Search

Forage-animal production agriculture is implementing infrastructure changes and management strategies to adjust to increased energy-related costs of fuel, feed grains, fertilizers, and seeds. The primary objectives of this position paper are to assess future research and extension scientific needs in forage utilization, financial support for the discipline, and changing status and number of scientists. A survey questionnaire returned from 25 land-grant universities in the eastern half of the United States rated the top 4 research needs as 1) pasture systems and efficiency of production; 2) interfacing with energy concerns; 3) forage cultivar evaluations and persistence; and 4) environment impacts. Plant-animal future research needs at 11 USDA-ARS regional locations are targeted at sustainable management and improved livestock performance, ecophysiology and ecology of grasslands, environment impacts, and improved technologies for nutritive value assessments. Extension scientists from 17 southern and northeastern states listed the top 3 needs as forage persistence, soil fertility and nutrient management, and pasture systems and efficiency of production. Grant funds currently provide more than 40% of land-grant university research and extension efforts in forage utilization, and scientists estimate that this support base will increase to 55 to 60% of the funding total by 2013. Reduced allocation of state and federal funding has contributed to a reduction in the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) scientists engaged in forage utilization research and extension activities. The current 25 state FTE conducting research number about 2.8 per state. This includes 10 states with >3, 11 states with <2, and 3 states with <1 FTE. Increased interest in cellulosic energy, climate change, and environmental impact may offer new opportunities for these FTE to participate in integrated cross-discipline research Extension programming, and technology transfer methods will change to accommodate reduced funding but with increasing numbers of novice, recreation-oriented landowners.

This paper intends to look into the time-varying dynamic impact of US fuel ethanol, one of the renewable energy sources, on the prices of agricultural products (specifically corn, soybeans, rice, and wheat) in China based on monthly price data from January 2000 to January 2023. To achieve this, a time-varying parameter vector autoregressive (TVP-VAR) model is employed, which takes into account structural changes in emergencies through time-varying parameters. The empirical results show that the equal-interval impulse responses of price fluctuations in agricultural commodities are primarily positive to variations in fuel ethanol prices and production. And the intensity and direction of the effects vary at distinct time lags. Additionally, the magnitude of these responses is most pronounced in the short term for all agricultural commodities except for corn, and the duration of the impulse responses at different time points is generally longer for corn prices compared to other commodities. The study also reveals that the influence of US fuel ethanol on Chinese agricultural commodity prices is not substantial on the whole. Therefore, there is a necessity to advance the growth of biofuels and provide policy support and financial subsidies for agricultural products earmarked for food production. These actions could shed insights into the progression of Chinese renewable energy and food policies, ensuring the stability of the market in the long run., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The article presents the effects of a waste paper product on soil phosphorus, carbon, and bulk density. Soil test values for phosphorus have increased due to the applications of manures to agricultural fields in the United States. Because of the application, there is a probability that phosphorus will be in the surface water. The effect will be the degradation of water quality. The danger of phosphorus transport to surface water may be lowered through the application of waste paper on soils with high soil test phosphorus. In Booneville, Arizona, a test was conducted to show the effects of adding waste paper product on soil phosphorus, carbon, and bulk density.

Conservation practices focusing on improving the soil and water quality of working lands are implemented across the United States, supported partially through the United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service cost-share or incentive payment programs. We assess whether participation in federal conservation support programs induces a change in the number of conservation practices adopted by farmers. We also identify the factors that affect the adoption intensity of different best management practices. We use survey data collected from Louisiana farmers and estimate models using the matching method and Poisson quasi-likelihood model. We find that participation in the cost-share or incentive program leads to an increase in the number of conservation practices on the farms. Similarly, the use of precision technology application and farm being integrated are likely to have a higher number of on-farm conservation practices. Results have implications for federal working lands conservation support programs in the United States.

In 1978, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the international health community convoked a conference in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan, to address global inequalities in health. The conference resulted in the publication of the "Declaration of Alma-Ata," which made the ambitious call "for urgent action by all governments, all health and development workers, and the world community to protect and promote the health of all the people of the world." In addition, a new tool, primary health care, was developed to carry out this project. In this research project, the author examines the district of Kedougou and the conditions of health and of primary health care therein as they are defined in the "Declaration of Alma-Ata." Kedougou provided a well-focused lens through which to analyze the principles of primary health care and the goals set out in the "Declaration of Alma-Ata"; and, conversely, the "Declaration of Alma-Ata" provided a framework through which to gauge the health problems, their causes, and the possible solutions in the district of Kedougou. Before focusing specifically on Kedougou, the author attempts to put the conditions of health of Kedougou and of Senegal into context by examining international differences in health--specifically between the United States and Senegal. The "Results" portion of this paper examines the official structures of primary health care that are concentrated in the city of Kedougou. One of the main focuses in the "analysis" portion of this paper is the "related sectors" of "community development," such as agriculture and nutrition, in the rural areas of Kedougou. Finally, because health is defined in the "Declaration of Alma-Ata" as not only "the absence of disease and infirmity," but also as a "state of complete physical, mental, and social wellbeing," the cultural practices surrounding seeking and giving health care are also briefly examined in the "Analysis." The author concludes that solutions to the main health problems of Kedougou, or of any community for that matter, are not to be found in documents. Instead, all feasible solutions and successful actions for improvement in health must be found within the community concerned. Not only are the main health problems best understood by the community itself, but any successful attempt to resolve them cannot be carried out without the active participation of the community. (Contains 21 notes.)

