Ideology and discourse: Characterizations of the 1996 Farm Bill by agricultural interest groups

The relationship betweendiscourse and ideology can be described as thatof process and effect [Purvis and Hunt (1993)British Journal of Sociology 44: 473–499].Discourse, used within relations of domination,can result in the formation of ideology. Tostudy this relationship systematically requiresa methodology that contextualizes discoursewithin social relations and examines when suchdiscourse becomes an ideology. I use Thompson'stheory/methodology of ``depth hermeneutics' tostudy documents produced by agriculturalinterest groups concerning the 1996 FederalAgriculture Improvement and Reform (FAIR) Actand I assess the ideological status of thediscourses contained in these documents. Thefindings suggest that the organizationsrepresenting the small-to-medium-sized farmerstended to use more agrarian themes, fewermarket themes, and fewer linguistic strategiesindicative of ideology. The organizationsrepresenting more concentrated,vertically-integrated interests andagribusinesses use fewer agrarian themes, moremarket themes, and more linguistic strategies.Therefore, market themes, not agrarian themes,form an ideology in this context.     

The perpetual agricultural policy crisis in the European community

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Community (EC) has been criticized for causing a misallocation of resources, inequitable income transfers, and enormous budgetary costs. The purpose of this paper is to examine the political economy of agriculture and agricultural policy in the EC. The results of the analysis indicate that conflicts between national political objectives and broader, community-wide concerns are important factors in the performance of EC agriculture. The pressures for reform of the CAP will lead to modification of the system, but changes in EC agricultural policy are likely to be moderate because of the inherent inertia of the policy-making process. As a result, the agricultural system in the EC will probably continue to evolve in an atmosphere of crisis with most reforms directed at symptoms rather than fundamental problems.     

日本农业产业化法律政策及启示

为系统了解日本农业产业化的发展路径及具体制度,并为我国农业产业化的模式选择和制度完善提供借鉴,以日本农业产业化的演变为主线,研究了日本政府根据不同时期的需要对农业结构政策、财政金融扶持政策、农村建设政策进行适时的调整,从而使其农业产业化政策适应日本农村、农业发展的需要。我国应该对日本的农业产业化法律政策进行选择性借鉴,在政府的鼓励、支持、引导下,根据我国国情,努力健全农业法律体系、财政金融扶持制度、多元化的农业技术推广体系并努力促进农业规模化经营。     

印度的农业政策与农业现代化略论

农业是印度国民经济的基础,充满活力的农业对其国民经济持续增长至关重要。独立后,印度政府制定了以制度改革为主实现农业现代化的政策,之后政策随着形势不断变化。半个世纪过去后,在粮食产量的增长、农业生产技术的现代化、商品化程度及产业化经营等方面取得了较大的成就。     

三门峡市农业信息化的实践与思考

从1999年10月开始，三门峡市针对农产品的产销状况和当地支柱产业的发展需求，相继创建了“优质果品信息网(www.fruits.ha.cn)”、三门峡市农业信息网(www.smxagri.org.cn)以及三门峡市种业信息网，所辖的6县（市、区）也都创建了拥有自己独立域名的信息网站。几年来，经过强化     

农业信息化建设的现状与对策

本文根据国内外农业信息化发展现状和存在问题，从完善和拓展农业科技信息网络、加强农业科技信息资源建设和农业信息化示范基地建设、信息队伍建设等方面，具体阐述了农业信息化建设的对策。     

台湾地区农业政策的历史演变及其对大陆农业发展的启示

台湾农业经过几十年的发展,取得了相当成功的经验，对台湾整个经济的发展贡献巨大。本文对台湾地区自“二战”以采的农业政策进行了简要回顾，得出了一些成功发展的经验。在此基础上提出对大陆农业发展的几点启示。     

农业保险实施中存在的障碍及其消解

为解决农业保险实施中存在的障碍,主要运用法学理论辅之以多学科综合分析的方法,指出2013年3月1日实施的《农业保险条例》(以下简称《条例》)存在诸多问题:地方政府经济干预权不明确,干预不适当;互助合作保险和农业保险中介组织没有具体法律规范;缺乏农业巨灾风险分散机制。建议对《条例》中没有规定的,如经济干预权的规范、合理划分中央和地方职责、互助合作保险及保险中介组织、巨灾风险分散机制等在今后制定的《农业保险实施细则》中进行规定。具体指出:进一步规范政府经济干预权,引入政府干预经济契约化手段;以培育社会中间层主体为中心构建农业保险服务体系;以建立财政、税收优惠制度为农业巨灾风险分散机制建设的第一步。     

广州市农民工积分入户政策的实践与启示

广州的积分入户政策极大地调动了农民工的工作热情,实现了对农民工的规范化管理,有利于推进城镇化建设。该政策也存在宣传力度不足、入户指标不合理和办理繁琐等问题。因此,必须加快调整和完善入户政策。实践证明,积分入户政策有利于逐步剥离各种依附在户籍上的利益,也创新了对外来流动人员的管理模式,对提升农民工素质和促进城镇化发挥了重要作用。     

The decline of public interest agricultural science and the dubious future of crop biological control in California

