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Full-Text Articles in Sustainability
Social Ecological Food Systems: Sustainability Lessons From Maine Dairy Networks, Julia B. Mcguire
Social Ecological Food Systems: Sustainability Lessons From Maine Dairy Networks, Julia B. Mcguire
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Milk production has played an integral role in the culture, landscape, and economy of Maine’s agriculture. Maine dairy farmers have faced numerous sustainability challenges to economic, environmental, and social aspects of their industry. Like many other complex social ecological systems, the Maine dairy industry faces a gap between scientific knowledge and actionable management or policy. A cultural dichotomy exists between conventional and organic farming. Shifting the focus from this binary, metrics such as social capital may play a key role in solving sustainability issues. Difficulties arise in the governance of complex social ecological systems when the scales of assessment, management, …
Global And Regional Assessments Of Unsustainable Groundwater Use In Irrigated Agriculture, Danielle S. Grogan
Global And Regional Assessments Of Unsustainable Groundwater Use In Irrigated Agriculture, Danielle S. Grogan
Doctoral Dissertations
Groundwater is an essential input to agriculture world-wide, but it is clear that current rates of groundwater use are unsustainable in the long term. This dissertation assesses both current use of groundwater for country- to global-scale agriculture, and looks at the future of groundwater. The focus is on 1) quantifying food directly produced as a result of groundwater use across spatially-varying agricultural systems, 2) projecting future groundwater demands with consideration of climate change and human decision-making, and 3) understanding the system dynamics of groundwater re-use through surface water systems. All three are addressed using a process-based model designed to simulate …