Agriculture is one of the most dangerous industries in the United States. Loss of life, injury, and illness estimates in the agriculture industry only measure a fraction of the total burden to society. The purpose of this review was to conduct a comprehensive scan of the peer-reviewed literature to catalog research that explores the burden of agricultural injury to synthesize what is currently known. In total, 116 full-text papers meeting eligibility criteria were reviewed. Publications documenting agricultural injury burden were scanned and observations were categorized using a priori themes previously identified by occupational safety and health researchers. Results from this review indicate the true burden of agricultural injury is more expansive and complex than previous narratives on injury burden would imply. Future research should consider policies that encourage the collection of more expansive injury burden data, as well as methods to incorporate them into standard injury surveillance efforts., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Workplace sexual harassment (WSH) is a systemic problem in agricultural employment. In the United States, where most research on the topic has been conducted, studies have suggested the rate of WSH against women farmworkers may be as high as 95%. Women who are immigrants, younger, have precarious immigration status, and come from indigenous communities are particularly vulnerable to WSH. The purpose of this study was to identify and describe the factors that contribute to such high rates of WSH in waged employment in the agricultural sector. To achieve this, we completed a systematic review of the empirical literature on sexual harassment in agricultural workplaces. Our review includes 29 empirical studies on WSH in agriculture, including 13 studies conducted in countries within the Global North and 16 from the Global South. The paper presents a typology of WSH in agriculture, categorizing its emotional and physical forms and describing what the literature reveals about its impacts on those who experience it. We then present our analysis of the structural and cultural factors contributing to high WSH rates in waged agricultural employment. We found that migration policies, the organizational and physical characteristics of agricultural work, the informality of employment relationships, traditional masculinity norms, and weak enforcement of workplace regulations were the principal factors facilitating high rates of WSH in agriculture. However, the study has limitations: it primarily focuses on literature in English and Spanish, risking geographical bias towards the Americas and potentially overlooking significant research in other languages or published in less accessible databases, including grey literature and regional reports. These limitations highlight the need for broader research to fill these empirical gaps, particularly from the Global South.

While over half of the cropland in the United States is rented, interest in land tenancy within sociological circles has been sporadic at best. In light of the prevalence of rented land in agriculture--particularly in the Midwest--it is vital that further research be conducted to investigate the effect that the rental relationship has upon the various aspects of rural life. This paper takes a step in this direction by examining the social dynamics among landlords, tenants, and agricultural agency professionals to better understand how those dynamics affect the adoption of sustainable agricultural methods on rented land. This paper is theoretically informed by the writings of Pierre Bourdieu, particularly his theory of practice and his concepts of "habitus" and "field." Toward this end, I argue that multiple (yet overlapping) social fields make up the social body of production agriculture, leading to contestation and field reconstruction. In developing this argument, a strategy for change is presented in accordance with the conceptual postulates of Bourdieu's theory of practice to promote a more widespread utilization of sustainable agricultural practices on rented land.

The article presents information on a study conducted on the impact of climate change on agriculture. In the study, Community Land Model (CLM)-Crop was validated against observations from two agricultural sites in the U.S., that were planted with maize and soybean. CLM-Crop was compared with the standard CLM3.5, which is associated with crops as grass. The study found that crop yields and productivity had a negative correlation with temperature, and a positive correlation with precipitation.

