scholarly journals Governing gene editing in agriculture and food in the United States

Elem Sci Anth ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Theresa Selfa ◽  
Sonja Lindberg ◽  
Carmen Bain
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Gene Editing ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Nonstate Actors ◽  
Regulatory Oversight ◽  
Commodity Group ◽  
Semistructured Interviews ◽  
Environmental Nongovernmental Organizations ◽  
Agriculture And Food

Biotechnologies in agriculture and food are increasingly governed by both state and nonstate actors. In this article, we explore emerging tensions and contestations in the United States over how gene-editing technologies in agriculture and food should be governed and by whom. This article is framed theoretically by the literatures examining the politics of state and nonstate governance of the agrifood and biotechnology sectors. We draw on semistructured interviews with 45 key actors in the United States, including representatives of regulatory agencies, commodity groups, consumer and environmental nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), biotechnology and food industry, and scientists. In contrast to assumptions that commodity group and industry actors would share a preference for limited or self-regulation, we find growing contestations, with some calling for novel forms of regulatory oversight. Our findings reveal new tensions, fractures, and realignments between and among government, industry, and NGOs actors over gene-editing governance. These tensions and realignments reflect and respond to demands for broader engagement of publics and greater transparency in the governance of biotechnologies in agriculture and food. We argue that these emerging tensions and realignments between and among state and nonstate actors reflect efforts by these actors to incorporate lessons from the genetically modified organism labeling fight as they seek to (re)shape the governance of gene editing in a manner that reflects their interests.

Safe until Sorry

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norah MacKendrick
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Precautionary Principle ◽  
Consumer Goods ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Personal Care Products ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
Personal Care ◽  
Regulatory Oversight ◽  
Agriculture And Food

This chapter outlines the United States’ uneven and contradictory relationship with the precautionary principle as a policy ethic, and, more specifically points to how the safe-until-sorry model at the regulatory level helps to explain why precaution has flourished as an individualized, consumer principle. In outlining this relationship, it documents the serious gaps in regulatory oversight in what is a vast, fractured policy framework that oversees chemicals used in agriculture and food production, and in the manufacturing of cosmetics, personal care products and consumer goods.

scholarly journals Physical Activity Among Somali Men in Minnesota

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed A. Mohamed ◽  
Abdullahi M. Hassan ◽  
Jennifer A. Weis ◽  
Irene G. Sia ◽  
Mark L. Wieland
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
United States ◽  
Community Based Participatory Research ◽  
The United States ◽  
Success Stories ◽  
Semistructured Interviews ◽  
High Knowledge ◽  
African Refugee ◽  
Competing Priorities ◽  
Exercise Equipment

Immigrants and refugees arrive to the United States healthier than the general population, but this advantage declines with increasing duration of residence. One factor contributing to this decline is suboptimal physical activity, but reasons for this are poorly understood. Persons from Somalia represent the largest African refugee population to the United States, yet little is known about perceptions of physical activity among Somali men. Somali members of a community-based participatory research partnership implemented three age-stratified focus groups and three semistructured interviews among 20 Somali men in Rochester, Minnesota. Team-based inductive analysis generated themes for barriers and facilitators to physical activity. Barriers to physical activity included less walking opportunities in the United States, embarrassment about exercise clothing and lack of familiarity with exercise equipment/modalities, fear of harassment, competing priorities, facility costs, transportation, and winter weather. Facilitators to physical activity included high knowledge about how to be active, success stories from others in their community as inspiration, and community cohesion. Findings may be used to derive interventions aimed to promote physical activity among Somali men in the United States.

scholarly journals Scholastics, Pabulum, Clans, Transformation: A Journey into Otherness

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 893-917
Author(s):  
David Lausch ◽  
Eric Teman ◽  
Cody Perry
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
International Students ◽  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Current Model ◽  
The United States ◽  
Business Economics ◽  
Semistructured Interviews ◽  
Medicine Education

International students’ identities are complex and so are their needs. Semistructured interviews with 13 of the lead researcher’s former students from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, who are multi-national, multi-lingual and pursuing degrees in law, business, economics, medicine, education, art and media, in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia elucidated this reality. Their experiences demonstrated scholastic and pabulum frustrations that were offset in part by constant communication with their clans in person and through various technologies. Though the current model of higher education often seeks to identify and categorize international students as a group, this study shows that international students are unique individuals. Recognizing their individuality, higher education institutions and policymakers can more appropriately respond to international students’ needs.

