Governing precarious lives: Land grabs, geopolitics, and 'food security'

This paper has a two-part structure. The first part of the paper explores contemporary land grabs and shows how they both reflect and constitute a new neo-liberal governance structure over land and land-based resources. In this sense what is noteworthy about land grabs is their world-making capacity: the deals structure and make possible new relations of power in the global food economy. For this very reason it is crucial to understand how land grabs affect both the pace and direction of agrarian change. The second part of the paper examines the discursive strategies that align ‘food security’ concerns with land grabbing practices. Here I suggest that ‘food security’ supplies a moral sanction for land grabs. By mustering public empathy around a desire to ‘feed the future’, food security discourse – to borrow an idea from Fassin (2012) – converts a relationship of dominance (the governance of precarious lives) into a relationship of assistance (the provision of a remedy).This is the accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/geoj.1206

The row to hoe: The gender impact of trade liberalization on our food system, agricultural markets and women's human rights

Metadata only recordThis paper uses case studies and literature analysis to show why women need to be more involved in policy decision related to agriculture. Trade has affected food security and agricultural development. Women, and their traditional roles, have been ignored in agriculture. Women are most affected by the changes in agricultural rules, and changes affect women and men differently. Policies ignoring gender differences have deepened inequalities, increasing the impact on women and the children whom they are responsible to feed. Using gender analysis, this paper highlights three topics

Tax Aspects of Holding and Transferring Interests in Closely Held Businesses

The impact of estate and gift taxes is a major consideration in the formation and restructuring of closely held businesses. Estate freezing proliferated as a method of shifting appreciation in assets from older family members in high tax brackets to younger family members with lower taxable incomes on a tax-free or tax-advantaged basis. The antifreeze provisions contained in Internal Revenue Code Section 2036(c) were designed to prevent many of the alleged abuses of prior estate freezing practices. However, the Section 2036(c) restrictions were complex and difficult to administer. Subsequently, Section 2036(c) was repealed and replaced by the special valuation rules of Chapter 14 of the Internal Revenue Code, enacted by the Revenue Reconciliation Act of 1990. This thesis will present a detailed analysis of the aforementioned special valuation rules and then will take a cross-sectional approach to scrutinize the vehicles used to retain or transfer wealth among members of closely held businesses. Outside exchanges and charitable contributions will also be considered. The empirical research performed for this paper draws heavily on conclusions and analogies found in established court cases

Uranium Is in My Body

The Navajo people perceive the world as an interconnected whole. This applies to religion, concepts of health, and their view of themselves in relation to the world. In effect, a disruption in one part of their lives creates a disharmony in the overall system. This disruption not only creates stress on the individual but threatens the Navajo fabric of life. In the late 1940s and 1950s the Navajo fabric of life was disturbed by the ill effects of uranium mining. With the rise of the Cold War, the United States government opened uranium mines in the Four Corners area of the Navajo Nation and remained the sole purchaser of uranium for defense purposes from the late 1940s to the early 1960s. During this period, the government offered higher paying jobs to local Navajo people in return for uranium. The Navajo were Unaware of the dangers associated with uranium mining and radon daughters. In contrast, the federal government was hardIy naive about the situation when it allowed thousands of Navajo people to face hazards to their health and their lives in the pursuit of the rich resources underneath reservation lands. The hazardous conditions in the mines eventually led to lung cancer and respiratory diseases that cause severe disability or death