Relational Agriculture: Gender,Sexuality, and Sustainability in U.S. Farming

Although 97% of U.S. farms are “family-owned,” little research examines how gender and sexual relationships – inherent in familial dynamics – influence farmers’ practices and livelihoods. Gender and sexual dynamics – shaped by race and class – affect who is considered a farmer, land management decisions, and access to resources like land, subsidies, and knowledge. We use feminist and queer lenses to illuminate how today’s agricultural gender and sexual relations are not “natural,” but when left uninterrogated are constructed in ways that harm women and queer farmers while limiting potential to develop sustainable practices. Women and queer farmers also resist, “re-orienting” gender and sexual relations in ways that expand possibilities for achieving food justice and ecological sustainability. We offer “relational agriculture” as a tool for making visible and re-orienting gender and sexual relations on farms. Relational agriculture brings sexuality into food justice and demonstrates the centrality of gender and sexuality to agricultural sustainability.     

U.S. Foreign Policy and a Geographically Challenged U.S. Citizenry

Abstract

This article shows how the random walk drainage network simulation model might be used as a class teaching exercise. Practical instructions about running the model are given and the results discussed. A source of directional bias in the resulting simulated drainage patterns is identified and given an interpretation in the terms of the model. Three points of educational value concerning the model are emphasized in conclusion.     

U.S. Religious Regions Revisited

Religion continues to play an important role in the public and private lives of Americans. Therefore, a reexamination of U.S. religious regions is necessary in light of the rapid demographic changes that have occurred in the past few decades. This article presents a new regionalization of religion in the United States for 1980 and 2000, produced using multivariate cluster analysis. Comparing this new regionalization with earlier attempts, it demonstrates that religious regions continue to exist today and have undergone various levels of stability and change. Furthermore, religious regions continue to be relevant because they provide scholars with a method for identifying and characterizing the societal context in which individual religious communities function.     

美国露营活动流行原因分析及对我国的启示

一项旅游活动的发展与流行需要多种内部和外部条件的支撑。中国的露营活动还处于发展的初期,目前还没有成体系的露营地建设,也没有相应的发展和管理措施。自发的露营活动很不规范,容易带来一系列社会问题。为了促进我国露营活动的健康发展,露营地的成体系和规范建设,论文从多个方面分析了美国露营活动流行的原因,及其对我国露营活动开展的启示。首先分析美国的早期移民从东海岸向西海岸探险过程中,对露营活动的形成和促进作用;在露营活动过程中,参与者如何从活动中获得休闲娱乐、磨炼意志、知识学习、生存经验积累等多方面的收益,特别是对青少年的教育和锻炼作用。其次分析美国露营地建设种类和各种基础设施建设,以及露营者行为管理、露营地管理等各种管理措施对有序开展露营活动的支撑作用。再次从多种外部因素分析露营活动流行的原因,主要包括:地理气候等自然因素,高速公路系统、信息发布、生活品供应等各种基础设施因素,假期制度、生活与传统习惯和公共道德等各种社会文化因素等。最后在综合分析美国露营活动流行原因的基础上,提出我国如何结合自身国情开展露营活动。     

Coal-to-Liquids: Potential Impact on U.S. Coal Reserves

The production of liquid fuels from coal will very likely become an important part of the hydrocarbon energy mix of the future, provided that technical and environmental obstacles are overcome economically. The coal industry should be able to handle a coal-to-liquids (CTL) industry of modest size, using 60–70 million short tons or 54–64 million metric tonnes of coal per annum, without premature depletion of the country’s coal reserves. However, attempts to use CTL technology to replace all petroleum imports would deplete the nation’s coal reserves by the end of the century.     

美国东亚地缘战略与美-菲同盟关系

美国占领菲律宾伊始就带有明显的地缘政治因素。二战后,美国出于"冷战"的需要,把菲律宾变成亚洲"遏制"战略中的一个重要地缘前哨。随着冷战的结束,美在菲律宾的军事基地被取消,美-菲同盟关系也陷入谷底。21世纪之初,全球经济重心开始向亚太地区转移,美国也加快实施战略东移,开始重新审视其东亚地缘战略。近几年,美菲不断加强军事合作,大搞联合军演,借口所谓的南海航行自由,极力在南海搅局,其中明显带有制衡中国的因素。在美国急于实施"亚太再平衡"战略的背景下,菲律宾为美国在东亚地区的一个重要地缘支点。然而,菲新政府积极改善对华关系,一定程度上影响到了美-菲同盟关系的发展。     

XXIII INTERNATIONAL GEOGRAPHICAL CONGRESS,U.S.S.R.

