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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Science, Sentience, And Animal Welfare, Robert C. Jones Jul 2017

Science, Sentience, And Animal Welfare, Robert C. Jones

Robert C. Jones, PhD

I sketch briefly some of the more influential theories concerned with the moral status of nonhuman animals, highlighting their biological/physiological aspects. I then survey the most prominent empirical research on the physiological and cognitive capacities of nonhuman animals, focusing primarily on sentience, but looking also at a few other morally relevant capacities such as self-awareness, memory, and mindreading. Lastly, I discuss two examples of current animal welfare policy, namely, animals used in industrialized food production and in scientific research. I argue that even the most progressive current welfare policies lag behind, are ignorant of, or arbitrarily disregard the science on …


Tb182: Agricultural Land Changes In Maine: A Compilation And Brief Analysis Of Census Of Agriculture Data, 1850-1997, Soeun Ahn, William B. Krohn, Andrew J. Plantinga, Timothy J. Dalton Aug 2013

Tb182: Agricultural Land Changes In Maine: A Compilation And Brief Analysis Of Census Of Agriculture Data, 1850-1997, Soeun Ahn, William B. Krohn, Andrew J. Plantinga, Timothy J. Dalton

William B. Krohn

The purpose of this study is to compile the best available long-term historical information on agricultural land use in Maine and to briefly analyze these data to develop a statewide description of Maine's land use history from the mid-1800s to present. Our emphasis is on compiling statistically based information and, in particular, land use data reported in the Census of Agriculture. Objectives were (1) to compile available statewide data on agricultural land and land cover (LULC) in Maine, 1850-1997; (2) to examine temporal and spatial patterns in the LULC of Maine; and (3) to discuss the implications of the major …


Geologic Constraints On Rain-Fed Qocha Reservoir Agricultural Infrastructure, Northern Lake Titicaca Basin, Peru, Nathan M. Craig, Mark Aldenderfer, Paul Baker, Catherine Rigsby, :Luis Flores Blanco Jan 2011

Geologic Constraints On Rain-Fed Qocha Reservoir Agricultural Infrastructure, Northern Lake Titicaca Basin, Peru, Nathan M. Craig, Mark Aldenderfer, Paul Baker, Catherine Rigsby, :Luis Flores Blanco

Nathan M Craig

This paper reports new data on qocha ponds from the Rio PucaraeAzángaro interfluvial zone, northern Lake Titicaca Basin, Peru. Qocha are a little known form of Andean agriculture that developed around 800e500 B.C. and remain in use today. Prior estimates suggested that in the study area, there were more than 25,000 qocha. While most Andean sunken beds are excavated to reach groundwater, qocha are rain- fed ponds. How these rain-fed ponds functioned has been an open question, but one that is answered in part by research presented in this paper.We suggest that a thick impermeable stratum of clay that was …


Emerging Law Addressing Climate Change And Water, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson Jan 2010

Emerging Law Addressing Climate Change And Water, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

The World Economic Forum recognizes that while restrictions on energy affect water systems and vice versa, energy and water policy are rarely coordinated. The International Panel on Climate Change predicts that wet places will become wetter and dry places will become dryer. Transboundary water, energy and climate coordination can occur through international consensus building.


When Beef Was King. Or Why Do Colombians Eat So Little Pork?, Shawn Van Ausdal Mar 2008

When Beef Was King. Or Why Do Colombians Eat So Little Pork?, Shawn Van Ausdal

Shawn Van Ausdal

This article seeks to understand why Colombians, compared to many other Latin Americans, have traditionally eaten so much more beef than pork. The article first points to the development of a culinary tradition that favored beef. The bulk of the argument, though, centers on the fact that, historically, beef has been substantially cheaper than pork. This price difference, in turn, is rooted in the low productivity of Colombian agriculture, which made corn, often used to fatten hogs, expensive. Additional factors that favored beef include a receding agrarian frontier, a small hog population, the various advantages of cattle, a conflict–ridden history …


Critical Examination Of Ghana’S Agriculture Policy Under Vision 2020 Document - Ppt, Hector Addison Jan 2007

Critical Examination Of Ghana’S Agriculture Policy Under Vision 2020 Document - Ppt, Hector Addison

Hector Addison

Ghana, like many developing economies has a huge agricultural based with cocoa being the major export commodity. Since independence in 1957, Ghana had struggled to put together and implement and model of development that guarantees better life for her citizenry. This paper looks at one such document and analyzes it from agriculture perspective in the context of present realities. It is clear that Ghana stands to gain from a transformed agricultural sector which might lead the way to discover the eluded glory as a resource endowed nation


Peripheral Vision: Globalization, Sustainable Development, And The Political Ecology Of Cotton Production In Mali, William G. Moseley Jan 2002

Peripheral Vision: Globalization, Sustainable Development, And The Political Ecology Of Cotton Production In Mali, William G. Moseley

William G Moseley

This chapter examines the evolving dynamic among cotton production for the world market, environmental degradation, and global development paradigms in Mali. It examines how cotton production policy in Mali has changed over time and how this evolution implicate globalization discourse. It also examines the environmental impacts of cotton production, how this is problematized, and how solutions are evoked within globalization discourse. A major sub-text of this analysis is that the economy-environment nexus in Mali is the result of intersecting processes operating at different spatial scales: the global cotton market, national level policy, and local production decisions; all underlain by environmental …