Objectives: Literature on occupational risks among organic farmers is scarce. This study explored safety practices and non-fatal injuries among organic producers, and the role of sociodemographic, work, and farm characteristics on safety and injury., Methods: Cross sectional survey of certified organic crop producers in the Southwest (SW) region of the United States (US). The Organic Integrity Database was used for recruitment. Data were collected through an electronic and paper survey., Results: Analyses were conducted on 115 cases; response rate was estimated at 25%. A high majority of respondents owned their operation and were younger than 65 years, male, educated beyond high-school, and non-Hispanic whites. Less than half had more than 10 years of experience in organic farming; one-third worked off the farm year-round. Safety practices were very basic despite the widespread use of equipment and machinery, and limited to wearing normal clothing and apparel such hats and glasses. About half of respondents (52.6%) reported non-fatal injuries in the past year; and one-third (32.7%) time lost due to injuries. The overall cumulative incidence rate was estimated at 5.3 injuries per 10 workers within the last year. The injury rate decreased with hours worked. Significant differences were found on gender and education level and safety practices, with female respondents and the more educated being more proactive in practicing safety. Those working less than 40 h/week, in farms smaller than 50 acres, using light machinery or compact utility tractors, and tractors without roll-over protection reported significantly higher injury frequency compared to their counterparts., Conclusion: This study contributes unique data on an essential workforce not captured by current occupational injury and illness surveillance systems. It identifies important personal and contextual factors that may contribute to safety and injury in this population. The findings indicate the need to promote safety and prevent injuries that result in work time lost. This study may also inform future occupational safety and health research and practice, including surveillance, injury prevention programs that target certain workers and production practices, and policies that support and protect the organic farmer.

With the development of the market economy, agricultural trade has become more and more significant for the development of the agricultural economy, which has triggered people's further thinking and exploration on the impact of agricultural trade on agricultural carbon emissions. This paper takes the measurement of trade implied carbon as the carbon dioxide emission index under the impact of agricultural trade and analyzes the impact of trade implied carbon and implied carbon balance on carbon emission. Taking the impact of Sino-US agricultural trade as an empirical background, this paper measures the impact of environmental changes in agricultural trade opening on China's agricultural development and its carbon emissions, so as to predict changes in China's regional agricultural carbon emissions performance. After calculation, it is found that the scale of China's exports has decreased by 0.089%, which is lower than the decline of 0.361% in the United States. The trade conflict has a significant impact on China's import and export structure. Under the scenario of mutual tariffs on agricultural products, China's exports to the United States are expected to decrease by 6.28%, while China's imports from the United States decreased by 13.02%. The Sino-US agricultural trade dispute will reduce China's carbon emissions by 0.013% and the United States' carbon emissions by 0.024%, which is related to the negative impact on the economy. Improving the performance of agricultural carbon emissions is not only the need for the green and sustainable development of the agricultural economy but also conducive to improving the international competitiveness of agricultural products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accelerating economic globalization is a major driver of the transfer of embodied pollutant emissions from trade. China and the United States are currently the largest importers and exporters of agricultural products, respectively, and are also major producers and consumers of these products. This paper aims to analyze and compare the patterns of embodied agricultural carbon emissions (ACE) in the two countries, which is crucial for understanding how trade influences the transfer of such emissions. In this study, we calculated the embodied ACE of China and the United States from the perspectives of production and consumption for the years 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2016 by establishing a multi-regional input–output (MRIO) model. Additionally, we employed the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) decomposition method to analyze the driving factors behind the changes in embodied ACE over time. The findings indicated that the embodied ACE associated with imports and exports in China and the United States followed a pattern of increase and subsequent decrease during the period 1970–2016, with net imports escalating from −18.79 million tons and −3.62 million tons to 40.35 million tons and 51.22 million tons, respectively. This study identified two main factors contributing to the reduction in embodied ACE in both countries: the declining intensity of embodied ACE per unit of traded products and the diminishing proportion of the primary industry. The growth in GDP per capita, population expansion, and an increase in the proportion of agricultural products in international trade are predicted to promote an increase in embodied ACE imports and exports in both countries. This paper advocates for the reduction of embodied ACE through the continuous promotion of research and application of energy-saving and emission-reduction technologies, an optimized industrial structure, and the implementation of relevant energy-saving and emission-reduction policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dramatic improvements in measuring genetic variation across agriculturally relevant populations (genomics) must be matched by improvements in identifying and measuring relevant trait variation in such populations across many environments (phenomics). Identifying the most critical opportunities and challenges in genome to phenome (G2P) research is the focus of this paper. Previously (Genome Biol, 23(1):1-11, 2022), we laid out how Agricultural Genome to Phenome Initiative (AG2PI) will coordinate activities with USA federal government agencies expand public-private partnerships, and engage with external stakeholders to achieve a shared vision of future the AG2PI. Acting on this latter step, AG2PI organized the "Thinking Big: Visualizing the Future of AG2PI" two-day workshop held September 9-10, 2022, in Ames, Iowa, co-hosted with the United State Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA NIFA). During the meeting, attendees were asked to use their experience and curiosity to review the current status of agricultural genome to phenome (AG2P) work and envision the future of the AG2P field. The topic summaries composing this paper are distilled from two 1.5-h small group discussions. Challenges and solutions identified across multiple topics at the workshop were explored. We end our discussion with a vision for the future of agricultural progress, identifying two areas of innovation needed: (1) innovate in genetic improvement methods development and evaluation and (2) innovate in agricultural research processes to solve societal problems. To address these needs, we then provide six specific goals that we recommend be implemented immediately in support of advancing AG2P research., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Agricultural injuries remain a major concern in North America, with a fatal injury rate of 19.5 deaths per 100,000 workers in the United States. Numerous research efforts have sought to compile and analyze records of agricultural-related injuries and fatalities at a national level, utilizing resources, ranging from newspaper clippings and hospital records to Emergency Medical System (EMS) data, death certifications, surveys, and other multiple sources. Despite these extensive efforts, a comprehensive understanding of injury trends over extended time periods and across diverse types of data sources remains elusive, primarily due to the duration of data collection and the focus on specific subsets. This systematic review, following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, consolidates and analyzes agricultural injury surveillance data from 48 eligible papers published between 1985 and 2022 to offer a holistic understanding of trends and challenges. These papers, reporting an average of 25,000 injuries each, were analyzed by database source type, injury severity, nature of injury, body part, source of injury, event/exposure, and age. One key finding is that the top source of injury or event/exposure depends on the chosen surveillance system and injury severity, underscoring the need of diverse data sources for a nuanced understanding of agricultural injuries. This study provides policymakers, researchers, and practitioners with crucial insights to bolster the development and analysis of surveillance systems in agricultural safety. The overarching aim is to address the pressing issue of agricultural injuries, contributing to a safer work environment and ultimately enhancing the overall well-being of individuals engaged in agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comments on an article about the agricultural productivity of Pennsylvania in 18th century. Discussion on economic development; Details of income distribution; Performance of the agriculture sector in the state.

