Noble goals and challenging terrain: organic and fair trade coffee movements in the global marketplace

Social relations associated with conventional agricultural exports find their origins in long term associations based on business, family, and class alliances. Working outside these boundaries presents a host of challenges, especially where small producers with little economic or political power are concerned. Yet, in many developing countries, alternative trade organizations (ATOs) based on philosophies of social justice and/or environmental well-being are carving out spaces alongside traditional agricultural export sectors by establishing new channels of trade and marketing. Coffee provides a case in point, with the fair trade and certified organic movements making inroads into the market place. In their own ways, these movements represent a type of economic and social restructuring from below, drawing upon and developing linkages beyond the traditional boundaries of how coffee is produced and traded. An examination of the philosophies of the fair trade and organic coffee movements reveal that the philosophical underpinnings of both certified organic and fair-trade coffee run counter to the historical concerns of coffee production and trade. Associations of small producers involved in these coffees face stiff challenges – both internal and external to their groups. More work, especially in situ fieldwork aimed at uncovering the challenges, benefits, tensions, and successes, is needed to understand better the ways these networks operate in the dynamic agro-food complex.     

Environmental response to intentional dissemination of Bacillus anthracis spores in the United States–2001

The intentional dissemination of Bacillus anthracis (anthrax) spores at multiple locations in the United States in the fall of 2001 resulted not only in several deaths and illnesses (including psychological effects), but likely changed lifestyles and attitudes, and increased the public's awareness of individual vulnerability. While federal resources had previously been committed to preparing local public health agencies for counter‐terrorism activities and to enhance environmental and medical response, these release episodes have increased the consistency of environmental and medical response activities, and increased government resources for homeland security. This article abstracts current information from many sources that summarize the environmental responses to the anthrax releases. The article discusses the international agreements and the U.S. regulations concerning biological weapons, the characteristics of the anthrax organism, potential exposure pathways, adverse health conditions resulting from inhalation exposure, the environmental response to two specific release episodes, environmental sampling and analytical procedures, recommended personal protective equipment, and the subsequent federal efforts to improve response capabilities. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Work-Family conflict: The effect of job and family involvement

A review of past research revealed inconsistent findings concerning the relationship between job involvement and work-family conflict. This study tested whether family involvement moderates the relationship between job involvement and work-family conflict. Two types of family involvement (spouse and parent) and two types of work-family conflict (job-spouse and job-parent) were assessed. Data were gathered via questionnaire from a sample of nonteaching professionals employed by a large public university in the northeastern United States. As hypothesized, job involvement and job-spouse conflict were positively related for individuals high in spouse involvement and unrelated for individuals low in spouse involvement. Contrary to prediction, parental involvement did not moderate the relationship between job involvement and job-parent conflict. Instead, job involvement was positively related to job-parent conflict regardless of the level of parental involvement. Results are discussed in terms of standards for role performance and strength of role demands. Implications for future research are also discussed.     

Intraspecific geographic-morphological variation patterns in Fucus distichus and F. evanescens

The intraspecific patterns of morphometric variation were examined in Fucus distichus L. and F. evanescens C.Ag., using samples gathered from 49 sites spread across the North Atlantic. Ten characters were measured on each plant. The data were subjected to bivariate regression analyses, canonical correlation analysis and nested analysis of variance (ANOVA). It was shown that the combined effects of the three environmental variables measured for each site (latitude, longitude and exposure) could only explain 23 and 15% respectively of the intraspecific morphometric variation. Inter-individual, within-site differences accounted for a further 62 and 53%. The remaining variation appears to be expressed on a geographic scale of tens of kilometres at most. Thus, the species seem to take the form of fine-scale phenotypic mosaics, superimposed on weak major clines. Such a pattern has not previously been described for any macroalga, although it is known in some angiosperms.     

Even Conservation Rules Are Made to Be Broken: Implications for Biodiversity

Despite efforts to enclose and control conservation zones around the world, direct human impacts in conservation areas continue, often resulting from clandestine violations of conservation rules through outright poaching, strategic agricultural encroachment, or noncompliance. Nevertheless, next to nothing is actually known about the spatially and temporally explicit patterns of anthropogenic disturbance resulting from such noncompliance. This article reviews current understandings of ecological disturbance and conservation noncompliance, concluding that differing forms of noncompliance hold differing implications for diversity. The authors suggest that forms of anthropogenic patchy disturbance resulting from violation may maintain, if not enhance, floral diversity. They therefore argue for extended empirical investigation of such activities and call for conservation biologists to work with social scientists to assess this conservation reality by analyzing how and when incomplete enforcement and rule-breaking drive ecological change.