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Showing posts from March, 2017

C�sar E. Ch�vez: March 31, 1927 � April 23, 1993

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My bibliography for C�sar Ch�vez & the United Farm Workers � and the Struggle of Farm Workers in the U.S. is here .

NAFTA & Agriculture: Rhetoric, Posturing, Reality

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Protesters in Mexico City hand out corn to workers and farmers in a march against spiraling food prices in 2007. Luis Acosta/Agence France-Presse � Getty Images �Mexico�s bargaining chips with Trump: how about a corn boycott?�   By Kate Linthicum for the Los Angeles Times , March 29, 2017 �First domesticated here 10,000 years ago, corn is not only a staple of the Mexican diet, but also a symbol of Mexico itself. Since the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994, it has also become a symbol of Mexico�s growing economic dependence on the United States. Now, as President Trump threatens Mexico with drastic changes on trade, its leaders are wielding corn as a weapon. Mexico�s Senate is considering legislation calling for a boycott of U.S. corn, and the government has begun negotiating with Argentina and Brazil to import corn from those nations tax-free. The threat of a boycott is Mexico�s latest and perhaps cleverest attempt to fight back against Trump, whose threats to

The political economy of California agriculture

� Wages rise on California farms. Americans still don�t want the job .� Trump�s immigration crackdown is supposed to help U . S . citizens . For California farmers, it�s worsening a desperate labor shortage . By Natalie Kitroeff and Geoffrey Mohan for the Los Angeles Times , March 17, 2017 [�.] The flow of labor began drying up when President Obama tightened the border. Now President Trump is promising to deport more people, raid more companies and build a wall on the southern border. That has made California farms a proving ground for the Trump team�s theory that by cutting off the flow of immigrants they will free up more jobs for American-born workers and push up their wages. So far, the results aren�t encouraging for farmers or domestic workers. Farmers are being forced to make difficult choices about whether to abandon some of the state�s hallmark fruits and vegetables, move operations abroad, import workers under a special visa or replace them altogether with machines. Grow

David A. Cleveland�s Balancing on a Planet: The Future of Food and Agriculture (2014)

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  Below is a substantial excerpt from the Introduction to David A. Cleveland�s Balancing on a Planet : The Future of Food and Agriculture (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2014). I hope it entices you to read the book, for while I have yet to finish, what I have read thus far and what I�ve peeked at in what�s to come, is very good. In brief�and for what it�s worth�I highly recommend it. Cleveland is Professor of Environmental Studies and Geography at my alma mater, the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB), although I�ve never taken a course from him nor do I personally know him. (I have left out the embedded references for the notes.) �The mainstream industrial agrifood system has been remarkably successful over the long run in increasing food production at a rate faster than population growth, with the promise of continuing to do so in the immediate future. Supporters of this system believe that a globally integrated agrifood system and technological breakth

California�s chronic water shortage does not bode well for its agriculture

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� Our wild, wet winter doesn�t change this reality �California will be short of water forever � By Jay Famiglietti and Michelle Miro* for the Los Angeles Times , March 7, 2017 [�.] All winter, Californians have been asking one question: Is the drought finally over? The federal monitor shows just a few lingering tan and yellow patches in Southern California, but for scientists, the beginning and end of drought conditions are exceptionally difficult to pinpoint. Still, after only a few more serious encounters with the �Pineapple Express,� Gov. Jerry Brown may well declare the state�s 3-year drought emergency over. Which leads us to the second most frequently asked question of this unusually wet winter: What�s our water future? The answer has been clear for a while: It�s going to be a lot like our water past, but more so � California is, was and will be chronically water short. The drought has underlined three important realities that aren�t going to change. First, the way municipalities

Write an acknowledgement in your thesis in a simple way

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First of all, the author is indebted to� Almighty Allah� to complete the research work. Foremost, the author would like to express his sincere gratitude to his respected supervisor, Co-Supervisor, and teachers, Department of .............., ................. University, for co-operation, suggestions, and encouragement to research work. The author is grateful to his parents for your love, unwavering belief and supporting spiritually throughout the life (if necessary, otherwise skip) . Author thanks his fellow lab mates. The Author

Why is an alpha level of .05 commonly used?

Seeing as the alpha level is the probability of making a Type I error, it seems to make sense that we make this area as tiny as possible. For example, if we set the alpha level at 10% then there is large chance that we might incorrectly reject the null hypothesis, while an alpha level of 1% would make the area tiny. So why not use a tiny area instead of the standard 5%? The smaller the alpha level, the smaller the area where you would reject the null hypothesis. So if you have a tiny area, there�s more of a chance that you will NOT reject the null, when in fact you should. This is a Type II error. In other words, the more you try and avoid a Type I error, the more likely a Type II error could creep in. Scientists have found that an alpha level of 5% is a good balance between these two issues. There are two approaches (at least) to conducting significance tests. In one (favored by R. Fisher), a significance test is conducted and the probability value reflects the strength of the

Definitions of agriculture, agronomy, horticulture

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What is Agriculture? There are many online queries on what is agriculture although its history started more than 10,000 years ago. I used to think that this is quite amazing because the word agriculture is of common usage. On second thought, I now realize that this seemingly high interest in clarifying the term is justified in view of its large coverage, its varied application as a science, practice, enterprise, and for other purposes including legal matters, and with new technologies and specialized fields continuously added into its fold. In relation to crop farming and livestock farming, the term �agriculture� may be defined as: the art and science of growing plants and the raising of animals for food, other human needs, or economic gain. This definition describes agriculture as both an art and a science (needs skill and founded on scientifically verified facts) and thus includes specialized disciplines; the words �growing� and �raising� are descriptive of enterprise, activity or pr