New state liability exceptions for agritourism activities and the use of liability releases

Agritourism activities have gained importance as a mechanism for some farmers to broaden their sources of income. As businesses have pursued agritourism activities, they have been concerned about liability for personal injuries of participants. In some states, providers of agritourism activities have presented legislators with ideas for an agritourism statute to limit liability for injuries resulting from inherent risks. Four new agritourism statutes have been enacted, while six other states have adopted alternative liability provisions that may apply to some agritourism providers. The agritourism statutes provide an affirmative defense to providers to eliminate liability for inherent-risk injuries. An analysis of the statutory provisions shows legislatures making choices on the assignment of liability for accident injuries and the ability of providers to obtain releases from negligence. Because the agritourism statutes impose prerequisites and do not stop meritless lawsuits, they do not offer much assistance to agritourism providers. An evaluation of policy issues suggests that legislatures might consider additional options to address agritourism providers’ concerns.     

日美国家农业立法的发展趋势及启迪

农政管理法制化,它是政府进行调控、干预、管理、监督农业经济活动的主要手段.日美国家为实施<农业基本法>、<农业法>专门修改有关法律和制定大量相配套的新法律.制定完善农业基本法,为农业各种政策提出一个基本方向;重视农业投入立法,建立完善投入机制;通过农产品市场立法,稳定发展农产品市场;加强自然资源保护和环境及其它方面的立法;制定调整农业经济关系和技术推广及强化农业主体、粮食保护等其他法律.形成了较为完善的农业法律体系,真正实现了以法治农.     

Some reflections on Eastern European agriculture an introductory essay to the special issue on “agriculture in Eastern Europe”

This article reviews three general themes pertaining to the transformation of Eastern European agriculture from a command system to a market oriented system. The first theme deals with the diverse character of Eastern European agriculture. In a context in which the agricultures of this region are often considered homogenous, acknowledgement of the varied dimension of this sector is a key element in both analytical and political terms. The second theme pertains to the market. The historical and theoretical dispute over the role of the market has not only been central in the socio-economic reorganization of Eastern European countries and agricultures but is also a common element shared with the West. The third and final theme refers to the changing social stratification of rural regions. The emergence of new and powerful social groups and the demise of others represent fundamental aspects in the understanding of possible trajectories for development. The article concludes with a review of the contributions contained in this special issue of Agriculture and Human Values.Alessandro Bonanno is Associate Professor of Rural Sociology at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He is the author of numerous journal articles and books, among themSmall Farms (1987),Sociology of Agriculture (1989),Agrarian Policies and Agricultural Systems (1990), andThe Agricultural and Food Sector in the New Global Era (1993). He is also co-editor of the forthcoming book From Columbus to ConAgra: The Globalization of Agriculture and Food. Since the late 1980s, he has been researching issues pertaining to the Agricultural and Food Sector in selected Eastern European Countries.     

State,class, and technology in tobacco production

Recent debates over the persistence of family farms have focused on the importance of naturalistic obstacles to the capitalist development of agriculture. According to these arguments, the existence of these barriers in some realms of agricultural production precludes the development of wage labor. I argue, however, that in many instances these obstacles are based primarily on political factors. To demonstrate this thesis I illustrate how the tobacco program until recently has proved to be an obstacle to consolidation and structural change in tobacco production. The tobacco program has conditioned the extent of technological development and structural change in tobacco production. From the 1940s to the 1970s, the tobacco program maintained a system of small-scale producers and discouraged technological change in the industry. Changes in the program in the 1970s and 1980s, however, have contributed to the rapid mechanization and structural change among tobacco producers. Many of the obstacles to consolidation were overcome not by technological change, but by weakened political support for the tobacco program. These results suggest that in addition to economic and technological considerations, we need to assess more carefully the political foundations of the capitalist development of agriculture.Gary P. Green is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and the Institute of Community and Area Development at the University of Georgia. His research concentrates on the sociology of agriculture, political economy of rural development, and economic development and community change. He is currently involved in research on the effectiveness of local economic development strategies and self-development strategies among rural communities.     

