Author: ecogrow

The availability of BC as a secondary product of bio-energy production and/or waste stream management , as well as lower transportation costs made possible by regional or on-site BC production, could further leverage economic advantages over peat and peat alternatives . Recent studies support the unique ability of BC to mediate biological interactions with benefits for greenhouse production such as enhanced pathogen and pest suppression. For example, 1–5% additions of citrus wood BC to peat-based substrates increased expression of pathogen defense genes in strawberry and as a result suppressed fungal disease ; for tomato and pepper , such additions delayed and reduced disease from fungal pathogens and mites . However, lower susceptibility of plants to pathogens in soil-free substrates with a BC component may be muted by fertilization , and therefore may not be possible under intensive greenhouse production. On the other hand, substrates with a high proportion of BC such as in this study could have detrimental effects on biological processes that support plant productivity , largely due to interference of chemical signals between beneficial microorganisms and host plants . As a result, BC could lessen establishment of rhizobial and mychorrizal associations and reduce nodulation in leguminous species . Strong sorption by BC could afford horticultural advantages, however. For example, bulbet organogenesis of grape hyacinth was enhanced with the use of BC-like material in substrates due to its sorption of inhibitory compounds . Potential plant health benefits of BC-based substrates are relatively under-investigated in evaluations of peat alternatives, despite one of the main uses of soil-free substrates being the avoidance of plant exposure to pathogens . Finally, the ability to replace peat with BC offers potential economic and environmental benefits. The expense of peat is expected to increase in the coming decades due to production costs, competing uses for peat, and its perception as being unsustainable . Such a perception in part stems from the negative impacts on wetland ecosystems of some peat mining operations , though the sustainability of peat harvesting is a subject of debate . Peat mining operations and the eventual decomposition of peat after its use in substrates represents a transformation of a terrestrial C sink of global importance into a net C source, with climate change forcing effects . Assuming a conservative aerobic decomposition rate for peat in substrates of 5% per annum ,vertical hydroponics within one century of mining and use in soil-free substrates 95% of mined peat would be expected to revert from a C sink to source .

In contrast, high-temperature BCs are thought to generally exhibit lower decomposition rates than undecomposed or humified biomass such as compost and peat and exhibit centennial to millennial residence times . The molar O:C = 0.36 for the BC in this study corresponds to a half-life of 100–1000 years , suggesting that one century after production and use in soil-free substrates, at least 50% of C in the softwood BC in this study would be converted to CO2. The use of non-peat biomass or even waste in the form of BC in soil-free substrates is an additional strategy for ‘sustainable bio-char to mitigate global climate change’ due to its greater stability and ability to preserve a key global C sink.In landscape, we form meaning through placefulness; ‘‘place’ places man in that dimension which reveals the revealing meaning of being’. Gardens imply a more accelerated and amplified rendition of this process, while the gardens that we personally make and dwell in further magnify this condition. The garden is in effect the most permanent communion we can make with a piece of the world, whether that patch is on traditional earth or elevated in an artificially constructed environment. Those who have been faced with moving from somewhere they have resided for a long time may confer that vacating the house is one issue, but leaving the associated garden is an altogether more fraught separation. The most fundamental biological fact that plants are rooted and sedentary—while we are not—is laid bare during this process. Accordingly, John Brinkerh off Jackson defines the landscape of place as ‘a space on the surface of the earth … with a degree of permanence’.Nonetheless, we are also remarkably adept and manufacturing meaning on the run. There are countless accounts of how travelers, explorers and refugees have rearranged their immediate surroundings to assemble meaning from the background void. Furthermore, this phenomenon is not restricted to those who move long distances by choice of profession or byproduct of circumstance, since modern urban dwellers also possess this capacity. As Ian Nairn notes, ‘people need to put down roots in a terribly short time’, himself taking ‘about forty-eight hours’. Nairn concludes that movement paradoxically amplifies the sense of place, observing that ports—while being highly fluid—are nevertheless very well defined places. The gardens in a garden show can be considered within this context. Such exhibits are not gardens with which the visitor grows and coinhabits with its meaning, but rather passes through en mass in a matter of minutes.

And not long after they are experienced, the gardens are either wholly deleted or at the very least downgraded to mere residual features in the landscape-park that typically inherits the site once the spectacle of the expo has concluded. Under these circumstances meaning is absorbed and place manufactured on the run. To apply a vegetal analogy, this is less a process of terrestrial rootedness than the ‘continuous-flow solution culture’ associated with hydroponics. This interplay between rootedness and mobility in the place making and meaning-construction of the individual in the garden prefigures a society-scale condition found within Modernity as a whole. That is, the tension between the rapidity of globalism and the romantic yeaning to resist-and-return as Paul Ricoeur describes: ‘how to become modern and return to the sources, how to revive an old dormant civilization and take part in a universal civilization’. While visible in the landscape generally, the tension of this ‘paradox of place’ is manifest most acutely in the garden. The ‘sense’ or ‘spirit of place’ is both a manifestation of this paradox and an attempt to resist or realign it.In the midst of a fast-tracked industrial-to-consumption revolution, this tension is patently visible in the rapidly urbanizing cultural landscape of China. Framed by these dialectics of transience versus groundedness and tradition versus modernity, I focus in this essay on a particular example of a phenomenon that has persevered throughout the West’s Modernity and has found new vigor in China’s; that of the garden show or horticultural exposition. Both an expression of the yearning for otherness within the totalizing fabric of Modernity and a product of the very global reach of Modernity, international garden shows are increasingly commandeered into the mega-events that are used to influence the fortunes of cities. Typically, in the vein of the World’s Fairs and indeed Olympic Games , installments of the World Horticultural Exposition have fulfilled this transformative role, involving themed extravaganzas underpinned by massive quantities of construction far beyond that which is required for the simple promulgation of horticulture. Positioned at the northeastern periphery of the ancient capital, the 2011 Xi’an International Horticultural Exposition continues this bootstrapping city-building logic by leveraging the adjacent development of alluvial farmland and traditional villages into a regional financial centre.

The site preparation for the Expo involved remodeling a clay quarry into a simulacrum of the ancient Guangyun Lake, which was once an important port on the Chan-Ba River. Reinterpreted as a constellation of lined lakes interconnected with weirs,hydroponic vertical farming systems the shorelines inform the necklace structure of the exhibits . While most displays represented other provinces and countries, two areas moved beyond kitsch regional simulacra; the first being the collection of gardens by selected ‘Masters’ of landscape architecture, and the second a collection of University gardens by invited international academic teams. To investigate the state-of-the-art of current garden expo design, I explore these two collections of gardens with several objectives: to position the gardens in relation to contemporary landscape architecture design paradigms; to examine the role of the frame in the contained context of the expo garden with the implicit hypothesis that these tactics have agency in the wider contemporary metropolis; to understand why one set of gardens appeared to function as intended within the Expo, while the other appeared to be dysfunctional; and to create a record of Expo Gardens themselves, since despite pretences of being ‘permanent’ installations, it is highly unlikely that any of the gardens will survive physically or semiotically intact beyond the short extravagance of the Expo event.In the first part of the essay I describe, interpret and theoretically and poetically position a number of exhibits from both the Masters and University collections. In the second part of the essay I explore the issue of framing that so vividly distinguishes the Masters’ from the University Gardens. I develop the argument that dissolving the frame—while relevant in contemporary landscape praxis—does not necessarily translate into the context of individual gardens; rather it is the boundary between the Expo and the city that is the most potent threshold. Extending this argument to the city itself, I conclude the essay with discussion regarding the fate of the horticultural expo and its devolution into the urban fabric. In terms of methodology, I draw on my involvement with the Expo from several perspectives; participation in the design workshop for the University Gardens; observations on site during the construction process; and my experiences at the opened Expo as a member of the public.In regards the latter, when on site I was sensitive to Bernard St-Denis’s critique of the tendency for contemporary garden scholarship to place semantic interpretation over ‘the gratification of spending time in a garden’.To be sure, whereas St-Denis was undoubtedly referring primarily to established gardens, the transient nature of the Horticultural Expo gardens tested this challenge to its practical limits. I made repeat visits to the gardens and loitered insofar as was practical, but never attained a contemplative communion with any one garden. However, the impracticality of experiencing ‘time in a garden’ in the Expo context was offset by the heightened experience of the ‘first encounter-reality’ of the perception that results from the initial visit to each garden. Far from being superficial, first impressions are a potent mechanism in our ongoing formation of a sense of place. They are also rarely isolated as purely experiential events; as Donald Apple yard notes, ‘prior indirect information supplied through social contacts or media are also influential’. Like over-the-horizon radar that allows us to cognitively image un-experienced places, these preconceptions are legitimate component of the construction of an environmental image.In addition to my own experiences—keenly honed but biased as a gardenphile and designer of gardens—I also observed the behavioral tendencies of Chinese visitors in each garden. When visiting other more thematic representative gardens of local provinces, it was clear that on the whole the Chinese knew how to act in each garden, and seemed to be far more in tune with the living cultural narrative of garden history than Westerners in equivalent situations in the West, who as Robert Riley intimated, have lost connectivity with and hence knowledge of what to do in a garden.That said, although the gardens in question are located in China, an apparent deficiency of this essay may appear as a lack of attention to traditional Chinese garden landscape themes and narratives. This is perhaps partially a consequence of my limited command of this material, but most importantly it is a product of the Expo being very much a condition of modern China. Indeed, the modern history of the botanic garden / horticultural expo in China is transplanted from the West rather than emerging from Daoism or Confucianism.That Westerners designed all but one of the Masters Gardens and the majority of University Gardens, but that virtually all Expo visitors were domestic in origin, illuminates this complex condition.In raw form, the 10 000 sq ft plots allocated to each designer are typically flat in profile and trapezial in plan, buffered by thick stands of bamboo with controlled access on two sides. These manufactured site circumstances present a strong case for utilizing the timeless phenomenology of the walled garden as an other world decisively withdrawn from the surrounding landscape.

Geochemical characteristics have an important influence on HM plant uptake. Future investigations can focus on the interactions between trace elements or other factors that may demonstrate an influence on HM plant uptake. Forage and water intake are important considerations in livestock, and soil ingestion must also be considered. In the current examination, the soil samples showed greater HM concentration than sheep tissue and forage samples. It has been demonstrated that sheep, a ground feeding animal, eat one to two percent of soil when good forage is available and about 18% when low quality forage is available. It has been shown that sheep intake and digestibility of more mature plant material decreases with advancing maturity due to greater effort and time in chewing by the animal; sheep selectively graze in high-quality forage areas when they are available. The forage environment of the sheep in the current study area exhibited high stocking rates, sparse vegetation, and mature forage samples, which may have contributed to higher HM concentrations in forage. Dung analysis can evaluate the amount of inorganic material in sheep diets and may be useful in future studies in the current study area. Previous studies have reported the concentrations of HMs in sheep tissues, plants, and soil in the target study area . In most categories, our study results were comparable to or less than what was previously found. The current study tissue measurements were below the exposure and control concentrations reported by Millard et al. and Ruttenber et al. in the 1980s. No excess cancer risk was calculated to be attributed to eating sheep meat, liver, kidney, and soup bone by humans; researchers recommended continued monitoring at that time. The highest HM metal concentration in the diet was used for each animal to calculate and compare to the maximum tolerable concentrations, and the lowest concentration for each HM was used to compare to the requirements for Mo and Se. The calculations are based only on the forage samples collected and are not representative of the complete sheep intake. Maximum tolerable concentrations are established for sheep intake for As Cd, Pb, Mo, and Se. All study animals did not exceed the calculated maximum tolerable concentrations for As, Cd, Mo, and Pb.

