This paper draws from interviews with (1) US farmers who have adopted automated systems; (2) individuals employed by North American firms that engineer, manufacture, and/or repair these technologies; and (3) US farm laborers (immigrant and domestic) and representatives from farm labor organizations. The argument draws from the literature interrogating the fictional expectations that underlie capitalist reproduction, reading it through a distributed (ontological) lens.
This paper collects and examines the experiences of the leaders of the U.S. North Central Region’s entire set of farm link services, including both active and closed programs. The research question explored is, what do farm link program leaders view as best practices in serving the needs of farm seekers and farm owners who do not have a family successor, and what do their recommendations suggest for investment and policy going forward?
Small trading activities are a prevalent form of self-employment in developing countries, but their integration into supply value chains is not efficient, especially when it comes to perishable produce. This study tests a novel approach to improve their efficiency by reducing the time and cost of sourcing produce by aggregating purchases through the use of an app and centralized distribution system. Fruit and vegetable vendors in Bogotá currently travel most days to a central market to purchase produce, incurring substantial time and monetary costs.
The Colombian Ministry of Agriculture Colombia, an international research center and a national farmers’ organization developed a data-driven agricultural program that: (i) compiles information from multiple sources; (ii) interprets that data; and (iii) presents the knowledge to farmers through the local advisory services. Data was collected from multiple sources, including small-scale farmers. Machine learning algorithms combined with expert opinion defined how variation in weather, soils and management practices interact and affect maize yield of small-scale farmers.
Dairy foods provide a significant portion of the recommended daily nutrition for much of the US population. Improving the availability of safe and nutritious dairy products and decreasing the environmental impact of the dairy community continue to be high priorities for both industry and the public sector. In recognition of these shared priorities, scientists and other specialists from the USDA, National Dairy Council, industry, academia, and nongovernmental organizations participated in the “Elevating Dairy Research and Extension Through Partnership” meeting on June 19, 2018.
The interactions between bottom-up initiatives and top-down structures in the implementation of regional development policies and projects are complex in theoretical and practical terms. Using concepts such as transformative social innovation, adaptive governance, and bridging institutions, we developed an analytical framework to enhance understanding of the processes by which local top-down and bottom-up forces enhance sustainable rural development by co-developing bottom-linked governance.
A model is proposed for the management of innovation in marginalized or depressed areas in three different countries, following the methodology of the Field Schools and taking advantage of the resources available in the region, work began with producers of areas with high marginalization and speakers of its original language, based on the fact that producers are subjects and not only beneficiaries, to say that, based on their decisions, they are the ones who cause the changes in their way of acting and producing, in such a way that in addition to the technological offer that allows access t
This chapter presents an innovation system approach for urban agriculture. It argues that urban agriculture is a systemic concept – agriculture intertwined with urban dynamic – but that a systemic approach is often missing. Such an approach allows identifying strengths and weaknesses of urban agriculture for a particular city, region or country, in a comprehensive way. Based on these insights, more precise and targeted policies can be designed to stimulate urban agriculture and innovations needed in its context.
A range of institutions and individuals are engaging in the provision, translation, and application of scientific climate information, with the aim of supporting agricultural decision-making in the context of climate variability and change. This article contributes to understanding political and ethical dimensions of climate services by focusing on how expertise is articulated by those who deliver anticipatory information to potential users.
There has been an increasing interest in science, technology and innovation policy studies in the topic of policy mixes. While earlier studies conceptualised policy mixes mainly in terms of combinations of instruments to support innovation, more recent literature extends the focus to how policy mixes can foster sustainability transitions.