Theology and agricultural ethics at state universities: A rejoinder

Michael Eldridge's critique of the author's earlier paper on the place of theology in agricultural ethics at state universities fails in at least three places: (1) Eldridge presents an inadequate picture of how basic assumptions function in human thinking and misuses terms like public, private, particular, empirical, and common experience; (2) he wrongly distinguishes between philosophers and theologians on the bais of their openness to new data, ideas, and public criticism; (3) he misunderstands the meaning of the First Amendment. Baer argues that whenever faculty at a state university deal with the Big Questions—who we are, how we should live, and what it all means—they must be seen, for First Amendment purposes, as operating within the realm of religion. Without such a functional definition of religion, the state will inevitably give unfair advantage to nontheistic, secular answers to the Big Questions. Eldridge is wrong to claim that Dewey escapes the liabilities of particularity and parochialism in a way that theologians do not. He also misunderstands the nature of the First Amendment when he argues that public schools may legitimately propagate Dewey's naturalistic variety of religion. Baer claims that when state universities address the Big Questions, the demands of public justice will be met only if theologians participate in the discussion and debate.Richard A. Baer, Jr. is professor of environmental ethics at Cornell University and a Fellow of the Center for Public Justice in Washington, D.C.     

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.     

Towards science-based techniques in agriculture

Because of their being science-based and because they have sparked off an extended debate on how technologies are conceived and developed, biotechnologies represent a particularly useful point of departure for a more general discussion about the evolution of agricultural techniques, as regards the origin and the distinguishing characteristics of different forms of knowledge and know-how.This article seeks to discuss how knowledge from different sources (agricultural, industrial, and scientific) on the one hand, and how the abstract and concrete elements that enter into the knowledge acquisition process, on the other hand, come together and become linked as determinants of different technical paths of development. The growing recourse to biotechnologies tends progressively to modify the common knowledge base mobilized for agro-food production. Even though at present the development of biotechnologies seems to be set in a model of continuity in relation to the current techniques, their full potential could express itself in redefining the relations between Man and Nature, ultimately reconciling the production of agricultural consumer goods and the reproduction of the agro-ecosystems.     

Legitimizing local knowledge: From displacement to empowerment for third world people

Increasing attention has been given to indigenous knowledge in Third World rural societies as a potential basis for sustainable agricultural development. It has been found that many people have functional knowledge systems pertaining to their resources and environment, which are based on experience and experimentation, and which are sometimes based on unique epistemologies. Efforts have been made to include such knowledge in participatory research and projects. This paper discusses socio-political, institutional, and ethical issues that need to be considered in order to understand the actual limitations and contributions of such knowledge systems. It reviews the nature of local knowledge and suggests the need to recognize its unique values yet avoid romanticized views of its potential. Local knowledge and alternative bottom-up projects continue to be marginalized because of the dominance of conventional top-down R&approaches, pressures of agrochemical firms, scientific professionalism, and for other political-economic reasons. It is argued that the exploitation of local knowledge by formal institutions should be avoided; instead, people need to establish legitimacy of their knowledge for themselves, as a form of empowerment.Lori Ann Thrupp is presently a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of California Berkeley (in the Energy and Resources Program), pursuing work on sustainable agricultural development strategies. She received her doctoral and masters degree in Development Studies from the University of Sussex (U.K.), and her bachelors from Stanford University in Human Biology and Latin American Studies. Her interests are natural resource management, sustainable development, political ecology, agricultural technology transfer, indigenous knowledge, and environmental policy issues in developing countries. Her doctoral dissertation research was on The Political Ecology of Pesticide Use in Costa Rica, supported by a Fulbright Scholarship. She has also received grants from the National Wildlife Federation, Marshall Foundation, and Dudley Seers Fund. Her professional experiences include consulting, teaching, and research on natural resource issues and agroecology for organizations such as CATIE (a Tropical Agriculture Institute) in Costa Rica, the Pragma Corporation, USAID, the Organization of Tropical Studies, the International Institute for Environmental and Development (on a fuelwood energy project in Kenya), the Intermediate Technology Development Group, the Worldwatch Institute, Resources for the Future. She has published in both Spanish and English (including co-authorship of a book on EI Uso de los plaguicidas en Costa Rica, and co-editing a book with Robert Chambers and Arnold Pacey on Farmer First: Farmer Innovation and Agricultural Research).     