All study sheep met the Mo and Se dietary requirements. Liver is the organ of choice to diagnose Se deficiency,vertical garden indoor and concentrations less than 0.21 mg/kg in sheep liver are considered deficient. All study sheep liver concentrations did not indicate deficiency. In sheep, Se toxicity was reported at 0.25 mg/kg of body weight chronically. However, the National Research Council set the maximum tolerable concentrations for Se at 5.0 mg/kg of DM. Of the donated sheep, the shepherds did not report indicators of acute or chronic Se poisoning . Other supplementary sources of forage were not reported at the time of sampling; sheep harvesters reported relying on alternative fodder sources for their sheep in the late winter months only . New Mexico is one state that was reported to have high Se concentrations in soils and those in areas with low annual rainfall or alkaline soil. The mean study soil pH was 7.31 ± 0.51. Primarily, most of the Se is absorbed in the small intestines of ruminants and less absorption is seen in forage based diets versus diets based on concentrate. Plants that accumulate Se may be unpalatable to grazing animals, but if there is lack of more palatable forage, animals may develop signs of toxicity from ingestion. According to one study calculation, selenosis can occur in lambs ingesting 0.2% BW of Se accumulating plants. Soil ingestion during foraging, seasonal soil forage adhesion , pulling up of roots while foraging, and licking snouts by livestock may also contribute to higher HM concentrations. The forage plants that we sampled were not known Se obligate or secondary accumulator plants. Aside from Se, whether study plants accumulate Mo and Cd needs further evaluation. Selenosis diagnosis is primarily based on Se measurements , anemia and the presence of physical examination findings identifying toxic levels. Selenium concentrations in the liver and kidneys were not elevated on a DM basis. One source reported that plant forage containing >3–5 mg/kg induced toxicity in sheep. In our study, several plant roots exceeded 3 mg/kg, which is a concern with the pulling up of roots when sheep forage. The amount of root consumption in relation to the total sheep forage intake is important to determine. Further work examining these factors is an area of future research. Based on drinking water standards for livestock, none of the heavy metal concentrations were above maximum tolerable concentrations. Heavy metal water measurements collected by the DiNEH study from two of the water sources identified for Sheep 3 contained lower concentrations of Pb in comparison to our data ; the remaining HM data were less than what the DiNEH researchers found.

Most of the shepherds obtained public water for sheep consumption, which was reflected in the concentration levels found in sheep water. Harvesters in the study reported a history of consuming unregulated water intended for livestock. However, the As, Cd, Pb, Se, and U concentrations did not exceed the maximum contaminant levels set for human consumption. The implementation of water use maps may have contributed to the use of safer alternative water sources for these shepherds. Continued emphasis on the use of safe alternatives for water use in sheep and human consumption put forth by deLemos et al. is essential. Harvested food selling and sharing was common among the participants in the study. Emphasis should be placed on determining the incidence and frequency of food selling and sharing when assessing food chain contamination. Harvesting locations and activities can overlap in mining impacted areas. A few important factors to consider include the availability of harvest items based on seasonal variation and peak consumption periods . It is important to consider the consumption of contaminated food not only by individuals and their families but potentially the whole community and beyond. Studies identified mutton as a core food staple, comprising 6% of the total energy and 10% of the total protein consumed in the Diné diet. The current study participants reported that 35% of their total protein meat intake is comprised by local O. aries. The mean intake of local sheep protein was reported to be one day per week. In the study community, the typical serving size per foodstuff is reported to be 76.54 g of sheep muscle protein, roasted or boiled whole liver 377.5 g, roasted one whole kidney 76 g, and roasted or boiled lung 111.5 g. Using the typical serving size for each food stuff, we used the maximum HM concentration for each food item to calculate the weekly intake of HM from the current diet of the study population. The calculations for Mo and Se are based on the information provided by harvesters and are reflective of the sheep meat average consumption of one day per week. The Recommended Dietary Allowance for Mo was exceeded by more than a factor of 2 but, but the tolerable upper intake limit was not exceeded. The liver alone exceeded the Mo RDA by a factor of 1.8. By our estimates, an individual would have to consume half of the typical serving size to meet the RDA. The Mo levels in all sheep food products consumed comprised of 4.6% of the UL. The Se Reference Dietary Intake for adult males and females is 55 µg per day, and the Tolerable Upper Intake level is set at 400 µg/day. For all sheep products,vertical garden indoor system the harvesters exceeded the Se RDI by more than a factor of seven and were slightly below the tolerable upper intake level of 400 µg/day.

The liver protein intake alone comprised 80% of the tolerable upper limit of Se. Hypothetically, if one consumes liver protein more than once a week in the current scenario, the Se UL will be exceeded. The reported values only take into account the levels representative of sheep protein intake evaluated in this study and exclude non-subsistence and other dietary sources. In summary, in this U mining impacted area, our calculations indicate that the Se levels found in locally harvested sheep exceeded the RDI significantly but were marginally below the established daily tolerable upper intake level. Similarly, the RDA for Mo was exceeded, while the Mo UL was not exceeded. Consuming liver once a week has exhibited exceedances in Se RDI and Mo RDA, and it is anticipated that eating more than one serving size of liver per week would cause one to exceed the Se UL. Diversification of the overall dietary intake or minimizing the intake of high HM content foods are recommended until further research can be done. Our study was comprised of adults only; therefore, our calculations are based exclusively on adult food intake. Recommendations based on tailored research are needed for those that are more sensitive to HM exposure such as children, the elderly, pregnant women, or those with at risk health conditions. There is no dietary intake guideline for the remaining HM examined in this study.The results of this study need to be generalized with caution as the sheep sample sizes were small. Further, the sheep samples were collected from two communities that were near in distance. Still, geographical dissimilarities were apparent between the two communities. Plant heavy metal contamination levels evaluated both surface contamination and plant uptake. As this was a food chain study, we strived to examine the HM concentrations available to the primary meat staple. Comparable differences in HM levels were found in controlled and field studies utilizing unwashed plant samples. Over 30 years ago branched β-1→3-glucans and the EP – AA and EPA – were characterized as potent oomycete elicitors of innate immune responses in plants. These and the Phytophthora elicitin proteins with activities in a somewhat narrower host range figured prominently in the literature in subsequent years, and were used to examine physiological, biochemical and molecular events associated with the HR and induced resistance. Intriguing is that β-glucans and EP are important in modulating innate immunity and inflammation in animals, although these cross-kingdom parallels are likely not fully appreciated by the plant and animal research communities. Oomycetes are among the most important plant pathogens, responsible for devastating plant diseases worldwide.

New Phytophthora species, in particular, are continually being discovered, with the number of species identified nearly double that of only a decade ago . Downy mildew pathogens and the diseases they cause are also current threats to U.S. and world agriculture, with two listed as Select Agents as serious threats to U.S. agriculture . The Phytophthora research community is attuned to the need and urgency to develop novel control strategies that are broadly applicable yet sustainable, with vigorous research programs studying population genetics, genomics, effector biology, host resistance, and disease epidemiology and management. Within this research portfolio, determining how β-glucans and EP are perceived and act in plants could be useful for enhancing disease resistance against oomycetes and possibly other attackers. In this review, we highlight early studies of β-1→3- glucans and EP, discuss their roles as evolutionarily conserved signals, and consider their action in relation to current models of MAMP1-triggered immunity.Arachidonic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid are 20-carbon, all-cis PUFAs containing four and five double bonds, respectively . In mammals, AA and EPA undergo enzymatic oxidation to oxylipins, referred to as eicosanoids, which serve crucial signaling functions in stress responses . Examples of these eicosanoids include prostaglandins and thromboxanes, formed via the action of cyclooxygenases, and leukotrienes, formed via the action of LOXs. Eicosanoid-mediated stress responses include pain, inflammation and fever , platelet aggregation and vasoconstriction , and allergic responses and asthma . Although higher plants do not contain AA and EPA, AA and EPA are found in oomycete pathogens and plants are exposed to these fatty acids during infection . Many molecules of microbial pathogens identified as elicitors in earlier studies have been reclassified as MAMPS to conform to terminology used in animal immunity. MAMPs are motifs in essential molecules such as proteins, lipids, and polysaccharides that are present in entire classes of microbes . These molecular motifs are generally absent from hosts and can be recognized by plants and animals, such as in response to attempted infection or colonization.

Evergreen is premised on harnessing procurement flows from anchor institutions, but this approach relies on the enlightened leadership of the anchors – most of which are private institutions and not subject to any public procurement policy, were it to be instated. Fortunately anchor leaders in Cleveland support the plan to direct procurement flows towards community economic development: as well as their contract with Evergreen, they participate in a Community Benefits Agreement recently spearheaded by the City to promote local and diverse hiring in Cleveland construction projects . Civic and anchor leaders are committed to community wealth building, but nurturing this support has been an ongoing process for representatives from the Cleveland Foundation and the Democracy Collaborative. In spite of these alliances,capturing procurement flows has been a significant challenge for Evergreen. For example, until recently, Evergreen Laundry did not have a single contract with an anchor in Greater University Circle.The anchor institutions are generally locked into long-term million dollar contracts with their laundry services. Evergreen plans to forward bids when contracts end, as was done with University Hospitals, but in the meantime has focused its efforts on nursing homes and hotels. “We still have a long way to go in terms of really capturing anchor supply chains,” said Howard during our interview . The City of Cleveland has been supportive of Evergreen but has not yet directed procurement flows its way. The City’s charter requires competitive bidding for its contracts, with economic performance as the primary determinant for a successful bid. Recent efforts, however, have sought to heighten purchasing flexibility to support broader policy goals. For example, a 2010 ordinance gives a slight bidding advantage to local firms and to companies certified for their use of green business practices, such as reducing waste and energy consumption .

Bidding advantages also exist for firms certified as a small business or as a female-owned or minority-owned enterprise. Rules to facilitate competitive bidding are meant to forestall cronyism,vertical rack but they can also be a barrier to social impact procurement efforts. Policy innovations that enable public bodies to responsibly direct purchasing power towards community wealth building would accelerate co-operative growth. Experiments by the City of Cleveland are promising in this regard, and may become important policy supports for Evergreen’s growth.Evergreen has benefitted from ad-hoc and private versions of co-op recognition, financing, infrastructure support, and preferential procurement. More regularized public support in all six policy areas would have made Evergreen’s founding less dependent on contingencies and heroism and would smooth the way for replications in other regions. Co-operative policy in the US is underdeveloped, especially compared to the co-op dense regions. The US Department of Agriculture does offer grants to rural cooperatives for technical assistance and product development . A similar program focused on urban co-operatives would have been a helpful funding source for Evergreen. The Cleveland Model was enabled by robust foundation support and champions in local government. There is evidence suggesting that in this period of contested neoliberalism similar alliances might be possible elsewhere. In 2014, local governments in New York City and Madison, Wisconsin approved initiatives aimed at financing the development of worker co-ops .These local measures offer co-operative recognition, financing, and technical assistance. At the state level, California has passed a bill that establishes a legal form for worker co-operatives . The bill offers official recognition by explaining the purpose and benefits of worker co-operatives, and allows worker co-operatives to create voluntary indivisible reserve accounts . According to Sushil Jacob of the Tuttle Law Group, who helped craft the legislation, the long-term goal is to get tax credits for monies invested in indivisible reserve funds, as is done in Italy . Finally, the legislation allows worker co-operatives to raise capital from “community investors,” a new legal category of investor; worker cooperatives can raise up to $1,000 per investor, without registering these investments with the state securities regulator . Federally, the National Co-operative Business Association is spearheading an effort to pass legislation that would create a program within the US Department of Housing and Urban Development to provide capital and technical assistance to cooperatives. This program would be a much-expanded version of the USDA’s rural cooperative development program; it would help with financing, not just technical support, and urban co-operatives would be eligible.

The bill has been introduced twice but has not yet made it out of the House of Representatives . This would be a breakthrough piece of legislation; it would greatly facilitate co-operative growth in the United States. Mondragon, and the robust co-op sectors in Quebec and Emilia Romagna, have all benefitted from supportive policy. But a crucial point that became apparent during our literature review is that strong co-op sectors in these regions all preceded the policy breakthroughs that enabled further sectoral growth. Adeler writes: “In the Spanish, Italian, and Quebec examples, co-operative development was pursued by federations of cooperatives, and co-operative groups or alliances, initially with little or no state support, yet proved highly successful in producing an enabling environment for co-operative development” . Policy change played an important role in facilitating sectoral growth, but a robust sector was needed to win and keep these legislative victories in the first place. This finding is aligned with the social movement approach to co-operative development. According to Diamantopoulos , “Co-operative development may benefit from supportive public policy and sound management but it necessarily depends on concerted movement action to transform the field, periodically realigning movement frames and resources to effectively focus on new opportunities and drive new campaigns.” The political muscle needed to pass co-op-supporting legislation first requires a more robust national sector. Local policy change can precede vibrant co-op movements, but movement building will be needed to win the state and national legislation required to scale-up the co-operative economy. The Next System Project is hopeful in this regard. While still a young initiative, it is beginning to assemble the popular power required to push legislative and systemic changes that can facilitate the scaling up of the worker-cooperative alternative that Evergreen represents.Populations of a species are frequently distributed across climatic gradients, where natural selection can lead to adaptation to local conditions. The environmental conditions that cause local adaptation have been well documented through reciprocal transplants and studies of clines. These experiments show that divergent patterns of selection cause shifts in the mean values of many traits leading to a multivariate response. Such a response to selection improves fitness and promotes successful adaptation to local conditions. Despite a large body of research, it remains a challenge to determine the specific genetic loci that respond to selection and confer local adaptation. Long-term breeding programmes and quantitative genetic studies have demonstrated variation in nearly all traits, and thus a simple lack of additive genetic variation is not expected to constrain adaptation. Instead, a limited amount of genetic variation along vectors of selection has been shown to limit adaptive evolution. Theoretically, independence of all loci and phenotypes will improve the potential for adaptation by optimizing evolvability and the response to selection.

