“<Emphasis Type="Italic">Chasms</Emphasis>” in agrifood systems: rethinking how we can contribute

The reaction to conventional agriculture and food systems has generated a host of alternative social movements in the past several decades. Many progressive agrifood researchers have researched these movements, exploring their strengths, weaknesses, and failures. Most such research is abstracted from the movements themselves. This paper proposes a new way of self-organization that, while fulfilling traditional university demands on researchers, will provide research support for progressive agrifood movements by transcending the boundaries of disciplines and individual universities.

Species Composition of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Fusarium</Emphasis> Fungi Revealed on Spring Barley Crops in Central Russia in 2015–2017

Species composition of Fusarium fungi and the frequency of their occurrence on spring barley crops in the Moscow, Tula, and Vladimir oblasts of Russia have been studied in 2015–2017. Over 700 strains of fungi belonging to 12 species of the genus Fusarium have been isolated into pure culture. The species composition of these fungi in the studied regions includes both common and rare species. Fungal cultures isolated from roots and reproductive organs demonstrated a high uniformity of their species composition that may be explained by a similarity of soil and climatic conditions and by the susceptibility of barley cultivars to soilborne micromycetes. The frequency of occurrence of the fungi on underground parts of plants was rather uniform, while that on the grain depended on the environmental conditions prevailing during the flowering and ripening stages. Among isolated Fusarium strains, 33 isolates with stable morphological and cultural characteristics have been deposited into the State Collection of Plant Pathogenic Microorganisms. Strains with the highest pathogenicity and toxicity were recommended for the artificial infection background created during regional trials of barley cultivars for disease resistance.     

Production of chitin—melanin complexes from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Apis mellifera</Emphasis> and study of the possibility of using them as radionuclide sorbents

Samples of a chitin-melanin complex are produced from honeybee corpses and some of their physicochemical characteristics are determined. The interaction of the complexes with radionuclides ²³³U and ⁹⁰Sr in solutions is studied. The dependence of the sorption properties of the chitin-melanin complexes with respect to radionuclides on the method of isolating and purifying them is established.     

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.