Critical engagement,activist/academic subjectivities and organic agri-food research in Uganda

This paper provides a reflexive account of engagement in activist/academic organic agri-food research in Uganda. I argue that critical engagement across the third space – between and across activist and academic subjectivities – enables a re-thinking of the subjectivities of activist/academics and research participants and the place of research in social change and theory building. I demonstrate some of the multiple ways of enacting activism within the academy by reflecting on my critical engagement with the Katuulo Organic Pineapple Cooperative in Uganda, whose members grow certified organic pineapples for sale on the international market. While there is a growing interest in critical activist research, its agenda is also constrained by the corporatist turn in universities. As such, the subjectivities, methods and theory building of activist/academics in agri-food (and other) research represents part of the resistance to normalised ways of doing and being in contemporary neo-liberal universities.     

Radical,reformist, and garden-variety neoliberal: coming to terms with urban agriculture's contradictions

For many activists and scholars, urban agriculture in the Global North has become synonymous with sustainable food systems, standing in opposition to the dominant industrial agri-food system. At the same time, critical social scientists increasingly argue that urban agriculture programmes, by filling the void left by the “rolling back” of the social safety net, underwrite neoliberalisation. I argue that such contradictions are central to urban agriculture. Drawing on existing literature and fieldwork in Oakland, CA, I explain how urban agriculture arises from a protective counter-movement, while at the same time entrenching the neoliberal organisation of contemporary urban political economies through its entanglement with multiple processes of neoliberalisation. By focusing on one function or the other, however, rather than understanding such contradictions as internal and inherent, we risk undermining urban agriculture's transformative potential. Coming to terms with its internal contradictions can help activists, policy-makers and practitioners better position urban agriculture within coordinated efforts for structural change, one of many means to an end rather than an end unto itself.     

Lethal Effects of Water Quality on Threatened California Salamanders but Not on Co‐Occurring Hybrid Salamanders

Biological invasions and habitat alteration are often detrimental to native species, but their interactions are difficult to predict. Interbreeding between native and introduced species generates novel genotypes and phenotypes, and human land use alters habitat structure and chemistry. Both invasions and habitat alteration create new biological challenges and opportunities. In the intensively farmed Salinas Valley, California (U.S.A.), threatened California tiger salamanders (Ambystoma californiense) have been replaced by hybrids between California tiger salamander and introduced barred tiger salamanders (Ambystoma tigrinum mavortium). We conducted an enclosure experiment to examine the effects habitat modification and relative frequency of hybrid and native California tiger salamanders have on recruitment of salamanders and their prey, Pacific chorus frogs (Pseudacris regilla). We tested whether recruitment differed among genetic classes of tiger salamanders (hybrid or native) and pond hydroperiod (seasonal or perennial). Roughly 6 weeks into the experiment, 70% (of 378 total) of salamander larvae died in 4 out of 6 ponds. Native salamanders survived (n = 12) in these ponds only if they had metamorphosed prior to the die‐offs. During die‐offs, all larvae of native salamanders died, whereas 56% of hybrid larvae died. We necropsied native and hybrid salamanders, tested water quality, and queried the California Department of Pesticide Regulation database to investigate possible causes of the die‐offs. Salamander die‐offs, changes in the abundance of other community members (invertebrates, algae, and cyanobacteria), shifts in salamander sex ratio, and patterns of pesticide application in adjacent fields suggest that pesticide use may have contributed to die‐offs. That all survivors were hybrids suggests that environmental stress may promote rapid displacement of native genotypes. Efectos Letales de la Calidad del Agua sobre Salamandras de California Amenazadas pero no sobre Salamandras Híbridas Concurrentes     

涟水县农业区域开发规划

搞好综合开发是建设现代化农业的战略措施之一,而要搞好综合开发,必先搞好农业区域开发规划。本文根据涟水地区的自然资源、社会经济条件和市场对农副产品及其制品需求出发,把涟水县域划分为2个开发区域,从分析开发的潜力入手,通过投资和效益的分析,提出了区域近、远期的开发目标、步骤和相应的开发措施。     

Water Resource Management in Botswana: Balancing Sustainability and Economic Development*

Botswana is a rapidly developing country in southern Africa. Over the last three decades, diamond mining and tourism have provided double-digit rates of economic growth. Yet most of Botswana’s land is in the Kalahari desert where the climate is subject to sustained periods of severe drought. In this environment, water resources are the most crucial of all environmental resources. Water use directly affects economic development because water utilization impacts all the major national economic sectors. A sustainable water use resource management plan must stretch several decades into the future to assure the availability of adequate supplies of water to future generations while not compromising the ability of the current generation to reasonable rates of economic development. Yet thinking about sustainability is present in Botswana water policy mostly only in rhetoric. A series of cultural traditions and political constraints, coupled with bureaucratic managerial weaknesses, serve to maintain a system of water allocation that is unsustainable in the long run and inefficient in the short-term. Unless sustainable water use patterns are adopted, the results for the short-term, as well as the long-term, will be devastating. Drawing on data obtained through a series of interviews with government officials, leaders of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and water resource researchers, this paper explores water policy in Botswana within the larger context of sustainable natural resource management practice and the pressures of economic development. This research was partially funded under U.S. Department of State, College and University Affiliations Grant # ASCS-1095.     