However, certain genetic correlations can disrupt the optimal genetic architecture by reducing the amount of genetic variation which is available to selection and causing correlated responses ofnon-adaptive traits. Although this maladaptive role for genetic correlations is not universal, genetic correlations may affect R by limiting the dimensionality of the genetic variance matrix or restricting genetic variation to vectors which are not aligned with selection. The combined effects of the pleiotropic loci,vertical farming hydroponic which cause genetic correlations, may have a profound impact on patterns of local adaptation. As pleiotropy can constrain multivariate adaptation and cause correlated evolution of adaptive and deleterious phenotypic values, these loci are typically considered ‘antagonistic’. Adaptation is especially constrained when pleiotropic gene action limits phenotypic correlations along a vector orthogonal to that of selection and reduces R. Antagonistic pleiotropy is well documented and has led to the belief that all pleiotropy is maladaptive. However, recent theoretical work has countered this viewpoint by demonstrating that intermediate levels of pleiotropy may actually improve the conditions for adaptation and evolution of complexity. To study the adaptive value of pleiotropic loci, it is necessary to assess the effects of genetic variation on the structure of many phenotypes which are subject to correlational selection in nature. Adaptation to drought in plants provides an ideal system to achieve this goal. In natural and agricultural systems, annual plants can be adapted to local drought conditions by either growing and reproducing before the onset of drought or by delaying reproduction, increasing water use efficiency and conserving resources. For example, accessions which exhibit early-flowering time and low WUE were selected for in consistently wet soil and late-season drought conditions, whereas direct selection on increased WUE favoured a dehydration avoidance strategy in environments with early season drought. Therefore, adaptation to different local soil moisture conditions and seasonal rainfall patterns contributes to the observed strong correlations between FT, growth rate and WUE within and among species. Several studies have suggested that pleiotropy may also affect this correlation. Here, we provide empirical evidence for an adaptive role of pleiotropy. Using genome-wide approaches, allelic variants and transgenic manipulation, we demonstrate that the ‘FT’ gene, FRIGIDA pleiotropically affects phenotypic variation in growth rate, WUE and FT. Derived, null FRI alleles produce a drought escape phenotype relative to the ancestral adaptive strategy. This phenomenon, which we term ‘adaptive pleiotropy’, enhances the likelihood of adaptation by increasing adaptive responses to selection.Population genetic models are at odds about the role of pleiotropy in maintaining variation within and among populations. Pleiotropic gene action may cause non-adaptive and adaptive phenotypes to covary, thus reducing the efficacy of correlational selection and permitting the persistence of multiple allelic states within populations. However, where the effects of pleiotropy are more aligned with the direction of selection, within-population variation can be purged by strong directional selection. Therefore, we predicted low levels of within-population variation at FRI, because multivariate selection would favour either a functional or non-functional allele . In addition, if variation at FRI can lead to local adaptation, then we predicted increased population structure between functional and non-functional FRI classes. A population genetic test for adaptive pleiotropy is complicated in our study as FRI may cause population structure through both adaptive pleiotropy and allochrony: FRI-NILs and tr-FRI lines flowered at least 28 and 32 days later than Col-0, respectively. All main-raceme Col-0 flowers had been pollinated and produced fruits before any FRI-NIL or tr-FRI lines produced open flowers. In the greenhouse environment, single mutations at FRI can produce a reproductive isolation index near 1.0. However, assortative mating owing to variation at FRI may be tempered in nature as the environment has a profound effect on phenology.To test for evidence of reproductive isolation between accessions and populations that differ at FRI, we first imputed FRI functionality of 1188 accessions, then compared the group of individuals with derived, weak alleles to the group of individuals with functional, ancestral-type FRI. We then calculated FST between FRI allele functional classes in PLINK. FST values averaged across 216 130 SNPs are significantly greater between the FRI functionality classes than is expected from genomewide sub-sampling . To control for geographical population structure, we divided the global sample into 11 geographical regions according to Horton et al.. Ten of 11 geographical regions showed elevated FST at FRI compared with a genome-wide sample of sites with the same allele frequencies as the FRI functional variants . These results show that elevated global FST when sorting by FRI is due to a lack of within-population variation in FRI. Less than 2 per cent of 574 local populations harboured functional variants at FRI. While extremely low within-population variation is present at FRI, functionally divergent alleles have gone to fixation in geographically proximate populations. Several authors have shown that an abundance of derived null FRI alleles are present in nature, far more than would be expected by chance. Here, we demonstrate that these mutations cause a phenotypic leap between drought adaptation strategies which may promote adaptation to novel ecological conditions. Combined, the strong signature of selection, high levels of population structure and lack of within-population variation observed at FRI suggests an adaptive role of this pleiotropy.Previous studies have found that the early flowering, low WUE phenotypes associated with drought escape are adaptive in sites without consistent low soil moisture.

This study will focus on Settler Colonial Theory , a newly delineated branch of Postcolonial studies. SCT is at its core aligned with the basic tenets of postcolonial theory, and takes as its point of departure the fact that, as famously stated by Patrick Wolfe, “settler colonization [is] a structure rather than event” . A settler colony entails the permanent settlement of a group of people, who appropriate land and have at least some degree of local governance based on a shared ideology, often informed by religion and/or ethnic or national identity. Land ownership is of paramount concern. In contrast, a franchise colony is one centered around resource extraction, where government administrators generally are not permanent residents; usually, they establish an administrative class of Indigenous peoples, such as the colony the British imposed in India. These aspects sometimes overlap, but the key factor is that settler colonialism rarely ends, that is, the United Kingdom , the United States, Israel, and Australia, were and still are settler colonizer countries. SCT is further defined by foundational theorist Patrick Wolfe as having the following essential characteristics: it is premised on the idea that the land to be settled is empty, or “terra nullius,” and ready for colonization, despite the fact that this perceived “natural” land was actually developed by Indigenous peoples . The logic of elimination of the Native is crucial in the settler colony as opposed to franchise colonies, and it is to be achieved through a variety of means, including by enslavement, removal from land, and assimilation. Further, Wolfe shows through a comparative study of settler colonies, including the US and Australia, that processes of racialization of non Europeans are paramount in settler colonization, and vary based on the needs of those Europeans who administer a particular area. Also important to this study is the way that European settler colonizers espoused “manifest destiny,” or the idea that God meant them to expand Westward from Europe, not only to the Americas but beyond, and to dominate “inferior races.” We can see manifest destiny and the idea that Europeans are superior as an underlying ideology behind globalization. But for Wolfe,vertical gardening in greenhouse manifest destiny is not the end of racialization but accounts for the continuing unequal distribution of global power: he demonstrates that post-frontier and post-emancipation societies intensify racialization because settlers must rationalize inequality when slavery and the “outside” of the frontier no longer delineate racial boundaries.

Racialization is thus a colonial and a postcolonial process. Wolfe also highlights the ways that all “modalities of settler colonialism … come back to the issue of land” . That is, the settler deploys various ways of elimination and assimilation — forced labor, forced removals, homicide, parceling community land into family holdings, miscegenation, religious conversion, boarding schools, and so forth — to take land from Indigenous peoples. Land is a central issue for colonizer and colonized alike. To the settler colonizer, land is viewed primarily as a resource for profit and expansion/perpetuation of European society. By contrast, for Indigenous peoples, especially in North America, land is of paramount importance as the spiritual home of peoples. Cajete explains the “spirit of place,” defined as the “ecological relationship borne of intimate familiarity with the homeland, and the homeland became an extension of the ‘great holy’ in perceptions, heart, mind, and soul of the people.” Cajete goes on to cement this relationship in terms of loss of land during colonization: “It is easy to understand why Indigenous people around the world lamented the loss of their land for it was a loss of part of themselves” . For Cajete and others, land is part of the way Indigenous peoples perceive the world, a central aspect of their epistemologies; because this importance is reflected in decolonized conceptualizations of utopia, land and land use is also a central aspect of this project, in particular in Chapters 2 and 3. I focus on SCT in part because “utopia” as a blueprint society has strong settler colonial implications that I draw on for this study: both historically and contemporarily in countries like Israel, the colonizer comes to build utopia on Indigenous land, through violent dispossession. Western utopian imaginings tend toward the homogenous, privileging Whiteness and European culture, and erasing cultural difference by great hope for both preventing climate change, and for surviving in an already changing climate. Indeed, Little Bear, in his forward to Cajete’s Native Science, espouses the powerful potential of uniting Western and Indigenous sciences to combat the urgent problem climate change, and offers a ray of hope in such uncertain times that is nothing if not utopian at the level of global collectivity.Speculative fiction imagines our world differently in order to grasp the complexities of the human condition. Darko Suvin, in discussing science fiction specifically, famously calls this “cognitive estrangement:” sf it is not so much about technology itself, or aliens or time travel, but rather uses these tropes to think about culture, politics, the nature of humans as tool users, etc. — this definition generally extends to speculative fiction, a term more suited to encompassing future-oriented works that may not focus on science and technology. Sf author Samuel R. Delany argues that sf is not even about the future, but that it is usually set there to ponder the future implications of society’s present problems.

Utopias are by definition speculative in nature, and utopian fiction can be considered a subgenre of speculative fiction. Utopian Studies revolves around the central question: What do we mean by “utopia?” It is a term much maligned across the Western political spectrum, though it is still a fundamentally Western concept, and the field of Utopian Studies is dominated by Western theorists. In Utopia as Method: The Imaginary Reconstitution of Society, Ruth Levites summarizes contemporary utopian scholarship of the last half-century or so, which has generally been critical of capitalism in a Marxist tradition. She rejects the idea, commonly touted by detractors, that “utopia” is a static, totalitarian society, or a “blueprint.” Instead, she argues that utopia is a method, a way to “develop alternative possible scenarios for the future and open these up to public debate and democratic decision—insisting always on the provisionally, reflexivity and contingency of what we are able to imagine” . Utopia in other words is fluid, emergent. Levitas argues that we have an imperative to first refuse that this capitalist, globalized world is the best of all possible worlds; to then imagine a better world ; and finally to actively work toward implementing that imagination, through, to begin with, a number of socialist programs. As Jameson argues forcefully in “Progress versus Utopia, or, Can We Imagine the Future?”, utopia cannot be imagined from within Western culture; it is so totalizing on a global scale, so limits our thinking that it is impossible. Still, as utopian scholars like Robert Tally argue, building from Jameson’s work,greenhouse vertical farming the postmodern era is the most important time to imagine utopia, even if it is also the most impossible, because we must imagine radical alternatives to the capitalist world system. Further, Tally argues that if utopia is a literary process of mapping the world around us and a guide for operating within it, rather than simply an “ideal society” of another place or time — we then find that “[u]topia is everywhere today” . We find utopia where communities — especially communities of color, as Imarisha highlights — self-organize in ways that resist power. And it follows, I would argue, that if Western thought is so totalizing that we can’t imagine utopia, then people outside Western hegemonic power structures would likely be well-placed to transform the utopian imagination, to decolonize it, in ways that Jameson does not account for. This “utopia from below” is indeed everywhere today. Utopian Studies defines “utopian fiction” loosely as well, though its historical connotations are distinctly colonial.

