Diohe'ko,the Three Sisters in Seneca life: Implications for a native agriculture in the finger lakes region of New York State

Through an interdisciplinary approach, I attempt to construct a partial ethno-agronomy of the Seneca people in late pre-contact times and examine it for relevance to modern agriculture. Diohe'ko, the Three Sisters, had been cultivated for at least five hundred years prior to contact by the Seneca, an Iroquoian tribe inhabiting western New York State. The Three Sisters, corn, beans and squash (pumpkins, gourds), were planted together in hills in fields, cultivated and harvested by work parties of women. Changes of village sites and patterns of village movement respond to the adoption of agriculture as well as other factors. Evaluating land use, crop yields and carrying capacity, I question the accuracy of Seneca population estimates. The Three Sisters was an important cultural complex. The Sisters are protagonists of a number of Seneca tales, myths, ceremonies and legends. As an agricultural strategy, Three Sisters embodies several efficiencies in growth patterns, nutrient, solar and water use, harvest and nutritional use. Microhabitat manipulation was practiced by the Seneca. The plants exhibit a high degree of cooperation, or commensality, in the association. Some preliminary judgments can be made about specific varieties of the Sisters in use among the Seneca prior to contact. Northern Flint Corn, Cutshort or Cornhill Beans, and Cucurbita pepo such as Crookneck Squashes are likely the eldest varieties in the area. Three Sisters agriculture demonstrates qualities of permanence and sustainability, especially as related to the Seneca cultural fabric. A conservative ethic, like Handsome Lake's teaching, it binds together people in culture and people and nurture in nature. Mary Jemison, who farmed both the colonial and Three Sisters ways, seems to have favored the latter's “leisurely” approach.     

The future of terrace farming in Yemen: A development dilemma

The country of Yemen, on the southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, is one of the most extensively terraced areas in the world. There is a well-documented tradition of both dryland and irrigated farming over the past three millennia and much of the indigenous agricultural knowledge survives. Development efforts over the past two decades in the north of Yemen have focused on expansion of tubewell irrigation at the expense of the major land use on dryland terraces and traditional subsistence crops. Despite millions of dollars in aid, Yemen is far from agriculturally self-sufficient and its scarce water resource is rapidly being depleted. This articles explores the relevance of indigenous Yemeni knowledge of agriculture and the environment for the future of terrace farming in the country. It is argued that farmer knowledge can contribute to sustainable production and can be grafted on to modern methods and technology. Within Yemen the existing community support networks and pride in national heritage would assist in a reinvestment effort for the existing resource of the terraces.     

Canada's volunteer NGOs' social forestry projects in the Third World: A preliminary evaluation

This paper outlines some flaws of the faddist social forestry movement that is currently sweeping Canada's volunteer NGOs. Typically, these include: Canadian NGOs' ignorance of tropical ecology; their inability to adequately communicate with the Third World clientel because of the socio-cultural barriers; a propensity to undertake numerous development projects and thus seek to bloat their organizations so as to claim federal government grants; and most of all, complaints of alleged racism against NGOs by Canada's ethnic minorities who are kept out of the development field. Impacts on the Third World development of each of these flaws are briefly noted. The paper concludes by offering some recommendations for improving Canadian volunteer NGOs' performance in social forestry in the Third World.     

The role of technology in enhancing low resource agriculture in Africa

Traditional forms of farming, herding, and fishing are remarkably adapted to African conditions but these traditional approaches are being overtaken by modern pressures, particularly population growth. According to a report published by the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), a nonpartisan analytical support agency of the U. S. Congress, one promising way to help African farmers and herders would be for development assistance organizations to focus more attention on the various forms of low-resource agriculture that predominate in Africa. In keeping with OTA's mission and primary audience, “Enhancing Agriculture in Africa: A Role for U. S. Development Assistance” (1988) is a policy-oriented synthesis of available technical information. The report provides Congress with a range of options that, if pursued, could help Africans enhance agriculture, increase their food security, and improve their lives. This paper is drawn from the larger OTA report, and it focuses on the role technology might play in enhancing low-resource agriculture. Readers should see the full assessment (OTA, 1988) for more information on policy considerations; the specific technologies mentioned; or a complete list of advisory panel members, workshops and participants, and commissioned papers. OTA's report comes at a critical time: for a variety of reasons—ranging from changing values to increased budget constraints—U. S. foreign assistance policy is undergoing a fundamental reevaluation. This review of the potential of low-resource agriculture, and options the United States might pursue to enhance this approach, was intended to aid in this reevaluation.     

