Agriculture Commons^™

Ireland V. United States: Agricultural And Environmental Sustainability Policies, Lauryn O'Grady

Accounting Undergraduate Honors Theses

The United States and Ireland have varying practices to achieve similar objectives in regard to environmental sustainability. While the European Union has maintained and updated a uniform policy throughout its existence--the Common Agricultural Policy--the United States instead created short-term solutions to a long-term problem. Not only does the United States tend to solve issues in the short-term, the policies between agricultural production and environmental sustainability are not necessarily aligned or remotely relative to the other. While the United States’ new Global Food Security Strategy implements parts of both agricultural and environmental sustainability, much of the history was not based off …

Societal Sustainability: Projects To Address The Three Dimensions Of A Sustainable Future, Braden K. Bateman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sustainability is an important, commonly discussed societal goal regarding assurance of resources for the world to be able to enjoy a prosperous future. Three primary dimensions of sustainability include environmental, economic, and social sustainability, and objectives for various projects can be aimed at any of the three dimensions to pursue societal sustainability. Solar installations, which can be used to pursue environmental and economic sustainability, convert abundant sunlight to electricity, displacing fossil fuel use that contributes harmful greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. The regulatory environment at the state level has a significant impact on the feasibility of solar projects. At present, …

Data Analytics For Sustainable Food And Agriculture Systems, Megan Lord Reavis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The increasing concentration of anthropogenic greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is altering the climate, posing a serious threat to global agriculture and food security. Agriculture and food production contribute a quarter of all GHG emissions produced, so there is a critical need to limit emissions in this area while increasing food production to feed the anticipated 10 billion people by 2050. To address the needs of the future, data-driven solutions are needed to guide decision-making and provide support for actionable climate mitigation and survival strategies. Research efforts must be focused on analyzing problems on multiple scales, identifying new ways to …

Drivers Of Rural Development Strategies At The Farm Level: A Case Study On Circular Agriculture In The Netherlands, Anna Berger Mulder

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The sustainability of the agricultural sector worldwide is increasingly being pressurized by ecological, economic, and social developments. The Dutch government is promoting enhancing circular agriculture as an important rural development strategy in response to the challenges the sector is facing. All farmers in the country will have to be involved in closed cycles by 2030, but many farmers do not want to or cannot make this transition. This study aims to identify the different factors that influence a farmer’s decision to transition towards circular agriculture. Based on thirteen semi-structured interviews with already transitioned farmers, a policy officer, a consultant, and …

Kc 4.2: “Principles Text” In Action In Outstanding And Ordinary Landscapes, Nora Mitchell Dr, Steve Brown Dr., Lionella Scazzosi Dr., Jane Lennon Dr., Brenda Barrett

ISCCL Scientific Symposia and Annual General Meetings // Symposiums scientifiques et assemblées générales annuelles de l'ISCCL // Simposios científicos yy las Asambleas Generales Anuales

In 2011, the ICOMOS-IFLA International Scientific Committee on Cultural Landscapes (ISCCL)began a cultural project, the World Rural LandscapesInitiative, with the goal of a wide and systematic approach to cultural heritage for rural areas both outstanding and ordinary) that has not been sufficiently developed in the past. A first goal has been achieved: “Principles Concerning Rural Landscape as Heritage” was adopted as a doctrinal text by ICOMOS (Delhi 2017) and translated in English, French, Chinese, Spanish and Arabian (worldrurallandscapes.org).

This Knowledge Café will focus on methods and case studies to implement the main premises and contents …

Assessment Of Watersheds For Sustainable Agriculture In Karnataka, India, Nicholas Adam Charles

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Modernization of traditional small-scale irrigation tanks in India is becoming increasingly popular. This is due to high costs of the alternative, of developing and constructing large-scale projects in rural areas. Examination of management strategies, resource allocation, and collective action has become paramount for promoting food security and livelihoods in water-stressed areas of Southeast Asia. Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing techniques are valuable to assessing the management of these irrigation systems, specifically small water storage reservoirs that capture runoff from the monsoon known as irrigation tanks. The primary goal of this study is to develop a stakeholder-informed approach to …

Evaluation Of The Brazilian Agrarian Reform Objective: Agricultural Production Yield Change, Tiffany Kwader Harbour