While the term “utopia” predates Western thought, it was popularized in the West through what is arguably the first science fiction book of the Western world, Thomas More’s Utopia . More inaugurated the “blueprint utopia” format; he took advantage of the excitement Europeans felt over early explorations of the New World to imagine an explorer discovering a society that, while in some ways better than our own, is not perfect . However, rather than define utopian fiction stringently as a blueprint society, as most early utopias were, utopian fiction can be more broadly considered any work that posits a world that is better than our own. Expanding on what counts as utopian fiction still further, we can identify “utopian traces,” or hints at the possibility of creating a better world , in most fiction and art, not just science fiction. Phillip Wegner argues that it is the job of sf texts to represent a moment of “dramatic break in the status quo,” in contrast to other fiction that represents and interrogates a given social and cultural moment. This means that utopian ideas are inherent in the sf genre. Wegner argues that “the most concrete manifestation of any sf narrative’s Utopianism is to be located in those moments wherein the closure of the conventional realist work is displaced by an openness to the unfinished potential of historical becoming” . The argument advanced by much of the fiction I study — that Indigenous philosophies and sciences are integral to imagining a better world — represents such a break in the status quo, a challenge to the primacy of Western philosophy and science, even though few of the works I study actually depict better, utopian societies. Dystopias can be defined as societies that are meant to be utopian, but are so only for a select few, while the majority of people remain oppressed; often these societies are totalitarian in nature. The texts I study here would primarily be described as “critical dystopias,” a term coined by Tom Moylan. For Moylan, “critical utopias” describe sf from the late 20th century that rejects the idea of utopia as blueprint, and tries to imagine a better world in the context of Marxist principles of freedom and justice. Meanwhile, “critical dystopias” respond to capitalist market ideologies such as neoliberalism, which are alternately “pseudo-utopian” and “anti-utopian,” because they hold that “a viable market-driven society” can only be achieved by dismantling welfare and other social support systems and destroying the environment . Critical dystopias first “linger in the terrors of the present” bringing a feminist and antiracist perspective to the anti-utopia of capitalist ideology. But then they explore “ways to change the present system so that such culturally and economically marginalized peoples not only survive but also try to move toward creating a social reality that is shaped by an impulse to human self-determination and ecological health” , and in their open endings offer a utopian hope. I enhance Moylan’s analysis by looking specifically at Indigenous-authored dystopian fiction and dystopian fiction with Indigenous themes, focusing my analysis on how neoliberalism and the destruction it has wrought specifically impacts Indigenous peoples, and how they respond to it. There is a growing body of postcolonial studies of sf, including those that engage with utopian/dystopian works, such that postcolonial science fiction studies could be considered a new sub-field of SFS—and this study would fall into it. The most important example is John Rieder’s Colonialism and the Emergence of Science Fiction, on which this study draws heavily. Rieder looks at early American sf, which is coterminous with colonialism, and persuasively argues that colonialism is “woven into the texture” of the genre. Another antecedent to this study is Eric Smith’s Globalization, Utopia and Postcolonial Science Fiction: New Maps of Hope. Smith focuses on the emergence of science fiction in the so-called third world and how it challenges the institutional limits of postcolonial readings of “first world” sf. Smith’s work is very closely aligned with my project, though I intend to conduct a more systematic engagement within the context of settler colonialism, and with more attention to Indigenous science and philosophy.

We can conclude that the current data shows a steady growth in water markets despite the recent predominance of relatively wet years. In spite of the active and growing water market, Hanak points out that California’s water market only accounts for 3 percent of total annual water use. Hanak estimates that Central Valley farmers have accounted for approximately three-quarters of all water sales, while the rest of the water has been supplied from Imperial and Riverside Counties. According to Hanak, environmental regulations, rather than urban agencies, have been the major sources of the increased demand for water. Direct purchases for in stream uses and wildlife reserves constituted over one third of increased water trades since 1995, while agricultural activities in the San Joaquin valley accounted for over half of the increase in water purchases. This increase in agricultural demand for water stems from the reduction in contractual water deliveries under environmental regulations. However, municipal agencies are the principal purchasers of long-term and permanent water contracts, which constitute approximately 20 percent of total water trades. The 2001 legislation that requires that local governments ensure adequate water supplies for development is likely to increase the urban demand for long-term water transfers.Within California there is considerable resistance to water trading which stems from communities in the source regions. These communities are concerned that water sales will generate significant “third-party” effects; i.e. trades may have an adverse impact on both local groundwater users and the local economy.

These concerns have arisen from communities’ perception of the impacts of short-term water transfers in the early 1990’s,hydroponic bucket which involved the implementation of fallowing contracts by the state to purchase water for the 1991 drought water bank. Water transfers, which were accompanied by land fallowing, slightly reduced the demand for labor and other farm inputs and also decreased the supply of raw materials to local processors. Howitt estimated that losses in county income in two counties that transferred water ranged between 3.2 percent in Solano County, where 8 percent of the acreage was fallowed for transfers, to 5 percent in Yolo County, where 13 percent of the irrigated acres were fallowed. Those farmers who replaced the surface water they had sold by pumping additional groundwater were accused of reducing both the quantity and quality of water available to other users. Because groundwater resources are not regulated by the state, the implementation of the Californian water market has sparked concerns that aquifers will be subject to uncontrolled mining. The experience of the 1990’s has exacerbated another source of anxiety: local officials fear that once water has been transferred elsewhere, local communities will have insufficient money and political influence to retrieve these water entitlements . Currently, state approval is only required for water transfers pertaining to surface water entitlements that were acquired since 1914, certain types of groundwater banking and any water that is conveyed through a publicly owned facility. The state only actively safeguards against negative economic impacts on source counties when water is conveyed through these publicly owned facilities. In the other two cases, traders are obligated not to harm other surface water rights-holders, fish and wildlife. Rural counties have attempted to protect their water interests by implementing local restrictions on water marketing in the form of local ordinances . By late 2002, 22 of the state’s 58 counties had put ordinances into effect . These ordinances mandate the acquisition of a permit before exporting groundwater or extracting groundwater to substitute for exported surface water. Individuals who wish to obtain a permit have to undergo an environmental review process.

According to Hanak, the very low number of permit applications indicates that this process acts as a deterrent to water trades, rather than as a screening mechanism. Statistics for 1990 to 2001 suggest that the implementation of groundwater export restrictions reduced a county’s water trades by 14,300 acre-feet and transferred 2,640 acre-feet of water purchases to in-county buyers. Since 1996 total groundwater exports were reduced by 932,000 acre-feet or 19 percent and total water sales were reduced by 787,000 acrefeet or 14 percent .While the 1994 appellate court decision favoring Tehama County sanctioned the implementation of groundwater ordinances, counties do not have the legal authority to ban crop fallowing, although several counties have implemented such policies. According to Hanak, these counties tend to have boards that are elected by the general community, as opposed to boards that only permit landowners to vote. In general, landowners are more likely to fallow land for the water market, especially when crop prices are low. Section 1745.05 of the Water Code mandates that any fallowing proposal that exceeds 20 percent of the local water supply must undergo a public review. Hanak found that water districts that implement fallowing programs tend to include restrictions in these programs that ensure that the viability of idled land is maintained and that landowners who engage in land idling are not solely engaged in selling water. In summary, a well functioning water market is seen as essential to California’s ability to adapt its restricted developed water supplies to changing demands for water. Over the past seventeen years the water market has evolved different forms and has shown steady growth despite relatively good water years. However in recent years, local resistance to water markets has taken the form of local ordinances. These ordinances need to reflect both the interests of local communities and state water users to enable the development of effective markets without imposing undue costs on local communities.

Over the course of a year, some 35,000 of the state’s 750,000 employers hire a total 800,000 individuals to work on the state farms, so that about 5 percent of California’s 16 million workers are “farm workers” sometime during a typical year. Agriculture is a seasonal industry, hiring a peak 455,000 workers in September 2002 and a low of 288,000 in February 2002. Since most farm workers are employed for fewer hours than manufacturing workers, and earn lower hourly wages, they have lower than average annual earnings. Average hourly earnings in California agriculture are about half of average manufacturing wages, $7 to $8 an hour versus $14 to $15 per hour,1 and farm workers average about 1,000 hours a year, so that farm workers have annual earnings of $7,000 to $8,000 a year, a fourth of the $30,000 to $35,000 average for factory workers.Since 1975, farm workers have had organizing and bargaining rights, but there have been elections on only about 5 percent of the state’s farms,stackable planters and there are contracts on only about 1 percent. Farm worker unions have about 30,000 farm worker members; the organizing and bargaining activities of the dominant union, the United Farm Workers, have increased since founder Cesar Chavez died in 1993. Beginning in 2003, the state can require mandatory mediation that results in an imposed contract if employers and unions cannot negotiate a first agreement. During the 1990s, the percentage of unauthorized farm workers increased along with the market share of farm labor contractors and other intermediaries who, for a fee, bring workers to farms. Wages and fringe benefits generally declined in the 1990s, and farmers, fearing losses if unauthorized workers were to be removed suddenly, have lobbied in Congress since the mid-1990s for an employer-friendly guest worker program. They have not yet succeeded in winning such a program, and the debate in 2003 is whether surging Mexico-U.S. illegal migration is best managed with guest workers, legalization, or a combination of the two, so-called earned legalization, under which unauthorized foreigners in the U.S. would obtain a temporary legal status that could be converted to an immigrant visa with continued U.S. employment.Food and fiber is produced on farms, which are defined in the U.S. Census of Agriculture as places that sell at least $1,000 worth of farm commodities a year. Most of the 2.2 million U.S. farms are considered family farms, a term that is not defined officially, but a common definition is that a family farm uses less than 1.5 person-years of hired labor. 2 Most family farms are diversified crop and livestock operations that provide work for farmers and family members year-round, and the mechanization of many farm tasks has enabled most farm families to include one or more persons employed in  non-farm jobs. California farms are different because of specialization, size, and the presence of hired workers. Instead of combining crops and livestock, most California farms specialize, producing only lettuce, peaches or grapes. These FVH crops—fruits, nut and berries, vegetables and melons, and horticultural specialties that range from nursery and greenhouse crops to Christmas trees, mushrooms, and sod—require large amounts of labor for short periods of time, so large FVH farms can require hundreds of workers for 3 to 6 weeks, and only a handful the rest of the year.

In California, FVH commodities occupy a third of the state’s irrigated crop land and account for half of the state’s farm sales. Producing FVH commodities with hired workers in California fields is often compared to manufacturing products on factory assembly lines. Like factories, the farms bring together people, land, water, and machines to transform seeds into crops, with agriculture’s biological production process marked by risks that do not arise in manufacturing production processes governed by engineering relationships. FVH commodities are considered “labor-intensive:” labor costs range from 20 percent to 40 percent of total production costs—higher than labor’s 20 percent share of average production costs in manufacturing, but less than labor’s 70 to 80 percent share of costs in many service industries. The people relationships on California farms are also different from stereotypical U.S. family farmers. Unlike family farmers who do most of the farm’s work with their hands every day, the managers responsible for most of California’s labor-intensive crops rarely hand-harvest themselves. Indeed, many are unable to communicate with the workers in their native languages: most managers are U.S.-citizen non-Hispanic whites, while most farm workers are Hispanic immigrants. A familiar adage captures many of the differences between California agriculture and mid western family farms: California agriculture is a business, not a way of life . Production and employment are concentrated on the largest 5 percent of the state’s farms, and in most commodities, the 10 largest producers account for 30 to 50 percent of total production. However, there are many small farmers and small farm employers, which tend to obscure the degree of concentration. Dole Food Company is probably the largest California farm employer, issuing over 25,000 W-2 employee-tax statements annually. However, Dole does not show up in state employment records as a farm employer. Dole’s Bud of California vegetable growing operation is one of the largest employers in Monterey County, and is considered in the business of selling Groceries & Related Products, not farming . Sun World International is also classified in Groceries & Related Products, as is Grimm way Farms. Similarly, Beringer Blass Wine Estates is classified as a Beverages manufacturer, as is Giumarra Vineyards Corp. and Ironstone Vineyards. Many of these  non-farm operations use custom harvesters and labor contractors to bring workers to their farms, and they are required to report their employment and wages to EDD. During the 1990s, when average annual farm employment rose to a peak 413,000 in 1997, so did the percentage of workers on farms whose employers were non-farmer intermediaries—usually labor contractors who are classified as farm services by EDD. The percentage of workers on farms whose employer is a non-farmer intermediary is about 45 percent, up sharply from less than 30 percent in the mid-1980s.Employment in California agriculture is highly seasonal. The most labor-intensive phase of production for most commodities is farming, and the peak demand for labor shifts around the state in a manner that mirrors harvest activities. Harvesting fruits and vegetables occurs year-round, beginning with the winter vegetable harvest in Southern California and the winter citrus harvest in the San Joaquin Valley. However, the major activity during the winter months between January and March is pruning—cutting branches and vines to promote the growth of larger fruit. Pruning often accounts for 10 to 30 percent of production labor costs but, because pruning occurs over several months, there are fewer workers involved, and many pruners are year-round residents of the area in which they work.