Hungry Brazil

The essay, based on four years of living and teaching philosophy in Brazil, is a series of aphorisms about food and hunger as concerns that have left their mark on the Brazilian mind. Alimentary jokes and homilies are retold, gustatory episodes are recalled, larders and cuisines remarked, markets and mealtimes remembered—with constant reference to the idiom of Brazilian Portuguese. The style of thinking is “postphilosophical” in the sense developed in Part II of the author's Negative Dialectics and the End of Philosophy[Longwood, 1990]: it does not so much argue theses as it displays the character of the topic.     

Uneven and unequal people-centered development: the case of Fair Trade and Malawi sugar producers

This paper advances critical Fair Trade literature by exploring reasons for and lessons from uneven and unequal lived experiences of Fairtrade certification. Fieldwork was conducted in 2007 and 2008 to explore views and develop interpretations from various actors directly and indirectly participating in a Fairtrade certified sugar organization in Malawi. By exploring an embedded social and political context in a production place, and challenging assumptions and expectations of a Fair Trade community empowerment approach, research reveals intended and unintended consequences since certification. Findings propose lessons to adopt more nuanced understandings of place and context in Fair Trade approaches to facilitate more balanced community empowerment outcomes.     

Therapeutic effects of anthelmintic agents with ribotan immunomodulation

It has been established that the therapeutic efficacy of anthelmintic agents (fenbendazole, Nilverm) in combination with Ribotan depends on the dose of the immunomodulator. Administration of Ribotan in a dose of 0.05 mL/kg of body weight increased nonspecific resistance to invasion and enhanced the anthelmintic action of fenbendazole and Nilverm. Ribotan in a dose of 0.5 mL/mg has a negative effect on the result of specific treatment of mice infected by Aspiculuris tetraptera.     

Tools for indigenous agricultural development in Latin America: An anthropologist's perspective

The project of indigenous agricultural development is now widely perceived as valid, given the technological limitations of and the social problems exacerbated by the Green Revolution. Different authors have presented critiques of the Green Revolution based upon their studies of indigenous agricultural practices and their attendant knowledge systems. Such analyses provide important foundations for the promotion of indigenous agricultural development, but do not adequately address the socio-historical dimension. In Latin America, promoting such development must rely upon the reassessment of indigenous culture and ethnic survival by the scientific community.     

Making “minority voices” heard in transnational roundtables: the role of local NGOs in reintroducing justice and attachments

Since the beginning of the new millennium, initiatives known as roundtables have been developed to create voluntary sustainability standards for agricultural commodities. Intended to be private and voluntary in nature, these initiatives claim their legitimacy from their ability to ensure the participation of all categories of stakeholders in horizontal participatory and inclusive processes. This article characterizes the political and material instruments employed as the means of formulating agreement and taking a variety of voices into consideration in these arenas. Referring to the specific case of the “Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil”, I undertake a detailed analysis of the tensions relating to different forms of participation, which create a gap between “local minority voices” and international stakeholders—either non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or industries. Local communities and small-scale farmers face difficulties when making their voices heard in the form of debate proposed. Firstly, some participants attempt to re-impose a vertical hierarchical relationship between small-scale farmers or affected communities and company managers/directors in order to deprive the former of their powers of representation and of being able to transform reality. Secondly, the liberalism of interest groups in the roundtable accords value to experts, global knowledge, strategy, and detachment, at the expense of other capabilities of rooted or attached people who come to defend their real lives with a desire to raise critical issues of injustice. In this context, I highlight the capacity of local NGOs to relieve some of those tensions and to help locally affected communities and small-scale farmers introduce public stages for debates, by accommodating other forms of participation apart from the liberal one. By being close to and by restoring their dignity through a specific work of solicitude and care, local NGOs prepare affected people for public speaking.     

