Norwegian farmers ceasing certified organic production: Characteristics and reasons

This article examines the characteristics of and reasons for Norwegian farmers’ ceasing or planning to cease certified organic production. We gathered cross-sectional survey data in late 2007 from organic farmers deregistering between January 2004 and September 2007 (n = 220), and similar data from a random sample of farmers with certified organic management in 2006 (n = 407). Of the respondents deregistering by November 2007, 17% had quit farming altogether, 61% now farmed conventionally, and 21% were still farming by organic principles, but without certification. Nearly one in four organic farmers in 2007 indicated that they planned to cease certification within the next 5–10 years. From the two survey samples, we categorised farmers who expect to be deregistered in 5–10 years into three groups: conventional practices (n = 139), continuing to farm using organic principles (uncertified organic deregistrants, n = 105), and stopped farming (n = 33). Of the numerous differences among these groups, two were most striking: the superior sales of uncertified organic deregistrants through consumer-direct marketing and the lowest shares of organic land among conventional deregistrants. We summarised a large number of reasons for deregistering into five factors through factor analysis: economics, regulations, knowledge-exchange, production, and market access. Items relating to economics and regulations were the primary reasons offered for opting out. The regression analysis showed that the various factors were associated with several explanatory variables. Regulations, for example, figured more highly among livestock farmers than crop farmers. The economic factor strongly reflected just a few years of organic management. Policy recommendations for reducing the number of dropouts are to focus on economics, environmental attitudes, and the regulatory issues surrounding certified organic production.     

Ethical limits to domestication

Through the process of domestication the genetic make-up of farm animals can be changed by means of either selective breeding or genetic engineering. This paper is about the ethical limits to such genetic changes. It is suggested that the ethical significance of domestication has become clear recently in the light of genetic engineering, but that the problem has been there all along. Two ethical approaches to domestication are presented, genetic integrity and animal welfare. It is argued that the welfare approach is superior. Finally, five ethical hypotheses based on the welfare approach are presented.     

Devolving power from the state: local initiatives for nature protection and recreation in Sweden

ABSTRACT

Quests for devolving more power to local actors for nature protection stem from both international and national policies. Also, there is a growing recognition of the need for local governments to promote green infrastructure for citizens to recreate and learn about their environment. Starting in 2004, the Swedish government has allocated special funding towards these goals through the Local Nature Conservation Programme (LONA). Virtually all Swedish municipalities have received such funding in pursuit of facilitating wide access to nature and promoting recreational activities, including the protection of nature areas, creating pathways, information devices, and promoting these areas among new societal groups to enjoy. This study presents the results of ten years of experience with LONA. A survey with respondents from 191 municipalities and 20 county administrations, together with 20 key informant interviews, show that the programme has been a success in several respects. Not only have most municipalities created a wealth of new ways to engage local organisations and citizens in nature conservation and recreation, but they have also broadened the ways they think about how nature is important to their constituencies. Due to innovative ways to count voluntary work as local matching of funding, smaller and less resourceful municipalities have also become engaged. Still, the local needs for further initiatives are deemed considerable. State support coupled with knowledge sharing is important to show policy priority to such bottom-up initiatives.     

Urban contractual agreements as an adaptive governance strategy: under what conditions do they work in multi-level cooperation?

ABSTRACT

The Norwegian urban growth agreement (UGA) is a governance platform combining transport-infrastructure development with land-use and transport policy. It is a policy package of measures involving network cooperation between national, regional and local government levels established to coordinate transport and land-use development. Shared responsibility for goal achievement, autonomy and learning and adaptation as new knowledge and experience arise are clear prerequisites for the UGAs. This makes it relevant to investigate the conditions for the UGAs to work as an adaptive governance strategy because their central features are in line with the attributes of adaptive governance. Further, adaptive governance is an approach to handle complex problems like transport development issues. The study shows that UGAs have several strengths in terms of autonomy and learning. However, the multi-level cooperation in the UGAs is framed by complex underlying structures of roles and powers, which challenge the working and legitimacy of the governance structures. Multi-level adaptive governance processes like the UGAs require attention to issues of power and legitimacy. Securing transparency and democratic anchorage is paramount in bringing such processes in line with the intended benefits of adaptive governance.     