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Brazil has an active agrarian reform policy program, publicly organized by the federal government and publicly administered at the state level by the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform. The objective of the agrarian reform policy program is to retitle unproductive and underproductive rural lands to increase agricultural production and land use. Previous agrarian reform researchers have examined quantities of land redistributed, rural technology developments, and the impact of social movements on land redistribution, but a knowledge gap remains regarding the correlation of agricultural production yields in rural municipalities before and after policy program participation. The State of Ceará …

Urban Agriculture As Embedded In The Social And Solidarity Economy Basel: Developing Sustainable Communities, Isidor Wallimann

Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration

The Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) is a viable strategy in dealing with some contemporary problems known both in industrial and developing countries. Addressed is how local populations could reach certain objectives and satisfy certain needs using techniques characteristic of SSE and, thus, carve out a social and economic space of their own vis-à-vis anonymous markets, global actors, local and national elites. Illustrated further is this strategy on the example of Urban Agriculture Basel, a unit of the Social Economy Basel. Within this self governed space, it is suggested, a path can be laid for the necessary transition towards local, …

Exploring Agricultural Production Systems And Their Fundamental Components With System Dynamics Modelling, Jeffrey P. Walters, David W. Archer, Gretchen F. Sassenrath, John R. Hendrickson, Jon D. Hanson, John M. Halloran, Peter Vadas, Vladimir J. Alarcon

Faculty Publications - Biomedical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineering

Agricultural production in the United States is undergoing marked changes due to rapid shifts in consumer demands, input costs, and concerns for food safety and environmental impact. Agricultural production systems are comprised of multidimensional components and drivers that interact in complex ways to influence production sustainability. In a mixed-methods approach, we combine qualitative and quantitative data to develop and simulate a system dynamics model that explores the systemic interaction of these drivers on the economic, environmental and social sustainability of agricultural production. We then use this model to evaluate the role of each driver in determining the differences in sustainability …

Life Cycle Assessment Of Alternative Swine Management Practices, Prathamesh Avadhut Bandekar

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) are quantitative analyses of complex systems for evaluation of impacts and risk associated with management decisions. LCAs can be effective tools for determining comparative advantages of management strategies across specific impact concern. In this study, life cycle assessments of pork production management alternatives was performed. The alternative management practices included in this study were production of entire males (boars), use of pens for gestation housing, immunocastration, production without growth promoting antimicrobials, production without growth promoting and preventive antimicrobials, and production without ractopamine. These LCAs evaluated the impact of each management strategy on greenhouse gas emission (GHG), …

Food Waste At Retail, Erin G. Killeen Davis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Food waste at retail represents forgone sales and embodies store management and disposal costs. Fresh produce is the largest contributing sector to food waste at retail and bulky, seasonal products are an added challenge when stores experience a high waste event. In order to improve, retailers need to better understand the costs of food waste, as well as how management strategies can impact these costs.

Using pumpkins as an example of bulky, seasonal products, a twofold research project was conducted to better understand contributors to, and costs of food waste at the retail level. In part one, using data from …

The Supply Chain Of Fair Trade Coffee: Challenges, Opportunities & The Future Inside A Troubled Industry, Katharine D. Lukas

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

What started as a grassroots effort to aid tradespeople in developing nations, Fair Trade and similar certification models have, over the last sixty years, successfully established themselves as a viable alternative to conventional international trade; the ongoing growth of their market share and volume emphasize the increasing market demand for these alternatives. For coffee, Fair Trade's oldest and most established commodity, over two billion pounds was sold as certified in 2012 alone and the percentage of certified coffee continues to grow in share each year (Volcafe, 2012, Fair Trade USA 2012). As Fair Trade continues to grow, so does the …

Factors Influencing Sustainable Cocoa Production In Northern Haiti, Wegbert Chery

LSU Master's Theses

Given the environmental concerns on the one hand, especially soil erosion and deforestation, and the hope that the global cocoa market offers on the other hand, cocoa production is a potential candidate to simultaneously guarantee a competitive return to investment for farmers in northern Haiti and mitigate the negative environmental impact of farming practices. It becomes crucial for policy makers and investors to know and understand the key elements of the decision to produce cocoa. Though there has been substantial effort to improve the cocoa sector in Haiti, cocoa production systems in Haiti lag behind in the area of sustainability. …