Presents several research papers on agricultural economics in the United States.

To the extent that social science scholarship engages real-world developments it remains grounded and better able to resist elite agendas. With this in mind this article argues for the critical encounter with what I argue is the most significant struggle around food and agriculture today--the amorphous and broad-based movement that strives to resist the further degradation of food environments and ensure healthy eating in society. This struggle is inevitably engaged with contemporary neoliberal agendas that have transformed and degraded food environments as they have privileged profit making over healthy diets. The article considers different sites where the struggle over healthy eating is taking place, both at the level of the state and more extensively in civil society. It considers the debate over bovine growth hormone in Canada and the wider efforts to turn around school food environments as examples of state-centered and civil-society struggles, respectively, that illustrate different dimensions of the healthy-eating movement today. In each case the agendas of transnational food corporations are seen to be directly contradicting efforts to ensure healthy diets. The article considers some notable successes among advocates of healthy eating, in the United States and Canada and most notably in Britain, and examines some of the factors that may account for this success. Overall, I argue that this struggle has the potential to challenge the hegemony of neoliberal discourse in fundamental ways. The article concludes with a call for academics, and rural sociologists in particular, to give a much greater priority to healthy-eating struggles, and considers a number of areas where academic practitioners can aid activists' efforts to resist the further degradation of diets and establish healthier food environments.

In his presidential address Jess Gilbert examines two democratic experiments of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) during the New Deal: first, county planning that coordinated federal programs through citizen committees, and second, land redistribution to landless southern farmers, including a small number of black sharecroppers and tenant farmers, creating self-governing resettlement communities. Their importance is two-fold: first, these were projects promoted by the state; and second, sociologists were involved in their success. And so, concludes Gilbert, if in the past so why not in the future? In this article, the author explores the role that sociologists play in these experiments.

Copyright of Swiss Political Science Review is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Survey research has played a major role in American social science. An outgrowth of efforts by the United States Department of Agriculture in the 1930s, the Division of Program Surveys (DPS) played an important role in the development of survey methodology. The DPS was headed by the ambitious and entrepreneurial Rensis Likert, populated by young and talented social scientists getting their first practical experience, and fed by the needs of the US government fighting World War II. The DPS innovations included open-ended interviewing and area probability sampling methodology as illustrated in the War Bond studies and the Master Sample of Agriculture. This paper examines the creation of the DPS, its work, and its legacy.

