An Aretaic Objection to Agricultural Biotechnology

Considerations of virtue and character appear from time to time in the agricultural biotechnology literature. Critics of the technologies often suggest that they are contrary to some virtue (usually humility) or do not fit with the image of ourselves and the human place in the world that we ought to embrace. In this article, I consider the aretaic or virtue-based objection that to engage in agricultural biotechnology is to exhibit arrogance, hubris, and disaffection. In section one, I discuss Gary Comstock's treatment of this objection. In section two, I provide an alternative interpretation of the objection that more accurately reflects the concerns of those who offer the criticism than does Comstock's standard interpretation. In sections three and four, I assess the objection. I argue that despite its merits, the objection does not justify global opposition to agricultural biotechnology. Instead, it favors a limited endorsement position not unlike the one defended by Comstock.     

Including Public Perspectives in Industrial Biotechnology and the Biobased Economy

Industrial (“white”) biotechnology promises to contribute to a more sustainable future. Compared to current production processes, cases have been identified where industrial biotechnology can decrease the amount of energy and raw materials used to make products and also reduce the amount of emissions and waste produced during production. However, switching from products based on chemical production processes and fossil fuels towards “biobased” products is at present not necessarily economically viable. This is especially true for bulk products, for example ethanol production from biomass. Therefore, scientists are also turning to genetic modification as a means to develop organisms that can produce at lower costs. These include not only micro-organisms, but also organisms used in agriculture for food and feed.The use of genetic modification for “deliberate release” purposes, in particular, has met great opposition in Europe. Many industrial biotechnology applications may, due to their scale, entail deliberate releases of GM organisms. Thus, the biobased economy brings back a familiar question; is it ethically justifiable, and acceptable to citizens, to expose the environment and society to the risks associated with GM, in order to protect that same environment and to sustain our affluent way of life? For a successful innovation towards a biobased economy, its proponents, especially producers, need to take into account (take responsibility for) such issues when developing new products and processes. These issues, and how scientists can interact with citizens about them in a timely way, are further explored in projects at Delft University and Leiden University, also in collaboration with Utrecht University.     

东北地区典型农区土地利用变化对农业扩张和气候变化的响应研究

大规模的农业扩张和全球气候变化导致东北地区发生剧烈的土地利用/土地覆盖变化。本研究分析了研究区1976—2008年的土地利用变化和生长季各月气温的变化趋势,并结合农业扩张程度,探究LUCC对农业扩张和气候变化的响应,为指导农业发展规划和保障国家粮食安全提供理论依据。结果表明,1976—2008年农田面积逐步增加,生长季气温一直呈上升趋势。1976—2001年生长季气温的上升趋势不稳定,气温变化程度较大;2001—2008年,农业扩张放缓,生长季气温上升趋势显著,且上升趋势一直增加,气温变化比上一时期更稳定;且这两个时期农业扩张和气候变化对土地利用强度的影响在南北和东西方向上均存在明显差异。     

Heterogeneous and unconventional coalitions around global food risks: integrating Brazil into the debates

Current debates about food-borne risks (GMOs and BSE) have not only deepened public concern about how food is produced on farms, processed in factories, and transported, stored and traded. More importantly, these debates have exposed a crisis related to central social issues, such as the role of science, politics and business corporations in the decision-making processes for determining which risks societies should, or are prepared to, assume. In this article, I discuss how cultural and social constructivist studies of environmental and health risks and Ulrich Beck's theory of world risk society can contribute to the analysis of how to deal with these conflicts. The criticism of quantitative methods of risk analysis has resulted in a certain idealization of the lay knowledge of risks as being intuitively more correct than the scientific one. One consequence of this polarization between expert and lay knowledge—idealizing the latter—is a disappointing vagueness when looking for alternatives on how to deal practically with risks that have important consequences. A key obstacle to the implementation of some of the suggestions presented by the critical risk analysis approach is that, for example, in the current global dynamics of food-borne risks we can find heterogeneous alliances for and against GMOs allying lay people and experts, as well as conventional and unconventional social actors, in a complicated manner, at the regional, national and international levels. Since a significant part of the analysis of manufactured risks focuses on the situation of highly industrialized countries, a more complex perspective of these lay and scientific alliances can be obtained from a more extensive study of the reactions surrounding GMOs and BSE in less-industrialized countries, such as Brazil. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

