From market to multifunctionality? Land stewardship in Australia.
Introduction There are few places, in the western world at least, where concerns for the sustainability of farming resonate as strongly as they do in Australia. The most recent national state-of-the-environment account observed: 'In many instances, such as changing our land use practices or reversing the over-allocation...

Competing narratives for the future of European agriculture: the agri-environmental consequences of neoliberalization in the context of the Doha Round.
Introduction Neoliberalism seems to be ever more firmly established as the dominant policy discourse of our times. As an idea it has complex origins in an ideological reaction against the Keynesian demand management policies of the 1970s and an associated breakdown in the postwar consensus surrounding state...

African American farmers and civil rights.
FORTY ACRES AND A MULE." JUDGE PAUL L. FRIEDMAN BEGAN HIS 1999 decision in Pigford v. Glickman, the successful class-action suit brought by African American farmers, with that familiar broken promise from the Civil War/Reconstruction era. The case concerned the sorry civil rights record of the U.S. Department of...

Empathizing with France and Pakistan on agricultural subsidy issues in the Doha Round.
ABSTRACT Among the most contentious issues (if not the most contentious issue) in the Doha Round negotiations are agricultural subsidies. Developed countries stand accused of selfish adherence to domestic support and export subsidies that impoverish farmers in developing countries. Developing countries are blamed for self-inflicted...

Modify the hardness of cereal grain.
Puroindolines are lipid-binding proteins from wheat flour. Whether wheat is classified as hard or soft is based on the texture of the grain and ultimately determines milling and end-use characteristics. Puroindolines are responsible for much genetic variation in texture. USDA-ARS scientists have developed a way to modify...

Wheat your appetite: Hedging, imports may resume next yr.
Byline: Subhash Narayan & Prabha Jagannathan NEW DELHI: The government has decided to keep its options open on wheat futures hedging and imports in the next fiscal (2009-10). This comes in the backdrop of a historic wheat output level and record wheat procurement by government agencies of...

ASABE members measure peanuts' moisture; while still in the shell.
Making sure that U.S. peanuts are top-quality requires drying them enough to prevent growth of fungi that can seriously decrease their market value. Now, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists have developed a way to determine moisture levels without destroying the peanuts' shells, or pods, as is currently done. ...

Export curbs may be eased.
NEW DELHI: The United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre will review a ban on wheat exports and curbs on overseas sales of basmati rice, but shipments of other grades of rice will not be allowed at least until November, food and agriculture minister Sharad Pawar said on Thursday....

Bayer blames god.
WHAT DOES A GOVERNMENT do when it discovers that there have been illegal releases of genetically modified organisms within its borders? And that the release involved GMOs that were never approved for human consumption or even for commercial planting? In the United States, the answer in a recent case...

Table talk: Michael Pollan chats with Rod Dreher about how food culture can transcend the Left-Right divide.
Rod Dreher is the author of Crunchy Cons--the book and the Beliefnet blog--and an editorialist for the Dallas Morning News. On TAC's behalf, he recently interviewed Michael Pollan, the best-selling author of The Ominivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food. Pollan's work, like Dreher's, is about more than just...