Who is down on the farm? Social aspects of Australian agriculture in the 21st century

Globalization, international policymanipulations such as the US farm bill, andnational policy responses have received a greatdeal of media coverage in recent times. Theseinternational and national events are having amajor impact on agricultural production inAustralia. There is some suggestion that theyare, in fact, responsible for a downturn in thefortunes of agriculture. Yet, it is more likelythat these issues are acting to continue andexacerbate a trend towards reduced viabilityfor farm families evident in economic andsocial trends since at least the 1950s.Nevertheless, globalization and Australia's policy responses have left farm families morevulnerable in the global world. What then do weknow about their impact at farm gate level?Just who is doing the farming in Australia inthe 21st century and how are these peopleresponding to major world politics? This paperwill focus on the social aspects ofagricultural production in Australia notingsocial trends and drawing attention to thechanging social relations of agriculture. Thedominance of farm families, the role ofcorporate agriculture, ethnic diversity, theimportance of women, and the practice of farmtransfers will be canvassed in this paper.     

Values and policy conflict in West German agriculture

Family farming became a major social force in the Federal Republic following World War II. Several political, economic and social factors facilitated the development of a unified political representation within the farm sector. The German Farmers Union (Deutscher Bauernverband) became the main representative of the farm sector. Its platform included the preservation of family farms and it attempted to realize this goal through the promotion of commodity price support policies. Political support for these programs was legitimized with the elaboration of a system of values espousing the positive qualities of family farms. Price support policies were opposed by free market advocates with an alternative system of values that fundamentally contradicted those of family farm advocates. Although commodity price supports promoted by partisans of family farming dominated agricultural policy formation in the 1950s and 1960s, fiscal crisis in the EEC and economic differentation within the farm sector began to undermine the position of family farming as a social force. But economic stagnation also prevented the free market position from gaining dominance. Economic differentiation within the farm sector has had an important regional dimension, and this has served as a basis for policy compromise. Economic changes over the post-WWII period have undermined the family farm as a social force. Nevertheless, values associated with family farming continue to have a place in agricultural policy. However, family farming is valued less as an end in itself, and more as a means to the realization of more practical ends such as the preservation of rural landscapes for recreational purposes.     

发达国家化肥减量政策的适用性分析及启示

通过梳理和分析欧盟、美国和日本等代表性国家（地区）化肥减量政策的具体做法、实施效果和适用条件,以期发现化肥减量政策在环境取向制定时的共同规律和一般条件,从而为中国化肥减量政策的制定提供可行的政策建议。研究表明,各个国家（地区）的化肥减量政策各有优缺点且适用条件不同,其中欧盟的命令控制型政策适用于涉及农户少、农业种植类型或农场类型同一的情况,美国的经济激励型政策适用于涉及农户较多、农产品市场体制比较完善、价格形成机制灵敏的情况,日本的公众参与型政策适用于相关农业团体较多、经济实力较强的地区。因此,中国在制定化肥减量政策时,应对各国的政策手段取长补短、综合选择;为此,应从完善农产品价格机制和无公害农产品认证制度和积极培育新型农业经营主体等方面着手,通过市场机制的引导促进环境友好型技术的采纳、通过化散为整确保环境标准的有效执行、通过协同带动和宣传引导提高农民的环境意识,从而保证命令控制型、经济激励型和公众参与型等化肥减量政策的有效实施。     

Resilience and vulnerability in US farm policy: parsing the payment limitation debate

Since the New Deal era, the commodity title has been the major farm support program in US farm bills. Commodity programs have encouraged farmers to pursue specialized, monocultural, and input intensive production strategies that are increasingly viewed as unsustainable. Yet commodity programs remain politically resilient. As revealed in the farm payment limitation debate in the 2007 farm bill reauthorization process, political support for commodity programs is maintained through policy elasticity adaptations that combine new with old policy rationales. The recent extension of farm program support to producers of commodities that have not received benefits in the past poses a potential threat to existing commodity programs, as this legislation has institutionalized competition within production agriculture over the allocation and design of subsidies. This paper argues for renewed attention to the policy support mechanisms that undergird the conventional agrifood system in order to better understand alternative agrifood system possibilities and constraints.