California’s record high average yields of 30.75 tons per acre in 1991, the highest in the world, are due largely to sustained research efforts over a long period of time. These efforts, which included variety testing, culture, soil fumigation, disease-free plants, drip irrigation, mulching, and annual replanting, are documented in Alston, Pardey and Carter . California Strawberry Advisory Board grants accounted for 42.5 percent of all state funds for strawberry research during the 15-year period from 1978 to 1992. The distribution of the returns from production research is an issue that has been studied extensively by agricultural economists. Alston, Norton, and Pardey provide an excellent summary of this work. Depending upon the relative price elasticities of demand and supply, consumers may receive half or more of the short-run benefits from production research. Huang and Sexton demonstrated recently that market power can have an important effect on both the level and distribution of benefits. Processors with market power may be able to capture a large share of the benefits at the expense of both consumers and producers. To the extent that the benefits from producer-funded research accrue to consumers and processors, it diminishes the farm sector’s incentive to fund such research.As Table 5 shows, some commodity programs have been effective for a long period while others are of more recent origin. Many programs have been terminated as a result of changing economic and political relationships.

Despite the turnover, the number of government-mandated commodity programs has grown over time,chicken fodder system and the group approach to solving commodity marketing problems remains popular. The periodic renewal votes conducted for most programs reveal their popularity, with positive votes typically above 90 percent. A number of marketing programs have, however, encountered problems. As a group, the programs using quantity controls to practice price discrimination have lost governmental and legislative support, due to perceived adverse impacts on U.S. consumers. The programs with the strongest potential for increasing producer prices, including hops, lemons, Navel oranges, and Valencia oranges, have been terminated by the Secretary of Agriculture. Those orders with quantity controls nowadays use them infrequently.Informed observers agree that it will be very difficult to gain approval for a new marketing order with strong quantity controls. Programs compelling producer and handler support of commodity advertising programs have faced withering legal challenges in recent years based upon the argument that they represent an undue restriction on commercial free speech under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Two recent rulings on the issue by the U.S. Supreme Court have done little to clarify matters.6 Additional litigation is working its way through the court system. If the courts find ultimately that producers and handlers cannot be compelled to support an industry’s advertising program, it will likely fail due to free-rider problems. If the courts decide in favor of mandatory support, current programs will continue and new programs may emerge. There will, however, be increased monitoring of program costs and benefits to assure program supporters that their funds are being well-spent. Research funding pressures may require commodity groups to increase their support for research programs, if they want research to be done. The mandated programs provide a proven means for commodity-based research support, and they may take on an increased research role, as has been done by the California strawberry industry.This chapter surveys California’s agricultural trade environment and prospects.

We pay particular attention to the impacts of the 2002 United States Farm Bill, the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act on California’s trade in agricultural products and the prospects for California agriculture from further agricultural trade liberalization. We argue that foreign markets are extremely important to California agriculture, and that increased trade liberalization will be beneficial to most California producers since they competitively supply specialty products and continue to face barriers to trade in important markets. We also discuss the benefits of subsidies provided to agriculture in California and agricultural exports in particular. While a quantitative comparison of this support versus the potential benefits of increased trade liberalization is beyond the scope of this chapter, there is suggestive evidence that California agriculture would be better off with reduced subsidies to U.S. agriculture and concomitant increased access to markets abroad. Thus, to the extent that the political fallout from the Farm Bill results in less ambitious World Trade Organization negotiations, the 2002 Farm Bill is costly for the California agricultural sector.The remainder of this chapter is organized as follows: First, the chapter describes the main characteristics of California’s agricultural trade. Second, the international trading environment facing California agriculture is discussed. Third, we review and discuss elements of the Farm Bill that have important implications for California’s agricultural trade. These include the export programs, the highly controversial country-of-origin-labeling guidelines, and environmental programs. Fourth, we discuss how the 2002 Farm Bill affects the U.S.’s ability to meet its current WTO obligations and its potential effect on current liberalization talks from which California has much to gain.California agricultural producers rely on foreign markets for a significant portion of their revenues and export relatively more than producers in other states do. The value of California agricultural exports totaled about $6.5 billion in 2002, or about 20 percent of the value of agricultural commodities produced in California.

While it is not surprising that California’s export earnings exceed those of every other state since its farm cash receipts are the highest in the country, exports are relatively more important to California than to other states. While California accounts for 12 percent of national farm cash receipts , it accounts for an estimated 15 percent of total U.S. agricultural export revenue. To put these figures in an international context, the state of California exports more agricultural products than some leading agricultural countries do, including such countries as Chile and China. The annual value of Mexico’s agricultural exports is only slightly larger than California’s estimated value.As shown in table 1, the top six food product exports from California in 2002 were almonds, cotton, wine, table grapes, dairy, and oranges. The state is not a significant producer or exporter of grain crops such as corn, wheat, or soybeans. In fact, the state is a net importer of feed grains. Figure 1 highlights the diversity of California’s exports. The top five products account for just over one-third of California’s agricultural exports by value. Even when exports are aggregated into commodity groups, as opposed to individual products, the range of products exported by California is striking . According to UC Agricultural Issues Center statistics, fruit exports comprise 25 percent of the state’s agricultural exports, followed by field crops , tree nuts , vegetables , animal products and wine . This diversity of exports reflects California’s production diversity and differentiates the state from other important agricultural states in the U.S., which tend to produce only a few commodities. For instance, the agricultural sector in Iowa and Illinois is concentrated in just three commodities: corn, soybeans and hogs,fodder systems for cattle which account for 70-80 percent of those states’ farm cash receipts. Nebraska’s production of corn and cattle generates over 70 percent of that state’s farm receipts. Texas depends on the cattle sector, which produces 50 percent of its farm cash receipts . Of any other state in the U.S., the profile of Florida’s agriculture is perhaps most similar to California’s. While the value of agricultural production in Florida is about 25 percent of that in California, Florida’s agriculture is quite diversified and the state produces fruits, vegetables, and dairy products. However, Florida is not as dependent on foreign markets as California is; many of the state’s fruits and vegetables are sold domestically.

Not surprisingly, this means that Florida’s growers tend to be more protectionist than growers in California. As we explain a little later, California growers have a great deal to gain from breaking down foreign barriers to trade in fruits and vegetables; this is less true for Florida growers. California’s exports are destined for a diverse group of relatively high income countries, with the exception of the increasingly important Chinese market. The major foreign markets for almonds and wine are in Europe, while significant markets for the other top commodities are in Canada, Mexico, and Asia. Penetration of these desirable markets is all the more impressive because these countries remain quite protectionist with respect to agriculture, as discussed in the next section. It is estimated that about 40 percent of California agricultural exports is destined for Asia, 20 percent to Europe, and 30 percent to North America. California exports nearly twice as much of its agricultural output to the relatively wealthy European Union markets compared to the U.S. as a whole .California agriculture faces a complex international trading environment, characterized by import tariffs, non-tariff trade barriers, new competitors, and relatively little traditional federal assistance compared to other states. In this section, we review the market environment in which California’s agricultural producers compete. Increasing foreign competition and relatively closed markets have created demand within California for both increased government support for agriculture , and further trade liberalization in foreign markets . The internal contradictions between these positions have not been resolved. We argue later that California receives little benefit from the taxpayer dollars spent on foreign marketing; consequently, the California agricultural industry may wish to concentrate on achieving global trade liberalization even if this necessitates funding reductions for foreign marketing activities. In the last decade, the nominal value of total U.S. agricultural exports grew by about 30 percent. Exports of some commodities important to California grew more rapidly and some less rapidly than the national average. Over this time period, U.S. dairy exports increased by 265 percent and fresh vegetable exports increased by 73 percent. Figure 3 shows how the nominal values of some major California exports changed over the period 1995-2002. According to UC AIC and the Foreign Agricultural Service , the fortunes of California’s commodities have been mixed; almonds and wine have fared somewhat better than tomatoes and raisins. While the total nominal value of California’s agricultural exports has declined by about 5 percent since 1995, this figure masks widely divergent trends across commodities, so no general conclusions can be drawn.In the 1990s the most significant import growth in world markets was in high valued and processed food products like those grown in California. The share of high value and processed agricultural products in world agricultural trade has increased from less than 40 percent in the early 1980s to well over 50 percent by the end of the 1990s . At the same time, the share of fruits and vegetables in world agricultural trade remained at about 17 percent from 1990 to 2001, with a dollar value of $69.8 billion in 2001, up from $51 billion in 1990 . The fact that fruit and vegetable trade did not increase any faster than total agricultural trade is very surprising given the growing per capita demand in developed countries for fresh fruits and vegetables. The stagnant share of fruit and vegetable trade no doubt reflects the high level of protectionism around the world for these food categories. For instance, two-tiered tariffs known as tariff-rate quotas are commonly used to restrict imports of fruits and vegetables. Worldwide, there are more than 350 TRQs placed on trade in fruits and vegetables, and more than 25 percent of all agricultural TRQs are concentrated in the fruit and vegetable trade . This phenomenon critically affects California agriculture. As an exporter of high-value food commodities, California must contend with the fact that import tariffs in important markets such as in the EU are generally higher on processed agricultural products than on the primary commodities. This tariff wedge between a processed commodity and its corresponding primary commodity is referred to as tariff escalation, and this is a significant obstacle to California exports. Tariff escalation produces a trade bias against processed agricultural products and value added products. There is general evidence of tariff escalation in OECD countries , especially for fruits, vegetables, and nuts—major California exports. For many countries, bound tariffs tend to be higher for processed food products than for unprocessed products . Furthermore, recent tariff reductions on agricultural products exceeded tarrif reductions on processed food products in Australia, Canada, the European Union and Mexico . Government transfers to the agricultural industry have contributed to the sector’s profitability in California, particularly for those farmers not growing nuts, fruits and vegetables.

By sales value, California agriculture is comprised of a large number of small farms, while a small number of large farms represent most of the sales. The 16 percent of California farms with sales of more than $250,000 in 1997 also represented over 90 percent of total sales value. In 1997, almost 44 percent of California farms sold less than $10,000 of agricultural products. Retired or part-time farmers operate most of these farms.There appears to be a continuing trend toward fewer young people choosing farming as an occupation. Between 1987 and 2002 there were fewer farmers in the younger age categories and an increase in the oldest category. The percent of California farmers over 65 increased from 23 percent to almost 30 percent. Farming is likely a retirement occupation for an increasing number of individuals. Meanwhile, the share of the state population over 65 remained unchanged at about 10.5 percent between 1990 and 2000.Anecdotal information suggests that many family farms remain in the name of the oldest family members, even if they are less actively involved in farming than younger members. This trend may place an upward bias on age estimates since almost all of California’s farms are family owned and operated. In 1997, about 19 percent of U.S. farm operators described themselves as retired.Total pesticide use in California agriculture shows an upward trend, with total reported pounds applied fluctuating from year to year depending on pest problems, weather, and acreage and types of crop planted. Also,hydroponic dutch buckets the types and forms of the pesticides have changed to meet new pests and environmental demands. In 2000, more than 550,000 pounds of chemicals defined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency as “reduced risk” were applied by commercial agriculture in California.

This was equivalent to about one half of one percent of total pounds of pesticides applied to California crops. In 1990, California became the first state to require reporting of the agricultural use of all pesticides: insecticides, herbicides, rodenticides, fungicides, and sanitizers. In contrast, much of the non-agricultural uses such as chlorine for swimming pools and home and garden pesticides are not reported. About one-third of all California farms did not report using any chemicals or fertilizer in the 1997 Census of Agriculture. California has about 1,526 registered organic farmers, only a tiny portion of those farms that did not report using any chemicals or fertilizer. Therefore, care is needed in interpreting these Census of Agriculture figures. Many farmers may have failed to respond to this particular question or were small livestock growers or other operators whose farms used no chemicals or fertilizer without being defined explicitly as “organic.”California receives about 200 million acre-feet of precipitation in a normal non drought year. Roughly 65 percent of this is lost to evaporation or vegetation. The remaining 71 maf of average runoff, plus imported water, supplies the state’s water “budget,” traveling through California’s complex water distribution system to environmental, agricultural, and urban uses. Groundwater is an additional important source. In 1998 the California Department of Water Resources released a normalized water budget showing the state’s supply and use of applied water in an “average” non drought year. Figures in the “average” year budget were based on the distribution infrastructure in place in 1995. The 1.6 maf shortage is largely accounted for by groundwater overdraft that was not included in the budget. More than 70 percent of the average annual runoff occurs north of Sacramento, but about 75 percent of the state’s water demand is south of Sacramento. California uses a combination of federal, state, and local water projects to capture, store, transport, and import surface water to meet demand around the state. The largest water projects are the federal Central Valley Project and the State Water Project.

