Individual ethics and the social goals of agriculture

This article is a response to Paul Thompson's recent claim that individual farmers cannot have obligations to practice sustainable methods unless a large number of other producers also use them. Using a moral rights framework, I explain the relation of human interests and needs to the duties of individuals to accomplish moral social goals; i.e., those moral goals whose accomplishment requires the cooperation of other persons. The purpose is to show that individual action to promote sustainability does have moral value. Duties to practice sustainable methods are derived from the rights of all persons to adequate food and nutrition. These rights themselves are grounded, not in individual subjective desires or preferences, but in the genuine interests all persons (present and future) have in the satisfaction of basic biological needs to sustain life and health. The duty of each person is correlative to the rights of the others, and fulfillment of the duty requires social action, in this case practicing sustainable methods in farming. If others are unwilling or constrained from fulfilling their obligations, then duties to take other kinds of actions may be derived from the primary duty to attain the goal of sustainability. Actions to secure social cooperation may include, for example, exhorting others to participate and taking political action to force restructuring of agricultural policy, as well as practicing sustainable methods on one's own farm. While frameworks of individual responsibility have been attacked as failing to capture the moral importance of holistic outcomes, it is argued that such problems are related to human motivation rather than to the structure of our moral systems. I conclude that a properly elaborated system of moral rights and duties connected with an adequate moral psychology can account for our duties to other humans to accomplish the goal of a sustainable agriculture.     

美国社会化服务体系对农业发展的支持作用

从美国社会化服务体系能够促进农业产出的增加、农产品价格的提高和农民收入的增长三个方面进行了论证,归纳出美国农业社会化服务体系对农业发展的支持作用,并进行实证。     

“双碳”目标下的智慧农业发展

智慧农业为推动农业减排增汇、助力“双碳”目标实现提供了新思路。本文在明晰“双碳”目标下智慧农业内涵特征的基础上,分析了智慧农业发展面临的问题和挑战,进而提出了对策建议。“双碳”目标下的智慧农业发展,应在理念上强调以智慧化引领低碳化、以低碳化带动智慧化,在科技上注重低碳取向的创新和应用,在制度上重视政府与市场双轮驱动。中国智慧农业发展尚处于初级阶段,在技术设备、规模经营、人才储备、政策支持等方面存在短板和瓶颈。因此,未来应强化农业技术创新研发,推动农业适度规模经营,完善人才培养体系,构建“政府有为,市场有效”的智慧农业发展机制。     

Farmers' definitions, goals, and bottlenecks of sustainable agriculture in the North-Central Region

Since its inception in 1988, the SAREprogram has sponsored hundreds of projects to exploreand apply economically viable, environmentally sound,and socially acceptable farming systems. Recognizingthat researchers often collaborated with producers andthat producer interest in sustainable agriculture wasincreasing, SARE's North-Central Region began directlyfunding farmers and ranchers in 1992 to test their ownideas on sustainable agriculture. The present articleis based on data from the formative evaluation of thefirst five years (1992 to 1996) of the NCR-SAREProducer Grant Program. The evaluation used acombination of mail surveys, non-response telephoneinterviews, and personal interviews.The evaluation revealed that the Program hassucceeded in showing that sustainable agriculturaltechnologies and practices can be viable andprofitable alternatives to conventional ways ofproducing crops and animals while simultaneously beingless environmentally damaging. On the other hand, thecontributions of the Producer Grant Program to thesocial and institutional spheres in which agricultureis embedded are less clear. Changes in these spheresare imperative for the success of sustainableagriculture, and for it to become more mainstream.Such changes cannot occur overnight, but they willremain the main challenge for SARE to tackle in thenear future.     

社区水平森林可持续经营的社会目标评价

社会可持续评价是森林可持续经营评价的重要组成部分。以临安示范林为研究对象,选取浙江省临安市分属于3个典型片(乡)的9个村,采用野外调查和参与式方法相结合的途径,制定了社区水平(以农户为经营主体林区)森林可持续经营社会目标的标准与指标,包含3个标准及11个指标,并根据标准和指标对森林经营进行调查和量化。结果表明,1999年和2004年,昌化、高虹和临目等3个地点森林经营的社会可持续性分数分别为6.00,6.05;5.77,5.46;5.79,5.94,与1999年相比,2004年3个点分别增长了0.83%,-5.37%和2.59%。表3参10     

农业社会化服务的模式、机理及趋势分析

按照农业产业链各环节的时间序列,农业社会化服务可分为产前、产中、产后以及-体化服务4种类型.笔者认为农业-体化社会化服务是最理想的社会化服务模式;从社会化服务的机理上看,不同服务模式与不同经济发展阶段紧密相联,服务模式是经济发展的产物;从演化的趋势上看,农业社会化服务沿着农村集体经济组织的统-服务向单-社会化服务、延伸社会化服务逐渐向-体化社会化服务逐次演化的路径发展的.目前中国农业的社会化服务处在单-服务和延伸服务的混合期,为此还提出进-步推进农业社会化服务的相关建议.     

