Institutions as Conscious Food Consumers

Institutions as Conscious Food Consumers PDF Author: Sapna Elizabeth Thottathil
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 0128136189
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 354

Get Book Here

Book Description
Institutions like schools, hospitals, and universities are not well known for having quality, healthy food. In fact, institutional food often embodies many of the worst traits of our industrialized food system, with long supply chains that are rife with environmental and social problems and growing market concentration in many stages of food production and distribution. Recently, however, non-profit organizations, government agencies, university research institutes, and activists have partnered with institutions to experiment with a wide range of more ethical and sustainable models for food purchasing, also known as values-based procurement. Institutions as Conscious Food Consumers brings together in-depth case studies from several of promising models of institutional food purchasing that aim to be more sustainable, healthy, equitable, and local. With chapters written by a diverse set of authors, including leaders in the food movement and policy researchers, this book: - Documents growing interest among non-profit organizations and activists in institutional food interventions through case studies and first-hand experiences; - Highlights emerging evidence about how these new procurement models affect agro-food supply chains; and - Examines the role of policy and regional or geographic identity in promoting food systems change. Institutions as Conscious Food Consumers makes the case that institutions can use their budgets to change the food system for the better, although significant challenges remain. It is a must read for food systems practitioners, food chain researchers, and foodservice professionals interested in values-based procurement.

Institutions as Conscious Food Consumers

Institutions as Conscious Food Consumers PDF Author: Sapna Elizabeth Thottathil
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 0128136189
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 354

Get Book Here

Book Description
Institutions like schools, hospitals, and universities are not well known for having quality, healthy food. In fact, institutional food often embodies many of the worst traits of our industrialized food system, with long supply chains that are rife with environmental and social problems and growing market concentration in many stages of food production and distribution. Recently, however, non-profit organizations, government agencies, university research institutes, and activists have partnered with institutions to experiment with a wide range of more ethical and sustainable models for food purchasing, also known as values-based procurement. Institutions as Conscious Food Consumers brings together in-depth case studies from several of promising models of institutional food purchasing that aim to be more sustainable, healthy, equitable, and local. With chapters written by a diverse set of authors, including leaders in the food movement and policy researchers, this book: - Documents growing interest among non-profit organizations and activists in institutional food interventions through case studies and first-hand experiences; - Highlights emerging evidence about how these new procurement models affect agro-food supply chains; and - Examines the role of policy and regional or geographic identity in promoting food systems change. Institutions as Conscious Food Consumers makes the case that institutions can use their budgets to change the food system for the better, although significant challenges remain. It is a must read for food systems practitioners, food chain researchers, and foodservice professionals interested in values-based procurement.

Embodying Biodiversity

Embodying Biodiversity PDF Author: Terese Gagnon
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
ISBN: 0816553998
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 269

Get Book Here

Book Description
Harnessing a myriad of methodologies and research spanning multiple continents, this volume delves into the power of everyday forms of biodiversity conservation, motivated by sensory and embodied engagement with plants. Through an array of interdisciplinary contributions, the authors argue that the vast majority of biodiversity conservation worldwide is carried out not by large-scale, hierarchical initiatives but by ordinary people who cultivate sensory-motivated, place-based bonds with plants. Acknowledging the monumental role of everyday champions in tending biodiversity, the contributors write that this caretaking is crucial to countering ecological harm and global injustice stemming from colonial violence and racial capitalism. Contributors Mike Anastario Ally Ang Antonia Barreau Julián Caviedes Chen Chen Evelyn Flores Terese V. Gagnon José Tomás Ibarra Fred L. Joiner Gary Nabhan Virginia D. Nazarea Shannon A. Novak Valentina Peveri Emily Ramsey Yasuaki Sato Justin Simpson David E. Sutton

The Changing Organization and Well-being of Midsize U.s. Farms, 1992-2014

The Changing Organization and Well-being of Midsize U.s. Farms, 1992-2014 PDF Author: U. S. Department Agriculture
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781542482981
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 52

Get Book Here

Book Description
This study uses data from the Census of Agriculture and the Agricultural Resource Management Survey to investigate the well-being and changing organization of U.S. midsize farms from 1992 to 2014. During this period, changes in midsize farms reflect a farm economy experiencing rapid technological development, rising costs of production, and the increasing profitability of larger farms. While the number of midsize farm operations has declined slightly since 1992, they constituted 21 percent of total production in 2014. During the study period, total production on midsize farms has shifted toward grain and oilseed crops, hogs, and poultry and away from dairy and high-value crops. The households operating midsize farms have been transformed as well, enjoying more diversified income portfolios and much higher net worth. Moreover, midsize farms have less debt relative to their assets. Using census data from 2007 and 2012, the authors find that one-third of midsize farms saw their income increase or decrease by more than 50 percent. During this same period, Government payments played a small but positive role in the survival of midsize cash-grain and oilseed farms. One common growth pathway for these farms that increased in size from 2007 to 2012 was renting greater amounts of land. Keywords: direct payments, gross cash farm income, farm household income, farm exits, farm financial performance, farm operators, farm structure, farm survival, farm type, midsize farms, value of production

Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture

Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture PDF Author: Kim S. Cameron
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118047052
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Get Book Here

Book Description
Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture provides a framework, a sense-making tool, a set of systematic steps, and a methodology for helping managers and their organizations carefully analyze and alter their fundamental culture. Authors, Cameron and Quinn focus on the methods and mechanisms that are available to help managers and change agents transform the most fundamental elements of their organizations. The authors also provide instruments to help individuals guide the change process at the most basic level—culture. Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture offers a systematic strategy for internal or external change agents to facilitate foundational change that in turn makes it possible to support and supplement other kinds of change initiatives.