The amount of water per acre used by urban areas varies according to land use, population density and water use efficiency. In some areas agriculture may use less water per acre than nearby urban development while in other areas the opposite case may be true. Groundwater provides 30 percent of the supply used by agriculture and the urban sector in a normal non-drought year. Agriculture accounts for over 90 percent of the groundwater used in the San Joaquin, Tulare Lake, and Central Coast hydrologic regions. Only a portion of the applied water is actually used by the crop. The remainder percolates through the soil, flows downstream to other uses, or is irrecoverably lost due to other factors. Crop water use is measured as evapotranspiration of applied water . The ratio of ETAW to applied water is an indication of irrigation efficiency. The amount of water applied to a particular crop depends on many factors including plant evapotranspiration, soil properties, irrigation efficiency, and weather. Plant intake is the primary purpose of water application, but water is also applied to crops for cultural purposes such as frost control, facilitating cultivation and leaching of salts out of the crop root zone. There is a wide range in water application rates among crops and hydrologic regions. For example, depending on the hydrologic region, anywhere between 2 and 10-acre-feet/acre are applied to alfalfa annually. Hay production, including alfalfa, accounts for almost 15 percent of total irrigation water used in agriculture. Cotton accounts for about 12.5 percent. The top 12 commodities, those that represent 60 percent of the total value of California agriculture, account for about 48 percent of the water used for irrigation in the state. Agricultural surface water costs differ greatly by hydrologic region and source of supply. According to the Department of Water Resources, the 2003 Central Valley Project contract rates range from $2 per acre-foot in the Sacramento Valley to $27 in the county of Tulare and almost $30 in some areas of the Delta.

Almost one-third of California’s irrigated acreage used sprinkler, drip or trickle systems in 1998. The rest used gravity flow systems such as furrows. More than one method was used on some acreage.Technological innovation, fueled by research and entrepreneurship, has been a driving force in U.S. agriculture during the past century, leading to both higher yields and lower prices. In California, technological change has facilitated significant yield increases for many crops as well as other changes. Inputs have been used more efficiently to produce greater quantities of output. For instance, cash receipts per irrigated acre increased by 35 percent between 1960 and 1995. This can be attributed partially to the development and implementation of more efficient irrigation, such as drip systems, and partially to a change in the type of crops produced. The most recent analysis available finds that the productivity index for California agriculture doubled between 1949 and 1991. During the 1990s, particularly toward the end of the decade, computers were increasingly incorporated into farming operations. In only two years, between 1997and 1999, the number of California farms with Internet access doubled to 46 percent, and reached 51 percent in 2001. Overall, about 36 percent of California farms reported using computers in their business operations in 2001, compared to 29 percent for the United States as a whole, although there are several states with higher usage than California.In 2001, U.S. agricultural experiment stations collectively spent $2.3 billion on scientists’ agricultural research. The University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources accounted for about 10 percent of those resources. The DANR includes scientists with the UC Berkeley College of Natural Resources, the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, the Division of Biological Sciences,bato bucket and the School of Veterinary Medicine; and the UC Riverside College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences. The DANR’s two major organizational units are the Agricultural Experimental Station and the Cooperative Extension . The AES is basically a multi-campus research organization, with a staff of near 700 academics distributed in more than 50 different departments. The CE constitutes the main outreach program, with about 400 specialists and advisors dispersed throughout the state. During the 1990s DANR aggregate funding stayed approximately constant at an average of $235 million per year. From 1999 to 2002, total funding increased in constant terms by 25 percent. The three campuses ,accounted for 72 percent of the 2002 annual DANR expenditures, while regionally based units accounted for 14 percent of the budget, and statewide academic programs and their support 12 percent. In 2002, about 80 percent of total funding came from government sources ; 13 percent came from private gifts, grants and contracts, and 7 percent from other sources, such as county government, endowments, sales, services, etc.The number of CE County Advisors decreased by about 18 percent between 1990 and 1999, from 326 to 265, and their distribution among program areas has changed. Agriculture Program Area now accounts for 60 percent of the UC Cooperative Extension County Advisors, up from 55 percent in 1990, while Human Resources decreased from 34 to 30 percent. Natural Resources program changed slightly from 11 to 10 percent of the CE County Advisors.

Each dollar earned within agriculture fuels a more vigorous economy by stimulating additional activity in the form of jobs, income and output. In general, the greater the interdependence in the economy, the greater the additional activity, or multiplier effects. These multipliers may be applied to the county, state and regional levels using the IMPLAN4 model. Multiplier effects can be represented by four measures that reflect the impact that agriculture has on the state. The first measure, sales impact, records how agricultural purchases influence total private sector sales. A second measure is the amount of personal income produced directly and indirectly by the economic output of agriculture and agricultural processing. The third measure calculates the total value-added linked to agriculture. “Value added” in this case is equal to the value of goods and services sold by a firm or sector of the economy, minus the cost of inputs and services used to produce those goods. A final measure is the number of jobs in agriculture, agricultural processing and other sectors of the economy related to agriculture in the state. These multiplier effects may be demonstrated by tracing the activity of an individual farm. A farm’s sales impact would include all the inputs used on that farm, such as machinery, fertilizer, electricity—anything farm dollars buy. The personal income from the farm would include the farm’s income and a portion of the income of those from whom the farm purchased inputs. The farm’s value added would be equal to the cash receipts from sales of farm products less the costs of inputs that went into producing those goods. The jobs related to the farm’s efforts would include labor on that farm as well as in input and output industries that rely on business from that farm. For example, agricultural machinery manufacturers, chemical manufacturers, processors, and people working in retail food trade have jobs that are related to agriculture. The economic impacts shown in Table 22 can be interpreted as an indication of how the state would be affected if agricultural production and processing were to cease, and the associated inputs were not reemployed in any other economic use. Multiplier effects differ by commodity since some commodities may be related to more input and processing industries than others. For example, dairy production is related to a relatively extensive processing sector, for which a wide range of inputs and specialized machinery has been developed. Hence, the dairy industry may have a greater effect on the economy in terms of multiplier effects than some other commodities. Multiplier effects may differ by region due to geographic dispersion of industries related to agriculture, aggregate size of agriculture and type of commodities produced in that region. Some industries have more local impacts, while others have impacts that are spread farther afield. For example, county or multi-county multiplier effects do not include input and processing industries located outside of that region, even if those industries are located elsewhere in the state. Similarly, state multiplier effects do not include input and processing industries located outside of the state. Thus, multiplier effects for commodity groups with geographically diffuse input and processing sectors may be underestimated. Through multiplier effects, agricultural production and processing account for about 6 percent or 7 percent of the state’s total income, value-added, and jobs.

A series of droughts and floods in the 1860s devastated many herds, and when recovery occurred in the 1870s, sheep-raising had largely replaced cattle-ranching. Indeed, by 1889, the state became the nation’s leading wool producer, with almost 13 percent of national output.Many of the livestock ranches of the nineteenth century operated on extremely large scales. Examples of these operations include Miller-Lux, Tejon, Kern County Land Company, Flint-Bixby, Irvine, Stearns, and Hearst. With the intensification of crop production in California, livestock activities tended to grow slowly. Although the smaller family-sized farms began to replace the large bonanza grain farms and livestock ranches, “general” or “mixed” farms modeled on mid western prototypes remained rare. This is reflected in the relatively small role of swine production in Figure 3. Largely as a result, over the 20th century, livestock production was relatively less important in California than in the country as a whole. For example, over the 1930-97 period, the share of the market value of sales of livestock and livestock products in the combined market value of sales of crops, livestock, and livestock products has almost always exceeded one-half nationally whereas, in California it usually hovered around one-third.The chief exceptions to the generalized pattern of slow growth over the early 20th century were dairy and poultry raising.These activities steadily expanded, primarily to serve the state’s rapidly growing urban markets. In 1993, California replaced Wisconsin as the nation’s number one milk producer.Between 1900 and 1960,hydroponic gutter the number of milk cows grew at a rate of 1.5 percent per annum and the number of chickens at a 3.3 percent rate. Output growth was even faster as productivity per animal unit expanded enormously, especially in the post-1940 period.

From the 1920s, California was a leader in output per dairy cow. For example, in 1924 milk production per dairy cow in California was 5,870 lbs., while similar figures for Wisconsin and the U.S. were 5,280 and 4,167 lbs. respectively.A similar pattern is found more recently. In 2000, California dairy cows produced an average of 21,169 lbs. of milk. The U.S. average was 18,204 lbs., while Wisconsin lagged behind with an average of 17,306 lbs.The post-1940 period also witnessed a dramatic revival of the state’s cattle sector outside dairying. The number of non-milk cows in California increased from about 1.4 million head in 1940 to 3.8 million in 1969. This growth was associated with a significant structural change that was pioneered in California and Arizona—the introduction of large-scale commercial feed-lot operations.By 1953, large feedlots had emerged as an important feature of the California landscape, with over 92 percent of the cattle on feed in lots of a capacity of 1,000 or more head. Between 1953 and 1963, the number of cattle on feed in California and the capacity of the state’s feedlots tripled. At the same time the average size of the lots soared. By 1963, almost 70 percent of the cattle on feed were in mega-lots of 10,000 or more head. A comparison with other areas provides perspective. In 1963, there were 613 feed lots in California with an average of about 3,100 head per lot. By contrast, Iowa had 45,000 feedlots with an average of less than 63 head per lot; Texas had 1,753 feed lots with an average of 511 head per lot. More generally, by the 1960s the size of cattle herds in California far exceeded the national average.Employment of state-of-the-art feed lots and modern science and veterinary medicine along with favorable climatic conditions allowed ranchers in California and Arizona to achieve significant efficiencies in converting feed to cattle weight. In the 1960s, larger commercial feedlots started to become more prevalent in the Southwest and in the Corn Belt.Thus, as in other cases, technologies developed in California spread to reshape agricultural practices in other regions.

A hallmark of California agriculture since the wheat era has been its highly mechanized farms. Nineteenth-century observers watched in awe as cumbersome steam tractors and giant combines worked their way across vast fields. In the twentieth century, California farmers led the nation in the adoption of gasoline tractors,mechanical cotton pickers, sugar beet harvesters, tomato harvesters, electric pumps, and dozens of less well-known machines. The story of agricultural mechanization in California illustrates the cumulative and reinforcing character of the invention and diffusion processes. Mechanization of one activity set in motion strong economic and cultural forces that encouraged further mechanization of other, sometimes quite different, activities.Specialized crops and growing conditions created demands for new types of equipment. Protected by high transportation costs from competition with large firms located in the Midwest, a local farm implement industry flourished by providing Pacific Coast farmers with equipment especially suited to their requirements. In many instances the inventors designed and perfected prototypes that later captured national and international markets. Grain combines, track-laying tractors, giant land planes, tomato pickers, and sugar beet harvesters, to name but a few, emerged from California’s shops. Several factors contributed to mechanization. In general, California farmers were more educated and more prosperous than farmers in many areas of the country. These advantages gave them the insight and financial wherewithal to support their penchant for tinkering. Nowhere was this more evident than on the bonanza ranches, which often served as the design and testing grounds for harvester prototypes. The large scale of many California farms allowed growers to spread the fixed cost of expensive equipment. The scarcity of labor in California meant relatively high wage rates and periods of uncertain labor supply. The climate and terrain were also favorable.