Infant formula and toddler milk marketing: opportunities to address harmful practices and improve young children’s diets

2020 ◽  
Vol 78 (10) ◽  
pp. 866-883 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer L Harris ◽  
Jennifer L Pomeranz
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Infant Formula ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Child Nutrition ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
The United States ◽  
World Health ◽  
Health Providers ◽  
Formula Milk ◽  
State And Local

Abstract Children’s diets in their first 1000 days influence dietary preferences, eating habits, and long-term health. Yet the diets of most infants and toddlers in the United States do not conform to recommendations for optimal child nutrition. This narrative review examines whether marketing for infant formula and other commercial baby/toddler foods plays a role. The World Health Organization’s International Code of Marketing Breast-milk Substitutes strongly encourages countries and manufacturers to prohibit marketing practices that discourage initiation of, and continued, breastfeeding. However, in the United States, widespread infant formula marketing negatively impacts breastfeeding. Research has also identified questionable marketing of toddler milks (formula/milk-based drinks for children aged 12–36 mo). The United States has relied exclusively on industry self-regulation, but US federal agencies and state and local governments could regulate problematic marketing of infant formula and toddler milks. Health providers and public health organizations should also provide guidance. However, further research is needed to better understand how marketing influences what and how caregivers feed their young children and inform potential interventions and regulatory solutions.

scholarly journals What do Louisiana and Mississippi Nonindustrial Private Forest Landowners Think about Forest Certification?

2007 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 170-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Priyan Perera ◽  
Richard P. Vlosky ◽  
Glenn Hughes ◽  
Michael A. Dunn
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Forest Certification ◽  
Private Forest ◽  
Private Landowner ◽  
Environmental Nongovernmental Organizations ◽  
Nonindustrial Private Forest ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Professional Foresters ◽  
Nipf Landowners

Abstract Nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) landowners own the majority of timberlands in the southern United States. As forest certification becomes more prevalent, it is important to understand the implications for NIPF landowners. This study, conducted in 2005–2006, reveals how well NIPF landowners in Louisiana and Mississippi understand forest certification, willingness to pay to become certified, and general perceptions about the certification process and implementation requirements. We surveyed 1,200 randomly selected NIPF landowners from each state that owned 10 ac or more of timberland in 2005. A total of 591 usable surveys resulted in an overall adjusted response rate of 30%. Forty percent of respondents believe certification is necessary on public lands. However, their lowest level of agreement is with the need for certification on private forestlands. Respondents believe certification in the United States is driven by environmental nongovernmental organizations rather than by demand in the marketplace. Private landowner organizations and approved professional foresters are the most trusted entities to administer and monitor certification. Results also suggest that respondents are generally not averse to having certifiers monitor their forest management activities; however, a majority are unwilling to bear the cost of certification.

scholarly journals Reevaluating the Risk of Smallpox Reemergence

2020 ◽  
Vol 185 (7-8) ◽  
pp. e952-e957 ◽  
Author(s):  
C Raina MacIntyre
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Synthetic Biology ◽  
Genetic Engineering ◽  
Gene Editing ◽  
The United States ◽  
Variola Virus ◽  
Preparedness Planning ◽  
High Security ◽  
Bioterrorism Agent ◽  
New Treatments

