Climate-smart agriculture: what is it good for?

Leading international organisations presently argue that a transition to ‘climate-smart agriculture’ (CSA) is an obligatory task to ensure food supply for an anticipated nine billion people by 2050. Despite the rubric’s newfound importance, the conceptual underpinnings of CSA are often left unclear. Focusing on the World Bank’s framework, this paper critically interrogates the principles and concepts that underpin CSA. It argues that while CSA provides greater policy space for more holistic approaches to agriculture, it nonetheless operates within an apolitical framework that is narrowly focused on technical fixes at the level of production. This depoliticised approach to the global food system tends to validate existing policy agendas and minimise questions concerning power, inequality and access. By highlighting four strong tensions that permeate the CSA framework, the paper extols the need to greatly widen the scope of debate. To this end, it proposes an alternative ‘climate-wise’ framework to foreground the inherently political dimensions of food and agriculture in an era of climatic change.     

Book reviews: Art and womanhood: From the female imagination to feminine consciousness

The Female Imagination, by Patricia Meyer Spacks. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1975, $10.

Feminine Consciousness in the Modern British Novel, by Sydney Janet Kaplan. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1975, $7.95.     

Powerful perpetrators,hidden in plain sight: an international analysis of organisational child sexual abuse cases

ABSTRACT

There is virtually no literature on child sexual abuse committed by “powerful perpetrators”, who, use position, reputation, wealth and/or power, to become influential members of their organisation. Seventeen cases relating to youth serving organisations were identified using a comprehensive search of databases covering case reviews from England, Australia and the US. A Quantitative Content Analysis was used to analyse the sample with a focus on identifying offenders’ “modus operandi”. Findings revealed a number of critical differences between powerful perpetrators and other child sexual offenders described in the literature. Findings are discussed in relation to their implications for creating safer youth serving organisations. In particular, focusing on educating YSOs to recognise and address risks posed by powerful perpetrators; expanding organisational safety policies and practices and taking steps to develop a strong, positive organisational safety culture are commended as key approaches.     

Loyalty and competence in public agencies

Competent public agencies are associated with better economic outcomes. Beyond competence, political leaders need to secure the loyalty of their agencies. Unfortunately, several theories predict a tradeoff between these two valued features. This paper finds that recruitment into agencies is meritocratic where (1) agency officials have poor outside options, (2) careers in agencies are long-lasting, and (3) agency loyalty is important. Moreover, agency competence is lower when (4) loyalty is important but the time horizon is short, and (5) outside opportunities improve but the time horizon is long. This evidence fits best with a theory of loyalty as non-contractible behavior.     

Validation of the 4‐aminophenol color test for the differentiation of marijuana‐type and hemp‐type cannabis

The analysis of cannabis plant material submitted to seized‐drug laboratories was significantly affected by the signing of the Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018, which defined hemp and removed it from the definition of marijuana in the Controlled Substances Act. As a result, field law enforcement personnel and forensic laboratories now are in need of implementing new protocols that can distinguish between marijuana‐type and hemp‐type cannabis. Colorimetric tests provide a cost‐effective and efficient manner to presumptively identify materials prior to submission to a laboratory for analysis. This work presents the validation of the 4‐aminophenol (4‐AP) color test and demonstrates its utility for discriminating between marijuana‐type and hemp‐type cannabis (i.e., typification). Validation studies included the testing of numerous cannabinoid reference materials, household herbs, previously characterized cannabis plant samples, and real‐case samples. The 4‐AP test reliably produces a pink result when the level of Δ⁹‐tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is approximately three times lower than the level of cannabidiol (CBD). A blue result is generated when the level of THC is approximately three times higher than that of CBD. Inconclusive results are observed when the levels of THC and CBD are within a factor of three from each other, demonstrating the limitations of the test under those scenarios.     

Voting at 16: Turnout and the quality of vote choice

Critics of giving citizens under 18 the right to vote argue that such teenagers lack the ability and motivation to participate effectively in elections. If this argument is true, lowering the voting age would have negative consequences for the quality of democracy. We test the argument using survey data from Austria, the only European country with a voting age of 16 in nation-wide elections. While the turnout levels of young people under 18 are relatively low, their failure to vote cannot be explained by a lower ability or motivation to participate. In addition, the quality of these citizens' choices is similar to that of older voters, so they do cast votes in ways that enable their interests to be represented equally well. These results are encouraging for supporters of a lower voting age.