Grass-fed cattle ranching is growing in popularity, but the characteristics and motivations of the ranchers, however, remain undefined. Based in Texas and using a mail survey and interviews with three grass-fed, three organic, and three conventional ranchers to identify some of their distinctive characteristics, this study achieved similar results to those comparing organic and conventional farmers. Grass-fed cattle ranchers tend to have high levels of education, approach ranching as a second career, and possess outside income sources. Motivated as much by ethics as economics, they embrace grass-fed methods primarily because they believe them to be healthiest for animals, humans, and the land. They eschew organic certification primarily because they perceive government regulations to be influenced by large conventional competitors, and they market their beef directly, often locally. Although many hope to expand their herd, most grass-fed cattle ranchers believe they are resisting “conventionalization” and say that they feel more self-sufficient and satisfied thanks to their choices. / text

This dissertation addresses the ecological changes that occurred in 19th century California due to Spanish Colonial and Mexican Period cattle ranching. Grasslands in particular are often depicted as having been rapidly invaded by exotic Old World grasses. In addition, cattle ranching and ecological change are thought to be a factor in the decision making of Native Californians to enter the Spanish missions. Wilder Ranch California State Park, formerly known as Rancho Refugio, is used as a case study to explore these issues. Originally established as a rancho of Mission Santa Cruz, Wilder Ranch remained an operating ranch until the 1970s, and thus provides an excellent venue to explore the long- term effects of cattle ranching. To analyze the rate and intensity of grassland change at Wilder Ranch, a combination of zooarchaeological analysis, archaeobotanical analysis, historical records, and agent based modeling is used. These lines of evidence together indicate that grasslands were altered by exotic grasses, but not at the rate and intensity that is often suggested. In addition, analysis of baptismal records from nearby Mission Santa Cruz indicate that most local Native Californians had joined the mission before cattle herds had grown much in size, and before extensive ecological change is expected to have occurred. Instead, a combination of drought and social network collapse seem more influential in the decision of local Native Californians to join the mission.

State officials, between 1882 and 1888, exchanged three million acres of Texas Panhandle property for construction of the monumental Capitol that continues to house Texas government today. The project and the land went to a Chicago syndicate led by men influential in business and politics. The red granite Austin State House is a recognizable symbol of Texas around the world. So too, the massive tract given in exchange for the building, what became the "fabulous" XIT Ranch, also has come to symbolize the height of the nineteenth century cattle industry. That eastern and foreign capital dominated the cattle business during this period is lesser known, absorbed by the mythology built around the Texas cattle-trail period - all but at an end in 1885. This study examines the interaction of Illinois Republicans and Texas Democrats in their actions and efforts to create what have become two of Texas's most treasured symbols.

