Erratum

In Mark Crawford's News & Comment article "Agricultural groups push research plan" (14 Apr., p. 140), the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Joint Countil on Food and Agriculture Sciences was incorrectly referred to as the "Joint Council on Food and Agriculture Safety."     

Rifkin takes aim at USDA animal research

Jeremy Rifkin has filed a lawsuit to block U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) experiments involving the transfer of human growth hormone genes into sheep and pigs, which he rejects on environmental, economic, and ethical grounds. His real target is the Department's animal breeding program; his ultimate aim is "to establish the principle that there should be no crossing of species barriers in animals." USDA officials have not yet responded to the lawsuit but they intend to continue the experiments, which they consider crucial to the progress of research, until told to stop.     

薄壳山核桃良种‘肖肖尼'引种及栽培要点

‘肖肖尼’由美国农业部农业研究中心L.D.Romberg 1972年育成发布,‘Odom’בEvers’。‘肖肖尼’为雌先型品种(Ⅱ型)。文章从植物学特征、物候期、生长性状、果实品质、抗逆性等方面介绍了‘肖肖尼’的引种表现,并概括了其早果、丰产等重要措施。     

Local governance and participation in agricultural Development Process in Nigeria

Professor Famoriyo obtained a second class honours degree in Agricultural Economics at King's College, Newcastle-On-Tyne (then) of the University of Durham, England in 1966. He did graduate work at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria in 1968, and received at Ph. D. in Land Economics at Wye College, Wye of the University of London. He is currently Professor of Agricultural Economics and Head of the Department of Farm Management and Extension at The Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria. Professor Famoriyo is widely published in his field.     

河北农业大学期刊社2002-2012年办刊实践与思考

河北农业大学期刊社编辑出版《河北农业大学学报》、《河北农业大学学报（农林教育版）》、《河北林果研究》,Frontiers of Agriculture in China（中国农业学术前沿）,4种期刊。近年来,在河北农业大学的领导和扶持下,各刊取得了良好的办刊成绩,但也存在稿源不足,期刊特色不明显,办公自动化水平低,编辑素质有待提高等缺点。为此,期刊社要努力扩大稿源,严把学术质量关,实施品牌战略,加强文化建设,实现采编发的电子化。     

Book reviews

Christopher B. Barrett is a dual Ph. D. candidate in the Department of Agricultural Economics and the Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is also pursuing a Certificate in African Studies. His previous degrees are from Princeton and Oxford. He spent several years working as a macroeconomist for an international institution, chiefly reporting on and evaluating African structural adjustment programs and debt rescheduling and reduction agreements.     

Laboratory animals. Researchers pained by effort to define distress precisely

The U.S. Department of Agriculture requested comments earlier this year to help it decide whether to adopt a formal definition of "distress" as part of its responsibilities under the Animal Welfare Act. But the 2600 pieces of advice it received during a 4-month period that ended earlier this month suggest that its job won't be easy. The comments highlight a deep split between animal activists, who see the potential new regulations as a step toward eliminating all painful procedures, and most researchers, who say that the present system is working well and that no major changes are needed.     

夏播油葵新品种运葵4号的选育及配套技术

运葵4号是山西省农科院棉花研究所选育的油用向日葵三系杂交种,适宜各产区春播和冬麦茬夏播,具有产量高、含油率高、结实率高、抗逆性好等特点。2000～2002年参加山西省向日葵生产区域试验,3年平均单产2643kg/hm2,比美国G101增产7.4%。经农业部油料及制品质量监督检验测试中心对2002年复播运葵4号测定,子实含油率为42.33%。2003年3月通过山西省农作物品种审定委员会审定。提出运葵4号的高产栽培技术措施和大面积制种配套技术。     

Administration divided over OECD biotech plan

For the past two years, members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)--which includes the United States, most of its European allies, and Japan--have been discussing how to set up international guidelines to regulate the emerging biotechnology industry. A May 1985 first draft of the guidelines spawned many objections, and now a revised draft, called "Safety and Regulations in Biotechnology," has encountered mixed responses from U.S. federal agencies. The Environmental Protection Agency generally supports the document, but the State Department, Food and Drug Administration, and Department of Agriculture have significant objections to its tone and substance, particularly in regard to the specificity of safety controls over the commercial development of recombinant DNA organisms used in large-scale production and for agricultural purposes.     