The Rockefeller Foundation and the green revolution, 1941–1956

High yielding agriculture in less-industrialized countries, the green revolution, has been both honored and criticized over the past twenty years. Supporters point to the increased food supplies produced with the new practices, but detractors argue that the new technologies are environmentally destructive, unsustainable, and socially inequitable. This paper explores the origins of high yielding agriculture in order better to understand how the arguments over sustainability and equity originated. The Rockefeller Foundation was an important agency in promoting the development of the new agricultural science. Its programs in Mexico and India, initiated in 1941 and 1956, were key building blocks in creating high yielding agricultural practices. The Foundation scientists saw rapid population growth as the main source of hunger and communist subversion. In order to alleviate hunger and instability, they created a strategy of agricultural development based on increased yields but paid no attention to the problem of distribution of harvested food. Sustainability was not recognized as a problem at the time Foundation scientists began their work. Indeed the technical successes of their programs prompted the development of concerns about sustainability. Equity of distribution was brought to the attention of the Foundation before it began its work, but the scientists paid no attention to the issue.     

Tweeten as exorcist: A response to “Sector as Personality”

In “Sector as Personality: The Case of Farm Protest Movements,” Luther Tweeten argues that farm activism is motivated by irrational and dysfunctional traits of the “dark side” of a sector-specific farm personality. In response, this article questions the assumption that movement activism can be explained by reference to a few discrete personality traits, challenges the usefulness of the concept of a sector-specific personality, and disputes the accuracy of Tweeten's attributions of negative traits to all farm movement activists. Evidence is presented to indicate that farm activists are much more diverse in their beliefs and behavior than Tweeten's article portrays them, and it is argued that farm activism is not generally motivated by deluded conceptions of farmers' circumstances and interests.     

Handsome Lake's teachings: The shift from female to male agriculture in Iroquois culture. An essay in ethnophilosophy

The shift from a traditional indigenous female agriculture to a new male agriculture in Iroquois culture was facilitated by the teachings of the early 19th century Seneca prophet and chief, Handsome Lake. This shift resulted in the disempowerment of women and occurred during a period of crises for the Iroquois; it was heavily influenced by exogenous pressures that, mediated by Handsome Lake's Code, led not only to a change of sex roles in agriculture but also to a shift in family structure toward the patriarchal family and to a change of ideology toward a patriarchal monotheism. Previously, Iroquois life and ideology had stressed a complementarity or balance of powers between the sexes. Handsome Lake's Code also retained certain aspects of the older Iroquois lifestyle and ideology. The crises undergone by the Iroquois might have been met differently, without the disempowerment of women, had it not been for exogenous influences.     

Managing the fallow: Weeding technology and environmental knowledge in the Krobo district of Ghana

The paper explores the relationship between environmental knowledge and farming and fallowing strategies on degraded forest land in the Upper Manya Krobo district of southeastern Ghana. Changes in cropping strategies are related to the expansion and transformation of frontier agrarian settlement, increasing population density, social differentiation, and land hunger. As a consequence land degradation has become a serious problem among the smaller farmers with insufficient land to allow fallow recuperation. Small farmers' awareness and perceptions of the processes of degradation are explored, as are possible innovative contributions to the development of agroforestry research. But labor constraints often prevent the farmer from developing practical systems of fallow management. Local environmental knowledge reveals important insights into the processes of fallow degradation, potentials for fallow management, constraints that farmers face, and some problems that might emerge with the transformation of current agroforestry technology to farmers' fields. It is suggested that this knowledge should not be abstracted from its socio-economic context. The problems that local farmers' knowledge reveal are in this respect as important as questions of its efficacy and potential as a resource.     

The legitimacy of the agricultural extension service

Traditionally, the Swedish Agricultural Extension Service has delivered technical information to farmers with the aim of increasing productivity and efficiency in farming. Present problems with overproduction of food and the negative social and environmental consequences of present farm practices has brought this traditional mission in question. In a situation of budgetary constraints it has been suggested that the funding of the governmental Agricultural Extension Service should be cut down or even discontinued altogether The article argues that this would be a mistake. The various negative consequences of modern agriculture indicate that we are far from an ideal mode of agricultural production. Instead, public opinion and new guidelines for agricultural and environmental policies call for substantial changes in Swedish agriculture with respect to pollution, preservation of non-renewable resources, maintaining an open rural landscape, ethical aspects of animal production, rural development etc. This reorientation of Swedish agriculture presumes that decision-makers, farmers, and the public at large get an opportunity to learn more about the complexities of agricultural production. In contributing to this learning process the Agricultural Extension Service would have an important mission. To be able to fulfill this mission, extension professionals must be provided an opportunity to learn a broader concept of productivity and efficiency in agriculture, for instance, how to extend cost-benefit analyses and technical criteria of efficiency to include social, environmental, and ethical aspects. Our present extension staff has not received adequate training for this task. It is suggested that all agricultural colleges need to create departments of Rural Sociology and Agricultural Humanities to provide agricultural students and professionals an opportunity to develop a better understanding of agriculture and make them prepared to take on the challenges and responsibilities they confront in developing our future agriculture.     