Farmer-Community Connections and the Future of Ecological Agriculture in California

While questions about the environmental sustainability of contemporary farming practices and the socioeconomic viability of rural communities are attracting increasing attention throughout the US, these two issues are rarely considered together. This paper explores the current and potential connections between these two aspects of sustainability, using data on community members’ and farmers’ views of agricultural issues in California’s Central Valley. These views were collected from a series of individual and group interviews with biologically oriented and conventional farmers as well as community stakeholders. Local marketing, farmland preservation, and perceptions of sustainable agriculture comprised the primary topics of discussion. The mixed results indicate that, while many farmers and community members have a strong interest in these topics, sustainable community development and the use of sustainable farming practices are seldom explicitly linked. On the other hand, many separate efforts around the Valley to increase local marketing and agritourism, improve public education about agriculture, and organize grassroots farmland preservation initiatives were documented. We conclude that linking these efforts more explicitly to sustainable agriculture and promoting more engagement between ecologically oriented farmers and their communities could engender more economic and political support for these farmers, helping them and their communities to achieve greater sustainability in the long run. Sonja Brodt is a former program evaluation specialist with the University of California Integrated Pest Management Program. Her current research focuses on extension and adoption of integrated pest management strategies by California growers and the impacts of pesticide safety training programs on farmworkers. Gail Feenstra is a food systems analyst at the University of California Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (SAREP). She coordinates SAREP’s Community Development and Public Policy grants program and conducts outreach and education to academic and community-based groups to build their capacity and leadership skills for developing sustainable community food systems. Robin Kozloff is a social science researcher and consultant in agricultural and land use policy. Karen Klonsky is an extension specialist at the University of California at Davis in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics. Her research focuses on the economic viability of organic and sustainable farming systems as well as the evolution of the organic market. Laura Tourte is county director and farm advisor at the University of California Cooperative Extension in Santa Cruz County. Her research and extension activities currently focus on farm management and marketing for small-scale growers.     

Integrating culture and community into environmental policy: community tradition and farm size in conservation decision making

Community research by anthropologists and sociologists details the effects that centralization of decision making has on local communities. As governance and regulation move toward global scales, conservation policy has devolved to the local levels, creating tensions in resource management and protection. Centralization without local participation can place communities at risk by eroding the environmental knowledge and decision making capacity of local people. Environmental problems such as water quality impairments require perception, interpretation, and ability to act locally. Through a presentation of findings from farm communities in the Sugar Creek Watershed (Northeast Ohio, USA), this paper examines tradition, social scale, and land use among Anabaptist and other farm households, and refocuses on-farm conversation away from conventional individual metric-based studies and toward a systems approach. This new approach frames conservation behavior in a socio-cultural system that is influenced by tradition in on-farm decision making. Data from four subwatersheds are used to probe the effects of these variables on conservation adoption, explore the optimal farm size concept, and discus the roles of tradition and local and non-local knowledge in sustainability.     

Farmers helping farmers: Constituent services and the development of a grassroots farm lobby

Two major episodes of farm protest have occurred in the past decade. In each case, protesting farmers have chosen to create new farm organizations rather than express their grievances through one of many existing farm interest groups. The result has been the development of a durable grassroots farm lobby, a hybrid mode of exercising political influence that combines features of interest group lobbying and social movement protest. The first episode saw the mobilization of the American Agriculture Movement (AAM), a nation-wide protest organization devoted to achieving a federal guarantee of parity prices. When AAM's attempt to change federal farm policy failed, it was unable to sustain a high level of member mobilization or organizational activity. This failure is attributed to the lack of a stable organizational structure, the lack of durable membership incentives, and the counterproductive effects of disruptive protest tactics. The second episode of protest occurred in reaction to the farm-debt crisis of the 1980s. Protesting farmers organized numerous crisis groups to provide emergency services to financially distressed farmers. The crisis groups coalesced into the National Save the Family Farm Coalition (NSFFC) in order to exert influence over federal farm policy. It is argued that this coalition structure, along with membership incentives provided by crisis groups through their constituent service programs, may allow this latest farm movement to exert more considerable and durable influence over federal farm policy than AAM was able to do in the late 1970s. The problems of maintaining a national coalition of grassroots groups are discussed and evaluated.     