In the United States, truck rates for perishable food, the per‐mile rate charged for trucking services to move perishable food from farms to stores, rose substantially in the post‐COVID‐19 pandemic era. We argue that rising truck rates is a signal of a broader shortage of truckers, but the connection between labor shortages, rising truck rates, and a lack of trucking services has yet to be established empirically. In this paper, we develop an empirical examination based on an equilibrium job search, matching, and bargaining framework in which we estimate the role of labor shortages in accelerating driver‐wage growth, and truck rates for agricultural products. We estimate the model by combining US Bureau of Census Current Population Survey data on truck driver wages with USDA‐Agricultural Marketing Service Service data on truck rates to establish the linkage between trucker supply and the demand for trucking services. We find that the COVID‐19 pandemic was responsible for a rise in for‐hire trucker wages of some 38%$38\%$, a rise in average truck rates of nearly 50%$50\%$ and that the gap between trucker‐job openings and successful matches explains a significant, but small, rise in truck rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Business-centric solutions to data-related problems often yield the greatest positive impacts and improvements for private enterprises but are challenging to design and implement at scale within government agencies. The core mission of the Veterinary Services of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal Plant Health Inspection Service is to safeguard animal agriculture in the United States of America, and effective data management underpins these efforts. As this agency works to assist data-driven decision-making in animal health management, it continues to use a blend of best practices from Federal Data Strategy initiatives and the International Data Management Association framework. This paper describes three case studies that focus on strategies to improve animal health data collection, integration, reporting and governance for animal health authorities. These strategies have enhanced the way USDA's Veterinary Services execute their mission and core operational activities for prevention, detection and early response to support disease containment and control.

Presents abstracts of several articles about agriculture. Components of agricultural productivity; Productive and export capacity in world agriculture; Analysis of supply and demand estimates of the United States farm products.

Presents the abstracts of several studies on agriculture. 'Multiple Output Production Decisions within Canadian Prairie Agriculture' by Brian W. Gould; 'Aggregate Milk Supply Response and Investment Behavior of U.S. Dairy Farms' by Richard M. Klemme and Jean-Paul Chavas; 'The Use of Expectations In Agricultural Supply Response' by Suzanne Hazard and J. Scott Shonkwiler.

Presents abstracts of several articles on agriculture. 'Six Alternative Methods for Linking Normative and Positive National Agricultural Models,' by Wen-Yuan Huang, Reuben N. Weisz, Kenneth H. Baum, et al; 'The Preference of Purchases Data Over Sales Data in Primary Data Input-Output Models,' by Edward E. Ives; 'Policy, Concepts and Conflicts,' by Frederick L. Leistritz.

Development settings have always been uneven fields of power where recipient agency is limited. However, since the late 1990s, ideas of recipient participation and ownership gained popularity among international financial institutions, donor and recipient governments and aid practitioners. At the same time, with the 'rise of the South', the development cooperation landscape became much more polycentric. At least in theory, there is more choice, giving recipients more bargaining power and thus more agency. 'Emerging' donors talk about horizontality, sovereignty and shared identities, but what are the actual practices on the ground? How do recipients see themselves in interactions with different Northern/Southern donors? Are North/South categories relevant when analysing recipient agency, or are there other factors that are more analytically useful? This paper approaches recipient agency by looking at agricultural cooperation in Haiti. It is based on interviews conducted with an extended spectrum of Haitian actors involved in projects with four donors/partners: the United States, France, Brazil and Cuba. It looks into recipient perceptions and experiences of agency in relation to Northern donors and Southern partners by exploring project conceptualisation, execution, financing and everyday interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the effect of financial access on convergence in the US agricultural sector. We find that financial access allows states with lower real per-capita agricultural production to catch up faster with those with higher real per-capita agricultural production. Our results are robust to various specifications and in the presence of other factors determinant of dynamics in the agricultural sector, such as the level of unemployment and competition. Therefore, this paper unveils higher opportunity costs of lower financial access in terms of welfare improvement, policy dissemination, and technological spillovers across the states. We recommend the implementations and dissemination of strategiesthat will ensure the availability, to all farmers, of innovations developed in agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conservation practices (CPs) are integral to maintaining the long-term viability of agro-ecological systems. Because farming systems and farmers' values and attitudes are heterogeneous, factors that consistently predict conservation behaviors remain elusive. Moreover, heterogeneity is present among studies regarding the type of CPs examined, and whether behavioral intentions or actual behaviors were measured. This study considers the characteristics of each CP, and whether a given study measured behavioral intention or actual behavior, to better understand farmers' adoption of CPs. We reviewed and analyzed 35 years (1982-2017) of quantitative conservation adoption literature in the United States. We categorized CPs based on their primary purpose, the type of benefit they provide, and whether they are operational or structural. We also examined the following five CPs: conservation tillage, buffers or borders, soil testing, grassed waterways, and cover crops. In our behavioral intention and actual behavior analysis, we found that attitudinal factors predicted both conservation intention and action (actual behavior), whereas current or previous use of practices only influenced actions, not stated conservation intentions. In our analysis focusing on CP characteristics, we found that having specific knowledge about and positive attitudes toward the CP, adoption of other CPs, seeking and using information, larger farm size, and vulnerable land predicted actual adoption across nearly all CP categorizations. Nuances emerge when comparing predictors of CPs that share a particular characteristic. For example, we found farm characteristics to be comparatively more important in predicting adoption of soil management CPs than nutrient and livestock management CPs, and farmers' stewardship identity to be more important for permanent practices than operational practices., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

