Agri-environmental conservation – the case for an environmental levy

Recent environmental assessments have highlighted the extent of land degradation in Australia and the significant costs involved in addressing it. With projected investment costs running into tens of billions of dollars, it is not surprising that greater attention is now being focussed on who should pay. One idea gathering significant momentum has been the imposition of an environmental levy. Such a levy would raise public funds to be spent on resource degradation issues and has been proposed to work through the taxation system in a similar fashion to the Medicare levy, albeit for a more limited 10 year period. The paper assesses the arguments behind the imposition of an environmental levy and considers some of the issues associated with its effective implementation. Particular challenges in the establishment of environmental priorities, public and private attributes of environmental problems and the institutional arrangements for levy collection and management are identified and discussed.Environment, cost-sharing, property rights, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Do corporations have a duty to be trustworthy?

Since the global financial crisis in 2008, corporations have faced a crisis of trust, with growing sentiment against ‘elites and ‘big business’ and a feeling that ‘something ought to be done’ to re-establish public regard for corporations. Trust and trustworthiness are deeply moral significant. They provide the ‘glue or lubricant’ that begets reciprocity, decreases risk, secures dignity and respect, and safeguards against the subordination of the powerless to the powerful. However, in deciding how to restore trust, it is difficult to determine precisely what should be done, by whom, and who will bear the cost, especially if any action involves a risk to overall market efficiency and corporate profitability. The paper explores whether corporations have a moral duty to be trustworthy, to bear the cost of being so and thus contribute to resolving the current crisis of trust. It also considers where the state and other social actors have strong reason to protect and enforce such moral rights, while acknowledging that other actors have similar obligations to be trustworthy. It outlines five ‘salient factors’ that trigger specific rights to trustworthiness and a concomitant duty on corporations to be trustworthy: market power, subordination (threat and intimidation), the absence of choice, the need to preserve systemic trust, and corporate political power which might undermine a state’s legitimacy. Absent these factors and corporations do not have a general duty to be trustworthy, since a responsible actor in fair market conditions should be able to choose between the costs and benefits of dealing with generally trustworthy corporations

The implications of policy settings on land use and agricultural technology adoption in North-West India

The irrigated rice-wheat cropping system is the predominant and most profitable farming system in north-west India, especially in Punjab. However, there are growing concerns about the environmental effects of the system, particularly with the practice of burning rice stubbles, due to its adverse effects on human health and air pollution. In this paper we consider the wide array of policy settings that tend to favour current land uses and management practices and their impact on the farming system over time. As part of an ACIAR-funded project, we assess the significance of these policies with a view to considering what additional or alternative policies could be put in place to encourage the adoption of approaches or technologies directly concerned with reducing the practice of stubble burning. We conclude that many of these policy settings limit the gains from technology adoption and might be better addressed prior to considering policies aimed at specific technological solutions.agricultural policy, air pollution, stubble burning, technology adoption, India, Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, Land Economics/Use, Political Economy, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Had Feminists Only Thought Of Food: Men\u27s and Women\u27s Relationship with Food, 1963-1981

This thesis explores whether the women\u27s movement changed how men and women interacted with food between 1963 and 1981. Through the examination of popular magazines Esquire and Mademoiselle , this thesis analyzes articles and advertisements to gauge where there was change. Men\u27s relationship with food did not change. Men continuously cooked only as a hobby, recreating dishes they ate at fine-dining restaurants promoting themselves as connoisseurs. On the other hand, women experienced positive and negative changes as well as stagnation. Sexual liberation allowed women to embrace the sexual connotations of food for the first time in over a century. Yet, women still remained subservient in the home as they kept their role as primary food preparer. Women also experienced an increased pressure on women to control their food consumption in order to be thin by the 1970s. During the first leg of the women\u27s movement, women were somewhat constricted by their relationship with food

Minority Scholars and Insider-Outsider Researcher Status: Challenges along a Personal, Professional and Political Continuum

In diesem Beitrag befasse ich mich mit methodologischen Fragen, die für Minderheitenangehörige entstehen, wenn sie Forschung unter einer "Insider-Outsider"-Perspektive betreiben. Rückgreifend auf Beispiele aus meiner Feldforschung veranschauliche ich, in welcher Weise Klassen- und Genderzugehörigkeit den Forschungs- und Auswertungsprozess beeinflusst haben. Ziel der Studie war es, gemeinsam mit den Teilnehmenden Wissen darüber zu generieren, wie Ungleichheit gelebt wird und infrage gestellt werden kann. Zugang und Rapport wurden durch meine eigene Herkunft aus der Arbeiterklasse erleichtert. Zugleich verhalf mir meine "Outsider"-Positionierung als Forschende und Akademikerin zu einer nuancenreichen Gestaltung der Forschungsbeziehungen. Darüber hinaus wurden mein Frau- und Muttersein wesentlich für die gemeinsame Auswertungsarbeit, woraus zusätzliches Wissen über den Zusammenhang von Klassenzugehörigkeit und Fürsorge erwuchs. Indem ich meine eigenen Positionierungen ins Zentrum stelle, können wichtige Fragen zum persönlichen, beruflichen und politischen Kontinuum für qualitative Forschung und genauer für die kollaborative Wissensproduktion in der partizipativen und Handlungsforschung behandelt werden.In this article, I examine some of the methodological issues present for minority scholars when conducting research with an "insider-outsider" researcher status. Utilising examples from my fieldwork, I will expose how social class, care and gender identity along with positioning have impact on the research process and analysis. Based on a study that sought to collaboratively produce knowledge about how inequality is lived and challenged, I was able to gain access and build rapport with participants with my insider working class background. With my outsider positioning as a "researcher" and "academic," I encountered more nuanced relations in the research process, showing how one can also be an insider-outsider simultaneously. My additional identity and positioning as a woman and mother became influential factors to the collaborative analysis of the findings, from which I gathered new knowledge about the intersection of class and care. In placing my identity and positioning, in terms of class, care and gender, at the centre of this discussion of methodology, I raise important questions on a personal, professional and political continuum for qualitative research and the production of collaborative knowledge and action within the field of participatory research