Agrarianism and the American philosophical tradition

Paul Thompson is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Agricultural Economics at Texas A&M University. His textbookEthics, Public Policy and Agriculture, written with Eileen Olsen VanRavenswaay and Robert Matthews, will be published by Macmillan in 1991. He is currently co-editing a book with Bill Stout on agricultural research policy entitledBeyond the Large Farm. He is guest editor of this issue.     

基于文献计量学的世界苹果研究态势分析

基于Web of Science数据库,采用文献计量学方法,分析了2001~2012年全球发表的关于苹果研究的文献类型,年度发文量,居世界前20名的国家、机构、作者、期刊和学科归属等情况。结果表明:2001~2012年间全球发表的苹果文献共17 699篇,文献类型以学术论文为主;论文的产出量呈逐年上升趋势,2011年发文量最高,约是2001年的2倍;美国、中国、西班牙、意大利和德国发文量居世界前5位,美国发文量最多,为4 578篇;中国的苹果种植面积和总产量均居世界第一位;美国农业部农业研究服务中心、康奈尔大学、加拿大农业和农产品研究所、华盛顿州大学和法国农业科学研究院苹果论文数量多,中国农业大学、中国科学院和浙江大学分别居第八、第十二和第十五位;最有学术影响力的作者来自美国;主要的发文期刊是《HortScience》、《Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry》、《Phytopathology》、《Postharvest Biology and Technology》和《Journal of Food Engineering》;主要的学科是农业、食品科学技术、植物科学、化学和昆虫学;农业和食品科学技术方面是其研究的重点领域。     

The social construction of production externalities in contemporary agriculture: Process <Emphasis Type="Italic">versus</Emphasis> product standards as the basis for defining “organic”

The analysis distinguishes two types of standards for defining organic produce; process standards and product standards. Process standards define organic products by the method and means of production. Product standards define organic by the physical quality of the end product. The National Organic Program (NOP) uses process standards as the basis for defining organic. However, the situation is complicated by agricultural production practices, which sometimes result in the migration of NOP prohibited substances from conventional to organic fields. When this interaction alters the value of the product or the costs of production, a production externality is said to exist. Defining organic using process, rather than product standards, influences the burden and character of production externalities. The NOPs emphasis on process standards reduces the likelihood that production externalities will emerge.B. James Deaton is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Business and Agricultural Economics, University of Guelph, Canada. His research examines environmental and natural resource issues. He is particularly interested in the manner in which laws, rules, and standards influence environmental quality, natural resource use, and economic development. Additional research examines the relationship between different forms of private property and economic development, public support for various criteria used to preserve farmland, and the social construction of production externalities in agriculture. Prior to his PhD training, he worked on economic development projects in Lesotho (Southern Africa) and the Appalachian region of eastern Kentucky.John P. Hoehn is a Professor of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics in the Department of Agricultural Economics, Michigan State University. His teaching and research activities address environmental and natural resource policies, benefit-cost analysis of environmental improvements, methods for valuing non-market goods, improved institutions for protecting, managing, and using environmental resources, and the economics of ecological resources. He teaches core courses in the departmental and university-wide graduate programs in environmental and resource economics.     

中国农业科技入户网数据上报管理系统建设

"中国农业科技入户网"数据上报管理系统是为了配合"农业科技入户工程"的深入开展而建立的,系统采用科技示范县客户端远程上报数据的方式,实现数据的即时性、集中式与规范化管理,目前该系统已成为"农业科技入户工程"数据上报、传输与处理的重要网上管理平台。     

Rural livelihoods in the arid and semi-arid environments of Kenya: Sustainable alternatives and challenges