In this discussion piece, eight scholars in geography, urban planning, and agri-food studies from the United States (US) and France engage in a bi-national comparison to deepen our collective understanding of food and land justice. We specifically contextualize land justice as a critical component of food justice in both the US and France in three key areas: access to land for cultivation, urban agriculture, and non-agricultural forms of food provisioning. The US and France are interesting cases to compare, considering the differences and similarities in their colonial and agricultural histories, persistent and systemic race and class-based inequities in land access, and the roles of public bodies and social movements. In this paper, we synthesize literature, share reflections, and offer directions for future scholarship, including a broader comparative research agenda. An important difference we found is in the degree of scholarly attention to race and how it mediates access to land. We also observe that few scholars articulate a clear definition of justice in their work, nor do they share a common justice framework. We hope that this paper contributes to a more robust food and land justice framework for the use of scholars, practitioners and activists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses Black liberation theology (BLIBT) as a framework to theorize "the spirit" in the alternative food and sustainable agriculture movement. While BLIBT was formally named by theologian James Cone, it was born of the struggles of Black people in the United States who believed that God called Black people to be free, and God called Black preachers to preach Black liberation. I argue that Black liberation is a grounded vantage point to understand how some Black people might find freedom through food and agriculture. In the first potion of the paper, I make a claim for the importance of studying spirituality in agrarian and food spaces, whether or not a researcher is spiritually inclined. In the second portion of the paper, I delve deeper into Cone's articulation of BLIBT, and explore how we might begin to theorize it as an agrarian mandate including: a call for an urgent food source, liberation of the individual Black body, community ownership of land, the spirit of Black religious spaces, an emphasis on land reparations, and the freedom to dream. I conclude with a call for why an attention to BLIBT is called for in our present moment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land application of biosolids to improve the fertility of agricultural land is very common in the United States. Bioaerosols are airborne particulate matter (PM) aerosolized during various agricultural processes such as preapplication preparation, disking, application, and postapplication management. In recent years, there has been concern about the health of people living near the application sites even though these processes have been going on for decades. The focus of this study is to characterize PM inside households located near fields where biosolids have been applied. The PM was collected inside five houses on eight polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) filter papers using the GRIMM 1.108 dust monitor. Physical characteristics of PM were analyzed using the scanning electron microscope (SEM). The morphological properties of particles such as diameter, area, perimeter, aspect ratio, and shape factor of particles were determined using Image J software for the images captured using SEM. It was observed that there were a majority of particles in the range of 2.5–5 μm on all filter papers except two. The average PM2.5 over eight filters was observed to be about 32%, while for the ranges of 2.5–5.0 and 5.0–10.0 μm the averages was about 38 and 20%, respectively. The PM 2.5 averages for smoking, nonsmoking, control houses, and study houses were observed to be 40.63, 28.86, 33.37, and 31.28%, respectively. The shape-factor distribution and shape-distribution results indicate that there were a higher percentage of agglomerates, which was followed by spherical and pentagonal shaped particles. It was estimated that on an average 37.79% of PM collected over all the eight filters were agglomerates while 28.28% were spherical in shape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis to group 2778 farming-defined counties into six clusters, revealing farm patterns across the contiguous 48 states of the United States. To understand the differences in economic performance and improve farm households' well-being, economists have endeavored to identify patterns in US farming. The US is a leading global producer and exporter of many agricultural and food products. Our primary objective is to construct a policy-relevant farm clustering to characterize agricultural homogeneity in US farms' production potential. We identify six clusters that are relatively homogeneous in five dimensions: farm size, farm assets, farm labor, farm output, degree of mechanization, and government programs. Minimizing diversity within a cluster allows for analysis of public policy changes on specific clusters and comparison of differential effects of the change across clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With its long coastline, vast exclusive economic zone (EEZ), skilled labor force, advanced technology, and one of the largest seafood markets in the world, the United States could be a major marine aquaculture producer of fish, mollusks, crustaceans, and marine algae. Despite all its promise, U.S. marine aquaculture production is tiny relative to its potential. The constraints often cited are lack of social license, an inefficient and uncoordinated permitting system, and the absence of supportive government programs similar to those enjoyed by terrestrial agriculture. National commissions have noted these constraints for more than 30 years. The paper first outlines key policy drivers prompting a reevaluation of US marine aquaculture policy (human health and nutrition, climate change, and market disruptions caused by the coronavirus) and then focuses on three critical policy goals that could contribute to expanding U.S. seafood farming: improve public understanding and acceptance, enhance the efficiency and timeliness of the aquaculture permitting process, and expand economic incentives to foster aquaculture development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To review and synthesise research related to the ageing farming workforce influence on the health and sustainability of agricultural communities. Design: Using the PRISMA framework as a guide, the CINHAL and Medline databases were searched. Search 1 used the key search terms of ageing OR aging, farm*, workforce. Search 2 used health, sustainability and 'agricultural OR farm communit*. Search 3 combined Searches 1 and 2. Search 4 followed journal citations to identify other relevant articles. A process of narrative synthesis was applied to the results through the prism of rural social capital that described the current state of knowledge and understanding under four themes. Result: Database searches and searching of citations identified 16 contemporary articles. Seven of the papers were from Australia, and the balance from five other high‐income countries. The four that themes emerged are: vulnerabilities of ageing farmers; economic and climatic drivers; social capital and sustainability; and integrative strategies, that might offer a way forward. Conclusion: Integrating these forces of nature, economics and sociology to address the ageing farming workforce and the associated health and sustainability of agricultural communities remains a major challenge for researchers, governments, the agricultural sector and rural communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the voices of tomato industry workers, this paper offers a multi‐sited ethnographic view of largely unrecognized practices in the conventional, field‐grown, fresh‐market wholesale tomato industry in the southeastern United States. Tomato industry workers—including agricultural cooperative extension agents, farmers, labor contractors, marketers, and harvesters—present their distinctive perspectives on production‐exchange relations, shifting political economic identities, and what I call emerging redistributive practices found throughout a southeastern U.S. tomato circuit. I argue that two specific emerging redistributive practices take place while the tomatoes are technically still in the production stage in certain conventional tomato fields: (i) pinhooking and (ii) buying the field. Studying these practices helps us better understand the complexities of the southeastern U.S. tomato industry. By looking at tomato enterprises that plant, cultivate, harvest, transport, and/or market produce, this paper presents a body of evidence that counter‐constructs the racialized stereotype concerning Mexicans and Mexican Americans' contributions to agriculture in the southeastern United States. It shows how an ethnographically informed picture of a regional tomato industry circuit reveals commonly unrecognized features of social change, enterprise, production‐exchange relations, and redistributive practices. It concludes by suggesting that these enterprise arrangements and practices could support the creation of more equitable regional food production systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the abstract of the research papers "Factors Affecting the Decision to Exit Farming: A Maine Industry Study," by Lisa Bragg, et al and "How Structural Change in the Western Canadian Dairy Processing Industry Can Lead to New Game Theory Amongst Industry Players," by Ryan Furtas, published in the December 1, 2003 issue of "American Journal of Agricultural Economics".