城镇化进程中经济、社会和环境效益相关性探析--以山东省昌乐县为例

经济、环境和社会三效益共同提高是实现一个地区可持续发展的前提。通过定性分析，对山东省昌乐县近年来的经济增长、环境变化、能源消耗以及人民生活和社会进步等方面建立指标体系。通过定量分析，从相关分析的结果中发现经济的发展、城镇化水平的提高与能源的消耗、环境的污染“同步”，而与人民生活和社会进步却是“非同步”，说明昌乐县农村城镇化的质和量之间有很大的差距。     

中国农业污染防控的制度约束研究

中国作为世界上最大的发展中国家,正经历着越发严重的农业污染问题;对农业污染防控的制度性约束因素进行深入分析,是实现有效污染防控的前提,具有积极的理论和现实意义。对中国农业污染防控的制度约束分析研究表明：农业污染及其防控涉及的利益主体关系及相关制度设计,对各利益主体形成了污染防控负激励,加重了农业污染;城乡＂二元＂结构及其衍生的一系列体制问题,导致＂三农＂在农业环境治理、农村公共物品提供等方面被严重边缘化,进而直接制约了农业污染防控;此外,高度分散的小规模农户经营模式也不利于农业污染防控。最后,针对中国农业污染防控的制度性约束因素,提出了有针对性的农业污染防控政策建议。     

The Impact of Policy and Institutional Environment on Costs and Benefits of Sustainable Agricultural Land Uses: The Case of the Chittagong Hill Tracts,Bangladesh

As in other mountain regions of Asia, agricultural lands in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of Bangladesh are undergoing degradation due primarily to environmentally incompatible land-use systems such as shifting cultivation (jhum) and annual cash crops. The suitable land-use systems such as agroforestry and timber tree plantation provide benefit to the society at large, but they might not provide attractive economic benefits to farmers, eventually constraining a wide-scale adoption of such land-use systems. Therefore, it is essential to evaluate agricultural land-use systems from both societal and private perspectives in the pursuit of promoting particularly environmentally sustainable systems. This article evaluated five major land-use systems being practiced in CHT, namely jhum, annual cash crops, horticulture, agroforestry, and timber plantation. The results of the financial analysis revealed the annual cash crops as the most attractive land use and jhum as the least attractive of the five land-use systems considered under the study. Horticulture, timber plantation, and agroforestry, considered to be suitable land-use systems particularly for mountainous areas, held the middle ground between these two systems. Annual cash crops provided the highest financial return at the cost of a very high rate of soil erosion. When the societal cost of soil erosion is considered, annual cash crops appear to be the most costly land-use system, followed by jhum and horticulture. Although financially less attractive compared to annual cash crops and horticulture, agroforestry and timber plantation are the socially most beneficial land-use systems. Findings of the alternative policy analyses indicate that there is a good prospect for making environmentally sustainable land-use systems, such as agroforestry and timber plantation, attractive for the farmers by eliminating existing legal and institutional barriers, combined with the provision of necessary support services and facilities.

湖北稻区冬半年农业资源特点和冬季农业开发

本文论证了湖北稻区冬半年的农业资源及其特点,讨论了开发本区冬季农业的意义、发展方向及其关键措施。     

海洋牧场生态效益的内涵与提升路径

生态效益是海洋牧场优于传统养殖方式的最显著特质。提升海洋牧场的生态效益,就必须对其内涵和提升路径有清晰的认识。基于生态系统服务理论,海洋牧场生态效益的内涵得以厘清:作为反映海洋牧场可持续发展能力的评价指标,须划清与经济效益和社会效益的界限,应仅包括海洋生态系统服务中的调节服务和支持服务,本质上是海域原有生态效益与人工措施形成的生态增益的叠加。生态增益是各项人工措施的正负生态效应共同作用产生的生态效益增量,具有明显生态增益的海洋牧场,才符合可持续发展要求。海洋牧场生态效益的最大化,须以人工措施形成的生态增益最大化为目标,以人工措施生态正效应的最大化和生态负效应的最小化为导向,以基于生态优先原则对人工措施的科学管控为实现路径。管控措施应以保证人工措施的科学性和合理性为核心,涵盖统筹规划布局、规范建设标准、强化监测管理三个方面,贯穿海洋牧场建设的全过程。该研究成果有望为提升我国海洋牧场的生态效益提供理论依据和工作思路。     

Agricultural practices,ecology, and ethics in the third world

The increasing demand for horticultural products for nutritional and economic purposes by lesser developed countries (LDC's) is well-documented. Technological demands of the LDC's producing horticultural products is also increasing. Pesticide use is an integral component of most agricultural production, yet chemicals are often supplied without supplemental information vital for their safe and efficient implementation. Illiteracy rates in developing countries are high, making pesticide education even more challenging. For women, who perform a significant share of agricultural tasks, illiteracy rates are even higher than for men. The dilemma exists of how a developing country can improve its nutritional and economic situation without giving consideration to social and environmental consequences.     