The improvement of the welfare of inhabitants of arid and semi-arid lands, either through the enhancement of existing livelihoods or the promotion of alternative ones, and their potential constraints are discussed. Alternative livelihoods are discussed under regenerative and extractive themes with respect to environmental stability. Regenerative (i.e., non-extractive) livelihoods include activities like apiculture, poultry keeping, pisciculture, silkworm production, drought tolerant cash cropping, horticulture, community wildlife tourism, processing of livestock and crop products, agro-forestry for tree products, and micro-enterprises in the informal sector. Examples of livelihoods that are extractive or potentially so include timber production, woodcarving, basketry, brick making, sand scooping, and charcoal making. Suggestions to improve these livelihoods in a sustainable manner are offered.Robinson K. Ngugi, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer in Biosystems Analysis whose specialty is animal resources in the rangelands. He has taught at the University of Nairobi, Department of Range Management for about 15 years and is widely published on various aspects of animal resources in arid and semi-arid lands.Dickson M. Nyariki, PhD, is an Associate Professor in Agricultural Economics whose specialty is Range Resource Economics. He has taught at the University of Nairobi, Department of Range Management for about 15 years and is widely published on various aspects of range resource use and development. Currently, he heads the University of Nairobis Department of Range Management.     

基于GIS的三江平原蛤蟆通河流域农业非点源污染模拟研究

选取三江平原蛤蟆通河流域作为研究区,在GIS技术的支持下,应用美国农业部农业研究局(ARS)开发的SWAT模型,对农业非点源污染进行了模拟研究,分析了不同年份、不同月份、不同土地利用类型、不同土壤类型的产出特性。     

“农业经济学”课程思政教学模式构建与实践探究——以河北农业大学为例

本文以河北农业大学为例,在分析“农业经济学”课程性质的基础上,系统梳理课程内容和特点,努力挖掘课程思政元素,结合国家“三农”政策法规,构建了微观—中观—宏观、课前—课中—课后、线上—线下经纬耦合的“农业经济学”课程思政教学模式,并探索出思政元素融入“农业经济学”课堂的有效实施路径。     

Animal research. Activists win big on rodent, bird rules

A federal judge last month ruled that animal-rights activists have the legal right to challenge U.S. Department of Agriculture rules that exempt the vast majority of research animals from federal regulation. Observers say that the ruling almost guarantees that the agency will extend regulations governing animal handling and housing to thousands of academic and industry laboratories that work with rodents and birds. Those new rules, say animal-care experts, could impose costly new requirements on labs that don't meet standards set by the private Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care.     

The varieties of sustainability

Each of four sections in this paper sketches the philosophical problems associated with a different dimension of sustainability. The untitled introductory section surveys the oft-noted discrepancies between different notions of sustainability, and notes that one element of the ambiguity relates to the different points of view taken by a participant in a system and a detached observer of the system. The second section, Sustainability as a System Describing Concept, examines epistemological puzzles that arise when one attempts to assess the truth or falsity of claims that attribute sustainability or non-sustainability. In particular, such claims generally presume bounded systems, but boundary conditions are value-laden. The third section, Sustainability as a Goal Prescribing Concept, examines puzzles that arise in attempting to define sustainability in normative terms. In particular, the question of whether sustainability is an intrinsic or instrumental value is examined. The final section, Sustainability and Bliss, offers an analysis of the moral responsibilities that human beings have, given the fact that knowledge of conditions for achieving sustainability can never be complete.Paul Thompson was President of the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society during 1990 and 1991. He now directs the Center for Biotechnology Policy and Ethics, Institute of Biosciences and Technology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX. He is also Professor of Philosophy and of Agricultural Economics at Texas A&M. His bookThe Ethics of Aid and Trade (Cambridge: 1992, Cambridge U. Press) reviews the alleged conflict of interest between U. S. farmers and efforts that would increase the productivity of agriculture in developing countries.     

新农村建设下我国农业电子商务发展路径研究

社会主义新农村建设是解决＂三农＂问题的重要途径,加快新农村建设的重要基础是农业现代化的实现,农业电子商务是促进农业现代化进程的重要手段。首先给出了农业电子商务的含义和发展农业电子商务的意义,然后分析了我国农业电子商务的发展现状,并找出了存在的问题,最后提出了新农村建设下我国农业电子商务发展的路径。     

边疆地方农业院校科技人员服务“三农”的实践与对策

农业科技进步是解决"三农"问题的关键,而地方农业院校是边疆民族地区现代农业技术产生的重要源泉与发展的不竭动力。文章归纳总结了以云南农业大学为代表的科技人员服务"三农"的途径与模式,深入分析了边疆地方农业院校科技人员服务"三农"存在的主要问题,并结合边疆地方农业院校的地方性特点,提出了不断完善科技人员服务"三农"的对策与措施,以期切实提高工作的实效性。