Critics of modern agriculture decry the dominance of monocultural landscapes and look to multifunctionality as a desirable alternative that facilitates the production of public goods. In this study, we explored opportunities for multifunctional Midwestern agriculture through participatory research led by farmers, landowners, and other local actors. We suggest that agriculture typically fosters some degree of multifunctionality that arises from the divergent intentions of actors. The result is a scattered arrangement of what we term patchwork multifunctionality, a ubiquitous status quo in (...) which individuals provide public goods without coordination. In contrast, interwoven multifunctionality describes deliberate collaboration to provide public goods, especially those cases where landowners work across fence lines to weave a synergistic landscape. Using examples from two case studies, we demonstrate the spectrum of patchwork and interwoven multifunctionality that currently exists in the Corn Belt, and present underutilized opportunities for public good creation. (shrink)

AbstractCritics charge that agriculture has reached an unsustainable level of consolidation and expropriation, as exemplified by the supply-chain breakdown of the COVID-19 pandemic. Simultaneously, advocates suggest the current system serves consumers well by keeping prices low and access to choices high. At the center of this debate rests a disagreement over how to compute market power to identify monopolies and oligopolies. We propose a method to study power across different sectors by using Social Network Analysis to analyze key players, the (...) presence of core-periphery structures, and agricultural consolidation. We test our market network approach to power through an analysis of the top ten pork powerhouses. We find that Big Finance is closely tied to Big Ag, and that key players limit the capacity for more peripheral actors, like growers, equipment producers, and regional banks, to engage in the network. We identify system level risk of collapse and suggest pathways for reform. (shrink)

This paper explores the relationship between farmland investment and environmental uncertainty. It examines how farmland investors seek to “render land investible” in spite of drought, groundwater depletion, and changing regulations. To do so, we analyze a single case study: the purchase of 8000 acres of dry rangeland in California’s Cuyama Valley by the Harvard University endowment for use in creating an irrigated vineyard. Drawing from interviews with Cuyama Valley farmers and community members, participant observation at community meetings, and public document (...) analysis, we make two primary contributions to understandings of uncertain resource materiality in farmland investment. First, this case reveals that investors can turn environmental uncertainty into an advantage, exploiting both the temporal uncertainties associated with resource management under climate change and the spatial uncertainties inherent to all subsurface resources. We argue that the material and legal uncertainties of groundwater access provide investors with a potentially lucrative opening to assert their preferred land imaginaries and improve their property values. In the Cuyama Valley they did so through both participation in groundwater governance and the establishment of water-related infrastructure on their property. Second, this case highlights that the asset-making processes involved in farmland investment may be as much vertical as they are horizontal. The need to map and measure the uncertain vertical dimension of land creates an outsized role for scientific expertise in farmland assetization. (shrink)

On the philosophy of Carvaka (Lokayata) exponent of the materialistic school of Indian philosophy.

English translation of the commentary on Tattvatrayam of Piḷḷai Lokācāryar, treatise on Viśiṣṭādvaita philosophy.

Classical text on non-dualistic (Advaita) Vedanta philosophy.

Alan Millar's paper (2011) involves two parts, which I address in order, first taking up the issues concerning the goal of inquiry, and then the issues surrounding the appeal to reflective knowledge. I argue that the upshot of the considerations Millar raises count in favour of a more important role in value-driven epistemology for the notion of understanding and for the notion of epistemic justification, rather than for the notions of knowledge and reflective knowledge.

Kitāb al-ʻibar. Muqaddimah by Ibn Khaldūn, 1332-1406; criticism and interpretation.

On this episode of The Owl, Lauren Ware sits down with host Ian Olasov to talk about how fear and other emotions shape our understanding of risk, about what fear is and when it's rational, and about why Halloween is a thing.

Editor's Note: Over a long period of time, the evil bourgeois reactionary line has created antagonism between two groups of students in schools—antagonism on the basis of one's family background. This antagonism became very obvious during the initial stage of the Cultural Revolution, and has lasted to this day. It has prevented further criticism of the bourgeois reactionary line and hindered further development of the Cultural Revolution.

Bütün bir evrenle irtibat kurma, duygu ve düşünceleri paylaşma adına insana bahşedilen en etkin enstrüman dildir. Dilin şekillendirdiği kelâm yapılanmaları içerisinde şiirin apayrı bir yeri ve önemi haiz olduğu bilinmektedir. Çok eski çağlardan beri şiir insanoğlunun, duygu ve düşüncelerini en etkin biçimde ifade edebilmek için başvurduğu en verimli iletişim vasıtalarından biri olmuştur. Öyle ki, eski medeniyetlerin ve tarihî kalıntıların aktarılmasında önemli bir rol üstlenen mitik destanların kahir ekseriyeti şiir formunda tanzim edilmiştir. Hatta kutsal metinlerin bazı bloklarının şiirsel bir yapılanma arz (...) ettiği araştırmacılara malûmdur. Şiirin de pek çok edebî form ve tarz farklılığına sahip olduğu bilinmektedir. Biz bu çalışmamızda, ekseni bütünüyle aruz üzerine kurulu olan divan şiirimizin toplumu yönlendirme ve aydınlatma adına yansıttığı özdeyişler, hikmetler, nasihatler ve bazı bilimsel göndermeler üzerine fikir imal etmeye çaba sarf ettik. Büyük bir sanat anlayışına ve bilgi birikimine dayalı olan divan şiirimizin en dikkat çeken özelliği, insan yaşamı için altın kurallar içeren nasihat ve hikmetlere yer vermesidir. Bu nasihat ve hikmetlerin hemen tamamı asla birer fantezi ve senaryo ürünü olmayıp, yaşanmış ve yaşanmakta olan sosyokültürel gerçekliklerden iktibas edilmiş değerler birikimidir. Çalışmamızda divan şiirinin Türkçe, Arapça ve azıcık da Farsça örneklerine yer vermiş bulunmaktayız. Bu noktada çalışmayı başlıca üç temel kategoriye taksim ederek, önce genellemenin ilk, örneklendirmenin ikinci mısrada yer aldığı şiirleri, ikinci aşamada örneğin ilk, genellemenin ise ikinci mısrada yer aldığı şiirleri ve nihayet üçüncü aşamada da bazı ilim ve fenlere gönderi yapan şiirleri tahlil etmeye çalıştık. (shrink)

L. C. Holborow; V*—Blame, Praise and Credit, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Volume 72, Issue 1, 1 June 1972, Pages 85–100, https://doi.org/10.1093/ari.

---- t. 6. O nachalakh : opyt khristīanskoĭ metafiziki. [no.] 1. Bog i tvarnyi mīr. [no.] 2-3. Bog i mīr, v Bogochelovi︠e︡ki︠e︡ vi︠e︡chnyĭ ad pobi︠e︡zhdai︠u︡shchīĭ.