Quantifying spatial and temporal fluxes of phosphorus (P) within and among agricultural production systems is critical for sustaining agricultural production while minimizing environmental impacts. To better understand P fluxes in agricultural landscapes, P-FLUX, a detailed and harmonized dataset of P inputs, outputs, and budgets, as well as estimated uncertainties for each P flux and budget, was developed. Data were collected from 24 research sites and 61 production systems through the Long-term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) network and partner organizations spanning 22 U.S. states and 2 Canadian provinces. The objectives of this paper are to (a) present and provide a description of the P-FLUX dataset, (b) provide summary analyses of the agricultural production systems included in the dataset and the variability in P inputs and outputs across systems, and (c) provide details for accessing the dataset, dataset limitations, and an example of future use. P-FLUX includes information on select site characteristics (area, soil series), crop rotation, P inputs (P application rate, source, timing, placement, P in irrigation water, atmospheric deposition), P outputs (crop removal, hydrologic losses), P budgets (agronomic budget, overall budget), uncertainties associated with each flux and budget, and data sources. Phosphorus fluxes and budgets vary across agricultural production systems and are useful resources to improve P use efficiency and develop management strategies to mitigate environmental impacts of agricultural systems. P-FLUX is available for download through the USDA Ag Data Commons (https://doi.org/10.15482/USDA.ADC/1523365)., (© 2022 Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada. Journal of Environmental Quality published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America. Reproduced with the permission of the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-food Canada. This article has been contributed to by U.S. Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA.)