Extensive dry seasons allowed machines to work long hours in near-ideal conditions, and the flat Central Valley offered few obstacles to wheeled equipment. In the cases of small grains and cotton, mechanization was delayed in other regions of the country because free-standing moisture damaged the crops. Such problems were minimal in California. All things considered, the state’s climatic and economic conditions were exceptionally conducive to mechanization. As an index of the level of mechanization, Figure 4 shows the real value of implements per farm in California and other major regions. Over the years 1870 to 1930 the average value of implements per California farm was about double the national average. The new generation of farm equipment of the nineteenth century relied increasingly on horses and mules for power. Horses on any one farm were essentially fixed assets. A stock of horses accumulated for a given task was potentially available at a relatively low variable cost to perform other tasks. Thus, once a farmer increased his pool of horses, he was more likely to adopt new power-intensive equipment. For these reasons, an examination of horses on California farms will yield important insights into the course of mechanization. In 1870 the average number of horses and mules on a California farm was almost three times the national average, and the number of horses and mules per male worker was more than twice the national average. Throughout the nineteenth century, California farmers were using an enormous amount of horsepower.California was a leader in the early adoption of tractors. By 1920, over 10 percent of California farms had tractors compared with 3.6 percent for the nation as a whole. In 1925, nearly one-fifth of California farms reported tractors, proportionally more than in Illinois or Iowa, and just behind the nation-leading Dakotas. These figures actually understate the power available in California, because the tractors adopted in the West were, on average, substantially larger than those found elsewhere.25 In particular, western farmers were the predominant users of large track-laying tractors,u planting gutter which were invented in California. The state’s farmers were also the nation’s pioneers in the utilization of electric power. The world’s first purported use of electricity for irrigation pumping took place in the Central Valley just before the turn of the century. Consistent data on rural electricity use are not available until 1929. At that time, over one-half of California farms purchased electric power compared with about one-tenth for the United States as a whole.26 One of the best proxies for electrification is the number of agricultural pumps. Over the period 1910 to 1940, the state accounted for roughly 70 percent of all of the nation’s agricultural pumps.The abundant supply of power on California farms encouraged local manufacturers to produce new types of equipment, and in turn, the development of new and larger implements often created the need for new sources of power. This process of responding to the opportunities and bottlenecks created by previous technological changes provided a continuing stimulation to innovation. Tracing the changes in wheat farming technology will illustrate how the cumulative technological changes led to a distinctly different path of mechanical development in the West as compared to that which occurred elsewhere.Almost immediately after wheat cultivation began in the state, its farmers developed a distinctive set of cultural practices. Plowing the fertile California soil was nothing like working the rocky soils in the East or the dense sod of the Midwest. In California, ranchers used two, four, and even eight-bottomed gang plows, cutting just a few inches deep.In the East, plowing one-and-one-half acres was a good day’s work in 1880. In most of the prairie regions, two-and-one-half acres were the norm.

In California, it was common for one man with a gang plow and a team of eight horses to complete six to ten acres per day. The tendency of California’s farmers to use larger plows continued into the twentieth century. After tractors came on line, the state’s farmers were also noted for using both larger models and larger equipment. This pattern influenced subsequent manufacturing and farming decisions.The preference for large plows in California stimulated local investors and manufacturers who vied to capture the specialized market. As evidence of the different focus of their innovative activity, the U.S. Agricultural Commissioner noted that “patents granted on wheel plows in 1869 to residents of California and Oregon largely exceed in number those granted for inventions of a like character from all the other states of the Union.”Between 1859 and 1873 California accounted for one-quarter of the nation’s patenting activity for multi-bottom plows. By way of contrast, the state’s contribution to the development of small single-bottom plows was insignificant.The experience with large plows directly contributed to important developments in the perfection and use of listers, harrows, levelers, and earth-moving equipment. The adoption of distinctive labor-saving techniques carried over to grain sowing and harvest activities. An 1875 USDA survey showed that over one-half of mid western farmers used grain drills, but that virtually all California farmers sowed their grain.California farmers were sometimes accused of being slovenly for using sowing, a technique which was also common to the more backward American South. However, the use of broadcast sowers in California reflected a rational response to the state’s own factor price environment, and bore little resemblance to the hand-sowing techniques practiced in the South. Among the broadcasting equipment used in California were advanced high-capacity endgate seeders of local design. By the 1880s improved models were capable of seeding up to 60 acres in one day. By contrast, a standard drill could seed about 15 acres per day and a man broadcasting by hand could seed roughly 7 acres per day.The use of labor-saving techniques was most evident on the state’s bonanza wheat ranches, where some farmers attached a broadcast sower to the back of a gang plow and then attached a harrow behind the sower, thereby accomplishing the plowing, sowing, and harrowing with a single operation.California wheat growers also followed a different technological path in their harvest operations by relying primarily on headers instead of reapers. This practice would have important implications for the subsequent development of combines in California. The header cut only the top of the straw. The cut grain was then transported on a continuous apron to an accompanying wagon. Headers typically had larger cutting bars and, hence, greater capacity than reapers, but the most significant advantage was that headers eliminated the need for binding. The initial cost of the header was about 50 to 100 percent more than the reaper, but its real drawback was in humid areas where the grain was not dry enough to harvest unless it was dead ripe. This involved huge crop risks in the climate of the Midwest, risks that were virtually nonexistent in the dry California summers.

The stakeholders consisted primarily of the Preserve Partners—a consortium of federal, state, and local agencies—in addition to non-profits such as TNC and Ducks Unlimited. The management scenarios were developed with reference to the Preserve Management Plan , created by the Preserve Partners through a 2-year planning process . The management plan gathered information from the public , the Preserve Partners, local municipalities, and other groups. We used a time-frame of ~30 years to 2050 . We considered each of the scenarios in isolation; for example, landscape-wide restoration does not account for development, nor urbanization for set-asides for wildlife. For parcels not affected by the management scenario, we assumed a static landscape with no change of land use occurring, as much of the land has remained pastoral for ~150 years before present. The objective of this scenario was to maximize restoration of agricultural lands to natural riparian habitat, focusing on areas of specific soil type and proximity to the river, based on an analysis in the Management Plan. In addition, Preserve goals, as set forth in the Management Plan, support maximizing the restoration of riparian habitat in the Cosumnes corridor. We applied six decision rules that relate the location of each parcel to existing landscape features. A parcel received a high likelihood of being restored if: the parcel was currently within the Cosumnes River Preserve lands; was managed for other conservation purposes ; was within a historical riparian corridor; was within 1km of standing water; was within 1km of grassland, shrubland, or wetland; or was within 1km of riparian forest.

The 1-km distance threshold was set to be inclusive of remnant riparian forest within the Preserve,flood table coupled with the assumption that areas within this threshold are practical targets for restoration. If a parcel fell within any one of these six categories, it was given a score of one. Scores were summed for each of the six rules, and a composite score was given to each parcel. Using the composite score, the upper quartile of all parcels with a score greater than one, weighted by area, were designated to be restored. We tested for multicollinearity using the variance inflation factor , which did not indicate substantial multicollinearity of the six decision rule variables . We filtered the final layer of restorable parcels to exclude existing urban areas. The restoration of these parcels was to grassland or riparian forest, which was assigned based on the potential natural vegetation . We did not consider areas defined by Kuchler as subtidal marsh within the study area for future restoration because of the current lack of feasibility; consequently, parcels remained under current land cover . The objective of this scenario was to represent a realistic growth outcome for the area projected to 2050. We assigned parcels as urban in 2050 based on whether they were currently urban or projected to become urban using the Preferred Blueprint Scenario for 2050 . SACOG generated the blueprint to help guide local government in growth and transportation planning through 2050 throughout the six-county region. This Preferred Blueprint Scenario promotes compact, mixed-use development and more transit choices as an alternative to low-density development . We filtered the final layer of potentially urbanized parcels by extracting current protected areas and areas of riparian forest, which are unlikely to be developed because they are within the 100-year floodplain. This provided the land cover data necessary to make projections in ecosystem services and disservices for 2050. The objective of this scenario was to maximize high-quality foraging habitat for the Swainson’s Hawk, and was developed based upon the literature and experience of the authors. A parcel received a high likelihood of being Swainson’s Hawk-friendly agriculture if it was designated as or within 1.25km of alfalfa, grain, pasture, or row crop . We selected all non-protected parcels of natural vegetation, such as grasslands, within 1.25km of existing fields under these four agricultural types to identify parcels available for conversion to agricultural types favorable to Swainson’s Hawk.

For practical reasons, certain agricultural types were not considered for conversion. For example, vineyards, given their high economic value , are unlikely to be converted; vineyard expansion remains a dominant trend for the region . We filtered the final layer of potentially enhanced parcels to exclude riparian forest and existing urban areas. Using the composite score, we converted the upper quartile of all parcels for these rules from existing land use to the four agriculture types more favorable for Swainson’s Hawk foraging. These types were randomly allocated in proportion to the number of parcels in which they currently occur: alfalfa 5%, grain 20%, pasture 45%, and row crop 30%. As with the restoration scenario, we tested for multicollinearity using the VIF, which indicated the model did not have substantial multicollinearity of the variables.We quantified the amount of carbon stored within three different land-cover types based on readily available data and literature: agricultural crops ; natural, non-forest vegetation types ; and forest types . We did not include soil carbon storage in this analysis, nor do we account for carbon storage associated with natural habitat within urban areas. We assumed that these steady-state estimates apply to all locations, and that changes in land cover would increase or decrease carbon storage to a new steady state.Above- and below-ground carbon storage for standing agricultural crops was based on a study by Kroodsma and Field . We divided the yield by the harvest index for each crop, and then multiplied the result by 0.45 as the proportion of biomass assumed to be carbon to estimate Mg C ha-1. For row crops not included in Kroodsma and Field , we estimated it using the National Agricultural Statistics Service yield data from the year 2000 and the average harvest index for all row crops . We estimated carbon storage for orchards by assuming the mid-point of the crop’s lifespan, multiplying this by wood accumulated , and again multiplying by 0.45 to provide Mg C ha-1.

For perennial crops not listed in Kroodsma and Field , we used the mid-point of the average lifespan and the average wood-accumulation estimates for crops within the same category as defined by the CDWR. For our broad categories of grains, orchards and row crops, we calculated an average value of Mg C ha-1 based on data available for each crop type within the category. We multiplied the area of each of the seven agricultural classes in the study area by the estimated carbon to provide total Mg C ha-1 . Carbon storage for non-forest natural vegetation types used estimates from the literature: pasture, grassland, and shrubland , and freshwater emergent wetlands . We divided forested vegetation types into three main types of riparian forest: valley oak , Fremont cottonwood , and willow . We improved the estimates of carbon storage associated with these types of riparian forest with plot data collected on the Cosumnes Preserve. Plot data included the measurement of all trees >10cm diameter at breast height within a 0.04-ha plot , applied allometric equations to calculate the amount of above-ground carbon , and summed these amounts to report a total Mg C ha-1 for riparian forests . These are in line with other estimates of live biomass from riparian studies in California . Using this variety of techniques,rolling benches we assigneda coarse estimate of total Mg C ha-1 for each parcel in the study area . Since this compilation of varied data includes a mix of both above- and below-ground carbon estimates for different classes , our estimates need to be considered conservative. We assessed the effect of different landscape management scenarios on the Swainson’s Hawk and also on a suite of 15 focal bird species. First, we used Boosted Regression Trees modeling techniques to fit the baseline land-cover data to presence and absence points of Swainson’s Hawk nest locations. We used known nest locations, identified using comprehensive field surveys of the area , to generate presence points . We generated absence points by randomly placing pseudo-absence points within the study area. We used 75% of the points to train the landscape suitability model, and 25% to test the predictive ability of those points.

