Incorporation and Resistance: Analytical Issues in the Conventionalization Debate and Alternative Food Chains

This article examines arguments about the relationship between mainstream agriculture and alternative food chains. It begins with a summary of Guthman's study of organic agriculture in California and her conclusion that it has come to resemble conventional, industrial agriculture in its agrarian structures and its supply chains. The article raises questions about both the evidence that smaller alternative producers have been squeezed out, and the assumptions underlying the analysis of relations between capitalist and non-capitalist forms. The issues are contextualized through a summary of earlier debates about the fate of non-capitalist producers in the 'development' process, and through reference to studies in economic anthropology, including research on household farming strategies in Italy. The article concludes that alternative food chains do not follow a simple linear trajectory, and that we need to include an ethnographic approach to understand both their economic values and political objectives.     

Managing Opportunism in Value-Added Supply Chains: Lessons From Organics

In recent years there has been an increasing demand for specific characteristics in food products pertaining to origin, quality, health, and environmental factors. Due to the credence nature of many products, it is difficult to determine if products reflect the traits under which they are marketed. Cheating through misrepresentation and unauthorized practices presents a threat to the development of identity-preserved production and marketing (IPPM). In Canada, value-added IPPM systems have not been highly formalized except for the organics sector, but new traits from biotechnology may lead to greater market segmentation. Through interviews with organic supply chain stakeholders, we can achieve a better understanding of the efficacy of formalized quality-control regulation by examining characteristics of these supply chains that are susceptible to opportunism.     

Asymmetric price transmission in the Spanish lamb sector

This article investigates the non-linear adjustment betweenfarm and retail prices in the lamb sector in Spain, using athree-regime Threshold Autoregressive Model. The results indicatethat, in the long run, price transmission is perfect and anysupply or demand shocks are fully transmitted along the marketingchain. In the short run, price adjustments between the farmand the retail levels are asymmetric and reveal a demand-pulltransmission mechanism. On the other hand, retailers benefitfrom any shock, whether positive or negative, that affects supplyor demand conditions.     

The Behavior of Spanish Vegetable Exporting Companies

Abstract

This paper examines the related variables of Spanish exporting companies using a multinomial ordered model. The data used for the empirical analysis has been obtained from a survey. The results of this study indicate that the competitivity of exporting companies is influenced by region, size, technology level, commercial organization and product differentiation.     

The political economy of wine: How terroir and intra-sector dynamics affect land use in Spain

This paper provides a constructive critique of Corrine Cash's paper “Good governance and strong political will: Are they enough for transformation?”, published in volume 58 of Land Use Policy in 2016. By focusing on how intra-sector dynamics influence land use policies in conflicts revolving around urban sprawl, this paper aims to complement and, to some extent, widen the analytic lens deployed by Cash. The examination of the Spanish wine sector and its lack of zoning policies confirms Cash's argument about the need to go beyond discourses of ‘good governance’ and ‘strong political will’ to understand the dynamics underpinning real spatial processes. However, this exploration underscores the need to add layers of complexity to land use analyses, showing the relevance of intra-sector conflict and logics. In complicating any simplistic reduction of urban sprawl conflicts to rural–urban oppositions, the paper ultimately calls for a more dynamic and multiscalar planning theory to address complex governance issues.     

Milk by Any Other Name … Consumer Benefits from Labeled Milk

This article uses revealed preferences of consumers to study the consumer benefits from rBST-free and organic labeled milk. The article specifies and estimates a quadratic AIDS demand system model for different milk types using U.S. supermarket scanner data. The introduction of rBST-free and organic milk is used to estimate consumer benefits that are decomposed into two components, competitive and variety effects. Results show significant consumer benefits from organic milk and to a lesser extent from rBST-free milk. Based on the findings, we explore implications for present U.S. labeling standards.     

Sources of Real Exchange Rate Variability:

The effect of real exchange rate variability on the demand for agricultural imports by developing countries has potentially important implications for U.S. exporters because of the potential for expanded trade. This study uses the Edwards model (1987) to investigate variations in monetary factors, terms-of-trade, and trade policy (openness) as sources of Trinidad and Tobago's real exchange rate variability. Given that the influence of these factors on the determination of real exchange rate variability may be affected by the way in which trade-weighted-exchange-rate indexes are constructed, indexes for corn and wheat were used. The results indicate that although reductions in terms-of-trade variation yield reductions in exchange rate variability, monetary disturbances display both of the real-exchange-rate-variability-increasing and decreasing effects depending on the index used. Thus, the results do not support any clear set of policy actions through which export opportunities could be expanded for U.S. agricultural commodities.     

