1,721,163 research outputs found
Consumer views of organic and GM food
No full textAttitudes towards food, and decisions about eating, are mediated within a complex political and cultural milieu. With food a biological necessity, deci¬sions about what to eat are instead shaped by a complex range of values and beliefs about ourselves, the risks and pleasures associated with eating, and understandings of our relationships with others and the environment. In recent years a plethora of food scares, ranging from salmonella to chem¬ical residues and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease), have intensified awareness of the vulnerability of humans to sickness, and in some cases death, from eating the wrong foods. Eating patterns - par¬ticularly the rapid growth in consumption of organic and chemical-free food in the developed world - thus tell us about more than anxieties relat¬ed to personal health and perceived risks associated with industrially produced foods: they also reflect concerns about broader environmental, social and economic implications of food consumption practices
What's social about natural resources and why do we need to theorise it?
No full text[Extract] For decades, social scientists have struggled for recognition as valid contributors to natural resource management (NRM). Overshadowed by the seemingly obvious importance of soils, hydrology, agronomy, biology, ecology and a host of other apparently 'natural' dimensions of NRM, the social dimensions of NRM have all too often been ignored. So, how much have things changed? Since the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987 (WCED, 1987) there has been growing international recognition of the relationships between what we understand as natural and social resources (or between environments and people). The WCED argued that sustainable use of natural resources was impossible in the absence of equity, justice and social and economic development. Environmental issues were thus also social, trade and economic issues. While it would be misleading to trace widespread change to a single report or event, it is nevertheless evident that, as we begin the new century, NRM policy statements from governments, non-government organisations and multilateral organisations alike embrace components of a new 'language' of partnerships, capacity building, institutional support, public participation, community initiatives, environmental health, community health, social capital, international cooperation, education, and a host of concepts and ideas once foreign to the natural sciences
Governance, 'local' knowledge and the adoption of sustainable farming practices
No full text[Extract] This chapter is concerned with the attempts of state agencies and their representatives to promote more productive and sustainable relationships between farmers and 'natural' environments. We argue that while it is important to recognise the direct attempts to regulate agricultural environments and farm management practices, there is much to be gained from an analysis of the more subtle ways in which agencies attempt to influence how people think about the environment and understand their place within it, as well as their responses to what they 'know' about that environment. This chapter focuses upon the relationships between power, knowledge, and the symbolic and material construction of agricultural environments. In doing so it draws heavily on Foucault's analysis of governmental rationalities and the ways in which these are used to coordinate 'action at a distance' amongst otherwise disparate actors. Thus, for example, Miller and Rose (1990) argue that modem government occurs not just via direct 'political' forms of intervention or force, but through mechanisms which allow calculations and strategies at one place to be linked to action at another. In relation to Australian ·agriculture, this theoretical approach has been most extensively used, to date, in the analysis of changes to state policy and activity associated with the National Landcare Programme (see Lockie, 1999; Martin and Woodhill, 1995)
Governance, 'local' knowledge and the adoption of sustainable farming practices
No full text[Extract] This chapter is concerned with the attempts of state agencies and their representatives to promote more productive and sustainable relationships between farmers and 'natural' environments. We argue that while it is important to recognise the direct attempts to regulate agricultural environments and farm management practices, there is much to be gained from an analysis of the more subtle ways in which agencies attempt to influence how people think about the environment and understand their place within it, as well as their responses to what they 'know' about that environment. This chapter focuses upon the relationships between power, knowledge, and the symbolic and material construction of agricultural environments. In doing so it draws heavily on Foucault's analysis of governmental rationalities and the ways in which these are used to coordinate 'action at a distance' amongst otherwise disparate actors. Thus, for example, Miller and Rose (1990) argue that modem government occurs not just via direct 'political' forms of intervention or force, but through mechanisms which allow calculations and strategies at one place to be linked to action at another. In relation to Australian ·agriculture, this theoretical approach has been most extensively used, to date, in the analysis of changes to state policy and activity associated with the National Landcare Programme (see Lockie, 1999; Martin and Woodhill, 1995)
What's social about natural resources and why do we need to theorise it?