Edward Jarvis in 1850 first demonstrated that admission rates to mental hospitals decrease with increasing residential distance, a relationship known today as “Jarvis's Law.” His original data are presented, mapped, and examined by regression analysis to better understand spatial and temporal patterns of mid-19th century mental hospital utilization. Distance substantially affected admission rates to a radius of about 60 miles from the institution in Massachusetts; and there was strong distance decay in the other states examined. For all twelve states, there was a positive association between age of the hospitals and admission rates, which also decreased with increasing residential distance.     

The Flatness of U.S. States

Does perception match reality when people judge the flatness of large areas, such as U.S. states? The authors conducted a geomorphometric analysis of the contiguous United States, employing publicly available geographic software, Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) elevation data, and a new algorithm for measuring flatness. Each 90‐meter cell was categorized as not flat, flat, flatter, or flattest, and each state was measured in terms of percentage flat, flatter, and flattest as well as absolute area in each category. Ultimately, forty‐eight states plus the District of Columbia were mapped and ranked according to these values. Keywords: flatness, U.S. states, slope, Kansas, Florida.     

The Hilliness of U.S. Cities

What is a hilly city, and which cities are hilliest? This study outlines a basket of methods for quantifying the differential hilliness of U.S. cities. We rank the 100 largest cities in the contiguous United States, using a selection of eight methods to evaluate their comparative hilliness. We then reflect on how four key “modes of encounter” with terrain shape human perceptions of urban hilliness: visual, pedestrian, automotive, and imagined/conceptual. Varying priorities among these different modes of encounter shape which of our indices may best correlate with lay understandings of urban hilliness or particular policy problems. We conclude with implications of this work for contemporary geographic scholarship and suggestions for further research, particularly with regard to the political and economic effects of hilliness.     

A Sustainable U.S. Energy Plan

This report gives guidance on what could be done to overcome the political stalemate that has long blocked the creation of a sustainable energy plan, leaving the United States vulnerable to oil imports while emitting large amounts of greenhouse gases. An overall energy policy is suggested for use by political leaders, along with specific goals on climate change and national security. This report proposes a timetable by which the climate change and national security goals should be accomplished. Converting these political goals into a cost-effective energy plan that would continue to get long-term political support would be the task of the technical community. A generic process is described which applies to all future energy systems and would give guidance to the technical community on how to create a mix of energy sources and conservation. This generic process is then tested on three possible energy futures. One energy future proposes that all of our electricity should come from renewable sources within 10 years. It is shown to be inadequate and would exacerbate environmental risks. The second possible energy future adds far more nuclear energy and coal plants with carbon capture and sequestration to the above renewable-only proposal. This second plan was a significant improvement over the all-renewable energy proposal, but does not address how transportation might be accomplished in the future. Converting coal to liquid fuels is identified as the major means to produce liquid fuels, as long as non-carbon dioxide emitting sources of process heat/hydrogen are employed in this coal conversion process. The third proposal, called an Energy Family approach, places first emphasis on conservation and then creates a mix of energy sources, renewable, nuclear, coal, natural gas, and some oil that could meet all the energy demands of a modern society, while staying within environmental and national security limits. This third approach appears to be most likely to get continuing support. There can be significant progress through “Second Generation” conservation, which extracts much more energy from our existing electrical generation and transmission system. Coal would have to undergo a major transformation from producing electricity to producing liquid fuels for transportation. Transportation and space heating and cooling would be far more electrified. Nuclear power would have to be expanded to replace many of the phased out coal plants, to provide electricity for transportation, and to supply high-temperature process heat and hydrogen. Long-term programs need to be put in place to assure nuclear power’s continuing contribution. Finally, energy storage is a component which is often overlooked, but is essential. It could overcome fundamental renewable energy difficulties of variability and the possibility of wind power to create electrical grid instabilities. It is shown that an Energy Family approach could accelerate the development of renewable energy.