Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Adding Value To Crop Production Systems By Integrating Forage Cover Crop Grazing, Robert B. Mitchell, Daren D. Redfearn, Kenneth P. Vogel, Terry J. Klopfenstein, Galen Erickson, P. Steven Baenziger, Bruce E. Anderson, Mary E. Drewnoski, Jay Parsons, Steven D. Masterson, Marty R. Schmer, Virginia L. Jin

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

In addition to their value as cereal grains, wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and triticale (× Triticosecale Wittmack) are important cool-season annual forages and cover crops. Yearling steer (Bos taurus) performance was compared in the spring following autumn establishment as for age cover crops after soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] grain harvest. Replicated pastures (0.4 ha) were no-till seeded in three consecutive years into soybean stubble in autumn, fertilized, and grazed the following spring near Ithaca, Nebraska, USA. Each pasture (n = 3) was continuously stocked in spring with four yearling steers (380 ± 38 kg) for …

Urban Food Sovereignty: Urgent Need For Agroecology And Systems Thinking In A Post-Covid-19 Future, Ali Loker, Charles A. Francis

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

The current COVID-19 pandemic has brought attention to challenges associated with our dominant industrial food system in the U.S. The general public now has more appreciation for farm workers and meatpacking employees, as well as those in grocery stores and in food transportation who are suddenly recognized as essential frontline workers. It apparently takes a crisis for us to focus clearly on the fragility of this system and the lives of people on whom we depend. In this commentary we discuss the definition of food sovereignty, how it manifests in urban areas, and how the COVID-19 pandemic can trigger viable …

Food Webs And Food Sovereignty: Research Agenda For Sustainability, Charles A. Francis, Michelle Miller, Molly Anderson, Nancy Creamer, Michelle Wander, Jacob Park, Thomas Green, Brent Mccown

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Future food production will be constrained by the scarcity of fossil fuel and fresh water as well as increasing intensity and unpredictability of weather events and climate changes. The assurance of food security and equity for many consumers is complicated by concentration of ownership of land and other production resources, as well as a global corporate food systems model that is driven by profit at the expense of people and the environment. To assess potential alternatives to the contemporary global food chain, well focused research is needed on local food production and food webs where small- and midscale family farms …

Critical Research Needs For Successful Food Systems Adaptation To Climate Change, Michelle Miller, Molly Anderson, Charles A. Francis, Chad Kruger, Carol Barford, Jacob Park, Brent H. Mccown

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

There is a growing sense of the fragility of agricultural production in the Global North and South and of increasing risks to food security, as scientific observations confirm significant changes in the Gulf Stream, polar ice, atmospheric CO₂, methane release, and other measures of climate change. This sense is heightened as each of us experiences extreme weather, such as the increasing frequency of droughts, floods, unseasonal temperatures, and erratic seasonality. The central research challenge before us is how global, national, regional, and local food systems may adapt to accelerating climate change stresses and uncertainties to ensure the availability, …

Agriculture And Food In Crisis: Conflict, Resistance, And Renewal [Book Review], Charles A. Francis

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Edited by Fred Magdoff and Brian Tokar. 2010. Monthly Review Press, New York, New York, United States. 348 p. Paperback, cloth US$ 75.00, paper US$ 18.95, ISBN-13 978-1-58367-226-6.

That doubling of food production over the next four decades will be needed to adequately nourish our human population is not news, but the incredible steps essential to achieve that goal and their political and social implications are less well reported. In this series of 16 essays edited by Fred Magdoff and Brian Tokar, several thoughtful specialists in global food issues explore the historical, biological, economic, energy, political and social dimensions of …

Agricultural Systems: Agroecology And Rural Innovations For Development [Book Review], Charles A. Francis

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

To welcome yet another book on sustainable development, a reviewer must look for what is unique and what adds value to the volumes already published. In Agricultural Systems, editors Sieglinde Snapp and Barry Pound have assembled a collection of chapters that goes beyond the usual praise and criticism of the green revolution and the focus on economic development. Their book provides a first-hand story by people with lengthy experiences in the field, especially in Africa, who have developed and tested grassroots, participatory development approaches. The result is a valuable set of principles, strategies and case studies that paint a new …

Marketing Locally Produced Foods: Consumer And Farmer Opinions In Washington County, Nebraska, Mindi L. Schneider, Charles A. Francis

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Local food system potentials were studied in Washington County, Nebraska, United States. As a departure from most studies of locally based systems, farmers were surveyed in addition to consumers for potential participation. Data about the current food system and opinions and preferences for local production, marketing, and purchasing of food were collected using self-administered mail questionnaires. The response rate was 35% for the farmer survey and 37% for the consumer survey. Results indicated that, on the farming side of the food system, conventional corn and soybean production and marketing predominated in Washington County, and farmer interest in producing for local …

Farming Systems Research/Extension And The Concepts Of Sustainability, Charles A. Francis, Peter E. Hildebrand

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Farming Systems Research and Extension (FSR/E) has strongly influenced the direction of agricultural development over the past two decades. Involving farmers, change agents and researchers, this participatory approach to technological improvement has evolved as an efficient means to develop individual components and more integrated systems that are uniquely suited to specific biophysical and socioeconomic conditions. Farmers with similar conditions and for whom specific recommendations are appropriate are grouped, in FSR/E, into identifiable Recommendation Domains. The technologies recommended conform with the biophysical and socioeconomic constraints that create environments within the domains, based on the philosophy that new technologies must conform with …