The morality behind sustainability

The concepts of sustainable agriculture, organic agriculture, regenerative agriculture, and alternative agriculture are receiving increasing attention in the academic and popular literature on present trends and future directions of agriculture. Whatever the reasons for this interest, there nevertheless remain differences of opinion concerning what counts as a sustainable agriculture. One of the reasons for these differences is that the moral underpinnings of a policy of sustainability are not clear. By understanding the moral obligatoriness of sustainability, we can come to understand precisely what must be sustained, and by implication, how. This article discusses the arguments that can be advanced for sustaining anything and initially concludes that our obligations to future generations entail sustaining more than just sufficient food production or an adequate resource base. Indeed, a tradition of care and community must underlie whatever agricultural and resource strategies we are to develop under the rubric of sustainability. A consideration of the larger social and environmental system in which agriculture operates and the constraints this system places on agriculture forces us to recognize that sustainability has to do with larger institutional issues, including our ability to incorporate our common morality democratically into our institutions, practices, and technologies.     

电子商务能改善农业生产的环境负效应吗?-来自上海青浦的证据

电子商务在农村农业领域的快速发展带动了农民收入的增加,但是其作用路径和环境效应有待检验.以上海市青浦区为典型案例,利用264份新型农业经营主体的问卷调查数据,采用IV-ordered Probit模型和夏普利值分解法,研究了"电子商务+农业"模式的经济效应和环境效应.结果表明：电子商务的引入具有显著的农民增收效应,但主要以产量扩大型传导机制为主,反而加剧了农业生产的环境负效应.电子商务并非农民增收的关键因素,其贡献率仅为12%;发挥决定性作用的是新技术、新方法的应用带来的效率提升,以及生产规模扩大带来的规模经济效应,相应的夏普利分解贡献了达到31%和25%.这表明当前的"电子商务+农业"模式仍处于初级发展阶段,需要加强相应的规制和引导,实现从产量驱动阶段向质量驱动阶段转型.     

中国农田土壤Cd累积分布特征及概率风险评价

通过检索2000~2022年国内外公开发表的文献资料,获得31个省240个市（县）区域160446个农田土壤样点的镉（Cd）含量数据,利用单因子污染指数、地累积指数和概率风险评价方法从整体上分析了我国农田土壤Cd污染时空分布特征及其健康风险,为农田土壤Cd污染治理和风险管控提供了科学依据.结果表明,我国农田土壤ω（Cd）范围在0.012~23.33 mg ·kg^-1,几何均值为0.473 mg ·kg^-1,是我国农用地土壤Cd风险筛选值（6.5华南>西北>东北>华东>华北;从时间尺度来看,我国农田土壤Cd含量在各时间段并无统计学意义的显著性差异（P>0.05）.我国农田土壤Cd对儿童、青年、成年人和老年人尚无非致癌风险,但其对成年人和老年人存在潜在致癌风险,约5.81%和4.49%的成年人和老年人的致癌风险超过美国环保署规定的限量值（1E-06）.为提高农田土壤Cd健康风险评价的准确性,概率生态风险评价中还需要进一步考虑土壤Cd的生物有效性和农产品的摄食暴露途径.     

论生态农业与中国农业现代化

本文首先分析了我国农业生态环境存在的一系列严重问题，潜伏着巨大的危机。继而指出造成这种现象的原因是多方面的，既有不可忽视的自然因素，更有人为作用的因素。既有历史原因，也有现实障碍。京山县生态环境建设案例的剖析再一次证明生态农业是我国农业现代化的必然选择。最后本文在分析我国生态农业建设障碍因素的基础上，提出了发展生态农业的对策措施。     

广西农业可持续发展的策略和措施

广西地处亚热带，光热水资源丰富，具有农业发展的良好条件。近年来，广西采取了一系列的改革措施，农业经济得到了较快发展。但在农业经济发展的同时，也面临着许多资源与环境问题。本文在分析广西农业经济发展的现状及其存在问题的基础上，提出了广西农业可持续发展的策略和措施