Organic Hits the Mainstream

Author(s):  
Connor J. Fitzmaurice ◽  
Brian J. Gareau

With the passage of the U.S. Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA) of 1990, organic food left the fringes of America’s agricultural economy and received federal recognition— and regulation. But how did organic farming become a niche market governed by regulations aimed at limiting the use of synthetic chemical pesticides and fertilizers, rather than by more holistic concerns about society and ecology? This chapter provides an overview of the regulatory processes that yielded both the OFPA and the final USDA organic standards implemented in 2000. While the federal government’s approach to organic farming began with a holistic, process-based definition of organic agriculture in the USDA’s 1980 “Report and Recommendations on Organic Farming,” the final standards came to focus on issues surrounding chemical inputs. This process served to settle the organic market by providing commensurability, offering a consistent basis for consumer choice, not broad agricultural sustainability.

Author(s):  
Connor J. Fitzmaurice ◽  
Brian J. Gareau

The increasing popularity of organic agriculture has revolutionized American consumers’ access to organic products. However, the industrial scale of the modern organic sector has little in common with the goals of sustainability farmers and activists envisioned over the course of the organic movement’s history. This chapter charts that history. The story of the organic farming movement, and even the very definition of organic farming that today’s consumers have inherited, is a story of people—people pushing back against the perceived encroachment of industrialization into their lives and onto their dinner plates. It begins with the emergence of organic farming, from the 1920s to the 1940s, as a conservative response to the rationalization and industrialization of farming. It then charts organic’s incorporation into the rising tide of the counterculture during the 1960s and 70s, as society became aware of the environmental degradation being wrought by industrial agriculture. Finally, the chapter examines the ways consumer concerns about the health and safety of industrial foods began to move organic foods into the national spotlight as a safer consumer alternative.


Author(s):  
Gordon Moore ◽  
John A. Quelch ◽  
Emily Boudreau

Choice Matters: How Healthcare Consumers Make Decisions (and Why Clinicians and Managers Should Care) is a timely and thoughtful exploration of the controversial role of consumers in the U.S. healthcare system. In most markets today, consumers have more options and autonomy than ever before. Empowered consumers easily shop around for products and services that better meet their needs, and they widely share their reviews on social media to inform and influence other consumers. Businesses have responded with better experiences and prices to compete for consumers’ business. Though healthcare has lagged behind other industries in this respect, there is a rising tide of interest in consumer choice and empowerment in healthcare markets. However, most healthcare provider organizations, individual doctors, and health insurers are unprepared to consider patients as consumers. The authors draw upon the fields of medicine, marketing, management, psychology, and public policy as they take a substantive, in-depth look at consumer choice and point out its appropriate use, as well as its limitations. This book addresses perplexing issues, such as how healthcare differs from other consumer-driven markets, how consumers make healthcare decisions, and how increased consumer choice in healthcare can not only aid and empower American consumers but also improve the overall healthcare system.


Author(s):  
James E. Baker

This article discusses covert action within the context of the U.S. law. The first section describes the main elements of the U.S. legal regime, including the definition of covert action and the “traditional activity” exceptions, the elements of a covert action finding, and the thresholds and requirements for congressional notification. The second section describes some of the significant limitations on the conduct of covert action. The third section discusses the nature of executive branch legal practice in this area of the law. And the last section draws conclusions about the role of national security law within the context of covert action.


2021 ◽  
pp. tobaccocontrol-2020-056145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ollie Ganz ◽  
Mary Hrywna ◽  
Kevin R J Schroth ◽  
Cristine D Delnevo

In 2009, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (TCA) granted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory authority over tobacco products, although initially this only included cigarettes, smokeless tobacco and roll-your-own tobacco. In 2016, the deeming rule extended regulatory authority to include all tobacco products, including cigars. The deeming rule prohibited the introduction of new tobacco products into the marketplace without proper marketing authorisation and laid out pathways for tobacco companies to follow. The deeming rule should have frozen the cigar marketplace in 2016. In this paper, we describe how the cigarillo marketplace, nevertheless, continues to diversify with new brands, flavors, styles and packaging sizes entering the market regularly. As an example, we highlight recent promotional efforts by Swedish Match North America (Swedish Match) for their popular cigarillo brands, including White Owl, Night Owl and Garcia y Vega’s Game brand. We argue that ambiguities in the TCA make it unclear whether Swedish Match’s seemingly new cigarillos fit the definition of new tobacco products and, if so, whether they are on the market legally. Swedish Match and other cigarillo companies may be taking advantage of these ambiguities to promote a variety of cigarillo flavors and styles in innovative ways. Given that cigars are combustible tobacco products that pose many of the same risks as cigarettes, this business practice raises significant concerns regarding the protection of public health, particularly among young people.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sardul Singh Sandhu ◽  
Anil K. Sharma ◽  
Vikas Beniwal ◽  
Gunjan Goel ◽  
Priya Batra ◽  
...  