Urban Farm And Community Garden Hybrid Models: A Case Study Of The Huerta Del Valle Community Garden, Leah Hochberg

Scripps Senior Theses

This study examines models of community gardens and urban farms and determined a successful hybrid model for future implementation at the Huerta del Valle Community Garden. This was accomplished through analyzing the unique benefits and drawbacks of community gardens and urban farms as defined by the author, and then determining the components of each model that would maximize Huerta del Valle’s social and economic potential. Community gardens are defined in this thesis as places where community members can grow their own food in individual plots, and these spaces often contribute to community building, hands-on gardening education, and improved food access. …

Moving To A New Paradigm: A Reflection On Ethics, Sara Bajor '15

Richard T. Schellhase Essay Prize in Ethics

No abstract provided.

Impacts And Feasibility Of The Us And The Eu Sustainability Criteria On Existing Land-Use Practices, Krissana Treesilvattanakul

Open Access Dissertations

Several studies have examined the land use and economic consequences of national and multi-national biofuel policies. They explored the impacts of biofuels mandates mainly based on the quantitative biofuel targets. However, the recently updated renewable policies of the United States and the European Union, which are the US Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and EU Directive 2009/28 of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) both place restrictions on land that can be used to produce biofuel, and these restrictions are generally known as sustainability criteria. This research aims to determine to what extent sustainability criteria are actually binding; that is, would they …

The New England Food System In 2060: Envisioning Tomorrow's Policy Through Today's Assessments, Margaret Sova Mccabe, Joanne Burke

Law Faculty Scholarship

This Essay analyzes how the New England states' planning processes are envisioning revitalized local, state, and regional food systems. This Essay has five parts. First, it begins with examining compelling reasons for promoting more sustainable food systems based on national and global trends, and identifies strategies for promoting regional food systems approaches with a brief introduction to the major influences on the national and New England food system. Second, it describes the states' planning efforts and their enabling legislation or source of authority.

The Essay then introduces the New England Food Vision 2060 (the Vision) an emerging discussion of food …

Nerica, Kimaa, And The Sustainability Of Rice Farming In Magbainba Ndohahun Chiefdom, Sierre Leone: An Anthropological Perspective, Christopher M. Thomas

Global Honors Theses

With the looming threat of a world food shortage, it has become increasingly important for developing African countries to strengthen their indigenous farming practices. This thesis examines the system of rice farming within Sierra Leone’s rural Magbainba Ndohahun Chiefdom, which the author visited in 2008 as part of a University of Washington interdisciplinary program on rice farming methods. Practices related to fallowing, fertilization, hired labor, and land tenure (kimaa) are discussed and placed within the context of long-term sustainability.

Sheep Updates 2005 - Part 6, Sarah Pugh, Giles Glasson, Ed Barrett-Lennard, Hayley Norman, Matt Wilmot, Meir Altman, Kelly Pearce, Sally Phelan, David Masters, Nadine Eva, Brad Wooldridge, Stephen Gherardi, Lucy Anderton, Gonzalo Mata, P. Sanford, J Young, Tim Wiley, Richard Quinlan, Chris Oldham, Mike Hyder, Mandy Curnow, Samantha Giles, Andrew Thompson

Sheep Updates

This session covers seven papers from different authors:

PASTURES/GRAZING

1. New annual pastures - quality and quantity for fodder conservation?, Sarah Pugh and Giles Glasson, Department of Agriculture Western Australia

2. Saltland Pastures: Dispelling some Myths, Ed Barrett-Lennard^1,3, Hayley Norman^2,3, Matt Wilmat^2,3, Meir Altman,³, Kelly Pearce^2,3, Sally Phelan⁴, David Masters^2,3, ^1. Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, ² CSIRO Livestock Industries, Floreat, WA, ³. CRC for Plant-based Management of Dryland Salinity ⁴. Saltland Pastures Association

3. Pastures: Putting profit back into sandplain, Nadine Eva, Department …

The Mortenson Ranch: Cattle And Trees At Home On The Range. A Restoration Guidebook, Susan E. Boettcher, W. Carter Johnson, Scott Kronberg, F. Robert Gartner, Clarence Todd, Jeff Mortenson, Scott Fausti