L’agriculture se situe au carrefour des stratégies d’atténuation et d’adaptation, en particulier dans les régions tropicales. Les efforts d’atténuation pour limiter l’accumulation de gaz à effet de serre dans l’atmosphère et les mesures d’adaptation visant à au moins maintenir les rendements et les revenus agricoles face au changement climatique contribueront à éradiquer l’extrême pauvreté et la faim. Cette thèse explore l'adoption de technologies climato-intelligentes par les petits exploitants du Costa Rica dans les deux principaux systèmes agricoles du pays, à savoir les plantations de café et les systèmes extensifs d'élevage de bétail. Je présente les résultats de trois études qui utilisent des données originales pour étudier les possibilités et les défis liés à l’extension de l’agroforesterie et du sylvopastoralisme.Les obstacles potentiels à l’adoption de technologies par les ménages ruraux dans les pays en développement sont décrits dans l’introduction. Dans le premier chapitre, un modèle représentatif d'allocation des terres entre les technologies de production des exploitations de café est utilisé pour explorer le compromis entre l'adoption de l'agroforesterie - une option bien documentée pour l'atténuation et l'adaptation - et la gestion des risques de marché. Basé sur une expérience de choix menée avec 207 agriculteurs, le chapitre 2 évalue la volonté des producteurs de café d'adopter diverses stratégies basées sur l'agroforesterie, sous différents types d’incitation. Le chapitre 3 évalue l'efficacité d'un programme national de partage des coûts favorisant l'adoption de paquets technologiques compatibles avec l'intensification fondée sur le sylvopastoralisme chez les éleveurs de bovins. Il fournit des estimations de l'impact de la participation au programme sur l'adoption des technologies et sur l’utilisation des terres. Dans l'ensemble, les résultats de ces études suggèrent que l'adoption de l'agroforesterie et du sylvopastoralisme est coûteuse et peut être ralentie en raison des frictions du marché. L’intervention publique par le biais d'incitations économiques peut en réponse être efficace afin d’encourager les petits exploitants à adopter ces technologies. Le choix de la technologie à promouvoir se révèle crucial pour l’efficience de ces interventions, soulignant la pertinence des études proposées. / Smallholding agriculture lies at the crossroads of mitigation and adaptation strategies. Both mitigation efforts to limit the atmospheric accumulation of greehouse gases and adaptation measures that aim to at least maintain agricultural yields and incomes in the face of climate change will be instrumental in eradicating extreme poverty and hunger. This dissertation explores the adoption of climate-smart technologies by Costa Rican smallholders in the two main farming systems of the country, namely high-quality coffee plantations and extensive cattle-ranching farms. I present the resultsof three studies that use primary data to investigate opportunities and challenges for scaling-up agroforestry and silvopastoralism. Potential barriers that put strain on technology adoption by rural households in the developing world are outlined in the introduction. In the first Chapter, a representative coffee farm model of land allocation between production technologies is used to explore the tradeoff between adopting coffee agroforestry - a well-documented option for both mitigation and adaptation - and dealing with market risks. Based on a Choice Experiment conducted with 207 farmers, Chapter 2 assesses the willingness of coffee farmers to adopt various agroforestry-based strategies, under various types of support. Chapter 3 evaluates the effectiveness of a national cost-share program promoting the adoption of technological packages consistent with silvopastoralism-based intensification among cattle ranchers. It provides estimates of the impact of participating into the program on both the technology adoption and the land use patterns. Overall, the results of these studies suggest that the adoption of agroforestry and silvopastoralism is costly and can be slowed down due to market frictions. Public interventions can in turn be effective in encouraging smallholders to adopt these technologies through economic incentives. The choice of the technology to be promoted is found to be crucial for the cost-efficiency of such interventions, stressing the relevance of the research conducted.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-05T16:19:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 26 / Nenhuma / Este estudo foi realizado em dez fragmentos de floresta ripária localizados no sul do Brasil (30°09’S, 51°36’W; 46 m de altitude). Entre as dez florestas ripárias selecionadas, cinco estavam circundadas por pastejo de gado e as outras cinco estavam circundadas por plantações de eucalipto. Foi avaliada a sustentabilidade de Campomanesia rhombea, Diospyros inconstans, Myrciaria cuspidata e Sebastiania commersoniana através de análises da estrutura de tamanho, as quais foram realizadas em duas escalas. Em escala local, foram consideradas as populações presentes nos fragmentos circundados por pastejo de gado ou por plantações de eucalipto e, em escala regional considerou-se também áreas florestais maiores, tomadas como referência (Inventário Florestal Contínuo do Rio Grande do Sul). Em escala local, nas populações presentes em fragmentos circundados por plantações de eucalipto, prevaleceram indivíduos de pequenas classes de tamanho, e em áreas expostas ao pastejo de gado, as mesmas espécies apresentaram uma falha / This studied was carried in ten riparian forest fragments located southern Brazil. Of the ten riparian forests selected for study, five were embedded in pasturelands and five in eucalyptus plantations. We assessed the population sustentability of Campomanesia rhombea, Diospyros incontans, Myrciaria cuspidata and Sebastiania commersoniana through analyses of size structure, which were carried out at two scales. At a local scale, we consider populations in fragments surrounded by pastures or eucalyptus forest plantations, and at a regional scale we also consider larger forest tracts taken as reference areas (Rio Grande do Sul Forest Inventory databank). At local scale, the populations in fragments embedded by eucalyptus plantations prevailed small size classes individuals, and in areas exposed to cattle ranching, the same species seem to have a recurring failure of small individuals. Regional analyses included only established individuals with DBH > 1.6 cm. In this scale, populations in fragments surrounded by