Financial Planning for a Farmer Undergoing Organic Conversion

The switch to organic farming may be the biggest farm management decision you ever undertake so careful planning is essential. The vast majority of organic farmers have no regrets once converted. Organic farming can be a profitable option due mainly to lower costs of production, an attractive organic farming scheme and attractive market premiums. However the change requires preparation, an attention to detail and good husbandry skills - a poor conventional farmer may make an even worse organic farmer. From the financial viewpoint, the Teagasc “Farm Business Planner” program will help you in making the decision to convert or not. Like conventional farming, organic farmers should not solely depend on unsustainable schemes and grant aid for future profits. The organic market is a “niche” but growing market and it is important to follow that market

Travelling waves in the cool flame regime

Hydrocarbon oxidation develops through a complex network of elementary steps. Depending on the initial thermodynamic conditions, different behaviours are observed ranging from slow combustion to hot ignition [1]. Chain reactions involving radicals, govern all the combustion processes. Most of the time, the operating kinetic mechanism can be approximated by a reduced kinetic scheme which is depending on the initial conditions. In an intermediate range of temperature, cool flames appear as a transition between slow combustion and hot ignition. The existence of cool flames is often associated with knocking is engines

Linking Research and Policy: Assessing a Framework for Organic Agricultural Support in Ireland

This paper links social science research and agricultural policy through an analysis of support for organic agriculture and food. Globally, sales of organic food have experienced 20% annual increases for the past two decades, and represent the fastest growing segment of the grocery market. Although consumer interest has increased, farmers are not keeping up with demand. This is partly due to a lack of political support provided to farmers in their transition from conventional to organic production. Support policies vary by country and in some nations, such as the US, vary by state/province. There have been few attempts to document the types of support currently in place. This research draws on an existing Framework tool to investigate regionally specific and relevant policy support available to organic farmers in Ireland. This exploratory study develops a case study of Ireland within the framework of ten key categories of organic agricultural support: leadership, policy, research, technical support, financial support, marketing and promotion, education and information, consumer issues, inter-agency activities, and future developments. Data from the Irish Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority (Teagasc), and other governmental and semi-governmental agencies provide the basis for an assessment of support in each category. Assessments are based on the number of activities, availability of information to farmers, and attention from governmental personnel for each of the ten categories. This policy framework is a valuable tool for farmers, researchers, state agencies, and citizen groups seeking to document existing types of organic agricultural support and discover policy areas which deserve more attention

Making Better Predictions of Black Hole Smash-Ups

Caltech, UM physicists use supercomputers and AI to create most accurate model of stellar merger

Making Freedom: The Underground Railroad and the Politics of Slavery

The Role of Fugitive Slaves in the Workings of the Underground Railroad Based on a series of lectures at the Ann Richards Civil War Center at Penn State University in 2012, this short study furthers the serious analysis of fugitive slaves in the antebellum United States and the legendary n...

Teagasc Organic Production Research Conference Proceedings 2008

Teagasc (Irish Agriculture and Food Develpoment Authority) conference on organic farming research in Ireland

Wellbeing impacts of sustainably designed community gardens: A capability approach

In early 2011 there were over 1782 community garden sites officially registered with the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens. In addition to promoting healthy food and healthy eating, many of these sites contain a number of sustainable design features and associated activities. They also claim to deal with value-laden ethical and social issues relating to human wellbeing. In this way they aim to be ecologically sustainable. Using a normative framework for evaluating wellbeing - the Capability Approach - this research reports on the multiple impacts that the design of such spaces may have on the subjective wellbeing of site users. Qualitative research methods of data collection and analysis in five community garden sites in the UK and Ireland were carried out for adult, youth and child users. Results show that although producing a food yield was found to have most impact on wellbeing for all user groups, the overall wellbeing impacts of site activities go beyond physical health and healthy eating, impacting most on capabilities of stimulation, psychological wellbeing and purpose. Two key aspects of site design and associated valued activities - agency and dynamic balance - were found to enhance both the sustainability of the community garden sites and the wellbeing of site users. These are the essence of enhancing wellbeing in the sustainably designed community garden sites. The thesis concludes that not only is there a requirement for new conceptualizations of sustainable design and wellbeing for the urban environment but we also require new methodological approaches to better capture the multi-layered and multidimensional complexities of such spaces within our everyday lives

An underground railway to Pensacola and the Impending Crisis over Slavery

In June 1850, several months before the United States Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law, a runaway slave from Pensacola, Florida, became embroiled in the growing sectional conflict. The bondsman\u27s name was Adam, and he was a twenty-one year old blacksmith at the Pensacola Navy Yard who snuck aboard the brig Mary Farrow just prior to its departure for New England. When the ship\u27s captain discovered the stowaway in the ship\u27s hold three days after embarking, he ordered a keelhauling, an archaic punishment whereby victims were thrown overboard and dragged by a rope underneath the boat\u27s keel; the crew refused to allow the ritual to take place, however, and Adam remained unharmed until the vessel landed at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, several days later. Having already received a letter from Pensacola warning of Adam\u27s arrival, law enforcement officials waited at the dock where they planned to arrest the bondsman upon his disembarkation

The Politics of the Real: Jazz, Hip Hop, and Satire - Conceptions of Consciousness in the Twentieth Century African American Novel

In the African American experience of the twentieth century, cultural modes of expression became the primary outlet for a politics of resistance, a politics of fulfillment, and a politics of transfiguration within the context of a modem Western nation-state that marginalized and discriminated against the African American subject through ideology and cultural hegemony. This collective African American experience is one based on a reality of life-threatening racial violence that has plagued African Americans from the earliest days of the New Republic