Evaluation of Various Brands of Moisture Meters in Gypsum and Wood Substrates at a Range of Moisture Contents

Determining correct moisture content of wetted building materials and analysis of corresponding locations, orientations, and patterns is of imminent value to Forensic Engineers and building scientists. As many building damages relate to insurance claims and construction defect/ subrogation lawsuits, legal challenges to the accuracy of measured moisture content have arisen. The objective of this study was to independently establish the level of precision of common moisture meters used to quantify and measure moisture content in building components. The study tested four different brand moisture meters in gypsum and wood substrates at normal, high, and saturated moisture contents. The results were compared against laboratory obtained moisture content to assess the accuracy of each meter in the substrate and at which moisture content range.The study wetted wood and gypsum specimens to moderate and saturated conditions and measured the resulting moisture content with the four different brands of meters. Control wood and gypsum specimens were not exposed to water and their moisture content was measured as is. All of the wood and gypsum specimens were subsequently sent to a laboratory and moisture content was calculated by the oven-dry method. The moisture content results measured by moisture meters were compared against the laboratory obtained data. Data was averaged and plotted with moisture content of various specimens and visually analysed to determine which meters deviated from the laboratory data and at which moisture contents. Data was also numerically analysed and graphed to quantify meter moisture content accuracy as compared to laboratory obtained moisture content.Moisture meters should be used within the manufacturer specified range of moisture content and price may not be the best indicator of moisture meter accuracy.  At low ranges of moisture content in wood and gypsum, all meters exhibited relatively small deviation from laboratory calculated values, while moderate and saturated conditions presented larger variations from laboratory moisture content. Composite materials such as gypsum may be difficult to establish moisture content, as different materials such as the gypsum core and paper facing absorb and distribute moisture differently. All meters were successful in detecting wet conditions, but exhibited a lack of precision in determining exact values in moderate and saturated conditions. In this regard, meters may be improved as the industry demands not only detecting wet conditions but determining precise values at a full range of moisture contents. Future studies may be limited to monolithic materials as oven dry method returns an average value of the respective paper and gypsum components in gypsum board specimens, and thus contained an inherent margin of error

Trends in Research, Productivity Growth and Competitiveness in Agriculture in New Zealand and Australia

Investment in R&D has long been regarded as an important source of productivity growth in New Zealand and Australian agriculture. Perhaps because research lags are long, current investment in R&D is monitored closely. In this paper trends in public investment in R&D and in productivity growth are reviewed. Investment in R&D has been flat in both countries although in recent years investment in New Zealand has increased. Nevertheless research intensity in Australia has been significantly higher than that in New Zealand. Productivity growth is also likely to have been higher. Econometric evidence about the sources of productivity growth is rarely clear. We develop some scenarios about the importance of domestic and foreign R&D and other sources of productivity growth and find that returns to investments in domestic research in both countries are likely to have been in the order of 15-20 percent.Productivity, research and development, research evaluation, Productivity Analysis, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Minority Scholars and Insider-Outsider Researcher Status: Challenges along a Personal, Professional and Political Continuum

In this article, I examine some of the methodological issues present for minority scholars when conducting research with an "insider-outsider" researcher status. Utilising examples from my fieldwork, I will expose how social class, care and gender identity along with positioning have impact on the research process and analysis. Based on a study that sought to collaboratively produce knowledge about how inequality is lived and challenged, I was able to gain access and build rapport with participants with my insider working class background. With my outsider positioning as a "researcher" and "academic," I encountered more nuanced relations in the research process, showing how one can also be an insider-outsider simultaneously. My additional identity and positioning as a woman and mother became influential factors to the collaborative analysis of the findings, from which I gathered new knowledge about the intersection of class and care. In placing my identity and positioning, in terms of class, care and gender, at the centre of this discussion of methodology, I raise important questions on a personal, professional and political continuum for qualitative research and the production of collaborative knowledge and action within the field of participatory research.In diesem Beitrag befasse ich mich mit methodologischen Fragen, die für Minderheitenangehörige entstehen, wenn sie Forschung unter einer "Insider-Outsider"-Perspektive betreiben. Rückgreifend auf Beispiele aus meiner Feldforschung veranschauliche ich, in welcher Weise Klassen- und Genderzugehörigkeit den Forschungs- und Auswertungsprozess beeinflusst haben. Ziel der Studie war es, gemeinsam mit den Teilnehmenden Wissen darüber zu generieren, wie Ungleichheit gelebt wird und infrage gestellt werden kann. Zugang und Rapport wurden durch meine eigene Herkunft aus der Arbeiterklasse erleichtert. Zugleich verhalf mir meine "Outsider"-Positionierung als Forschende und Akademikerin zu einer nuancenreichen Gestaltung der Forschungsbeziehungen. Darüber hinaus wurden mein Frau- und Muttersein wesentlich für die gemeinsame Auswertungsarbeit, woraus zusätzliches Wissen über den Zusammenhang von Klassenzugehörigkeit und Fürsorge erwuchs. Indem ich meine eigenen Positionierungen ins Zentrum stelle, können wichtige Fragen zum persönlichen, beruflichen und politischen Kontinuum für qualitative Forschung und genauer für die kollaborative Wissensproduktion in der partizipativen und Handlungsforschung behandelt werden