Purpose: Nonfamily farms are responsible for a disproportionate amount of US agriculture production. The importance of these operations to the volume of agriculture production in the United States has led researchers and policymakers to understand nonfamily farms as large commercial operations. This paper examines whether the distinction between family and nonfamily helps explain the financial outcomes of farm operations and households. Design/methodology/approach: We test for differences in financial outcomes of the household and operations of family and nonfamily farms using an Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition. We compare these results to a decomposition of other possible typologies. Findings: We present evidence that nonfamily farms are a heterogeneous group with a majority of small operations that are dominated by a small number of large operations. We discover that differences associated with the family-nonfamily distinction are largely explained by observable farm and operator characteristics that arise mechanically from the definition. However, we find suggestive evidence that family-nonfamily classification captures differences in economic behavior that lead to higher profitability measures to nonfamily farms. We find little evidence of any inherent structural differences between family and nonfamily farms that helps explain financial outcomes related to leverage or household finances. Practical implications: We conclude that including nonfamily farms in official statistics of farm households may provide a more comprehensive overview of the farm sector, as our results suggest that family and nonfamily farms do not have innate differences that help explain many of their financial outcomes. Originality/value: We incorporate previously unused data on nonfamily farm households and test the difference in mean financial outcomes between family and nonfamily farms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research background: Although agricultural competitiveness is not a new topic, it is worth noting that it has recently come back to the attention of researchers due to various factors such as climate change, food security, price uncertainty, or structural transformation. Consequently, a growing number of articles have emerged on this subject, leading to shifts in overarching research trends and the structure of research within this domain. Purpose of the article: This study aims to facilitate a comprehensive understanding of the research constituents within the field of agricultural competitiveness. Additionally, it seeks to unveil the intellectual and cognitive frameworks spanning the years 1990 to 2022. This exploration will enable the identification of thematic clusters that both shape and guide the field, shedding light on current research trends. Methods: This research employs bibliometric analysis, specifically employing performance analysis and science mapping techniques like bibliographic coupling and co-word analyses. These tools are harnessed to scrutinize the constituents of research and the underlying intellectual and cognitive structures inherent to the agricultural competitiveness field. A dataset of 622 articles from the Web of Science database was subjected to analysis using the VOSviewer software. Findings & value added: The findings prominently illustrate a notable surge in research activity within this domain, with a substantial proportion of articles originating from the United States. The study further identifies six distinct research topics within agricultural competitiveness: (1) energy efficiency and bioenergy, (2) price fluctuation, uncertainty, and market behavior, (3) structural transformation of agriculture, (4) rural development, (5) policy issues, and (6) climate change. Moreover, the research offers insights into potential future research avenues. The uniqueness and value of this work stem from its pioneering approach, being the first to synthesize agricultural competitiveness research through an amalgamation of bibliometric techniques. Furthermore, the study contributes substantially to the theoretical advancement of agricultural competitiveness research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence on the labor‐market effect of immigration focuses on permanent migrants, though a large share of international labor mobility is temporary and seasonal. This paper estimates the marginal native employment effect of policy restrictions on foreign seasonal farm workers in the United States. It exploits two natural experiments: a legal requirement to give hiring preference to natives, and an exogenous change in natives' next‐best employment options during the Great Recession of 2007–2008. The local elasticity of natives' occupational labor supply is 0.0015, implying a minimal marginal effect of seasonal work visa restrictions on native employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Precision agriculture has emerged as a dominant force in the United States, with widespread adoption of advanced technologies and decision support systems (DSS) since the 1980s. Key tools such as variable rate application (VRA), autopilot systems, and remote sensing have become integral for U.S. farmers, offering invaluable insights from crop, soil, and weather information to optimize agricultural production while minimizing environmental impact. To synthesize and categorize the extensive research available on precision agriculture, a systematic review protocol has been designed. Our objective is to offer clear and authoritative insights into the nature, scope, and volume of this field. Implementing a rigorous search strategy, we utilized renowned databases such as Scopus® and Web of ScienceTM to gather relevant and significant materiality. The retrieval process involved the use of indexing terms and Boolean operators, with a focus on 'precision agriculture' and 'precision farming', striking a balance between specificity and comprehensiveness. To ensure the credibility of our findings, only peer-reviewed papers authored by individuals affiliated with U.S. institutions have been included. Expert reviewers with deep knowledge in the field independently assessed the selected papers, thoroughly evaluating titles, abstracts, keywords, methods, conclusions, and declarations. Consistency and eligibility were paramount in determining which papers met the criteria for inclusion. Any discrepancies or disagreements were resolved through rigorous consensus-building discussions among the reviewers. Through this comprehensive meta-review, we provide a scientific contribution that enhances our understanding of precision agriculture, highlighting focus areas for further research and development (R&D). By synthesizing and categorizing the existing literature, we offer authoritative insights into the research landscape, informing future investigations and fostering innovation. Focusing specifically on the U.S., we shed light on the unique aspects and pioneering advancements in precision agriculture within the country. Ultimately, our findings have the potential to drive progress, contributing to sustainable development, increased productivity, enhanced environmental sustainability, and responsible agricultural practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]