our findings indicate that a measure indicating use of local social networks to gain information is associated with a higher degree of interest in new production methods aimed at improving agricultural sustainability.Agricultural Sustainability; Social Networks; Alternative; Wheat