The growing demand for reducing chemical inputs in agriculture and increased resistance to insecticides have provided great impetus to the development of alternative forms of insect-pest control. Myco-biocontrol offers an attractive alternative to the use of chemical pesticides. Myco-biocontrol agents are naturally occurring organisms which are perceived as less damaging to the environment. Their mode of action appears little complex which makes it highly unlikely that resistance could be developed to a biopesticide. Past research has shown some promise of the use of fungi as a selective pesticide. The current paper updates us about the recent progress in the field of myco-biocontrol of insect pests and their possible mechanism of action to further enhance our understanding about the biological control of insect pests.


Author(s):  
Alexey Shlihter

The article attempts to present the multifaceted world of the American tertiary sector; explains the need for using non-market instruments in order to provide public goods; clarifies relations and connections of the tertiary sector organizations with the state and business. The definition of the tertiary sector as forming a horizontal multidimensional, multi-vector, growing and self-organizing system of naturally developing relations between people is given. The system is seen as a collection of communities emerging and functioning at the national and local levels, with one of their main tasks being to provide people with the opportunity to communicate and make important decisions, based on similar practical and spiritual interests.


2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-35
Author(s):  
Victoria Jansson ◽  

This article argues that unfulfilled prayers to Ceres in Tibullus’ elegies are symptomatic of Rome’s grain crises at the end of the Republic and beginning of Empire. My approach includes philological, socioeconomic, and psychoanalytic analysis of the elegies, in which the poet examines the shifting definition of a ‘Roman’ in his day. I seek to demonstrate the ways in which the poet grapples with the political and economic forces at work during the most turbulent period of Roman history: a time when income inequality was roughly equivalent to that of the U.S. and E.U. today.1


Author(s):  
Yuko Matsumoto

The Americanization movement in the early twentieth century tried to redefine the qualifications for full membership within the nation. In the same period, the anti-Asian movement flourished. Responding actively to the discourses of anti-Japanese (and Asian) movements, Japanese immigrants tried to prove their eligibility for full membership in the U.S. nation by following their own interpretation of Americanization, or Beika (米化‎) in Japanese. The ideas of Beika were based on idealized Japanese virtues, as well as on what was required by the Americanization movement. Even though they used the parallel terms in ideas of Beika, however, the gender discourses such as virtues of Yamatonadeshiko and the definition of family highlighted the difference between the views of Americanization and those of Beika despite their similar intention. This gap in perception might have reinforced the racialized and gendered stereotypes on both sides and hindered mutual understanding before World War II.


2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 65-74
Author(s):  
Dan L. Schisler ◽  
Andrew M. Wasilick

ABSTRACT When a casualty event (storm, fire, landslide, etc.) does not cause actual physical damage, can a casualty loss deduction be taken by a taxpayer for a permanent reduction in value? There are conflicting opinions by two federal circuit courts, and the definition of “permanent” is still largely undefined. The relevance of this issue is of increased importance with the numerous recent major casualties affecting the U.S. mainland and territories. The 9th Circuit has adamantly held that actual physical damage must occur to have a deductible casualty loss, whereas the 11th Circuit has held that a permanent decrease in value can qualify as a deductible casualty loss even with little or no actual physical damage to the property.


Author(s):  
Glenda Denson Knight

The design of the U.S. healthcare system along with increasing expectations of individuals create barriers to health care. One barrier is limited Health Literacy (HL). This essential healthcare ingredient is often disregarded (Murphy-Knoll, 2007). There is debate concerning the definition of HL (Sorensen, Van den Broucke, Fullam, Doyle, Pelikan, Slonska, & Brand, 2012). Still, there is consensus that HL is necessary for quality healthcare (Parker & Gazmararian, 2003) and that HL deficiencies must be addressed. Limited HL independently contributes to poorer health status, greater risk of hospitalizations, and increased likelihood of mortality (Hanchate, Ash, Gazmararian, Wolf, & Paasche-Orlow, 2008; Jeppesen, Coyle, & Miser, 2009). Much is known about HL. Still, few advancements have been made due to gaps between what we know about HL, and the application of that knowledge (Ishikiawa & Kiuchi, 2010). The purpose of this chapter is to provide a HL overview and recommend improvement strategies.


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