Co-creating an alternative: the moral economy of participating in farmers’ markets

Growing dissatisfaction with the globalised food system, articulated on the behalf of both producers and consumers, has caused a variety of public debates surrounding the ethics of food production and consumption to become increasingly visible in society over the last two decades. Simultaneously, farmers’ markets (FMs) and other forms of direct marketing have experienced a noteworthy increase in participants, indicating an emerging demand for an alternative to conventional food networks, alternatives that are often perceived as providing a more just and moral relationship to food production and consumption. This study examines consumer and producer motivations for participation in FMs and opinions towards conventional and alternative agriculture in order to elucidate what (if any) values and morals are shared among producers and consumers. This study draws upon the theoretical framework of moral economy to understand whether these shared values suggest FM participants are working to co-create an alternative economy based on “moral” principles such as fairness, justice, and reciprocity. This mixed-methods study consists of consumer surveys (N?=?377) and semi-structured interviews with producers (N?=?17) from five FMs in the state of Delaware. The results suggest that producer and consumer motivations to participate in FMs, particularly a shared emphasis on social value, are indicative of a sense of moral economy. However, this moral economy is complicated by tension towards consumers and the alternative food movement more generally expressed on behalf of producers.     

Relating to nature,food and community in community gardens

This paper sheds critical light on the motivations and practices of community gardeners in relatively affluent neighbourhoods. The paper engages with community garden, alternative food and domestic garden literatures, to understand how people fit food production into their everyday lives, how they develop relationships to plants and how these in turn shape relations between people in a community group. The paper draws on participant observation and semi-structured walking interviews conducted at three community gardens in Sydney, Australia. The paper concludes that to fit community gardening into busy lives, people strategically choose plants with biophysical qualities that suit personal as well as communal circumstances and objectives. The paper shows how community is relationally constituted through the practices of growing and sharing food. Tensions might arise through the practices of growing food on communal and private plots and the taking and giving of food, but it can also encourage people to reflect on community food production and on their roles as individuals in a community group.     

Knowledge for environmental governance: probing science–policy theory in the cases of eutrophication and fisheries in the Baltic Sea

How science and policy interact has been a major research focus in the International Relations (IR) tradition, using the epistemic community (EC) concept, as well as in the alternative perspective of Science and Technology Studies (STS). Should science be autonomous and as apolitical as possible in order to ‘speak truth to power’, as suggested by EC or should the inevitable entanglement of science and politics be accepted and embraced so as to make advice more conducive to negotiating the explicit travails of political decision-making as suggested by STS? With this point of departure, we compare similarities and differences between science–policy interactions in the issue areas of eutrophication and fisheries management of the Baltic Sea. To examine how knowledge is mobilised, the concepts of ‘uncertainty’ and ‘coherence’ are developed, drawing on both EC and STS thinking. We then reflect on the explanatory value of these approaches in both cases and discuss how a separation of science and policy-making in the pursuit of achieving scientific consensus leads to ineffectual policies. Drawing on STS thinking, we urge for a re-conceptualisation of coherence in order to accommodate a more reflexive practice of science–policy interactions.     

Incommensurability and property rights in the natural environment

Cost–benefit analysis has been criticised on the grounds that it cannot compute the value of environmental goods whose value constitutively defies monetary valuation. Two forms of incommensurability make monetary valuation problematic: constitutive incommensurability and quantitative incommensurability. These pose a threat only to shadow pricing, and not the formation of prices in an actual market. Where property rights to environmental goods are appropriately assigned, the prices that form reflect the actual uses persons put them to, given their value commitments. In a real market, the formation of prices does not depend upon the assignment of cardinal values via monetary valuation; rather, the formation of prices is a side effect of the way in which environmental goods are used. A property right gives one the right to reject terms of exchange one deems inappropriate. Where sale of an environmental good is deemed inappropriate, it is kept out of the cash nexus. Incommensurability therefore precludes cost–benefit analysis, but not markets in environmental goods where property rights are appropriately allocated.     

Seed pre-soaking with 24-epibrassinolide reduces the imidacloprid pesticide residues in green pods of Brassica juncea L.

The effect of 24-epibrassinolide seed soaking on imidacloprid residues in green pods and mature seeds of Brassica juncea L. plants was investigated. The activities of the antioxidative enzymes glutathione-S-transferase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase, ascorbate peroxidase and guaiacol peroxidase, and the content of glutathione were determined. Imidacloprid residues in green pods were analyzed and quantified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, revealing that 24-epibrassinolide treatment resulted in a decrease of residues by almost 30%. In mature seeds, no pesticide residues were detected. Activities of all the antioxidative enzymes and glutathione content were found to be high in plants grown in soil amended with 300 mg imidacloprid kg^?1 soil, but pre-soaking with 100 nmol L^?1 24-epibrassinolide further enhanced the activities of all these enzymes and the glutathione content.     