Abstract Introduction Smallpox, caused by variola virus, was eradicated in 1980, but remains a category A bioterrorism agent. A decade ago, smallpox ranked second after anthrax in a multifactorial risk priority scoring analysis of category A bioterrorism agents. However, advances in genetic engineering and synthetic biology, including published methods for synthesizing an Orthopoxvirus, require the assumptions of this scoring for smallpox and other category A agents to be reviewed. Materials and Methods The risk priority framework was reviewed and revised to account for the capability for creation of synthetic or engineered smallpox and other category A agents. Results The absolute score for all agents increased because of gene editing and synthetic biology capability, which was not present when the framework was developed more than a decade ago, although new treatments revised scores downward for smallpox, Ebola, and botulism. In the original framework, smallpox scored 0 for global availability, given the high security around known seed stocks of variola in two laboratories in the United States and Russia. Now, smallpox can be created using synthetic biology, raising the score for this criterion to 2. Other agents too, such as Ebola, score higher for availability, based on synthetic biology capability. When advances in synthetic biology and genetic engineering are considered, smallpox and anthrax are now equally ranked the highest category A bioterrorism agents for planning and preparedness. Conclusions Revision of a risk priority framework for category A bioterrorism agents shows that smallpox should be elevated in priority for preparedness planning, and that gene editing and synthetic biology raises the overall risk for all agents. The ranking of categories A, B, and C agents should also be revisited, as there is an endless possibility of engineered threats that may be more severe than any agent on the category A list.

Cyber Defense as a part of Hazard Mitigation: Comparing High Hazard Potential Dam Safety Programs in the United States and Sweden

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosemary A. Burk ◽  
Jan Kallberg
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cyber Security ◽  
Critical Infrastructure ◽  
Risk Mitigation ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
The United States ◽  
Dam Safety ◽  
Cyber Defense ◽  
Industrial Control Systems

AbstractCyber security tends to only address the technical aspects of the information systems. The lack of considerations for environmental long-range implications of failed cyber security planning and measures, especially in the protection of critical infrastructure and industrial control systems, have created ecological risks that are to a high degree unaddressed. This study compares dam safety arrangements in the United States and Sweden. Dam safety in the United States is highly regulated in many states, but inconsistent over the nation. In Sweden dam safety is managed by self-regulation. The study investigates the weaknesses and strengths in these regulatory and institutional arrangements from a cyber security perspective. If ecological and environmental concerns were a part of the risk evaluation and risk mitigation processes for cyber security, the hazard could be limited. Successful environmentally-linked cyber defense mitigates the risk for significant damage to domestic freshwater, aquatic and adjacent terrestrial ecosystems, and protects ecosystem function.

Jah Kingdom

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monique A. Bedasse
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Radical Politics ◽  
Nonstate Actors ◽  
Cultural Expression ◽  
International Growth ◽  
Pan Africanism ◽  
Global Presence ◽  
Critical Site ◽  
Written Sources

From its beginnings in 1930s Jamaica, the Rastafarian movement has become a global presence. While the existing studies of Rastafari have primarily focused on its cultural expression through reggae music, art, and iconography, Monique A. Bedasse argues that repatriation to Africa represents the most important vehicle of its international growth. Shifting the scholarship on repatriation from Ethiopia to Tanzania, Bedasse foregrounds Rastafari’s enduring connection to black radical politics and establishes Tanzania as a critical site to explore gender, religion, race, citizenship, socialism, and nation. Beyond her engagement with how the Rastafarian idea of Africa translated into a lived reality, she demonstrates how Tanzanian state and nonstate actors not only validated the Rastafarian idea of diaspora but were also crucial to defining the parameters of Pan-Africanism. Based on previously undiscovered oral and written sources from Tanzania, Jamaica, England, the United States, and Trinidad, Bedasse uncovers a vast and varied transnational network--including Julius Nyerere, Michael Manley, and C. L. R James--revealing Rastafari’s entrenchment in the making of Pan-Africanism in the postindependence period.

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