Impact of food industrial waste on anaerobic co-digestion of sewage sludge and pig manure

The performance of an anaerobic digestion process is much dependent on the type and the composition of the material to be digested. The effects on the degradation process of co-digesting different types of waste were examined in two laboratory-scale studies. In the first investigation, sewage sludge was co-digested with industrial waste from potato processing. The co-digestion resulted in a low buffered system and when the fraction of starch-rich waste was increased, the result was a more sensitive process, with process overload occurring at a lower organic loading rate (OLR). In the second investigation, pig manure, slaughterhouse waste, vegetable waste and various kinds of industrial waste were digested. This resulted in a highly buffered system as the manure contributed to high amounts of ammonia. However, it is important to note that ammonia might be toxic to the micro-organisms. Although the conversion of volatile fatty acids was incomplete the processes worked well with high gas yields, 0.8-1.0 m3 kg(-1) VS.     

Modeling of non-reactive solute transport in fractured clayey till during variable flow rate and time

Fractures and biopores can act as preferential flow paths in clay aquitards and may rapidly transmit contaminants into underlying aquifers. Reliable numerical models for assessment of groundwater contamination from such aquitards are needed for planning, regulatory and remediation purposes. In this investigation, high resolution preferential water-saturated flow and bromide transport data were used to evaluate the suitability of equivalent porous medium (EPM), dual porosity (DP) and discrete fracture/matrix diffusion (DFMD) numerical modeling approaches for assessment of flow and non-reactive solute transport in clayey till. The experimental data were obtained from four large undisturbed soil columns (taken from 1.5 to 3.5 m depth) in which biopores and channels along fractures controlled 96-99% of water-saturated flow. Simulating the transport data with the EPM effective porosity model (FRACTRAN in EPM mode) was not successful because calibrated effective porosity for the same column had to be varied up to 1 order of magnitude in order to simulate solute breakthrough for the applied flow rates between 11 and 49 mm/day. Attempts to simulate the same data with the DP models CXTFIT and MODFLOW/MT3D were also unsuccessful because fitted values for dispersion, mobile zone porosity, and mass transfer coefficient between mobile and immobile zones varied several orders of magnitude for the different flow rates, and because dispersion values were furthermore not physically realistic. Only the DFMD modeling approach (FRACTRAN in DFMD mode) was capable to simulate the observed changes in solute transport behavior during alternating flow rate without changing values of calibrated fracture spacing and fracture aperture to represent the macropores.     

Validating a New Model for N Sequestration in Forest Soil Organic Matter

A conceptual model for N sequestration into the terrestrial nitrogen(N) sink is presented. The model uses foliar litter-fall data, limit values for litter decomposition, and calculated N concentration at the limit value (N_limit), giving the N concentration in the hypothesized stable remains. The N_limit values were determined extrapolating a linear relationship between accumulated litter mass loss and the increasing litter N concentration to the limit value. Thesequestration rates for N in boreal forest humus were calculated and validated for a Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) monocultural stand and mixed stands with Scots pine, Norway spruce (Picea abies L.), and silver birch (Betula pendula L.). The calculated stable N fraction was compared to actually measured amounts of N in humus layers that started to accumulate 2984, 2081, 1106, and 120 yr BP. Sequestration rates of N were measured to be 0.255, 0.221, 0.147, and 0.168 g m^-2 yr^-1 and modeled to be 0.204, 0.207, 0.190, and 0.190 g m^-2 yr^-1, respectively, with missing fractions being 11.0, 1.5, 30.8, and 13.3%, respectively. The more N-rich the litter, the larger was the N fraction sequestered. This was found for experimental Scots pine needle litter (n = 6) and for 53 decomposition studies, encompassing seven litter species. The amounts of N sequestered annually ranged from ca. 1–2 kg ha^-1 yr^-1 under nutrient-poor boreal conditions to about 30 kgha^-1 yr^-1 in temperate, more nutrient-rich forests.