Commentary social justice and sustainable agriculture: Moving beyond theory

One of the ongoing debates in the sustainable agriculture community is whether its platform should include social justice issues like farmworker rights, economic concentration, and hunger. The commentary describes the evolution of this controversy, and places it in the context of competing and complicated moral theories that turn out to be of somewhat limited use in political arguments. The essay also outlines ways in which the present political climate is presenting a challenge to sustainable agriculture proponents, who, in response, are building new linkages with urban interests, including anti-hunger organization. Despite abstract philosophical and more real political problems, a community food security agenda is being crafted, joining the interests of small farms, family farm, and sustainability advocates, and anti-hunger groups. Their focus is community and economic development as a way to improve the quality and availability of inner city food supplies, and to develop new markets and political allies for farmers.     

Drivers and challenges of precision agriculture: a social media perspective

Precision Agriculture - Precision agriculture, which has existed for over four decades, ensures efficient use of agricultural resources for increased productivity and sustainability with the use of...     

荷兰农业对上海农业发展的启示

通过荷兰和上海的农业经济特征对比,指出了上海与荷兰在农业发展上的差距,并通过分析荷兰农业的成功因素,提出了荷兰农业对上海农业发展的启示与可借鉴之处.     

可持续发展农业项目社会稳定风险评估初探

社会稳定风险评估是针对项目实施可能引发的矛盾纠纷和潜在风险进行先期预测、先期研判,实现科学决策、民主决策、依法决策,预防和化解社会矛盾.新疆利用世界银行贷款可持续发展农业项目涉及区域较大、人口较多,项目的实施是否引起较大社会稳定问题将直接影响到项目实施的成功与否.本文通过项目建设风险调查,确定项目建设风险点,在对各风险点发生的可能性和影响程度进行评估的基础上综合确定项目社会稳定风险等级,并提出防范和化解措施.     

中国特色农业强国的基本特征及战略目标与路径

为探索中国特色的农业强国之路,研究其基本特征和实现路径,本研究基于对农业强国的基本内涵、世界农业强国的类型与共性特征分析,总结了世界农业强国的3大类型和6大共性特征,提出了中国建设农业强国必须充分认识到的5大独特特征。结果表明:中国是资源不足型农业大国,确保粮食及主要农产品自主可控是核心要求,家庭小农户经营主体是农业经营基本特征,实现双碳目标下农业绿色发展需求以及区域农业多样性和差异性是重要特点。在此基础上,本研究提出系统规划部署建设中国农业强国的“四梁八柱”战略路径建议,以期为制定我国农业强国建设规划提供决策参考。     

中国农业的发展与精确农业技术体系

介绍了精确农业技术体系的基本内容，论述了我国作为农业大国研究和发展精确农业高新技术的必要性；讨论了我国发展精确农业应注意的几个问题及开发推广精确农业技术的对策。     

微生物农业在农业现代化过程中的展望

利用新型农业技术和现代生物技术 ,开发全新的作物品种 ,生产足够的粮食以供养全球人口 ,已成为农业可持续发展和人类生存与发展的主要研究课题。微生物农业以其经济、简便、行之有效的微生物途径 ,充分利用各种有机废弃物 ,使之资源化 ,获得有价值产品 ,而且对保护生态环境具有重要的作用。它在农业现代化生产过程中的作用越来越备受关注。本文就微生物在蛋白质、农药、肥料、饲料生产及改良土壤等方面的应用作一些介绍。     

The agriculture grants program

The Competitive Research Grants Office was established in 1978 by the federal government to encourage and support basic research related to agriculture. The effort has been enfeebled by controversy and continues to teeter on the edge of congressional extinction. The origins of the Competitive Research Grants Office and its first 3 years of operation make an interesting portrait of the problems of science and government in these times.