Patenting Our Food Future: Intellectual Property Rights and the Global Food System

Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) underpin the new knowledge economy and their ownership and control affects the distribution of wealth and power. This paper explores the changing international IPRs regime and its possible impact on the food system, in particular through their connection with biotechnology and marketing. It outlines how IPRs have been extended into agriculture globally through the Agreement on the Trade–Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights ( TRIPS) at the World Trade Organization ( WTO) and the other related international agreements. It identifies two problems. One is with the way the global rules are made—which is unbalanced with too few of the interested parties taking part in the process. The other is with whether the rules themselves are appropriate in food and agriculture. Their possible impact, especially patents, on increasingly proprietary, agricultural research and development is discussed as well as the possible effects on seed provision of the requirement for some form of IPRs protection to be available for plant varieties in all WTO members, sooner or later. Possible options for rethinking the rules to make them more appropriate for food and agriculture are discussed, as well as effects on market structure and the environment. Brief mention is made of other IPRs—trademarks, trade secrets and geographical indications—upon the way business in the food system is carried out. The paper concludes that this complex subject area is worthy of much more scrutiny because of the potential impact of these esoteric and complex rules.     

The New Statistics for Better Science: Ask How Much,How Uncertain,and What Else Is Known

Abstract

The “New Statistics” emphasizes effect sizes, confidence intervals, meta-analysis, and the use of Open Science practices. We present three specific ways in which a New Statistics approach can help improve scientific practice: by reducing overconfidence in small samples, by reducing confirmation bias, and by fostering more cautious judgments of consistency. We illustrate these points through consideration of the literature on oxytocin and human trust, a research area that typifies some of the endemic problems that arise with poor statistical practice.     

Statistical equality and cultural difference in Indigenous wellbeing frameworks: A new expression of an enduring debate

Recent years have seen a burgeoning interest in developing indicator frameworks for ‘Indigenous wellbeing’. Implicit in each of the frameworks are particular conceptions of what constitutes the ‘good life’ for Indigenous peoples and what ‘Indigenous development’ should entail. In developing these frameworks, then, certain judgements must be made about whether statistical equality should be prioritised as a ‘development’ goal. This issue has generated long‐standing debate and in this context must be broached anew. In this paper we briefly examine the growing interest in Indigenous wellbeing and outline three prominent indicator frameworks: the Productivity Commission's indicators for ‘Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage’; the ‘capability indicators’ developed by the Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership; and the indicators of wellbeing developed by the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. The first prioritises statistical equality between Indigenous and non‐Indigenous Australians; the second adds a concern with ‘capabilities’; and the last emphasises the importance of distinct cultural preferences. We offer an assessment of these approaches, drawing in part on Amartya Sen's work. We argue that in seeking to improve the wellbeing of Indigenous Australians, policy‐makers should not only make their own normative assumptions clear, but also be aware of the implications of their decisions for constituents with different worldviews.     

Challenges in Teaching Short Courses by an Academic Department: The University of Florida Experience

“A Week of Short Courses” is the title given by the Department of Statistics at the University of Florida to its offerings each spring. The offerings are short courses, each lasting 2 1/2 days. The program began in the spring of 1991 with four courses, and has grown to six courses in 1994. During this four-year period the Department of Statistics has faced many challenges that are addressed in this paper.     

Systems Analysis of Failures as a Quality Management Tool

Managers and quality practitioners are familiar with the linkage of the words quality and systems to denote a systematic approach to quality, as in BS5750 Quality Systems, say. There is, however, a more specialized use of the word systems that indicates the application of systems thinking and which gives rise to the adjective systemic (of, or pertaining to a system) rather than systematic (carrying out in a planned and orderly fashion). This paper examines the potential for applying systems thinking to the management of quality with particular reference to one branch of systems work: the study of failures. The paper draws comparisons between quality and systems analysis of failures and points out that some failures could equally well be described as quality problems and vice versa. The paper argues that problems at the system level are frequently overlooked or avoided by those undertaking quality improvement programmes, partly because individuals within an organization may experience only different, smaller aspects of a systemic problem and partly because the problem solvers may lack the means or motivation to tackle complex, poorly defined problem messes. It then goes on to suggest that use of a meta–method for problem analysis would enable such problems to be addressed. One such method that has been widely applied in the study of failures, the failures method, is described in detail and its application to a failure/quality problem is outlined.     

Education Gains Attributable to Fertility Decline: Patterns by Gender,Period, and Country in Latin America and Asia

We investigate the heterogeneity across countries and time in the relationship between mother’s fertility and children’s educational attainment—the quantity-quality (Q-Q) trade-off—by using census data from 17 countries in Asia and Latin America, with data from each country spanning multiple census years. For each country-year, we estimate micro-level instrumental variables models predicting secondary school attainment using number of siblings of the child, instrumented by the sex composition of the first two births in the family. We then analyze correlates of Q-Q trade-off patterns across countries. On average, one additional sibling in the family reduces the probability of secondary education by 6 percentage points for girls and 4 percentage points for boys. This Q-Q trade-off is significantly associated with the level of son preference, slightly decreasing over time and with fertility, but it does not significantly differ by educational level of the country.     

Social dimensions of gradients in urban ecosystems

Urban ecosystems are complex mosaics in which the biophysical characteristics are transformed over time by a concentrated, diverse set of human activities. Understanding their complexity requires the continuing development of interdisciplinary approaches. The use of gradient approaches has pointed towards the need to examine in greater detail the roles of human influences. In this paper, I propose the addition of three social dimensions to characteristics defining urban gradients: landuse, land management effort, and historical context. These dimensions correspond with major types of social activities that modify the physical environment. They are intended to augment research by explicitly elaborating on the social factors contributing to the variation along the complex, indirect gradients that typify urban areas.The diversity of urban landuses has numerous influences, obvious and subtle, on the complex urban land gradients. Incorporating new information on historical and spatial characteristics of management practices supports more direct fine-scale analyses of the impact of human activities on the environment. This path of inquiry also requires engaging in more detailed research on historical dimensions of urban development in conjunction with biophysical analyses. Examples from Columbia, South Carolina, illustrate the ways that social and historical processes contribute to urban ecology.     

Local rural product as a ‘relic’ spatial strategy in globalised rural spaces: Evidence from County Clare (Ireland)

Using a case study from County Clare (Ireland), this study critically analyses notions of ‘local’ rural production. It investigates where rural businesses source the different components of their products and how these interrelate with the locality, how local businesses use the notion of ‘local’ in their product branding, and what the socio-economic and political constraints and opportunities are for businesses seeking to foreground the ‘local’ in their business marketing. Echoing critical studies on the notion and use of ‘local’ in rural product branding (e.g. Burnett and Danson, 2004; Ilbery and Maye's; Feagan, 2007; Darby et al., 2008; Giovannucci et al., 2010), we argue that even remote rural areas such as County Clare in western Ireland have become so embedded in globalised economic and decision-making pathways that the ‘local’ in rural product branding only remains ‘local’ as a relic process associated with past localized rural production activities.