The goals and values of local economic development strategies in rural America

The goals and values of economic development strategies vary according to the individual communities that employ them. While economic development strategies are aimed at increasing jobs, income, and community wealth, the issue of who gains and who loses from economic change is often overlooked. The industrial development strategies of the 1960s and 1970s are giving way to local initiatives based on services. Although local efforts may mean greater local control, the globalization of the economy has exposed formerly remote areas to international competition. The challenge to communities will be to achieve a moderate, steady, and manageable pace of good growth. Each community will ultimately need to develop a strategy for economic growth that matches community desires with community resources.Thomas L. Daniels is Director of the Agricultural Preserve Board of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He is co-author ofRural Planning and Development in the United States, and has written several articles on rural ecconomic development.     

Ideology and agricultural technology in the late twentieth century: Biotechnology as symbol and substance

The significance of biotechnology in agriculture during the late twentieth century has been as much in the realm of symbol and ideology as in its political economy. The ideological roots of biotechnology are long historical ones. The ideology of productivism, which was codified during mid-century out of a coincidence of interest among experiment stations, USDA, Congress, agribusiness, and agricultural commodity groups, has encountered numerous challenges since the 1970s. One of the major responses to the crisis of productionism was to forge a social definition of biotechnology as being a revolutionary technology. I conclude by discussing whether biotechnology, as both symbol and substance, is likely to be a basis for attempts to resuscitate productivism in the 1990s now that biotechnology is being demystified, its limits being appreciated, and its opposition still considerable.Frederick H. Buttel is Professor of Rural Sociology and Director of the Agricultural Technology and Family Farm Institute at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. His major areas of interest are the sociology of science, sociology of agriculture, and environmental sociology. Prior to joining the University of Wisconsin faculty, he was Professor of Rural Sociology and Science and Technology Studies at Cornell University. In 1987 he was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. During 1990–91 he served as President of the Rural Sociological Society, and from 1989–92 he served as a member of the Council of the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society.     

Farm labor contractors: The processors of new immigrant labor from Mexico for Californian agribusiness

The deteriorating living and working conditions suffered by California's farm workers and their families is associated with the escalating proportion of the agricultural labor market (ALM) provisioned by the state's farm labor contractors (FLCs). The increasing use of FLCs is the result of a restructuring strategy undertaken by Californian agribusiness to reduce the cost of labor, as well as responsibility for work place, labor, and immigration laws. The FLCs' rise to prominence as the bulwark between growers and workers within the state's ALM has been ensured by the internal dynamics of contractor firms. During almost three years of binational fieldwork in both California's San Joaquin Valley and rural Mexico I found that FLC management agents cultivate sociocultural practices and provide socioeconomic services that diffuse management-labor conflict within the agricultural sector. However, the existing literature concerning the FLCs focuses upon the firm, not its labor agents; therefore, FLC heterogeneity is emphasized, while ubiquitous management characteristics and practices are overlooked. As a result, recent legislation has had the unintended effect of augmenting the role played by management agents in processing an unending flow of new immigrant workers through the revolving door ALM, leading to the deterioration of conditions in rural California.Fred Krissman, an anthropologist, is currently writing a monograph on California's farm labor contractors as Researcher-in-residence at the Center for US-Mexican Studies at the University of California, San Diego. Fred has taught courses on issues related to immigration and rural development, and has published several articles on Californian farm workers, Mexican immigrants, and rural poverty. He will conduct comparative research on farm workers in Washington state's Yakima Valley and in San Diego County in 1996.     