The Structuring of Organizations

The Structuring of Organizations PDF Author: Henry Mintzberg
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
Synthesizes the empirical literature on organizationalstructuring to answer the question of how organizations structure themselves --how they resolve needed coordination and division of labor. Organizationalstructuring is defined as the sum total of the ways in which an organizationdivides and coordinates its labor into distinct tasks. Further analysis of theresearch literature is neededin order to builda conceptualframework that will fill in the significant gap left by not connecting adescription of structure to its context: how an organization actuallyfunctions. The results of the synthesis are five basic configurations (the SimpleStructure, the Machine Bureaucracy, the Professional Bureaucracy, theDivisionalized Form, and the Adhocracy) that serve as the fundamental elementsof structure in an organization. Five basic parts of the contemporaryorganization (the operating core, the strategic apex, the middle line, thetechnostructure, and the support staff), and five theories of how it functions(i.e., as a system characterized by formal authority, regulated flows, informalcommunication, work constellations, and ad hoc decision processes) aretheorized. Organizations function in complex and varying ways, due to differing flows -including flows of authority, work material, information, and decisionprocesses. These flows depend on the age, size, and environment of theorganization; additionally, technology plays a key role because of itsimportance in structuring the operating core. Finally, design parameters aredescribed - based on the above five basic parts and five theories - that areused as a means of coordination and division of labor in designingorganizational structures, in order to establish stable patterns of behavior.(CJC).

Local Food Systems; Concepts, Impacts, and Issues

Local Food Systems; Concepts, Impacts, and Issues PDF Author: Steve Martinez
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 1437933629
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 87

Get Book Here

Book Description
This comprehensive overview of local food systems explores alternative definitions of local food, estimates market size and reach, describes the characteristics of local consumers and producers, and examines early indications of the economic and health impacts of local food systems. Defining ¿local¿ based on marketing arrangements, such as farmers selling directly to consumers at regional farmers¿ markets or to schools, is well recognized. Statistics suggest that local food markets account for a small, but growing, share of U.S. agricultural production. For smaller farms, direct marketing to consumers accounts for a higher percentage of their sales than for larger farms. Charts and tables.

Agricultural Resources and Environmental Indicators

Agricultural Resources and Environmental Indicators PDF Author: United States. Department of Agriculture. Economic Research Service
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Agricultural resources
Languages : en
Pages : 358

Get Book Here

Book Description


Farm Profits and Adoption of Precision Agriculture

Farm Profits and Adoption of Precision Agriculture PDF Author: U.s. Department of Agriculture
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781543136883
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 46

Get Book Here

Book Description
Precision agriculture (PA) and its suite of information technologies-such as soil and yield mapping using a global positioning system (GPS), GPS tractor guidance systems, and variable-rate input application-allow farm operators to fine-tune their production practices. Access to detailed, within-field information can decrease input costs and increase yields. USDA's Agricultural Resource Management Survey shows that these PA technologies were used on roughly 30 to 50 percent of U.S. corn and soybean acres in 2010-12. Previous studies suggest that use of PA is associated with higher profits under certain conditions, but aggregate estimates of these gains have not been available. In this report, a treatment-effects model is developed to estimate factors associated with PA technology adoption rates and the impacts of adoption on profits. Labor and machinery used in production and certain farm characteristics, like farm size, are associated with adoption as well as with two profit measures, net returns and operating profits. The impact of these PA technologies on profits for U.S. corn producers is positive, but small. Keywords: Crop production information technologies, precision agriculture, variablerate technology, soil tests, global positioning system maps, guidance systems.

Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States

Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States PDF Author: U.S. Global Change Research Program
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521144078
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 193

Get Book Here

Book Description
Summarizes the science of climate change and impacts on the United States, for the public and policymakers.

U. S. Farmland Ownership, Tenure, and Transfer

U. S. Farmland Ownership, Tenure, and Transfer PDF Author: Daniel Bigelow
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781457863486
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 53

Get Book Here

Book Description
Farmland tenure shapes many farm decisions, including those related to production, conservation, and succession planning. The relatively advanced age of many farmers raises questions abut land ownership, especially how land will be transferred to the next generation of agricultural landowners and operators. This study provides a descriptive baseline analysis of land ownership and then focuses on more detailed aspects of land tenure, including non-operator landlords, rental agreements, the acquisition and transfer of land, and how decisionmaking is shared by landlords and their tenants. The report is designed to support broad discussions related to agricultural land ownership and to provide a starting point for more detailed statistical analysis. Figures and tables. This is a print on demand report.