Barnyards and Birkenstocks

Barnyards and Birkenstocks
Author: Don Stuart
Publisher: Washington State University Press
Total Pages: 413
Release: 2021-09-24
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1636820735

Rural America is struggling. The average farmer is now 57 years old. Family agriculture is gradually fading, and prime farmland is often converted into environmentally harmful applications. But food cultivation has ecological consequences, too. Farms consume 80 percent of the nation’s water. Although they often prevent sprawling development, improve water quality, or provide wildlife habitat, they also pollute rivers, drain wetlands, or emit destructive greenhouse gasses. Don Stuart believes two dangerous trends--the loss of farms and damage to ecosystems--are connected, and that a major cause is the political deadlock between farmers and environmental activists. He offers a radical proposal: collaboration. To promote empathy and point out the costs of continued political impasse, he presents opposing perspectives. Topics include incentives, regulations, government spending, environmental markets, growth management, climate change, public lands grazing, and the federal farm bill. Drawing from multiple case studies and a lifetime spent settling conflicts, the author identifies characteristics of successful community programs to suggest a model for a prosperous, healthy future.

Environment, Space, Place: Volume 8, Issue 1 (Spring 2016)

Environment, Space, Place: Volume 8, Issue 1 (Spring 2016)
Author: C. Patrick Heidkamp; Troy Paddock; Christine Petto
Publisher: Zeta Books
Total Pages: 170
Release:
Genre:
ISBN: 606697033X

CONTENTS Victor COUNTED: Making Sense of Place Attachment: Towards a Holistic Understanding of People-Place Relationships and Experiences ABSTRACT: The article is an attempt to make sense of the different interdisciplinary perspectives associated with people’s attachment to places with a view to construct a holistic template for understanding peopleplace relationships and experiences. We took note of the theoretical contributionsof Jorgensen & Stedman (2001), Scannell & Giff ord (2010), and Seamon (2012, 2014) to construct an integrative framework for understanding emotional links to places and people’s perception and experience of places. This was done with the intention of illuminating on the meaning of place and the diff erent “places” people get attached to. The paper concludes by incorporating different place frameworks with the intention of establishing a holistic model for understanding the different attributes and perceptions of people-place relationships and experiences. Roger PADEN: Landscapes and Evolutionary Aesthetics ABSTRACT: This essay examines the possibility of developing a more complete evolutionary aesthetics that can be used to appraise both natural landscapes and works of landscape architects. For the purpose of thisessay, an “evolutionary aesthetics” is an aesthetic theory that is closely connected to Darwin’s theory of evolution. Two types of Darwinian evolutionary aesthetics seem possible; a theory of evolved tastes, such as that developed by Dennis Dutton, and an aesthetics of evolving nature based on Carlson’s positive aesthetics. After, exploring both theories, I argue that, while the two positions approach aesthetics from diff erent directions, they support similar aesthetic judgments concerning landscapes, and this suggests that the two positions might be incorporated into a broader theory of evolutionary aesthetics. Th at theory is briefl y outlined and applied to both natural landscapes and parks. Jeffrey B. WEBB: Watershed Redesign in the Upper Wabash River Drainage Area, 1870-1970 ABSTRACT: The Huntington, Salamonie, and Mississinewa reservoirs in northern Indiana control seasonal flooding in the Upper Wabash River drainage area. They appeared in the 1960s after a long period of study and planning in response to large-scale fl ooding in central and southern Indiana in the fi rst half of the twentieth century. Th eir construction disrupted the pattern of human ecology along the Wabash and its tributaries for many of the watershed’s inhabitants. Supporters touted the projects’ economic and recreational benefi ts, while opponents experienced the change as a desecration of sacred space. Th e projects saved millions in property damage and perhaps many human lives, but at the cost of an enduring sense of place amid the advent of a new regime of scientific watershed management and state control over natural resources in the region. Winnie L. M. YEE: Fashion, Affect, and Poetry in a Global City ABSTRACT: Everyday life is a central theme of Hong Kong poetry. Many Hong Kong poets use the quotidian as a starting point for the exploration of history and alternative imaginings. Th is mundane focus, unlike the colonial dreamscape of Hong Kong as an economic miracle, allows writers to refl ect upon Hong Kong as a post-colonial and global space. Th e Hong Kong writer Natalia Chan examines the complex nature of everyday life within the space of the global and post-colonial city. Chan’s poems deal with the essence of everydayness and use commodities to conjure up the vivacity of the urbanscape of Hong Kong. Unlike the political and economic discourse that is usually used to define Hong Kong, Chan’s work portrays Hong Kong as a city that off ers the possibility of daily re-creation against the background of history. In this article, we will examine Chan’s use of the circulation of commodities in the global world and explore the way fashion becomes a point where high and popular culture, private and public domains, and local and global interests clash, negotiate, and fertilize each other. Chan’s works do not conform to the economic and prosperity discourse that has repressed Hong Kong; rather, she guides her readers to re-experience the everydayness of routines, to celebrate alternate ways of understanding the urbanscape, and to open themselves to the potentialities of art and the everyday. Emmanuel YEWAH: African Documentaries, Films, Texts, and Environmental Issues ABSTRACT: This study draws from theoretical environmental debates as well as a selection of fi lms, documentaries, and texts to discuss Africans’ approaches to environmental and ecological problems. Furthermore, it highlights the various strategies that Africans have developed in their attempts to provide holistic and much more comprehensive responses to environmental challenges. Informed by African indigenous knowledge, those strategies do involve community-based micro-level initiatives, grassroots organizations, ancestral spirits, and use local languages or lingua franca to educate as well as prod the people’s consciousness about environmental and ecological issues. REVIEWS Lorna Lueker ZUKAS: Forgotten World. Directed by Terri Ella Derek SHANAHAN: The View from the Train: Cities and Other Landscapes. By Patrick Keiller.