We generated models by calculating the proportion of each land-use type contained within a 25-ha square that surrounded each presence and absence point. This threshold utilized research which found that 50% of Swainson’s Hawk foraging occurs within 25 to 86 ha of nest sites . We also tested model sensitivity using a 100-ha core area, and noted no significant changes n model results. Once we fitted the current land-cover type to the Swainson’s Hawk nest presence and absence data, we used the BRT to spatially project the probability of landscape suitability onto each of the three future scenarios. We assessed model performance using area under curve of the receiver operating characteristic curve scores . We converted model results to raster grids and assigned each parcel a landscape suitability score based on the average score of all grid cells contained within a parcel . Second, we assessed the effects of the three management scenarios relative to baseline on a suite of 15 other focal bird species identified as indicator species for natural habitats in the Central Valley . In contrast to the Swainson’s Hawk approach, we used existing suitability models developed for each of these focal species in the Central Valley, with suitability scores ranging from zero to one . We assigned suitability values to our baseline and three alternative scenario parcels using two steps. First, we estimated the average suitability for each bird species within each of our land-cover types by overlaying the spatial suitability surfaces onto our land-cover data and calculating the area weighted average suitability of each land-cover type for each bird species . Second, we assigned an area-weighted suitability value for each of the 15 species to each parcel in our baseline and future management scenarios, according to the parcel’s land-cover type. Based on these scores, we calculated the average suitability score for each landscape scenario across all 15 focal bird species, using a 5% increase or decrease as the threshold for meaningful change.We calculated nitrous oxide emissions for the agricultural land-use types in a manner consistent with International Panel on Climate Change Tier-1 guidelines . The key input parameter was nitrogen fertilizer use. We acquired estimates of nitrogen fertilizer application rates from a compilation of California data and summarized these by our seven agricultural types . For grain, orchard, pasture, and row crops, which contain multiple types of crops, we averaged emission rates of these individual crops to provide a single figure for the class. We used IPCC emissions factors to convert nitrogen fertilizer application to nitrous oxide emissions. This was 1% of nitrogen fertilizer applied for all crop groups except rice, for which we used an emissions factor of 0.3% . We excluded estimates for alfalfa since this crop rarely receives inorganic nitrogen fertilizer application and only accounts for a small proportion of the study area . For each parcel, we estimated the amount of nitrous oxide emissions per year under baseline and the three alternative management scenarios based on the land use type within each parcel. We calculated the amount of nitrate–nitrogen leaching for the agricultural land types based on the difference between nutrient inputs and nutrient losses. We compiled nutrient inputs from crop specific fertilization rates and based nutrient losses on the amount of nitrogen harvested in crops . We assumed atmospheric losses to be 10% of the fertilization rate, which is a conservative estimate developed to reflect the total N gaseous emissions . We assumed all surplus nitrogen was leached from soil into the groundwater in the form of nitrate , and for crops where the nitrogen harvested exceeds the nitrogen inputs, we assumed leaching loss was zero. As with emissions, we estimated the amount of nitrogen currently leached per year for each parcel and for the three alternative scenarios.Natural vegetation increased slightly in the restoration scenario from a baseline of 44% to 46% of the study area, and decreased in the urban and enhanced agriculture scenarios to 40% and 21%, respectively . Under baseline conditions, natural vegetation consisted primarily of grassland in the eastern portion of the study area , and riparian forest along the Cosumnes River accounts for 4%. Cover of riparian forest increased to 12% under the restoration scenario .

To investigate whether Tic20 can indeed form an ion channel, Tic20-proteoliposomes were subjected to swelling assays . Changes in the size of liposomes in the presence of high salt concentrations, as revealed by changes in the optical density, can be used to detect the presence of a poreforming protein. After addition of 300 mM KCl to liposomes and Tic20-proteoliposomes, their optical densities dropped initially, due to shrinkage caused by the increased salt concentration. However, the optical density of protein-free liposomes remained at this low level, showing no change in their size; whereas in the case of Tic20-proteoliposomes the optical density increased constantly with time. The increase in optical density strongly supports the presence of a channel in Tic20-proteoliposomes that is permeable for ions, thereby creating an equilibrium between the inner compartment of the proteoliposomes and the surrounding buffer. To exclude the possible effects of contaminating channel-forming proteins derived from the bacterial membrane and a protein inserted into the liposomes , a further negative control was set up: Tic110 containing only the first three transmembrane helices was purified similarly to Tic20 and reconstituted into liposomes. We chose this construct, since NtTic110 inserts into the membrane during in vitro protein import experiments. Furthermore, as the full length and N-terminally truncated Tic110 possess very similar channel activities, it is unlikely that the N-terminal part alone forms a channel. The insertion of NtTic110 into liposomes was confirmed by incubation under different buffer conditions followed by flotation experiments, similarly to Tic20 . However,hydroponic dutch buckets these NtTic110-proteoliposomes behaved similarly to the empty liposomes during swelling assays: after addition of salt, the optical density decreased, and except for a small initial increase, it remained at a constant level.

This makes it unlikely that a contamination from E. coli or simply the insertion of a protein into the liposomes caused the observed effect in the optical density of Tic20- proteoliposomes. To further characterize the channel activity of Tic20, electrophysiological measurements were performed. After the fusion of Tic20-proteoliposomes with a lipid bilayer, ion channel activity was observed . The total conductance under symmetrical buffer conditions , 250 mM KCl was dependent on the direction of the applied potential: 1260 pS and 1010 pS under negative and positive voltage values, respectively. The channel was mostly in the completely open state, however, individual single gating events were also frequently observed, varying in a broad range between 25 pS to 600 pS. All detected gating events were depicted in two histograms.Two conductance classes were defined both at negative and positive voltage values with thresholds of 220 pS and 180 pS, respectively.The observed pore seems to be asymmetric, since higher conductance classes notably differ under positive and negative voltages. This is probably due to interactions of the permeating ions with the channel, which presumably exhibits an asymmetric potential profile along the pore. Since small and large opening events were simultaneously observed in all experiments, it is very unlikely that they belong to two different pores. The selectivity of Tic20 was investigated under asymmetric salt conditions , 250/20 mM KCl. Similarly to the conductance values, the channel is intrinsically rectifying ,supporting asymmetric channel properties. The obtained reverse potential is 37.0 ± 1.4 mV . According to the Goldman-Hodgkin-Katz approach, this corresponds to a selectivity of 6.5:1 for K+ :Cl- -ions, thus indicating cation selectivity similar to Tic110.

To determine the channel’s orientation within the bilayer, two side-specific characteristics were taken into account: the highest total conductance under symmetrical buffer conditions was measured under negative voltage values, and the channel rectifies in the same direction under asymmetrical buffer conditions . Therefore, it seems that the protein is randomly inserted into the bilayer. The pore size was roughly estimated according to Hille et al.. Considering the highest conductance class , a channel length of 1-5 nm and a resistivity of 247.5 Ω cm for a solution containing 250 mM KCl, taking into account that the conductivity of the electrolyte solution within the pore is ~5 times lower than in the bulk solution, the pore size was estimated to vary between 7.8-14.1 Å. This is in good agreement with the size of protein translocation channels such as Toc75 in the outer envelope membrane and Tic110 in the IE. Thus, the size of the Tic20 pore would be sufficient for the translocation of precursor proteins through the membrane. NtTic110, as a negative control, did not show any channel activity during electrophysiological measurements, indicating that the measured channel is not the result of a possible bacterial contamination . Considering our data presented here and those published in previous studies, we can conclude that the Tic translocon consists of distinct translocation channels: On the one hand, Tic110 forms the main translocation pore and therefore facilitates import of most of the chloroplast-targeted preproteins; on the other hand, Tic20 might facilitate the translocation of a subset of proteins. This scenario would match the one found in the inner mitochondrial membrane, where specific translocases exist for defined groups of precursor proteins: the import pathway of mitochondrial carrier proteins being clearly separated from that of matrix targeted preproteins. The situation in chloroplasts does not seem as clear-cut, but an analogous separation determined by the final destination and/or intrinsic properties of translocated proteins is feasible. The severe phenotype of attic20-I mutants prompts us to hypothesize that Tic20 might be specifically required for the translocation of some essential proteins. According to cross-linking results, Tic20 is connected to Toc translocon components. Therefore, after entering the intermembrane space via the Toc complex, some preproteins might be transported through the IE via Tic20.

On the contrary, Kikuchi et al. presented that Tic20 migrates on BN-PAGE at the same molecular weight as the imported precursor of the small subunit of Rubisco and that tic20-I mutants display a reduced rate of the artificial precursor protein RbcS-nt: GFP. The authors interpreted these results in a way that Tic20 might function at an intermediate step between the Toc translocon and the channel of Tic110. However,bato bucket being a substantial part of the general import pathway seems unlikely due to the very low abundance of Tic20. It is feasible to speculate that such abundant proteins as pSSU, which are imported at a very high rate, may interact incidentally with nearby proteins or indifferently use all available import channels. To clarify this question, substrate proteins and interaction partners of Tic20 should be a matter of further investigation. Additionally, a very recent study suggested AtTic20-IV as an import channel working side by side with AtTic20-I. However, detailed characterization of the protein and experimental evidence for channel activity are still missing.Cerium oxide nanoparticles are widely used in applications such as catalyst automotive industry, glass mirrors, plate glass, and ophthalmic lenses . These NPs are among the 13 engineered nanomaterials in the list of priority for immediate testing by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development . However, the environmental release of CeO2 NPs from factories or applications, and their behavior and effects in the environment are not well known yet . Previous studies have shown that CeO2 NPs are stable in soil at pH values of 7 to 9 . This suggests CeO2 NPs will remain in soil for a long time. In addition, reports from recent investigations have shown a wide variety of plant responses after exposure toCeO2 NPs. For instance, Schwabe found that CeO2 NP treatments did not reduced the growth in pumpkin and wheat. However, Ma et al. reported that, at 2000 mg/L, nano-CeO2 reduced root elongation in lettuce . Van Hoecke et al. found that CeO2 NPs, at concentrations as low as 2.6 and 5.4 mg/L, produced chronic toxicity to the unicellular alga Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata. Previous results from our research group have shown that CeO2 NPs at 2000 mg/L reduced corn and tomato germination by 30% and cucumber germination by 20% . In a more recent study, we demonstrated that CeO2 NPs are taken up and stored without change in maize roots . This previous study also revealed that the uptake of CeO2 NPs by corn plants was affected by soil organic matter content and alginate surface coating . Alginates are naturally occurring polysaccharides that have been used to stabilize NPs for several applications . This suggests that excess of alginate can be released into the environment together with NPs, with unknown consequences for edible plants. Thus, more studies are needed to better understand the impact of CeO2 NPs in plants, in environments where excess alginates could be present. On the other hand, studies have shown that carbon-based nanoparticles such as single walled carbon nanotubes triggered reactive oxygen species generation in Arabidopsis and rice .

In addition, multi-wall carbon nanotubes have been found to induce gene expression of heat shock protein 90 in tomato leaves and roots . However, there are no reports on the effect of CeO2 NPs on heat shock protein expression in plants. A few studies have described the physiological impacts of rare earth elements in plants. For example, at concentration higher than 89 µmol/L, cerium affected the foliar chlorophyll content, nitrate reductase activity, shoot root length and relative yield in cowpea plants . The authors suggested the effects could be produced by the substitution of Mg2+ by Ce in chlorophyll synthesis. It has also been suggested that, due to their similar chemical characteristics, Eu, a REE, may compete with Ca for organic ligands . These studies suggest that REE elements can have serious impacts on the uptake of nutritional elements in food crops. However, to the authors’ knowledge the impact of REE NPs on the uptake of nutritional elements by plants has yet to be reported. The purposes of this work were to determine the effects of alginate on: the transport of Ce within corn plants treated with CeO2 NPs, the uptake and transport of micro and macro nutrients, the chlorophyll content, and the expression of stress related heat shock protein 70. Maize was selected for this study because it is a crop widely cultivated throughout the world for direct and indirect consumption. In addition, 40% of the corn world’s harvest is produced in the United States . In this study, corn plants were grown in soil spiked with CeO2 NPs with various alginate concentrations for one month. After harvest, the concentration of Ce and many nutrient elements were determined by ICP-OES in the root and shoots tissues. This suggests that in an eventual release of CeO2 NPs, the higher risk of food contamination would occur in organic matter enriched soil. The mechanism involved in the increase of Ce uptake and translocation by alginate is still unknown. However, our previous work showed that alginate surface coating increased the Ce translocation to shoots in corn plants grown in a soil with low organic matter content and treated with 400 mg/kg CeO2 NPs. Sodium alginate has been associated with seed germination, shoot elongation, root growth, and flower production, among others in Foeniculum vulgare Mill . However, the mechanisms of these effects are still unknown. The presence of CeO2 NPs with/without alginate did not alter the uptake of macro-nutrients Mg, K, Ca, S, and P in one-month old corn roots. However, the uptake of Al and the micro-nutrients Fe, Mn, and Zn was increased . Compared to control , the concentrations of Fe and Al were significantly higher in all NP treatments. For Al, the difference was significant at p ≤ 0.023, but for Fe, the significance was only at p ≤ 0.09. The accumulation of both Fe and Al in roots was similar in all treatments. Moreover, compared to NPs alone and NPs-low alginate, the concentrations of both Fe an Al were significantly higher at medium and high alginate concentrations. It is very likely that the CeO2 NPs were bound with Fe and Al oxides, which are widespread soil colloids. Previous results showed that Fe and Al are co-released from the soil column with ZnO NPs . Manganese accumulation pattern was different. The addition of CeO2 NPs without alginate increased Mn accumulation in roots by 34% compared to control ; but NPs-low alginate and NPs-medium alginate treatments increased the accumulation of Mn by 92% and 90% respect to NPs without alginate and 158% and 155% respect to control. These differences were significant at p ≤ 0.005.