Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

“Common Sense” Versus “Good Sense”: Marginalization In Agriculture, Mark W. Hoock

Masters Theses

Scholars have engaged in discussions of when and where capitalism emerged in agrarian America. These discussions have led to categorizations that placed some farms outside the discussion of capitalist interrelationships. This separation homogenized many 19^th and early 20^th century farms on the Hector Backbone in Schuyler County New York into a “non-capitalist” category. This thesis aims to illuminate the real lived conditions of a sample of these farmers through a Marxist dialectical perspective. Archeological analysis of production strategies, through a Marxist framework allows for a better understanding of the differences between individual marginalized farms. Since analysis of a …

Assessing The Influence Of Conservation Agriculture On Household Wellbeing And Maize Marketing In Tete And Manica Mozambique, William Edward Mcnair

Masters Theses

In recent years there has been a movement on the part of farmers, governments, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO), and the international community to promote the use of sustainable agricultural practices. In Sub-Saharan Africa, this has translated into programs with the expressed aim of increasing smallholder farmer adoption rates of conservation agriculture (CA). This thesis contributes to the analysis of the adoption of conservation agriculture by smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa by assessing the economic status of CA adopters in the providences of Manica and Tete, Mozambique.

Chapter II of the thesis examines the ceteris paribus correlation between smallholder farm household economic …

A Gis-Based Multi-Objective Optimization Of A Lignocellulosic Biomass Supply Chain: A Case Study In Tennessee, Zidong Wang

Masters Theses

To achieve an economically and environmentally sustainable lignocellulosic biomass (LCB)-based biofuel industry sector, the design and location of a sustainable LCB supply chain is important. In this study, a multi-objective optimization model integrated with high-resolution geographical data was developed to examine the optimal switchgrass supply chain for a potential biorefinery in Tennessee, specifically evaluating the potential tradeoffs between the objectives of minimizing plant-gate cost and GHG emissions from the switchgrass supply chain. The key findings of this study are as follows: both plant-gate feedstock cost and GHG emissions were sensitive to the type of land converted into switchgrass production, the …

Switchgrass Capacity Procurement Contract And Tonnage Contract Pricing, Tianpeng Zhou

Masters Theses

The on-farm production of switchgrass has been given considerable attention by farmers, policymakers and others. However, because the switchgrass market is not developed yet, most of the research only focuses on the switchgrass breakeven cost. The appropriate price combining interests of both the biorefinery and the farmers, or the contract price, has not been given enough attention.

Two types of contractual relationships are discussed in this thesis: Capacity Procurement Contract (CPC, per acre contract) and Tonnage Contract (TC, per ton contract). The contract prices of switchgrass under these two types of contracts are estimated in this analysis. Because the land …

Intensity Of Adoption Of Direct Marketing Strategies Among Fruit And Vegetable Farmers In Tennessee, Carey Ann Wolanin

Masters Theses

Consumer interest in fresher foods has increased over the past few years and has stimulated the growth of direct-to-consumer outlets. Tennessee currently hosts many types of direct food outlets, including farmer markets, CSAs, roadside stands, and pick-your-own operations. Using data from a 2011 survey of Tennessee fruit and vegetable producers, factors associated with the percentage of sales fruit and vegetable producers make through direct-to-consumer outlets or intensity of adoption of direct-to-consumer marketing strategies are evaluated using fractional logit and logit regressions. Findings suggest that the percentage of sales a producer makes through direct-to-consumer outlets is associated with farmer age, the …