Global contested terrain: The case of the tuna-dolphin controversy

Employing the case of the global tuna-fish industry, it is argued that the process of globalization is contested terrain as it opens free spaces to some classes or groups and closes free spaces to others; that the nation-States' regulatory abilities are weakened; and finally, that while some social movements may gain, others are marginalized. Three basic conclusions are reached. (1) The industry's actions were successfully contested by environmental groups supported by the legislative and judicial branches of the US State. (2) Simultaneously, pro-environmental legislation is currently threatened, along with several national and international environmental accords. (3) Workers in the US and, particularly, in Latin America are paying the consequences of the introduction of pro-environmental legislation and the actions of transnational corporations (TNCs).Douglas H. Constance is Research Associate of Rural Sociology at the University of Missouri-Columbia. His research interests include the sociology of agriculture and environmental sociology. He is the author of several journal articles and is coauthor with Alessandro Bonanno of the forthcoming bookCaught in the Net: The Global Tuna Industry, Environmentalists, and the State.     

Free trade and environmental economics

In this paper, I argue that there is no essential inconsistency between a well-constructed free trade policy and environmental sound development. From an examination of the concept of free trade, I argue that free trade must mean environmentally sustainable trade. The argument is conceptual in nature. I argue that free trade must mean trade free of subsidies in which the price of a good fairly reflects the costs of its production. I then argue that environmentally unsustainable commodity trade is in fact subsidized. Therefore, the international regulation of this trade would be consistent with the goal of free trade. Moreover, such regulation could promote both environmental conservation and the long-run interest of developing countries. However, ethical and practical considerations demand that these regulations must be structured so that they do not have a negative short-term economic impact on developing countries. A mechanism to implement this policy is suggested.Notes 1. Work on this project was funded by a grant from George Mason University's International Institute.     

Taking agricultural ethics to the forefront: A practical guide to the organizational and philosophical issues

If the field of agricultural ethics is to realize its potential and if the agricultural and philosophical communities are to address the impending changes in world food production, there is a need for education in public, governmental, and academic arenas. The development of a symposium on agriculural ethics is an effective method for raising awareness of the imminent need for a consolidation of philosophical and agricultural expertise. Based on experience, a series of organizational guidelines and their associated philosophical issues are presented. The initial step is a determination of the purposes of the symposium, which leads to the consideration of the choice of speakers and topics. The best series of speakers will ultimately prove to be ineffectual if the logistics of the symposium are not carefully planned. The scheduling, format, timing and location of the talks are critical. Related to these practical aspects is the organization of promotional efforts. Since one of the goals is, presumably, to enlighten a target audience, effective promotion should be a central concern. Underlying all of these considerations is the budget. How the agricultural ethics symposium at the University of Wyoming addressed these issues is presented, with a critical review of our efforts based on external evaluations.Jeffrey A. Lockwood is an assistant professor of entomology at the University of Wyoming. The impetus for his organization of the symposium on Agricultural Ethics came from his participation in the 1986 workshop on the Ethical Aspects of Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resource Policy conducted by the National Agricultural and Natural Resources Curriculum Project. He has team-taught courses and led seminars on agricultural ethics, assessment of values systems in pest management, understanding world hunger, and issues in sustainable agriculture. His research centers on insect ecology, with an emphasis on rangeland grasshoppers. He received a Ph.D. from Louisiana State University in entomology in 1985 and a B.S. in biology from New Mexico Tech in 1982.     

Resilience in the US red meat industry: the roles of food safety policy

We use the case of red meat food safety to illustrate the need to problematize policy. Overtime, there have been numerous red meat scandals and scares. We show that the statutes and regulations that arose out of these events provided the industry with a means of demonstrating safety, facilitating large-scale trade, legitimizing conventional production, and limiting interference into its practices. They also created systemic fragility, as evidenced by many recent events, and hindered the development of an alternative, small-scale sector. Thus, the accumulated rules help to structure the sector, create superficial resilience, and are used in place of an actual policy governing safety. We call for rigorous attention to not only food safety, but also the role and effect of agrifood statutes and regulations in general, and engagement in policy more broadly.

