FEED PROCUREMENT METHODS FOR SOUTHEASTERN MINNESOTA DAIRY FARMS: A COMPARISON USING LP ANALYSIS

The principal objective of this study is to determine the financial impacts of changing feed procurement strategies for a specified southeastern Minnesota dairy farm. Growing all feed for the dairy herd on the farm itself, currently the most prominent mode of procurement, is compared to: (1) producing all forage and purchasing all concentrate feeds from others, and (2) purchasing all feeds from others. The effect of herd size on the comparisons is considered to determine if size has a bearing on the chosen method of feed procurement.Livestock Production/Industries,

Should sociologists care about #OscarsSoWhite?

by Ronda Daniel – @rondaemily_ Image from Jada Pinkett-Smith’s Facebook page, recording a video ‘We must stand in our power’, urging people of colour to boycott this year’s Oscars awards ceremony. 18/01/2016. Initially, when I saw #OscarsSoWhite trending, referring to the fact that none of the nominations for this year’s Oscars feature performers of colour for the second year running, and responses from Spike Lee and Jada Pinkett-Smith who have chosen to boycott the awards ceremony, I viewed this as a trivial, non-issue. By ‘trivial, non-issue’, I originally thought of #OscarsSoWhite as an issue exclusive to the black elite in the USA. I asked myself: ‘There are so many day-to-day issues that black Americans face ­– incarceration, poverty, housing, employment discrimination – why should sociologists care about the Oscars?’ However, I now realise this representation does not just have repercussions for the performers, but aspiring performers, and the ordinary, average black American

Political sociology – a tool to question ideologies

MSc student, Daniela Wulf, discusses why she studies Political Sociology. My first tentative encounters with politics occurred rather late in my teenage years and consisted of watching political debates on television. They were imposed upon me as a desperate teacher’s measure to fight the acute lack of general knowledge exhibited by his students. Since debates about the latest government policy were not exactly a priority among those who made up my social environment, I was blissfully unaware of much of the world and its problems for a large part of my life. When I decided it was time to see a bit further than the end of my nose, I was irked by how political debate, whether on television, at the dinner table, in the class room or even in parliament, often seemed replete with rhetoric based on rigid ideologies rather than facts. Participants always appeared to find data to support their cause, even when this directly contradicted the data cited by their adversaries. The contradictory nature of the arguments and the pertinacity with which each side defended their position left me confused and dissatisfied

2016: the death of the left

2016 is notoriously regarded as a year of death and sadness. Donald Trump became the President-elect of the United States of America, Britain voted to leave the EU, and the government signed off social housing and called for further benefit cuts. Who is to blame for these events? I argue that the failure of the left led to these events

A week of black feminism and colourism – in pictures

This week, we saw black feminist icon Beyoncé release Lemonade, in which she wore “European features”, highlighting how the femininity of black women is persistently under scrutiny at the hands of white beauty standards. This visual album also featured cameos from feminist and anti-racist icons such as Amandla Stenberg and Zendaya Coleman, and tributes to black women who lost the men in their lives, such as the mothers of Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner

Is there a class issue at LSE?: Episode 3

Following from yesterday’s blog, this week at Researching Sociology @ LSE, we will be discussing the LSE’s Social Mobility Society’s panel discussion, which involved students and staff speakers. To view all blogs so far, click here