The Agricultural Scientific Enterprise

The Agricultural Scientific Enterprise

Author: Lawrence M Busch

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-07-11

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 1000314529

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The State Agricultural Experiment Stations have played a fundamental role in the development of science and agriculture in the United States. From their inception in 1887, the experiment stations have attempted to wed basic research with practical application and have helped institutionalize a utilitarian approach to agricultural science. Agricultural research and the new technology it helped to generate were major factors in the transformation of U.S. agriculture into a high technology, mechanized, science-based industry. Moreover, the experiment stations, as the first large-scale, publicly supported scientific research institutions in the United States, have also long been models for scientific institutions both here and abroad. Compiled for the 1987 centennial of the State Agricultural Experiment Stations, this volume critically examines past performance, current issues, and future directions for public agricultural research in the United States. Each of the authors, drawn from disciplines as diverse as philosophy and agronomy, focuses on a central concern for the scientific enterprise. Issues include priority setting, maintaining and promoting disciplinary and interdisciplinary effectiveness, supporting higher education for agriculture, and efficacious dissemination of research findings. By setting these issues in their historical and philosophical context, the volume suggests new approaches for meeting the continuing challenge to achieve equity, efficiency, sustainability, flexibility, conservation, and consistency with other objectives of U.S. society.


Farming for Our Future

Farming for Our Future

Author: PETER H.. ROSENBERG LEHNER (NATHAN A.)

Publisher:

Published: 2021-12-07

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 9781585762378

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Farming for Our Future examines the policies and legal reforms necessary to accelerate the adoption of practices that can make agriculture in the United States climate-neutral or better. These proven practices will also make our food system more resilient to the impacts of climate change. Agriculture's contribution to climate change is substantial--much more so than official figures suggest--and we will not be able to achieve our overall mitigation goals unless agricultural emissions sharply decline. Fortunately, farms and ranches can be a major part of the climate solution, while protecting biodiversity, strengthening rural communities, and improving the lives of the workers who cultivate our crops and rear our animals. The importance of agricultural climate solutions can not be underestimated; it is a critical element both in ensuring our food security and limiting climate change. This book provides essential solutions to address the greatest crises of our time.


Multifunctional Agriculture

Multifunctional Agriculture

Author: G. A. Wilson

Publisher: CABI

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 386

ISBN-13: 1845932579

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In a time of great agricultural and rural change, the notion of 'multifunctionality' has remained under-theorized and poorly linked to the debates in the social sciences. This book analyses the extent to which the proposed transition towards post-productivist agriculture holds up to scientific scrutiny, and proposes a new transition theory.


Transitions towards sustainable agriculture and food chains in peri-urban areas

Transitions towards sustainable agriculture and food chains in peri-urban areas

Author: Krijn J. Poppe

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2023-09-04

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13: 9086866883

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Agriculture is changing rapidly. The greatest current challenge to the agricultural sector is for it to become sustainable in all three of the dimensions profit, people and planet. This is certainly the case in highly urbanized countries like the Netherlands, where agriculture is confronted with high land prices, rising consumer concerns for issues like animal welfare and negative environmental effects but also with new demands from the city for recreation, health care and local food products. These are some of the developments in our society that are forcing agriculture to change. The government, farmers, the agri-food industry and the retail sector struggle to meet this challenge and find new forms of governance. In the Netherlands, the government has called for a ‘transition towards sustainable agriculture’ and it is investing in this programme with its research and education policy. Similar trends have been observed in other countries. This book presents the expertise that has been accrued from at least five years of Dutch research in this area. The aim is to collate the results of the experiments, to learn from them, to confront them with existing theory and to share them with a larger audience in order to foster learning about transition. Given the leading position of the Netherlands in global agriculture, in a highly urbanized setting, and its leading position in the study of transition theory this should be of significant interest to students and researchers of the transitions in agriculture.


Agricultural Science Policy

Agricultural Science Policy

Author: Julian M. Alston

Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst

Published: 2001-01-01

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 0801866049

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Agricultural research and development have profoundly increased the quantity and quality of food production in the twentieth century. As populations increase, however, and land and water resources become more scarce, we must improve productivity and efficiency to provide adequate food supplies. Issues such as the environment, genetic diversity, food safety, poverty, human health, animal rights, public versus private responsibilities, and the question of intellectual property rights further complicate this task. Agricultural Science Policy: Changing Global Agendas consists of twelve chapters that describe important issues in agricultural science policy, the relevant facts, current economic thinking, and new results. Topics Include: Changing Global Contexts and Agendas for Agricultural R & D; Productivity Measures and Measurement; Research, Productivity, and Natural Resources; Research for Genetic Improvement; and a Conclusion, which suggests directions for the future. The chapters in this volume will provide researchers and policy makers with a timely review of progress on the existing agenda as well as laying the foundation for a new agenda and new directions for global agricultural science policy in the 21st century. Contributors: Julian M. Alston, University of California-Davis ? Walter J. Armbruster, President of the Farm Foundation ? Peter J. Barry, University of Illinois ? Wilfred Beckerman, University of Oxford ? Derek Byerlee, World Bank ? Barbara J. Craig, Oberlin College ? Robert Evenson, Yale University ? Richard Gray, University of Saskatchewan ? Zvi Griliches, Harvard University ? Paul W. Heisey, U.S. Department of Agriculture ? Frances Homans, University of Minnesota ? Peter Lindert, University of California-Davis ? Stavroula Malla, University of Saskatchewan ? Philip G. Pardey, International Food Policy Research Institute and University of Minnesota ? Prabhu L. Pingali, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center ? Ismail Serageldin, World Bank and the American University in Cairo ? Michael J. Taylor, Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry, Australia ? Greg Traxler, Auburn University ? James Wilen, University of California-Davis ? Brian Wright, University of California-Berkeley. Published in cooperation with the International Food Policy Research Institute.


Agriculture in Transition

Agriculture in Transition

Author: Donald L. Schriefer

Publisher:

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13:

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Now you can tap the source of many of agriculture¿s most popular progressive farming tools. Ideas now commonplace in the industry, such as ¿crop and soil weatherproofing,¿ the ¿row support system,¿ and the ¿tillage commandments,¿ exemplify the practicality of the soil/root maintenance program that serves as the foundation for Schriefer¿s highly-successful ¿systems approach¿ farming. A veteran teacher, lecturer and writer, Schriefer¿s ideas are clear, straightforward and practical.