Natural Resource Management Faculty Publications

Early agriculture on western rangeland met with little success and resulted in serious consequences including soil erosion, loss of native woodlands and wildlife, and economic ruin. The Mortenson family in Stanley County, South Dakota, has been engaged in restoring degraded rangeland on their ranch for more than 50 years. Their primary goal has been to return the land to its condition prior to white settlement while maintaining a profitable cattle ranching operation. In recent years the ranch has served as a model of successful ranching based on a conservation ethic. This guidebook summarizes the restoration techniques and grazing regime used …

Case Study Of The Profitability Of A South Dakota Farm Using The Integrated Farm Managment Program, Charles L. Prouty, Thomas L. Dobbs

Economics Pamphlet Series

This report is one of five covering case study farms in the east-central South Dakota portion of the Big Sioux Aquifer area. The other four reports are South Dakota State University Econ Pamphlets 95-1 through 95-4, published in September 1995. operators of each of the case study farms covered in the five reports were participating in some segment of the Federal farm program aimed specifically at improving the ecological sustainability of U.S. agriculture. The case farm featured in this report was participating in the Integrated Farm Management (IPM) program of the 1990 Farm Bill. Since the data collection and analyses …

Profitability And Nitrate Leaching Effects Of Possible Farming Practice And System Changes Over South Dakota's Big Sioux Aquifer: Case Farm No. 1 Summary, Lon D. Henning, Burton W. Pflueger, John H. Bischoff, Thomas L. Dobbs

Economics Pamphlet Series

The overall goal of the SARE/Water Quality project was to determine whether economic incentives offered by recent environmental provisions of the Federal farm program are sufficient to induce Western Corn Belt/Northern Great Plains farmers in environmentally sensitive areas to adopt sustainable farming practices and systems. To attain this goal, four case farms were chosen to be involved in this study based on their size, soil types, cropping systems, topography, and management in the Big Sioux Aquifer study area.

Profitability And Nitrate Leaching Effects Of Possible Farming Practice And System Changes Over South Dakota's Big Sioux Aquifer: Case Farm No. 4 Summary, Lon D. Henning, Thomas L. Dobbs, John H. Bischoff, Burton W. Pflueger

Economics Pamphlet Series

The overall goal of the SARE/Water Quality project was to determine whether economic incentives offered by recent environmental provisions of the Federal farm program are sufficient to induce Western Corn Belt/Northern Great Plains farmers in environmentally sensitive areas to adopt sustainable farming practices and systems. To attain this goal, four case farms were chosen to be involved in this study based on their size, soil types, cropping systems, topography, and management in the Big Sioux Aquifer study area. Case Farm No. 4 is located in Brookings County and followed a continuous corn rotation prior to enrollment in the Water Quality …

Profitability And Nitrate Leaching Effects Of Possible Farming Practice And System Changes Over South Dakota's Big Sioux Aquifer: Case Farm No. 2 Summary, Lon D. Henning, John H. Bischoff, Thomas L. Dobbs, Burton W. Pflueger

Economics Pamphlet Series

The overall goal of the SARE/Water Quality project was to determine whether economic incentives offered by recent environmental provisions of Federal farm program are sufficient to induce Western Corn Belt/Northern Plains farmers in environmentally sensitive areas to adopt sustainable fa practices and systems. To attain this goal, four case farms were chosen involved in this study based on their size, soil types, cropping systems, topography, and management in the Big Sioux Aquifer study area. Case Farm No. 2 is located in Moody County and followed a corn-soybean oats rotation on the acres focused on in the analysis prior to enrollment …

Profitability And Nitrate Leaching Effects Of Possible Farming Practice And System Changes Over South Dakota's Big Sioux Aquifer: Case Farm No. 3 Summary, Lon D. Henning, Thomas L. Dobbs, John H. Bischoff, Burton W. Pflueger

Economics Pamphlet Series

The overall goal of the SARE/Water Quality project was to determine whether economic incentives offered by recent environmental provisions of the Federal farm program are sufficient to induce Western Corn Belt/Northern Great Plains farmers in environmentally sensitive areas to adopt sustainable farming practices and systems. To attain this goal, four case farms were chosen to be involved in this study based on their size, soil types, cropping systems, topography, and management in the Big Sioux Aquifer study area. Case Farm No.3 is located in Minnehaha County and has corn, soybeans, oats, alfalfa, and clover. It is a dry-land operation that …