南昌市名特优农产品生产基地布局规划

本文通过对南昌市名特优农产品资源、生产现状和市场条件的综合分析，确立了发挥地区资源优势，重点发展的名特优农产品，并进行了科学合理的规划和布局。     

浅析水土流失对农业生态系统的危害及其农业防治对策

本文以四川水土流失情况为例,着重分析论述了水土流失对农业生态系统的严重危害,从而阐明了水土保持对农牧业生产的重要性和紧迫性,并从省情出发,总结提出了当前乃至今后相当一个时期,农牧部门应积极采取的几项行之有效的防治对策措施,可供各级政府和领导决策参考。     

Youth,climate change and visions of the future in Miami

ABSTRACT

Miami, FL, is one of the most climate-vulnerable cities in the United States. At an average elevation of only 6 feet above sea level, parts of the city could be made uninhabitable by rising oceans within the next 40 years. The effects of climate change are already beginning to be seen, but the subject of climate change is nevertheless modelled, imagined and contested in the future tense. Today's young people are similarly future oriented, but unlike older generations they will live to feel climate change's full future effects. This study investigates knowledge of and experiences with climate change among young adults in Miami, and their visions of the future in light of predicted changes. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 long-term residents of the city between the ages of 18 and 30 who were students at Miami-Dade College or Florida International University. I discuss participants’ sense of personal responsibility to inform themselves and the individualised understandings of climate science that emerge, their disillusionment with politics and resulting perception of individual responsibility for climate mitigation, and their negotiation of personal future plans in light of fatalistic visions of the future. These young adults’ perspectives on rising seas in their home city are revealed to be socially structured by ideals of individual agency and self-reliance, which become paradoxically disempowering because of the impossibility of addressing the transformational impacts of climate change through individualised means.     

Renewable Resources and the Idea of Nature – What Has Biotechnology Got to Do With It?

The notion that the idea of nature isnot quite the unbiased rule to designsustainable futures is obvious. But,nevertheless, questions about nature, how itfunctions and what it might aim at, is leadingthe controversial debates about bothsustainability and biotechnology. These tworesearch areas hardly have the same theorybackground. Whereas in the first concept, theidea of eternal cyclical processes is basic,the latter focuses on optimization. However,both concepts can work together, but only undera narrow range of public acceptance in Europe.The plausibility of arguments for usingbiotechnology within sustainable technologiesvaries according to the assumed part natureitself plays for reaching optimized states. Theculture related vision of nature's functionshas impact on agricultural biotechnology,dealing not only with food crops but also withnon-food plants like renewable resources thatare used for energy or fiber production. Theseplants are grown to reach sustainabledevelopment. However, there is a fundamentaldifference between regarding biofuels as``renewable' and ``regenerative,' due to thetension between the concepts of ``the natural'and ``the sustainable.' Arguments ofoptimization, efficiency, and efficacy arecritically discussed in order to take thepresent need for sustainable technologies forserious.     

黄河三角洲农业开发与可持续发展研究

本文分析了黄河三角洲农业开发的有利条件、开发现状和存在的主要问题,探讨了农业生产的合理布局,提出了农业可持续发展的对策．     

Estimating Current and Future Groundwater Resources of the Maldives

The water resources of the atolls of the Republic of Maldives are under continual threat from climatic and anthropogenic stresses, including land surface pollution, increasing population, drought, and sea‐level rise (SLR). These threats are particularly acute for groundwater resources due to the small land surface area and low elevation of each island. In this study, the groundwater resources, in terms of freshwater lens thickness, total volume of fresh groundwater, and safe yield are estimated for the 52 most populous islands of the Maldives for current conditions and for the year 2030, with the latter accounting for projected SLR and associated shoreline recession. An algebraic model, designed in previous studies to estimate the lens thickness of atoll islands, is expanded in this study to also estimate volume of groundwater. Results indicate that average current lens thickness, groundwater volume, and per capita safe yield are approximately 4.6 m, 1,300 million liters, and 300 l/day, and that these values will decrease by approximately 10, 11, and 34%, respectively, by the year 2030. Based on results, it is demonstrated that groundwater, in terms of quantity, is a viable source of water for the islands of the Maldives both now and in coming decades, particularly for islands with large surface area and low population. Study results can provide water resource managers and government officials with valuable data for consideration in water security measures.     