Crisis in Swedish farmland preservation strategy

Since the late 1960's, a mix of government policies has prevented the loss of farmland in Sweden, “either to forest or asphalt”; these policies have also ensured the maintenance of soil fertility and groundwater resources. However, in Sweden as in several other European nations, a chronic and growing “grain glut” in recent years has undermined the economic logic of import protection and farm price supports—the principle means of promoting a sustainable agriculture. Mainstream economists, imbued with urban-biased and production-centered values, have long criticized these costly mechanisms of public support as cost-ineffective and socially unjustified. They and many prominent politicians tend to minimize the non-production benefits of maintaining an open “working landscape” and rural communities dependent upon agriculture. Historically, Sweden's major farm organizations and its agrarian political party have resisted this economistic view with considerable success. Therefore it was a shock to many observers when, in 1986, leaders of the Swedish Federation of Farmers itself proposed planting trees on crop land as one element of a solution to overproduction. This essay traces the evolution of Swedish farm debates and policies since World War II, leading to the present critical juncture. It explores the incipient alliance between farmers and conservationists to protect farmland (as well as family farms and farm communities) and assesses the prospects for maintaining land in production through diversification into biomass energy crops and high protein fodder crops (the former option takes on new significance in the wake of the Chernobil disaster and pressure for early de-commissioning of Sweden's nuclear power plants; the latter would reduce Swedish dependence on imported soybeans). Finally, there is speculation on the relevance of Sweden's experience for American farmland policy.     

黑龙江省农机购置补贴政策效果实证分析

黑龙江省是全国重要的商品粮生产基地,黑龙江省粮食生产直接关系国家粮食储备及战略安全。农机购置补贴政策可以推进黑龙江省农业机械化、现代化,进而有效地增加粮食生产、农民收入。为研究黑龙江农机购置补贴政策的实施效果,基于面板数据,借助Eviews 7.0计量软件,对农机购置补贴政策拉动黑龙江省农业经济发展的影响程度进行了定量分析。结果表明:农机购置补贴政策对黑龙江省农户购机投入、粮食产量、农民收入均具有积极的正向影响,从而带动了全省农机总动力的提升、促进了农村劳动力的有效转移、刺激了农业生产消费。     

市场经济环境下不同类型农户土地利用行为差异及土地保护政策分析

从生产规模、收入水平和兼业行为方面对农户土地利用行为之间的差异进行比较，初步探讨了不同类型农户对经济政策刺激的反应及其可能采取的土地利用方式对土地退化（保护）的效果。在此基础上，提出旨在使政府宏观目标与农户经济收益两者兼得的“双赢”政策调控模式。     

Economic development and biotechnology: Public policy response to the farm crisis in Iowa

In periods of social crisis, policymakers become particularly vulnerable to interest groups mobilizing to compete for scarce funds. At this point, legislators are no longer able to address the specific needs of their primary constituency directly, but rather are forced to do so in pretext only. New, unfamiliar technologies provide ample ammunition for astute interest groups to take advantage of times of economic turmoil and maneuver for policy support through dramatic campaigns of “salesmanship.” By publicizing a crisis situation, dramatizing it effectively, and advertising an innovation as the solution to the crisis, legislators may be effectively persuaded to give priority to interest group pressures above and beyond those of the local constituency. Iowa's attempts to address the farm crisis through economic development strategies relying on biotechnology is examined in this paper. The results of extensive surveys of Iowa's legislators and farmers are examined and the consequences for Iowa's policy process of using biotechnology under the auspices of economic development are discussed.     

The multi-dimensional nature of environmental attitudes among farmers in Indiana: implications for conservation adoption

Attempts to understand farmer conservation behavior based on quantitative socio-demographic, attitude, and awareness variables have been largely inconclusive. In order to understand fully how farmers are making conservation decisions, 32 in-depth interviews were conducted in the Eagle Creek watershed in central Indiana. Coding for environmental attitudes and practice adoption revealed several dominant themes, representing multi-dimensional aspects of environmental attitudes. Farmers who were motivated by off-farm environmental benefits and those who identified responsibilities to others (stewardship) were most likely to adopt conservation practices. Those farmers who focused on the farm as business and were most concerned about profitability were less likely to adopt practices. The notion of environmental stewardship in particular was found to be much more complex than the way it is traditionally measured in quantitative studies. The interplay between on-farm and off-farm benefits to practice adoption is an issue that quantitative studies largely do not address. This study seeks to increase understanding of farmers’ environmental attitudes and the connections to conservation behavior.     

