Food Production

• Application of Geospatial Information Technology to Computer Controlled Farm Systems - The Center for Self-Organizing and Intelligent Systems (CSOIS) at Utah State University has been actively engaged for several years in technology development for computer-controlled, autonomous and semi-autonomous, mobile ground-vehicle application platforms. A report on CSOIS agriculture and forestry applications was first presented at the ERIM International Conference on Geo-spatial Information in Agriculture and Forestry, at Lake Buena Vista, Florida, in January, 1998. That paper focused on the use of geo-spatial information by teams of farm vehicles to execute agricultural field treatments in a cost-effective way. The present paper updates progress of that application, and introduces new directions of research which emphasize the teaming of satellite and aircraft multi-spectral sensing and data analysis with computer controlled farm systems.
• Welcome to the Beyond Factory Farming Coalition website - The Beyond Factory Farming Coalition's mission is to promote livestock production that supports food sovereignty, ecological, human and animal health, as well as sustainability and community viability and informed citizen/consumer choice.
  The Coalition includes local, provincial and national groups that are active in all areas of concern. By our communication, support and solidarity we form a common front to stop the province by province expansion of factory farming.
• On the Decline of Agriculture in Developing Countries: A Reinterpretation of the Evidence - Conventional explanations for the relative decline of agriculture in developing countries stress secular, demand-side phenomena, specifically Engel effects. This view has been challenged by quantitative analyses emphasizing supply-side effects such as differences in factor endowment growth rates. The innovation in this paper is to investigate the extent to which agricultural decline is in fact generated by policies rather than by fundamental preference or endowment shifts. Econometric results using Thai data indicate that policies are strongly influential, but that the direction and strength of influence varies over time. We explore implications for the interpretation of past development strategies and future policy formation.
• The Last Farm Crisis - The contemporary triumph of free-market capitalism has revealed to farmers, if not to other Americans, the bitter last act in this drama. Farmers can see themselves being reduced from their mythological status as independent producers to a subservient and vulnerable role as sharecroppers or franchisees. The control of food production, both livestock and crops, is being consolidated not by the government but by a handful of giant corporations. While farmers and ranchers suffered three years of severely depressed prices at the close of the 1990s, the corporations enjoyed soaring profits from the same line of goods. Growers are surrounded now on both sides--facing concentrated market power not only from the companies that buy their crops and animals but also from the firms that sell them essential inputs like seeds and fertilizer. In the final act of unfettered capitalism, the free market itself is destroyed.
• Hope for sustainable farming in gene-altered crops - Genetically engineered crops are poised to give human society its biggest sustainability gain in almost 100 years. Research at the University of California at Davis has produced a new gene-altered tomato that not only grows in salt water - but also desalinates the soil in which it grows.
• Public Policies for Food Supplies in Belo Horizonte City (Brazil) - For the time on the agenda of social politics, Belo Horizonte City Hall discussed about a basic right of a citizen: access to quality nutrition. The Secretaria Municipal de Abastecimento (SMAB) expanded and structure the city's supply capability by establishing popular projects, many of them in partnership with the private sector, as a marketing regulator in food production and in actions to fight hunger and malnutrition. It developed programs to support direct production as well as incentives to the production geared to self consumption, through cooperatives therefore generating jobs and income. This inversion in the priorities resulted in a greater participation of the population in the food market offering alternatives to quality products and reasonable prices Information regarding prices, nutritional value and a better use of the food is given.
• High-Yield Conservation: The Only Global Sustainability for the 21st Century - While population growth has been the focus of world attention over the past 30 years, it alone will not be the greatest challenge. Affluence will also increase global demand for farm resources. As living standards rise, a shift occurs from subsistence diets comprised mainly of grains, roots/tubers, and low animal protein consumption, to high-quality diets comprised mainly of varied grains, meats, dairy products, eggs, and consumption of diverse fruits and vegetables. The critical difference between the two is that it takes many more farm resources to produce a single calorie of meat or dairy products compared to cereal grains or tuber crops. Thus, the shift to a more affluent diet, higher in proportionate levels of animal protein, increases the demands on farm resources.
• Impact of E-Commerce on Agriculture Issues for 21st Century Food Systems - Internet access and electronic commerce (e-commerce) promise to revolutionize the landscape of business, including agribusiness. Already e-commerce is clearly beginning to have a major impact on farming and food distribution. From new portals aimed at farmers buying inputs and selling raw materials to Web-based niche market food product sales and home delivery grocery services, the Internet is increasingly central to the entire food systems chain.
• About Contemporary Agriculture and Rural Land Use (CARLU)
• Organic Farming And Gene Transfer From Genetically Modified Crops - Organic farmers and/or GM crop producers will need to ensure that their crops are isolated from one another by an appropriate distance or barrier to reduce pollen transfer if the crop flowers. To reduce seed mixing, shared equipment will need to be cleaned and an appropriate period of time allowed before organic crops are grown on land previously used for GM crops. Responsibility for isolation will need to be decided before appropriate measures can be implemented. The report highlights the need for acceptable levels of the presence of GM material in organic crops and measures identified to achieve this.
• Economic Aspects Of Agriculture And Nutrition: A Nigerian case study - In general, the four main variables that influence the existing low rate of growth in food supply are: (1) the growing scarcity of traditional farm inputs, including the increasing man-land ratio, stagnant production technology, and low use of modern farm inputs; (2) marketing and price constraints; (3) profit constraints; and (4), organizational constraints. On the demand side, the variables are: (1) high income growth rate; (2) poor income distribution; (3) high consumer prices; and (4), socio cultural factors.
• The State of Food and Agriculture 1999: Hunger declining, but unevenly
• Agripedia: An Agricultural Resource | University of Kentucky | College of Agriculture
• Sustaining the Profitability of Agriculture
• Industrialization of Agriculture
• Community Supported Agriculture
• Sustainable Agriculture
• Spatial Analysis of U.S. Agricultural Distributions
• Dimensions of Need: An Atlas of Food and Agriculture
• Prairie Geomatics - Precision Farming Information
• Precision Farming Mega-Links
• Prospects for a Sustainable Agriculture in the Northeast's Rural/Urban Fringe
• Precision Agriculture - Nanotech Methods Used, Such as 'Smart Dust', 'Smart Fields' and Nanosensors

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