The evolution of socio-ecological systems: changing palm species management in the Colombian Amazon as an indicator of ecological and institutional change

We investigate natural resource governance in three indigenous communities in the Colombian Amazon. We base our analysis on an evolutionary governance model in which governance dimensions emerge as relevant through time. The less accessible of the communities represents earlier steps in governance evolution, while the more physically accessible is more integrated into the western scene. We observe how increased physical accessibility in a community brings in western governance models which hybridize with more traditional ones, influencing the couplings between the social and ecological systems. We zoom in on changing management of three commonly used palm species and illustrate how detailed studies of natural resource management contribute to understanding governance evolution. By comparing governance evolutions we were able to gain insights and improve our understanding on how natural resource management changes in communities transiting into western ways of living. In doing so we recognized points of rigidity and flexibility which might influence the social ecological systems capacity to adapt to changing conditions.     

Agricultural Production Monitoring in the Sahel Using Remote Sensing: Present Possibilities and Research Needs

The main objective is to review the current status of research related to the monitoring of agricultural production in the Sahel (west Africa). The Sahel suffers from frequent shortages of food. It is therefore important to have a tool to monitor environmental variables, and thus crop production, during the agricultural season. Satellite remote sensing can contribute significantly to such a system by collecting information on crops and on environmental variables at a sub-continental geographical scale and with a high temporal frequency. One part of the problem is to estimate crop acreage. The technique of area-sampling frame has to adapted to the Sahelian landscape, which is dominated by traditional farming systems. The second part is to estimate crop yields. Three main approaches exist: statistical, semi-deterministic or deterministic. The use of vegetation indices is discussed as well as techniques to derive biophysical variables from remotely-sensed data. Finally, the integration of these remote-sensing techniques with crop-growth models is discussed and some research needs are identified. It is argued that the quantitative assessment of agricultural production in the Sahel should be based on the integration of remotely-sensed data with semi-deterministic agrometeorological models. This approach will allow a regionalization of the production estimates.     

Assessing the role of economic actors in the production of private and public goods in three EU agricultural landscapes

The study analyses the contribution of relevant economic actors to the provision of private and public goods in agricultural landscapes. A method consisting of a multi-sectoral perspective and an integrated approach based on the analytic network process (ANP) and the use of selected local stakeholders is applied. The usefulness of the method is demonstrated in three European case studies in Austria, Italy and Spain. The results show that agriculture and tourism are the sectors that contribute the most and the least, respectively, to the provision of goods and services in agricultural landscapes. Moreover, the results underscore that policy instruments towards such provision need to be targeted differently in different areas and must take into account the different roles of the local actors involved.     

东北三省农业碳排放效率时空演化特征及驱动因素分析

在经济社会低碳转型变革中,农业作为三大支柱产业之一,其碳排放效率是判断农业可持续发展的重要指标。本研究采用考虑非期望产出的全局SBM模型测算东北三省36个城市在2010—2019年的农业碳排放效率,并运用空间聚类分析和地理探测器探究其空间分异特征及驱动因素,旨在为推动东北地区实现农业高质量发展提供启示。研究结果显示：① 2010—2019年东北三省农业净碳汇总量和农业碳排放效率整体呈上升趋势,从城市尺度出发计算得到效率平均值由0.540提高至0.743;其中吉林省净碳汇增量及效率在研究期内均居于首位,黑龙江省和辽宁省分别具有“高排高汇”和“低排低汇”特征,研究期内各省效率值均有提高。②空间上东北三省农业碳排放效率呈现出“区块状”分布特征,空间聚集程度逐渐增强。③从整体尺度看,将东北地区整体农业碳排放效率作为样本,农业机械率成为研究期内决定力均值最高的驱动因子,但其作用强度逐渐削弱;通过观察不同时期关键交互因子发现,社会因素作用强度逐渐增强。从区域尺度看,农业机械率是影响黑龙江省、辽宁省农业碳排放效率空间分异格局的主导驱动因子,吉林省农业碳排放效率空间分异格局的主导驱动因子是农产品规模和城镇化率;而农业机械率与农业产业结构经过空间叠加后形成的交互因子,对三个省份农业碳排放效率空间分异格局都起到决定性作用。