The World of Organic Agriculture – Density-equalizing Map

The World Map of Organic Agriculture presents countries as proportional in size to their share of the total of world organic hectares. Such a map can be referred to as an equal-area cartogram or a density-equalising map. Equal-density cartograms are a tool for presenting a fresh view of tabulated geographic data sets. The World Map of Organic Agriculture accounts for all of the hectares of organically managed agricultural land (certified organic and in-conversion organic) reported by FiBL and IFOAM in 'The World of Organic Agriculture - Statistics & Emerging Trends 2013'. The map visually reveals relationships between the territories of the world and highlights the regional strengths and weaknesses of the global diffusion of organic agriculture. The World Map of Organic Agriculture is generated by the Worldmapper GIS algorithm developed at the University of Sheffield as a cartographic visualisation tool

Maps of Organic Agriculture in Australia

Australia is the world leader in organic agriculture, based on certified organic hectares. This has been the case since global organic statistics were first published (in 2000). Australia now accounts for more than half of the world’s certified organic hectares (54%). Australia has 35,645,000 certified organic hectares which is 8.8% of Australia’s agricultural land. In the present paper, three maps (cartograms, ‘maps with attitude’) of organic agriculture in Australia are presented. These three maps illustrate the data, at the state and territory level, for (a) certified organic hectares (35,645,037 hectares) (b) certified organic producers (n = 1,998), and (c) certified organic operators (producers + handlers + processors) (n = 4,028). States and territories are resized according to their measure for each attribute. The base-map for Australia, with states and territories coloured according to their state colours (or a variation thereof), is the standard cartographic representation of the country. The three organics maps are density-equalising cartograms (area cartograms) where equal areas on the map represent equal measures (densities) of the parameter under consideration. This mapping protocol creates distorted yet recognisable new maps that reveal where there is a high presence of the parameter under consideration (and the state or territory is ‘fat’), or a low presence (and the state or territory is ‘skinny’). These three maps visually reveal the uneven distribution of the metrics of organics across Australia, and, on a state by state basis, they suggest unrealised opportunities and potentials

A World Map of Organic Agriculture

This paper presents a world map of organic agriculture. A Gall-Peters projection map of the world is taken as the reference map (where map areas are proportional to territorial areas). Applying the area of organic agriculture to countries, the World Map of Organic Agriculture presents countries as proportional in size to their share of the total of world organic hectares (such a map can be referred to as an equal-area cartogram or a densityequalising map). The World Map of Organic Agriculture accounts for 37.2 million hectares of organically managed agricultural land (certified organic and in-conversion organic) from 160 countries, and here distributed across the 200 territories of the reference map. The World Map of Organic Agriculture visually reveals global contiguity and regional relationships among and between the territories of the world, and highlights the regional strengths and weaknesses of the global diffusion of organic agriculture. The World Map of Organic Agriculture is generated by the Worldmapper GIS algorithm developed at the University of Sheffield as a cartographic visualisation tool. It is the first Worldmapper cartogram to proportionately represent Falkland Islands (Malvinas)

New World Map of Organic Agriculture: Australia is 51%

For the first time, a single country now accounts for more than half of the global certified organic agriculture hectares. The latest world map of organic agriculture reveals that Australia has overtaken the rest of the world). The latest global figures report that the world total of certified organic agriculture is 69.8 million hectares from a total of 181 countries. Of that total, Australia accounts for 35.6 million hectares, which is 51% of the world total. Organics data reveal that organic agriculture has been on a steady upward trend for the past two decades. Global organics has grown at 12% pa over the past twenty years, while Australian organics has grown at 16% pa in the same period. For the past five years the growth of organics in Australia has accelerated to 22% pa. It is this growth spurt of Australian organics that has propelled Australia from the number one position in global certified organic agriculture hectares to now accounting for the majority of the total global organic hectares. The global runners up, are Argentina, in second position, with 3.4 million certified organic hectares, followed by China with 3.0 million hectares, Spain with 2.1 million hectares, and USA with 2.0 million hectares. These are followed by Italy (1.9m ha), Uruguay (1.9m ha), India (1.8m ha), France (1.7m ha), Germany (1.4m ha), Canada (1.2m ha), and Brazil (1.1m ha). All other countries each report less than a million hectares of certified organic agriculture hectares

Sustainable Agriculture: The Distribution of Biodynamics and Organics in Australia

Australia is a global leader in sustainable agriculture. Australia accounts for 20% of the world’s certified biodynamic agriculture hectares (viz. 49,797 hectares; 55 countries account for a global total of 251,842 certified biodynamic hectares). Australia accounts for 50% of the world’s certified organic agriculture hectares (viz. 35,645,037 hectares; 186 countries account for a global total of 71,514,583 certified organic hectares). This paper presents a map of the geographic distribution of biodynamic agriculture in Australia, which is the first accounting and analysis of biodynamics data in Australia. The biodynamic distribution across the states and territories of Australia is compared to the distribution of organic agriculture. Biodynamic agriculture is the ‘original’ organic agriculture and sustainable agriculture, and it dates from 1924. Organic agriculture has grown out of the biodynamics movement and the term ‘organic farming’ dates from 1940. World maps of the global distribution of organics and biodynamics reveal Australia’s leadership in sustainable agriculture