No full text[Extract] For decades, social scientists have struggled for recognition as valid contributors to natural resource management (NRM). Overshadowed by the seemingly obvious importance of soils, hydrology, agronomy, biology, ecology and a host of other apparently 'natural' dimensions of NRM, the social dimensions of NRM have all too often been ignored. So, how much have things changed? Since the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987 (WCED, 1987) there has been growing international recognition of the relationships between what we understand as natural and social resources (or between environments and people). The WCED argued that sustainable use of natural resources was impossible in the absence of equity, justice and social and economic development. Environmental issues were thus also social, trade and economic issues. While it would be misleading to trace widespread change to a single report or event, it is nevertheless evident that, as we begin the new century, NRM policy statements from governments, non-government organisations and multilateral organisations alike embrace components of a new 'language' of partnerships, capacity building, institutional support, public participation, community initiatives, environmental health, community health, social capital, international cooperation, education, and a host of concepts and ideas once foreign to the natural sciences
An Action Learning approach to grower-focussed change: research among cotton producers in Queensland
No full textThe most striking feature of the irrigated cotton industry is the intensive nature of the production system which is characterised by a high level of chemical inputs and high risk capital outlays, with yield and profit dependent on a guaranteed water supply and technological 'solutions' to production problems. The approach to the cotton industry in Emerald was initially made through the local Cotton Growers and Irrigators Association and resulted in the formation of one group of approximately ten growers. The group has persisted in researching the technology through the monitoring of established sites in the local region, and visiting other sites which use the technology throughout Australia's cotton growing areas. The Local best practices (LBP) approach is a participative group-extension method which is based on a 'farmer first' or 'bottom-up' paradigm. The LBP method of extension provides a structured mechanism to encourage producers to develop and utilise local knowledge
Gene-biotechnology, the state and Australia's agri-food industries
No full textBiotechnologies are considered by scientists, government officials and rural producers, to be the latest in a long line of 'high tech' inventions which will bring great advantage to Australian agriculture and food manufacturing
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Consumer views of organic and GM food
No full textAttitudes towards food, and decisions about eating, are mediated within a complex political and cultural milieu. With food a biological necessity, decisions about what to eat are instead shaped by a complex range of values and beliefs about ourselves, the risks and pleasures associated with eating, and understandings of our relationships with others and the environment. In recent years a plethora of food scares, ranging from salmonella to chemical residues and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease), have intensified awareness of the vulnerability of humans to sickness, and in some cases death, from eathing the wrong foods. Eating patterns - particularly the rapid growth in consumption of organic and chemical-free food in the developed world - thus tell us about more than anxieties related to personal health and perceived risks associated with industrially produced foods: they also reflect concerns about broader environmental, social and economic implications of food consumption practices. In this chapter we overview the recent rapid growth in the organic food and agriculture sector, with a particular focus upon Australia. This growth has been driven, in large part, by an apparently insatiable consumer demand for organic food. Expansion in organics, though, has occurred alongside substantial investment in food biotechnology research and development (R&D). While proponents of organics argue that organic farming methods will be an integral part of the shift towards a truly sustainable system of agriculture, critics suggest that sustainability will not be possible without biotechnological innovations and their application to food and agriculture. In examining Australian consumers' attitudes to both organic and genetically engineered food, and their contributions towards sustainable agriculture, this chapter also dispels the assumptions of organics consumers as just yuppies, greenies and health nuts. We explore the values and beliefs of organic food consumers, and highlight similarities and differences between these and those of non-organic food consumers. From this analysis, it is apparent that widespread opposition exists among most Australians to the entry of genetically modified (GM) food into the food system. As a consequence of this opposition - and the belief among many that consumption of organic food offers a meaningful alternative - we can expect a continued expansion of the organics industry. Before examining Australian consumer views, we survey the competing visions for the future of food production in Australia
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