Assessing the costs for adaptation of marine constructions to sea-level rise

Marine constructions are highly vulnerable to climate change and sea-level rise (SLR), leading to increased risk rates of destruction and the potential closure of ports, harbors, and marinas along the coast. We present a cost-adjustment analysis for such constructions along the south-eastern Mediterranean coast, which takes into account the physical characteristics of the constructions, and environmental uncertainty factors. At 0.5 m SLR, the estimated adjustment cost is USD 280 million, and at 1 m SLR, the estimated cost is USD 505 million. These costs are equivalent to 0.091% and 0.165% of the Israeli gross domestic production, respectively. Although high, these adjustment costs are lower than the costs of future damage that will accrue if we fail to act. This implies that the adaptation-policy approach to controlling for the risk of SLR will provide benefits to the economic marine sectors and the public at large.     

Journalistic Norms,Cultural Values,and Coverage of Climate Change in the Philippines

Developing nations have tended to have been overlooked in studies of climate reporting. This study is based upon a content analysis of three daily newspapers in the Philippines to examine climate change coverage compared to reporting by Western wire services. In addition, the study draws on individualist–collectivist theory to theorize about differences in reporting between the Philippine and Western wire sources. Despite the historic influence of the American news system on Philippine journalism, the study finds that Western journalistic norms do not describe Philippine climate reporting well and that Filipino-penned articles are more likely to include the value of collectivism rather than individualism. This suggests that national cultural differences may be reflected in climate reporting.     

COMPARISON BETWEEN SOLID–PHASE EXTRACTION METHODS FOR THE CHROMATOGRAPHIC DETERMINATION OF ORGANOPHOSPHORUS PESTICIDES IN WATER

A solid-phase microextraction (SPME) procedure has been developed to ex tract eight organophosphorus pesticides (OPs) in water and the method was compared with a conventional solid phase extraction (SPE) technique. The extracted OPs were analyzed by gas chromatography using thermionic specific detection. Both extraction methods presented linear calibration at least over the concentration range investigated (100 to 1000 ng.mL^?1 for SPE and 1 to 100 ng.mL^?1 for SPME). SPME method presented higher sensitivity than SPE. The quantitation limits were between 0.1 to 1.0 ng.mL^?1 for SPME depending upon the analyte, and 100 ng.mL^?1 for SPE. The precision, as measured by the standard deviations (RSD), were in the range 3.6 % to 5.8 % for SPME and 2.4 % to 9.2 % for SPE.

Along with the feature of being a solvent – free sampling technique, SPME offers additional benefits due to its high sensitivity, simplicity, and small size sample required (typically: SPE – 500 mL, SPME – 5 mL).     

Using Public–Private Interplay to Climate-Proof Urban Planning? Critical Lessons from Developing a new Housing District in Karlstad,Sweden

While strengthening public–private interplay is expected to improve the climate profile of urban planning in terms of mitigation and adaptation, less is known about the practice of such new interactive modes of governing. The paper critically examines the role, benefits and limitations of extended public–private interplay in developing a new housing district in Sweden. The developer dialogue between municipal officials and property developers confirms mutual interests, shared understandings and the added value of interacting. However, the closer the dialogue comes to settling agreements, the more difficult it gets for municipal officials to steer the process and its outcomes in favor of climate proofing. Complications with adapting to the new interactive setting means that municipal officials balance between acting as facilitators and/or regulators and property developers between acting as partners, competitors and/or defenders. Refining steering-strategies for sustaining commitments and securing formal agreements are pertinent for using public–private interplay to climate-proof urban planning.     

Effects of howler monkey reintroduction on ecological interactions and processes

Rewilding has been an increasingly popular tool to restore plant–animal interactions and ecological processes impaired by defaunation. However, the reestablishment of such processes has seldom been assessed. We investigated the restoration of ecological interactions following the reintroduction of the brown howler monkey (Alouatta guariba) to a defaunated Atlantic forest site. We expected the reintroduction to restore plant–animal interactions and interactions between howlers and dung beetles, which promote secondary seed dispersal. We estimated the number of interactions expected to be restored by the reintroduction to provide the baseline interaction richness that could be restored. We followed the reintroduced howler monkeys twice a week for 24 months (337 hours total) to assess their diet. We used howler monkey dung in secondary seed dispersal experiments with 2484 seed mimics to estimate the removal rates by dung beetles and collected the beetles to assess community attributes. We compared the potential future contribution of howler monkeys and other frugivores to seed dispersal based on the seed sizes they disperse in other areas where they occur. In 2 years, howler monkeys consumed 60 animal-dispersed plant species out of the 330 estimated. Twenty-one dung beetle species were attracted to experimentally provided dung; most of them were tunnelers, nocturnal, and large-sized (>10 mm). On average 30% (range 0–100%) of the large seed mimics (14 mm) were moved by dung beetles. About 91% of the species consumed by howlers (size range 0.3–34.3 mm) overlapped in seed size with those removed by dung beetles. In our study area, howler monkeys may consume more large-seeded fruit species than most other frugivores, highlighting their potential to affect forest regeneration. Our results show reintroductions may effectively restore ecological links and enhance ecological processes.