No Farms, No Food

No Farms, No Food
Author: Don Stuart
Publisher: Island Press
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2022-04-14
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1642832324

America’s farms are key to the preservation of vital ecosystems and a stable climate. Yet farmers and environmentalists have not always seen eye-to-eye about the best ways to manage agricultural landscapes. Since 1980, American Farmland Trust (AFT) has been bringing people together to work for healthy land and a healthy food system. No Farms, No Food traces the development of this powerful coalition responsible for landmark achievements in farmland preservation and conservation practices. It all began with Peggy Rockefeller’s determination to stop the inexorable urban sprawl that was threatening the nation’s agriculture. From this humble start grew a small but astute organization, and more importantly, a formidable constituency of farmers and environmentalists united around a common cause. With leadership from AFT, that constituency drove through Congress the first “Conservation Title” in the history of the U.S. Farm Bill; oversaw the development of agriculture conservation easement programs throughout the country; and continues to develop innovative approaches to sustainable agriculture. No Farms, No Food takes readers inside the political and policy battles that determine the fate of our nation’s farmland. And it illustrates the tactics needed to unify fractured interest groups for the common good. No Farms, No Food is both an inspiring history of agricultural conservation and a practical guide to creating an effective advocacy organization. This is an essential read for everyone who cares about the future of our food, farms, and environment.

The Spirit of the Soil

The Spirit of the Soil
Author: Paul B. Thompson
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2017-05-25
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1317196872

In this second edition of The Spirit of the Soil: Agriculture and Environmental Ethics, Paul B. Thompson reviews four worldviews that shape competing visions for agriculture. Productionists have sought increasing yields—to make two seeds grow where only one grew before—while traditional visions of good farming have stressed stewardship. These traditional visions have been challenged by two more worldviews: a call for a total cost accounting for farming and an advocacy for a holistic perspective. Thompson argues that an environmentally defensible systems approach must draw upon all four worldviews, recognizing their flaws and synthesizing their strengths in a new vision of sustainable agriculture. This classic 1995 study has been thoroughly revised and significantly expanded in its second edition with up-to-date examples of agriculture’s impact on the environment. These include extensive discussions of new pesticides and the effects of animal agriculture on climate and other areas of the environment. In addition, a new final chapter discusses sustainability, which has become a dominant idea within environmental studies and agrarian political philosophy.

The Routledge Handbook of Sustainable Cities and Landscapes in the Pacific Rim

The Routledge Handbook of Sustainable Cities and Landscapes in the Pacific Rim
Author: Yizhao Yang
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 942
Release: 2022-03-17
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1000532496

This handbook addresses a growing list of challenges faced by regions and cities in the Pacific Rim, drawing connections around the what, why, and how questions that are fundamental to sustainable development policies and planning practices. These include the connection between cities and surrounding landscapes, across different boundaries and scales; the persistence of environmental and development inequities; and the growing impacts of global climate change, including how physical conditions and social implications are being anticipated and addressed. Building upon localized knowledge and contextualized experiences, this edited collection brings attention to place-based approaches across the Pacific Rim and makes an important contribution to the scholarly and practical understanding of sustainable urban development models that have mostly emerged out of the Western experiences. Nine sections, each grounded in research, dialogue, and collaboration with practical examples and analysis, focus on a theme or dimension that carries critical impacts on a holistic vision of city-landscape development, such as resilient communities, ecosystem services and biodiversity, energy, water, health, and planning and engagement. This international edited collection will appeal to academics and students engaged in research involving landscape architecture, architecture, planning, public policy, law, urban studies, geography, environmental science, and area studies. It also informs policy makers, professionals, and advocates of actionable knowledge and adoptable ideas by connecting those issues with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. The collection of writings presented in this book speaks to multiyear collaboration of scholars through the APRU Sustainable Cities and Landscapes (SCL) Program and its global network, facilitated by SCL Annual Conferences and involving more than 100 contributors from more than 30 institutions. The Open Access version of chapters 1, 2, 4, 11, 17, 23, 30, 37, 42, 49, and 56 of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781003033530, have been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Outside Looking In

Outside Looking In
Author: Nicholas P. Lovrich
Publisher: Washington State University Press
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2021-10-05
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1636820832

