Policies Supporting Organic Food and Farming in the EU: Assessment and Development by Stakeholders in 11 European Countries

There is no single ‘best way’ of policy development. Bottom-up approaches to policy design and a broad debate among stakeholders facilitate policy learning and innovation. A novel approach of a bottom-up policy design process involving stakeholders is introduced. The first results obtained by implementing this methodology are presented. The outcomes of a large international effort for a development of policies for organic food and farming, which took place in Maj 2004 in Europe, are analyzed: the synthesized results from 11 European countries (AT, CH, CZ, DE, DK, EE, GB, HU, IT, PL, SI) on the current situation of policies related to the organic food market in Europe are highlighted and policy recommendations for the development of the organic food and farming sector are formulated. Specifically, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of policies related to the organic food market are identified and policy instruments used to address these aspects are developed.     

Consumer Welfare and the Loss Induced by Withholding Information: The Case of BSE in Italy

The paper develops a measure of consumer welfare losses associated with withholding information about a possible link between BSE and vCJD. The Cost of Ignorance (COI) is measured by comparing the utility of the informed choice with the utility of the uninformed choice, under conditions of improved information. Unlike previous work that is largely based on a single equation demand model, the measure is obtained retrieving a cost function from a dynamic Almost Ideal Demand System. The estimated perceived loss for Italian consumers due to delayed information ranges from 12 percent to 54 percent of total meat expenditure, depending on the month assumed to embody correct beliefs about the safety level of beef.     

Bits and pieces: Forest fragmentation by linear intrusions in India

Linear infrastructure development is an important driver of forest fragmentation leading to habitat and biodiversity loss as well as disruption of critical ecosystem processes. The tropical forests of India are increasingly impacted by infrastructure development. Little quantitative information is available on the extent of fragmentation due to linear infrastructure on these habitats. Here, we quantified fragmentation due to linear infrastructure by studying forest structural connectivity. We compared the existing forest patch characteristics with a scenario that excluded all linear infrastructure. We classified forest patches into three different fragmentation categories that combined information on patch size, inter patch distance and percentage perforations. Results show that power-transmission lines and roads were the most common infrastructure features within forests. We found a 6% increase in the number of forest patches due to the construction of linear infrastructure. Forest patches >10,000 km² in size were severely affected and there was a 71.5 % reduction in the number of such patches. We found that 86 % of the existing forest patches are in the small (median patch size <1 km²) and isolated (a median distance of 155 m) category. The density of linear infrastructure inside protected areas was similar to density in non-protected forested areas. Our results highlight the need to minimize the effects of fragmentation in the future by considering re-routing or bundling of infrastructure. When infrastructure is unavoidable, there is a need to mitigate their potential impacts. The results of this study have been made publicly accessible (https://indiaunderconstruction.com) to provide information on 'where' to avoid future linear infrastructure development and to make informed decisions which can lead to optimally designed local management plans.     

南方水稻干旱与农户和政府的处理策略分析

本文利用一组南方省份农户和政府部门的访谈资料,分析了南方干旱及其对水稻生产的影响,考察了农户和政府对水稻干旱的处理策略。研究显示,农户采取了更多的“事前”干旱风险处理策略;其处理策略是有效的,但是受到了小农户资源的限制;政府为缓解大的干旱影响也采取了许多有效措施,但还需要采取更加有效地应对局部多发的“小旱”的措施。     

Governing by models: Exploring the technopolitics of the (in)visilibities of land

Achieving food security at a global scale while protecting the environment, as envisioned in the Sustainable Development Goals, will require a complex process of collaboration and the integration of analyses at multiple scales. Agricultural and land use models are increasingly being used to bridge the global/local divide, particularly as a means to envision future land access, use and management in different agricultural production systems. This special issue contributes to our understanding of global modeling, governance and land use change. Specifically, it provides insights into the question of: how do the ways of knowing and governing affect the politics of environmental protection and agriculture? The papers in this special issue bring reflexive questions of knowledge production, public policy and civic engagement into the epistemic spaces of scientific and technological development, both as a means to improve the way we model and to understand the implications of governing by models.     

Adapting to the gender order: Voluntary conservation by forest owners in Finland

In this article we explore the hidden gender order of the biodiversity policy and, in particular, the social and societal positions offered to male and female forest owners in voluntary conservation. Two studies were conducted in the region where the National Biodiversity Program for Southern Finland (“METSO”) has been implemented. Study 1 focused on forest owners’ discursive practices that construct different actor positions to female and male forest owners; 27 interviews with forest owners were analyzed. Three discourses – “conservation threatens forestry,” “forestry threatens conservation,” and “good forestry is conservation” – were identified. Forest owners typically described themselves as “loggers” who were explicitly described as masculine. This was paired with the feminine position of “bystander.” The other two positions found, “protectors” and “political agents”, by contrast, were discussed as non-gendered positions. In Study 2 we examined quantitatively how individual forest owners’ nature conservation preferences and willingness to conserve forests is mediated by gender. The responses of 965 owners were analyzed with structural equation modeling. The endorsement of nature conservation preferences was found to increase willingness to conserve forests only among male owners. The results illustrate how individual forest owners adapt their nature conservation preferences to forestry's masculine socio-cultural context.     

Changes in regional inequality in rural China: decomposing the Gini index by income sources

A new method is proposed to decompose inequality changes as measured by the Gini index into structural effects, real inequality effects and interactive effects. Application of the method to updated Chinese data reveals that structural effects represent the driving force underlying the increasing trend in regional income inequality in rural China. Policy implications are explored. In addition to these contributions, considerable efforts are made to construct the income data used in the article. Pitfalls in measuring income inequality in rural China are discussed.     

农民收入问题性质的根本转变——分地区对农民收入结构和增长变化的考察

本文通过分地区观察农民收入结构变化发现，尽管家庭经营性收入仍是当前农民收入的重要组成部分，但农民收入增长的源泉发生了本质的变化：由过去靠家庭经营性收入增长转变为主要依赖劳动报酬性收入的增长，同时，增长来源出现单一化。这些变化意味着，农民收入问题的性质发生了变化：它不再是一个单纯的农业问题，也非“三农”问题所能涵盖，而是一个越来越多地和非农就业问题相关联的问题。农民增收问题的核心就变成了如何解决农民的非农就业问题。     

"九五"物化探所科技工作若干回顾与思考

通过对“九五”物化探所科研项目执行情况，科研成果转化，科技管理工作等的回顾和分析，提出了进一步做好物化探所科技工作的几点思考和建议。     

Quasi- and Simulated-Likelihood Approaches to Censored Demand Systems: Food Consumption by Food Stamp Recipients in the United States

A quasi-maximum-likelihood estimator is proposed and applied to a censored Translog demand system for foods, using a sample of food stamp recipients in the United States. The procedure produces remarkably close parameter and elasticity estimates to those of the simulated-maximum-likelihood procedure. A two-step procedure is also considered but it produces different elasticities. Demands are found to be price elastic for pork and fish but price inelastic for all other food products. Gross complementarity and net substitutability are obvious but these cross-price effects are much less pronounced than own-price and total food expenditure effects.     

我国农户植棉收益影响因素分析

在我国棉花流通体制改革及中国加入WTO以后,国内棉花市场与国际市场全面接轨,但是棉花生产的基本格局没有发生根本的改变。棉花作为商品率较高的农产品和纺织工业原料,小农户生产大工业使用、自然再生产与经济再生产结合品特性没有改变。棉花种植主要集中在中西部经济发展落后的地区,从事生产的小农户的种植收益必然要受到来自自然、市场以及政策等种种因素的影响。