Interactions of formal and informal knowledge systems in village-based tree management in central India

This study critiques the idea of a Western science -- indigenous knowledge dichotomy in agricultural knowledge by examining the hybrid nature of knowledge use and incorporation by villagers in Madhya Pradesh, India. By analyzing knowledge systems as multi-leveled structures consisting of concrete practices linked to more abstract, explanatory concepts, this paper illustrates how information from multiple sources is integrated into local bodies of knowledge about tree management. Practices such as urea fertilization from formal global science might be explained by concepts such as that of a hot/cold duality from informal folk science. Similarly, other pieces of knowledge stemming from diverse knowledge systems are shown to become mixed and matched on practical and conceptual levels. Additionally, several knowledge elements used locally appear to be held in common by many knowledge systems around the world, rendering the determination of their origins in one system or another nearly impossible. These observations lead to the conclusion that local knowledge systems of tree management are better characterized as open systems rather than distinct, closed systems. Furthermore, the constant exchange of material between formal and informal, local and global systems renders untenable any strict dichotomy of knowledge systems.     

农产品质量安全法实施中的问题及立法完善思考

介绍了现行农产品质量安全立法及管理存在责任机制不健全、有关部门监管权限不清晰等体制问题,以及农产品概念模糊、速测效力不明确等操作问题。结合执法实践中的这些问题,运用法社会学规范研究方法和比较研究方法,以农产品质量安全为制度目标,在强化监管的现行体制下,通过明确责任主体、解决执法实践问题等方式,提高农产品质量保障水平。     

Hunger in Canada

Hunger is defined as the inability to obtain sufficient, nutritious, personally acceptable food through normal food channels or the uncertainty that one will be able to do so. After the depression of the 1930s, widespread concerns about hunger in Canada did not resurface until the recession of the early 1980s when the demand for food assistance rose dramatically. The development of an ad hoc charitable food distribution system ensued and by 1992, 2.1 million Canadians were receiving food assistance. In the absence of national monitoring systems, this remains the best available estimate of the prevalence of hunger. Hunger appears to be linked to poverty, unemployment, and numbers of people receiving social assistance. Although the Canadian social security system has traditionally been characterized by government-run universal and targeted programs designed to address income issues, hunger raises concerns about the current safety net. The primary response to hunger has been the proliferation of food banks, the agencies at the heart of the charitable food assistance system. On a smaller scale, community-based programs and advocacy initiatives have emerged. Nonetheless, the demand for food assistance continues to rise. The trend raises questions about future directions for social policy in Canada and concerns about the development of a two-tiered food distribution system—one for those with adequate money and one for the poor.Barbara Davis is the former Chair of The Canadian Dietetic AssociationAd Hoc Committee on Hunger, Editor of the Canadian Dietetic Association Nutrition and Food Security Network Newsletter, and Coordinator of the Masters in Health Science Program in Community Nutrition at the University of Toronto.     

“Raising among themselves”: Black educational advancement and the morrill act of 1890

Debate over the curricula of Black colleges and universities dates back to before the turn of the century and involved such noted Black leaders as Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois. The 1890 Land-Grant Colleges eventually established in 17 southern and border states were created to provide institutions for the teaching of the agricultural and mechanical arts to African-Americans. However, due to their being chronically underfunded and understaffed during the early decades of their existence, they focused mainly on teacher training and to a large extent became state normal schools or teacher colleges for Blacks. I argue that the improvements in public education of southern Blacks at the primary and secondary levels during the 1920s and 1930s induced many graduates of the 1890 institutions to become teachers. At the same time the growing numbers and higher quality of these individuals lead to an increase in the returns to time spent in school and induced increasing numbers of Black parents to send their children to school. During the 1930s expenditures per pupil in Black public schools increased, as did the real wages of Black teachers, while average classroom size fell. At the same time both literacy and school attendance of southern Blacks rose. In no small part these changes were due to 1890 colleges and their students.Lee A. Craig is Assistant Professor of Economics and Business, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695. He was co-winner of the 1989 Allan Nevins Prize, presented by the Economic History Association for the best Ph.D. thesis in American Economic History. He has published articles in journals such asAgricultural History and theJournal of Economic History, and his book,To Plant or Sow One Acre More: Farm Output, Productivity, and the Fall of Rural Birth Rates in the Northern United States is forthcoming from Johns Hopkins University Press.