The recent advent of gridlock and hyper-partisanship in the United States Congress has raised questions about whether similar divides are occurring in state governments, and if so, why? To find out, researchers--working in 2018 and 2019 under a National Institute for Civil Discourse (NICD) grant--conducted a survey of registered lobbyists and public agency legislative liaison officers in all fifty states. They received over 1,200 completed surveys. The researchers hope that understanding reasons behind politicians’ inability to demonstrate civility and reach bipartisan agreements will yield effective, purposeful interventions. In Outside Looking In, scholars from across the country interpret the survey results. Using a variety of lenses, they present unique perspectives, revealing both regional and national insights. Chapters address findings on a variety of topics, including effects of political culture heritage on perceptions of civil discourse phenomena and the impact of legislative professionalization; sentiments about civil discourse and perceptions of their own state legislature among lobbyists; a multivariate cross-state comparison of the relative impact of political culture, professionalism, and term limits; presumed and actual impact of term limits on civility; a comparison of lobbyists with and without prior legislative service; and effects of the rural/urban divide and state-level inequality across the states. Also discussed are the efforts by the National Conference of State Legislatures to advance the cause of civil discourse, and NICD interventions to support civil discourse in state legislatures. Offering rare insights on discourse in state legislatures, this work is a must-read for political science scholars studying state governments, state-level lobbying, and civility in government, as well as for state legislators and public interest groups committed to enhancing civility in government.

Final Adjournment

Final Adjournment
Author: Don Stuart
Publisher: Epicenter Press
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2017-11-05
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1935347942

The scenic campus of the Washington state capitol is outwardly calm, but the Legislature is in session and no one better understands the turmoil that swirls beneath the surface than professional lobbyist Sandy Dalton. In the middle of a busy day, a powerful senator is found dead in his office with an antique Native American hunting knife in his chest. Sandy becomes the prime suspect in the case, having had an argument with the senator the morning of the murder and been the last to see him alive, but he isn't the only one to have disagreed with the senator's policies. The resulting tectonic shift in the political landscape turns the legislative world upside down. As motives, conflicting testimonies, and hints of behind-the-scenes blackmailing add up, Sandy embarks on a struggle to clear his name. It seems almost everyone in Olympia politics has a stake and almost anyone could be the killer.

Barnyards and Birkenstocks

Barnyards and Birkenstocks
Author: Donald D. Stuart
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2014
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780874223224

Rural America is struggling. The average farmer is now 57 years old. Family agriculture is gradually fading, leading to declines in related industries. Food sources¿increasingly anonymous, industrial, and international¿are also less secure. Despite these concerns, many communities regularly convert prime farmland to environmentally harmful applications. Yet food cultivation, too, has profound ecological consequences. Working agriculture occupies fully half of the total U.S. land base, and farms consume eighty percent of the nation¿s water. Although they often prevent sprawling development, improve water quality, or provide wildlife habitat, they also pollute rivers, drain wetlands, or emit destructive greenhouse gasses. Don Stuart believes these two dangerous trends¿the loss of farms and damage to ecosystems¿are connected, and that a major cause is the political deadlock between farmers and environmental activists. Instead of achieving a reasonable balance, this stalemate stalls funding for incentive programs and prevents progress toward essential regulations. Stuart offers a radical proposal: collaboration would advance the economic needs of one group while furthering the conservation efforts of the other. With a goal of promoting understanding, he presents opposing perspectives on topics such as incentives, regulations, government spending, environmental markets, growth management, climate change, public lands grazing, and the Federal Farm Bill. He points out costs of continued political impasse. Finally, drawing from a lifetime spent settling conflicts, he identifies characteristics of successful community programs to suggest a model for a prosperous, healthy future.

Crown Jewel Wilderness

Crown Jewel Wilderness
Author: Lauren Danner
Publisher:
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2017
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780874223521

North Cascades National Park is remote, rugged, and spectacularly majestic. Efforts to establish a park gained traction after World War II, as national interest in wilderness preservation and concerns about the impact of harvesting timber grew. Troubled by the National Park Service¿s policy favoring development for tourism and the United States Forest Service¿s policy promoting logging in the national forests, conservationists leveraged a changing political environment and the evolving environmental values of the natural resource agencies. Their activism eventually led to the 1968 creation of a crown jewel--Washington¿s magnificent third national park. This engaging account tells the story.

Structural Human Ecology

Structural Human Ecology
Author: Thomas Dietz
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2013
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 9780874223170

People's influence on ecosystems can create serious environmental consequences. Structural Human Ecology is a term coined to describe scientific studies and analyses of the stress individuals and communities place on the environment, human well-being, and the tradeoffs between them. As an emerging discipline, it is devoted to understanding the dynamic links between population, environment, social organization, and technology. The community of specialists working in this field offers cutting-edge research in risk analysis that can be used to evaluate environmental policies and thus help citizens and societies worldwide learn how to most effectively mitigate human impacts on the biosphere. The essays in this volume were presented by leading international scholars at a 2011 symposium honoring the late Dr. Eugene Rosa, then Boeing Distinguished Professor of Environmental Sociology at Washington State University. Book jacket.