规模化养猪场沼气工程发展的税收政策制度导向探讨

在对福建省规模化养猪场沼气工程开展随机抽样调查的基础上,分析了税收政策对规模化养猪场沼气工程的作用机理,并通过对国内外清洁能源工程税收政策的比较,分析了现有税收政策的实施效果及不足,提出了增强税收政策的市场导向作用;进一步完善税收体系,加大税收扶持力度;建立促进可持续发展的税收政策的协调机制和配套措施等政策设想。     

A history of black farm operators in Maryland

Since the turn of the century, the number of small-scale farmers in the U.S. and farmlands they owned have declined very sharply (structural change). Although the decrease in number is generally true for both white and Black farm operators, it has been more significant for Blackfarm operators than whites. The declining trend in the number of Blackfarm operators in the country is derived from individual state experiences that resulted from a combination of various political and economic factors. Using the census of agriculture data from 1900 to 1987, this paper gives a brief historical overview of Black farm operators in Maryland. The census data for the study period shows that at their peak number in 1910, there were 6,382 Blackfarmers in the state of Maryland. However, by 1987, only 371 of that number remained, representing a loss of 94 percent since 1910. According to the 1987 census data almost all Black operated farms in Maryland were not only small-scale but also in the lower sales class, less than $20,000 a year. Their household net family income is below that of non-metropolitan median household income. This concentration of Blacks in the lower economic class of farm operators in the state, for the most part, is closely related to their resource endowments, patterns of tenure, type of farm enterprises, and government farm programs and policies. On the average, Blackfarmers in Maryland have less land, capital and management skills than their white counterparts. Government policies and programs had, and continue to have, a devastating effect on Maryland Black farmers because they were tied to productive resources rather than farm income needs. Under conditions of low income, years of neglect by federal and state programs and policies, and limited resources Blackfarmers were unable to adopt capital intensive production practices and expand their farm operations. This resulted in most of them leaving agriculture, in the past and today, at a faster rate than whites. To avert or at least lessen the unfortunate situation of Black farm operators, projections and possible solutions are offered. This includes how the 1890 Land-Grant institutions because of their tradition, expertise and experience of research, teaching and outreach can take the leadership role in shaping the future direction of these farmers and their operations.Trained in agricultural economics, Ejigou Demissie is an Associate Professor in the Department of Agriculture at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. His teaching areas include agricultural policy, farm business management, and agricultural marketing. Research interests center on small-scale agriculture and rural development. His recent book published by Westview Press is titledSmall-Scale Agriculture in America: Race, Economics, and the Future.     

Saving the small farm: Agriculture in roman literature

Roman agriculture suffered traumatic changes during the 2nd century B.C. The traditional farmers who tilled their few acres and served family, gods and community were being squeezed out by large estate owners using slaves for investment farming. Politicians, scholars and poets tried to revive the ancestoral rustic life. In 133 B.C. the Gracchi legislated land reform to relieve the distress of the farmer soldiers who had won the empire. Although their efforts led to political confrontation that deteriorated into civil war, programs for the traditional farm became a permanent part of government policy from the late Republic until the end of the empire in 476 A.D. Scholars and poets made a contribution to the revival of agriculture with knowledge for improving the farm and by encouraging an agrarian mentality. The agricultural manuals (e.g. Cato (c. 150 B.C.), Varro (c. 50 B.C), and Columella (c.65 A.D.), defined the nature of the desirable farm and gave practical advice. Profit was the goal, but good farming practices made for pleasure and virtue as well. The image of the ancestoral farmer was perpetuated as was the notion that farming was the only honorable and respectable occupation for a Roman gentleman. In the Augustan Age (34 B.C.—14 A.D.) poets were encouraged by the government to adopted a rustic theme in hopes it would stimulate a return to the land and aid in the rebirth of Rome and Romans. In the GeorgicsVirgil begins with the practical details of farming, but uses myth and philosophy to explore the nature and meaning of life. He admits that Jove made life perilous. But Jove also gave man the art of agriculture and with hard work man could know the pleasure of a simple, virtuous, productive life. Horace directed his poetry against the allure of city life and in praise of rustic living. Epicureanism and Stoicism, in the guise of life on the farm, could show that although fate was unpredictable, the world was orderly and, if one recognized and accepted its limits, one could make a garden of the world and live a simple but happy life. By 300 A.D. Rome missed the peasant-farmer-soldier and by the 470's life had returned to an agrarian condition. Bishop Sidonius, trying to furnish meaning and perspective for the emerging new age, resorted to the Roman agricultural traditions still cherished as that world disappeared.     

