Suchergebnisse

Pt. 1. The price of food. The three gorges dam -- chapter 1. Fairs: the food trade -- chapter 2. Larders: what do you do with ten thousand tons of grain? -- chapter 3. Farms: growing food for profit and environmental rapine -- Pt. 2. The price rises. An experiment in survival -- chapter 4. Water: irrigation's questionable cure -- chapter 5. Dirt: the chemistry of life -- chapter 6. Ice: preserve us -- Pt. 3. Empty pockets. Storm clouds -- chapter 7. Blood: the conquest of food -- chapter 8. Money: tea and famine -- chapter 9. Time: fair, organic, and slow -- Conclusion: the new gluttony and tomorrow's menu

AbstractThis paper discusses potential policy options available to local and municipal authorities, to achieve reductions in energy usage and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). Researchers conducted surveys with 112 SMEs, and the results have been used to disaggregate the category of 'SME' into sub‐sectors based on industrial sector, two measurements of employee size and annual turnover. A statistical analysis identifies key characteristics and behaviours of the sub‐sectors of firms and discusses the type of policy measure these groups of SMEs would probably respond to. The key results of the research indicate that categories of firms differ in terms of energy use behaviours, internal constraints and attitudes toward possible policy options. The paper presents a 'policy matrix' to represent the most and least likely policy options to achieve energy savings from different categories of SMEs. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

AbstractIndigenous traditional methods of saving and storing seeds are often seen as viable alternatives to purchasing hybridised seeds for small‐scale farmers across the developing world. Nevertheless, little research has been conducted on which particular seed saving methods are most effective. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to both document and test the efficacy of different traditional seed saving methods practiced by small‐scale farmers in rural Malawi. Methods involved conducting both a survey and semi‐structured interview with 40 small‐scale farmers all of whom practiced different forms of traditional seed saving. A representative sample of sorghum and maize seeds were collected from each of these farms and grown in laboratory conditions to test the efficacy and germination rates of seeds stored using different practices. The results revealed that farmers used a wide range of indigenous seed saving techniques that include burning animal manure and covering seeds with the resulting ash to being stored in cloth bags or ceramic containers. The impact of these methods range considerably. Some methods, such as smoking the seeds over the cooking fire, proved ineffective, and germination rates were very low in seeds treated in this way. However, other methods, such as grinding up a local leaf into a powder and covering the seeds with the powder, were as effective as treating the seeds with commercial fungicides. Furthermore, these indigenous methods cost a fraction of the amount of commercially available methods' cost and are also much less expensive than buying seeds annually. The implication of this research is that it is important for researchers to test the efficacy of traditional seed saving methods as a way of establishing best practices and developing appropriate agricultural management practices that will help farmers alleviate poverty. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Over 40% of the earth's land surface are drylands that are home to approximately 2.5 billion people. Livelihood sustainability in drylands is threatened by a complex and interrelated range of social, economic, political, and environmental changes that present significant challenges to researchers, policy makers, and, above all, rural land users. Dynamic ecological and environmental change models suggest that climate change induced drought events may push dryland systems to cross biophysical thresholds, causing a long-term drop in agricultural productivity. Therefore, research is needed to explore how development strategies and other socioeconomic changes help livelihoods become more resilient and robust at a time of growing climatic risk and uncertainty. As a result, the overarching goal of this special feature is to conduct a structured comparison of how livelihood systems in different dryland regions are affected by drought, thereby making methodological, empirical, and theoretical contributions to our understanding of how these types of social-ecological systems may be vulnerable to climate change. In introducing these issues, the purpose of this editorial is to provide an overview of the two main intellectual challenges of this work, namely: (1) how to conceptualize vulnerability to climate change in coupled social-ecological systems; and (2) the methodological challenges of anticipating trends in vulnerability in dynamic environments.