Tourist land use patterns and water demand: Evidence from the Western Mediterranean

Tourism represents a fundamental economic strategy for many cities, regions and countries around the world. Yet, it is also one of the main drivers of global environmental change and may have deleterious effects on a number of critical environmental vectors such as water. The development of tourism in Mediterranean region raises special concerns regarding water because of summer droughts and large concentrations of seasonal tourists. Nevertheless, tourist destinations are far from being homogeneous in their consumption of water and other resources. In this paper we argue that dense, high rise tourist centers tend to use comparatively less water than disperse, low density residential resorts, taking the case of Benidorm and the Alicante coast (Mediterranean Spain) as examples. Thus we seek to illustrate how water consumption may differ substantially depending on the predominant tourist land use patterns and their associated different densities (i.e., campsites, hotels, holiday resorts, apartments, residential homes, etc.). The observed different water consumption patterns reaffirm the heterogeneous nature and impacts of tourist activities and corroborate that density is a crucial variable for understanding the economic, social, and environmental effects of tourism.     

Commercial Strategies in the Olive Oil Bottling Sector in Spain

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to analyse the olive oil bottling sector in Spain, applying the strategic group methodology to a group of firms from the sector. The study is divided in four sections:

? Identification of the strategic groups, using multivariate statistical techniques.

? Characterization of the groups, analysing their internal structure, delimiting and explaining their strategies.

? The positioning.

? And differences in the results of the groups.     

Ten years wasted: the failure of siting waste facilities in central Catalonia, Spain

Environmental reform understood in terms of ecological modernisation faces important challenges in certain areas such as the location of waste storage and treatment facilities. In this paper, we argue that traditional technical and economical criteria used in the location of these facilities may no longer be predominant in front of other social preoccupations such as health and environmental risks, possible stigmatisation effects and territorial equity issues. A retrospective account of the failure of the siting process in central Catalonia, Spain is offered as an example of the need to incorporate alternative factors in the decisions concerning controversial land uses.     

Golf course irrigation and self-sufficiency water in Southern Spain

During the first decade of the 21st century, many golf courses were developed in the Southeast of Spain, which greatly increased the number of these facilities. Almost all of these golf courses have been accompanied by large residential developments composed of thousands of dwelling units. This article seeks to identify the factors that influence golf courses’ water consumption and estimate the number of dwelling units that an associated residential development needs to have to provide the effluent necessary to fully meet the irrigation needs of a golf course. The study indicates that private golf courses achieve greater levels of irrigation efficiency than public golf courses and that the golf courses associated with residential developments subject the irrigation needs of the grassland to the sale requirements of the real estate properties. The study also estimates that a golf course requires approximately 3000 dwelling units with an average annual occupancy of 33% to achieve self-sufficiency for irrigation.     

Nutrient effects in consumer demand systems: evidence from panel data

This papers aims to analyse the demand for main food groups in Spain. Apart from the traditional economic factors (prices and income), our theoretical framework incorporates the nutrient composition of food into a demand model in the form of food attributes, as a proxy to take into account the rising consumer concern about the relationship between diet and health. A CBS functional form is chosen for the empirical model, which is estimated using a complete panel data set. Ten broad categories, nine nutrients and the most relevant socio-economic variables have been considered. Finally, after employing an appropriate selection strategy, the chosen model is used to calculate expenditure, price and nutrient elasticities, as well as the main socio-demographic effects. Results indicate that the introduction of nutrient-based determinants generates elasticities that differ from those obtained when only economic factors are included, particularly in the case of price elasticities. As the nutrients effect is incorporated in the model through adjusted prices, unhealthier food groups (cereals, white meat and eggs, dairy and sugar) become more inelastic as they are associated with higher perceived prices.     

西班牙、希腊油橄榄产业发展的经验与启示

中国是食用油消费大国,又是食用油缺乏的国家,食用油自给率只有35%左右。针对这一严峻形势,自2008年以来,党中央、国务院高度重视油茶等木本油料产业的发展,并将其作为保障食用油安全的国家战略选择。西班牙、希腊在推动油橄榄产业发展进程中积累了许多较为成熟的先进管理经验和技术,两国的管理制度值得我们借鉴。介绍了两国油橄榄产业发展情况和有关政策、措施,提出了推进我国油茶产业和油橄榄产业发展的相关建议,对推动我国油茶等木本油料产业科学持续健康发展具有较强的指导作用。