Drawing from a four-year study of US science institutions that support biological control of arthropods, this article examines the decline in biological control institutional capacity in California within the context of both declining public interest science and declining agricultural research activism. After explaining how debates over the public interest character of biological control science have shaped institutions in California, we use scientometric methods to assess the present status and trends in biological control programs within both the University of California Land Grant System and the California Department of Food and Agriculture. We present available data on the number of scientific positions and the types of positions to discuss the impact on the amount of public interest research on biological control in California. We use sociograms to depict how biological control science networks have been reconfigured over time. Our quantitative and qualitative analyses indicate that the following factors contributed to the decline of biological control science in California over the 45-year period analyzed: (1) the institutional reconfiguration of university research priorities; (2) the fraying networks within and increasing specialization of biological control science; (3) the transformation of the social organization of the life science work, including privatization; and (4) the abandonment of this thematic area by civil society activist groups. This broad array of forces suggests that biological control, as a public interest science, will require a deliberate intervention, based on advocacy of clear public interest criteria.     

Problems of agricultural policy in East Germany

The process of agricultural unification will dominate the German scene for the next few years. At this stage, however, analysis and forecasts are hampered by the considerable problem concerning the viability of East German agriculture in a market economy and by the absence of reliable data in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). This can only be understood in terms of the agricultural situation in the GDR before unification, which is discussed in the first section. The political and economic incentives for German unification are described in the next section of this paper, focusing especially on the integration of the GDR into CAP. The third section considers some critical structural, legal, social, and economic constraints in the process of integrating the two agricultural systems. Finally, the implications for German agriculture as well as the challenges for the CAP will be addressed. Data were collected from interviews with key agricultural policy makers, farm organizations, commodity groups, consumer groups, and agricultural experts, as well as interviewing East German farmers. Additional data were compiled from government statistics, EC publications, and press reports. The conclusions reached in this research show the urgent need for the German government to reconsider the objectives and rationale for structural policies in agriculture, and point out that the new Germany, itself full of paradoxes and uncertainty, stands at the center of European agricultural disorder.Leila Sfeir Lueschen is Assistant Professor of Agricultural Economics at the University of Kentucky. She has researched issues pertaining to the structure of agriculture, agricultural policies, and socio-economic change. Most recently, she has been studying problems associated with the transformation of East German agriculture and its integration into the European Community. Dr. Lueschen's work has been published in English, German, and French.     

仪征市农业信息体系建设的实践与思考

仪征市地处江苏中部，位于宁、镇、扬三市区几何中心。1999年以来，仪征市按照“转变工作职能，注重提高实效，适应发展需求，强化服务手段”的原则，积极建设农业信息综合体系，取得了初步成效。至目前，作为信息体系7个组成部分的互联网站、局域网系统、信息搜集与发布体系、     

完善国家良补项目实施程序之我见

1国家良补项目实施的意义 我国是重要的粮食生产大国。自2003年实施优势作物国家良种补贴项目以来,对全国粮食生产的快速发展起到了显著的推动作用,成效显著,单产和总产连年提高,对提高我国的粮食生产水平和农民增收增效起到了至关重要的直接促进作用,为保障国家粮食安全作出了突出贡献。良种补贴作为惠农政策中的技术性补贴,所产生的政策放大效应最为突出。     

我国农业技术补贴政策及其实施效果研究——以秸秆还田补贴为例

农业技术是促进农业发展的不竭动力,农业技术补贴政策的实施及其实施效果问题备受关注。本研究以河南省和江苏省农村的实地调研数据资料为依据,系统分析了农业技术及其补贴政策的实施现状,并运用Logit模型分析补贴政策的实施效果。研究表明:农户年龄、受教育程度和秸杆还田机械质量等变量在1%显著性水平下差异显著;均和农业技术的采用呈正相关关系,而补贴变量在统计上并不显著。本研究就加强农业技术补贴政策和农业技术的宣传力度、完善农业技术和技术补贴政策、加强技术指导等方面提出了建议。     

发达国家农业政策对中国的启示

在全球化的背景下,以数据为支撑分析了欧盟、美国、日本和德国等农业发达国家和组织的现行农业支持、农业税费、农业补贴、农业产业等现行政策,并结合我国现阶段的基本国情,对我国农业政策的调整提出一些建议.     

加入WTO后高等农业教育发展与创新的思考

在经济全球化的大潮中,高等农业教育不仅承担着提供优质农业教育资源,赢得农业增效的艰巨任务,而且面临国际教育市场的严峻挑战。发展高等农业教育,既要从加入WTO的宏观层面着眼,又要立足于我国农业已经发展到新阶段的国情、省情现实,切实选准定位。围绕在高校中学生是主人、教师是办学主体、质量是生存发展之本的思路,构筑多学科综合发展、突出农业特色的办学框架,走出盘活教育资源、调整专业结构、扩大就业渠道、培养具备创新精神与实践能力新型人才的路子,为农业科技的攀升提供支撑,为农民增收贡献力量。     

我国农业政策性贷款的边界分析

本文通过农业政策性贷款的概念、农业信贷市场的分类等角度,概括了其理论边界、业务边界和规模边界。认为农业政策性贷款的规模边界受财政补贴、盈利水平和风险损失率的限制。要控制农业政策性贷款的风险损失率,需要进行抵押担保制度创新,防范政策风险和市场风险。