A World Map of Biodynamic Agriculture

A world map of biodynamic agriculture is presented. The map accounts for 55 countries and a world total of 251,842 certified biodynamic hectares. Biodynamic farming is the progenitor of organic agriculture. Ground-zero for biodynamics and organics is the Agriculture Course presented in the summer of 1924 by Dr Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) to a group of 111 farmers and others at Koberwitz, Germany (now Kobierzyce, Poland). Rudolf Steiner called for a natural agriculture rejecting the prevailing thrust for the chemicalization of agriculture, evidenced, at the time, particularly by the uptake of synthetic fertilisers. Steiner’s “hints” have evolved into a suite of farming practices now called ‘biodynamic’ (BD) agriculture. One BD practitioner, Lord Northbourne, coined the term ‘organic farming’ (in 1940) and presented his manifesto of organic agriculture, Look to the Land, which has spawned the international alternative agriculture movement of organic farming. Germany leads the world with 84,426 BD hectares, followed by Australia with 49,797 BD ha, and France with 14,629 BD ha. Steiner’s particularised form of organic agriculture, viz. biodynamic farming, is a subset (of 30.0% and 0.35% respectively) of the 186 countries which account for a global total of 71,514,583 certified organic hectares. A table of countries and associated BD hectares is included. All hectare data reported in the present paper are for certified operations. The map presented is an area cartogram. The size and scope of the uncertified biodynamics and organics sectors remain undetermined

Phase Transformations in 18-Carat Gold Alloys Studied by Mechanical Spectroscopy

This work is motivated by an industrial interest in gaining a better understanding of the phase transformations that govern the mechanical properties of 18-carat gold alloys commonly used in jewelry applications and luxury watchmaking. These alloys fall in one of two categories: yellow gold based on the gold-copper-silver system and white gold based on gold-copper-palladium, but may contain further alloying elements that improve color, castability, strength, and wear resistance. In this thesis, selected alloys from the two series are studied, primarily by mechanical spectroscopy. The analysis and interpretation of the experimental data identifies three important anelastic relaxations (internal dissipation processes), which dominate the mechanical loss spectrum of each of these materials above room temperature. A Zener relaxation, due to directional ordering of atoms in the substitutional solid solution, occurs at intermediate temperatures, between 550 K and 700 K depending on the alloy. Near an order-disorder transition, the Zener relaxation increases markedly in strength when approaching the transition temperature from above, and breaks down when the materials forms the long-range ordered phase below it. In a preliminary study on a Au-Cu alloy (close to the equiatomic composition), this behavior is, for the first time, directly documented by measurements of the mechanical loss in isothermal conditions. It is demonstrated that this experimental method provides a precise value of the transition temperature as well as useful data of the transformation kinetics. The Zener relaxation in yellow gold alloys (of sufficiently high copper content) exhibits the same characteristics. These materials harden because they form an ordered phase of tetragonal symmetry like AuCu. Compared to Au-Cu, the addition of silver reduces the transition temperature. Furthermore, it is concluded that no atomic ordering occurs in the white gold alloys. Above 700 K, the mechanical loss spectrum of 18-carat gold features an anelastic relaxation peak that is shown to be caused by the sliding of grain boundaries. The analysis of this part of the spectrum exposes the age-hardening mechanism acting in some of the white gold alloys. Their composition is such that they form a second phase that precipitates as fine particles. Particles segregating on grain boundaries block the sliding and the grain boundary relaxation peak subsides, leaving only the high-temperature background. The background is created by vibration of bulk dislocations. Precipitates forming inside the grains pin these dislocations, which explains the increased resistance to plastic deformation in the age-hardened state

Diffusion mechanisms for silicon di-interstitials

Tight-binding molecular dynamics and density-functional simulations on silicon seeded with a di-interstitial reveal its detailed diffusion mechanisms. The lowest-energy di-interstitial performs a translation/rotation diffusion-step with a barrier of 0.3 eV and a prefactor of 11 THz followed by a reorientation diffusion step with a 90 meV barrier and a 2300 THz prefactor. The intermediate reorientation steps allow di-interstitials to diffuse isotropically along all possible bond directions in the diamond lattice. The dominating diffusion barrier of 0.3 eV is not inconsistent with the experimental value of 0.6±0.2 eV. In addition, this lowest energy di-interstitial may diffuse to neighboring sites through an intermediate structure which is the bound state of two single interstitials. The process in which migrating single interstitials combine into a di-interstitial is exothermic with almost zero energy barrier