Alternative food initiatives are appearing in many places. Observers suggest that they share a political agenda: to oppose the structures that coordinate and globalize the current food system and to create alternative systems of food production that are environmentally sustainable, economically viable, and socially just. This paper examines the potential of these initiatives through the lens of the concepts of 'alternative and oppositional' social movements and 'militant particularism and global ambition' developed by Raymond Williams and David Harvey. The three sections of this paper review (1) the current discussion of common themes and strategies in agrifood initiatives within the academic literature; (2) the history of these initiatives in California; and (3) results of our interviews with 37 current leaders of California organizations. We suggest that further understanding these initiatives, and success in the goals of the initiatives themselves, requires us to look past their similarities to examine their differences. These differences are related to the social forms and relations that have been established in the places from which these initiatives arise. 'Social justice,' in particular, may be difficult to construct at a 'local' scale. r

A U.S. farm policy shift to joint production of commodities and ecological services will advance sustainable agriculture.

No abstract

No abstract

Improving the conditions for natural enemies through conservation biological control (CBC) in agricultural landscapes has the potential to be economically beneficial, but economic assessments of CBC programs are rarely conducted. In this paper, we discuss how to complete an economic assessment of CBC. We also ask what the research and development (R&D) requirements are for CBC and the likelihood of that R&D being funded. We examine the factors that may influence uptake of CBC amongst farmers and consider what policies or strategies might be introduced to increase the incentive to adopt CBC. Relative advantage of CBC over other production systems, trialability (ease of informal field experimentation and learning before adoption) of CBC and the social dynamics of CBC development and extension are key factors influencing adoption. The most important social factors are the social learning processes to support agroecological practices, and the configuration of economic incentives to reward farmers for undertaking the transition to conservation biological control. By itself, neither social pressure to reduce insecticide use nor sophisticated scientific research guarantees expanded implementation of CBC.