Inappropriate incentives for pesticide use: Agricultural credit requirements in developing countries

In many developing countries, incentives for pesticide use often conflict with efforts to ensure the rational and safe use of agrochemicals. This paper analyzes agricultural credit requirements that obligate farmers to use large inputs of pesticides. It discusses the rationale and background for these kinds of agrochemical incentives and gives specific examples of quantities of chemicals required from bank guidelines in Central America. It is argued that this policy is inappropriate for the interests of both farmers and the wider public, for several reasons, which are summarized. Policy changes, such as eliminating the requirements for chemicals and establishing incentives for Integrated Pest Management, are suggested in the final part of the article.     

Whose right to (farm) the city? Race and food justice activism in post-Katrina New Orleans

Among critical responses to the perceived perils of the industrial food system, the food sovereignty movement offers a vision of radical transformation by demanding the democratic right of peoples “to define their own agriculture and food policies.” At least conceptually, the movement offers a visionary and holistic response to challenges related to human and environmental health and to social and economic well-being. What is still unclear, however, is the extent to which food sovereignty discourses and activism interact with and affect the material and social realities of the frequently low-income communities of color in which they are situated, and whether they help or hinder pre-existing efforts to alleviate hunger, overcome racism, and promote social justice. This research and corresponding paper addresses those questions by examining food justice and food sovereignty activism in the city of New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina as understood by both activists and community members. I argue, using post-Katrina New Orleans as a case study, that food projects initiated and maintained by white exogenous groups on behalf of communities of color risk exacerbating the very systems of privilege and inequality they seek to ameliorate. This paper argues for a re-positioning of food justice activism, which focuses on systemic change through power analyses and the strategic nurturing of interracial alliances directed by people residing in the communities in which projects are situated.     

Methodology for measuring fAPAR in crops using a combination of active optical and linear irradiance sensors: a case study in Triticale (X Triticosecale Wittmack)

The amount of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR, 0.4–0.7 μm) absorbed by plants for photosynthesis relative to incident radiation is defined as the fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (fAPAR). This is an important variable in both plant biomass production and plant growth modeling. This study investigates the application of a newly developed, linear irradiance sensor (LightScout Quantum Bar Sensor, LightScout, Spectrum Technologies, Inc. USA), to quantify fAPAR for a demonstrator crop, Triticale (X Triticosecale Wittmack). A protocol was devised for sensor placement to determine reflected PAR components of fAPAR and to determine the optimal time of day and sensor orientation for data collection. Coincident, top of canopy, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) measurements were also acquired with a CropCircle? ACS-210 sensor and measurements correlated with derived fAPAR values. The optimum height of the linear irradiance sensor above soil or plant canopy was found to be 0.4 m while measuring reflected PAR. Measurement of fAPAR was found to be stable when conducted within 1 h of local solar noon in order to avoid significant bidirectional effects resulting from diurnal changes of leaf orientation relative to the vertically-placed sensor. In the row crop studied, averaging fAPAR readings derived from the linear irradiance sensor orientated across and along the plant row provided an R² = 0.81 correlation with above-canopy NDVI. Across row sensor orientation also gave a similar correlation of R² = 0.76 allowing the user to reduce sampling time.     

Genetic diversity analysis in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Plantago ovata</Emphasis> and some of its wild allies using RAPD markers

Plantago ovata, commonly called as the 'desert Indian wheat' is a cultivated and economically important plant of the genus Plantago, a large genus containing ~200 species. It yields Psyllium (Isabgol) which has several health benefits and applications in pharmaceutical, food and cosmetic industries. In view of the genetic uniformity, detection of variability has remained a challenge in this species as the plant lacks inherent variability and has a narrow genetic base. During the present study, Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) was used to determine genetic relationship and detect whatever little hidden variation exists in this species and some of its wild allies. Limited genetic variability was observed in P. ovata whereas; extensive genetic variability was seen in its wild allies. The genetic distances among different accessions of P. ovata and different species of Plantago, were used to generate a dendrogram.