美国土地休耕登记机制及对中国的启示

登记机制是美国土地休耕制度的核心。该机制通过设立准入标准、竞价上限、环境效益指数和最大面积上限对休耕进行资格控制、成本控制、效益控制和规模控制,在一定程度上有效实现了生态效益、社会效益、经济效益,以及个人利益之间的平衡。中国目前的休耕工作尚处于试点和探索阶段,急需建立符合中国国情的较为完善的休耕组织方式和政策体系。该研究总结了美国土地休耕登记机制的优点,并提出中国在土地休耕体系的构建中要综合运用政府和市场双重手段,注重宏观控制和微观控制相结合,借助“政府购买式服务”的制度优势,运用社会力量进行休耕养护等建议。     

新时代国有林场改革的若干问题探讨

国有林场是我国生态文明建设的主力军。随着我国城市化建设步伐的不断加速,生态环境问题业日益突出,如何在保护生态环境的同时,加快经济建设的发展,成为当今林业领域的热点研究问题。本文从国有林场改革的意义、公益性国有林场的特点、国有林场改革的思路及建议、国有林场发展的方向及途径、国有林场可持续发展的措施等方面进行了探讨,以期为国有林场的发展提供借鉴。     

Framing and reframing the environmental risks and economic benefits of ethanol production in Iowa

Recent research exposing environmental and social externalities of biofuels has undermined the earlier national consensus that they would provide climate mitigation and rural development benefits, but support for ethanol remains strong in Iowa. The objective of this paper is to understand how stakeholder groups in Iowa have framed the benefits and risks associated with ethanol’s impact on the local economy and environment. Our case study draws on in-depth, semi-structured interviews conducted with key informants from agricultural organizations, environmental organizations, and government departments in the state. We find that in Iowa, widespread support for ethanol production exists among government, energy, and farm groups, and that they frame ethanol production as economically beneficial to rural communities and agriculture, while minimizing the possibility of associated environmental risks. Although participants from environmental organizations in Iowa express apprehension about the environmental impacts of expanded corn ethanol production, their unease is muted in relation to economic benefits and in relation to other environmental issues, and few have publicly voiced their concerns. To understand these findings, we draw from the environmental sociology literature that examines the role of powerful natural resource interests in framing the importance of resource extraction and commodity production to community identity and economy and in delegitimizing and naturalizing associated environmental issues and problems. We argue that powerful natural resource interests in Iowa both naturalize environmental problems related to ethanol production and engage in diversionary reframing to emphasize the economic benefits while minimizing or rejecting the potential environmental risks.     

南方规模化奶牛场草基循环农业模式研究

针对奶牛养殖快速发展带来的资源浪费和环境污染问题,探讨了南方规模化奶牛场循环农业模式并提出了相关策略。提出养殖场粪污(包括奶牛粪、尿和养殖废水)是造成环境污染的主要因子,牧草是消纳养殖场粪污,变废为宝,构成循环利用链的主要载体。因此南方规模化奶牛养殖可以就地取材、就近利用,构筑形成草基循环农业模式。草基循环农业模式结合规模化奶牛养殖对鲜草需要量大、杂交狼尾草产量高且对奶牛场污水氨氮吸收率高的三大因素而构建,是低耗高效、安全优质、清洁生态的循环农业模式。     

Institutional support and in situ conservation in Mexico: biases against small-scale maize farmers in post-NAFTA agricultural policy

One of the major adjustments brought on by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was a change in the relationship between Mexican agricultural support institutions and the small-scale agricultural sector. Post-NAFTA restructuring programs sought to correct previous inefficiencies in this sector, but they have also had the effect of marginalizing the producers who steward and manage the country’s reserve of maize (Zea mays) genetic diversity. Framed by research suggesting that certain maize varieties in a rain-fed farming region in southern Sonora are in danger of loss due chiefly to long-term drought, this article explores the ramifications of post-NAFTA agricultural policies for in situ maize diversity conservation. Qualitative methods, including semi-structured interviews with agricultural support institutions and participant observation with farmers, were used to gather data on dryland farmers’ access to research and extension, as well as possibilities for collective action. In southern Sonora, agricultural support is oriented primarily toward high-tech production, and there are structural barriers to small-scale farmers’ access to research and extension institutions. Further, collective action around agriculture is limited. These circumstances represent significant limitations to farmers’ options for accessing new techniques which might help maintain maize diversity in the context of economic and environmental change.