<p>Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) is an annual crop used to produce a wide range of products including foods, beverages, nutritional supplements, fabrics, and textiles. Hemp has long been conflated with marijuana and has not been grown in the United States for decades. Due to recent legislation, the legal restrictions on growing hemp seem likely to be lifted. However, although interest is high, industrial hemp has not been grown in the U.S. for nearly 80 years and research on virtually all aspects of hemp production in the U.S. is in its infancy. We lack fundamental knowledge regarding cultivar performance, interactions with pests, particularly weeds, and nutrient requirements. Research is needed to address this knowledge gap and potential production issues as well as to determine the attitudes, perceptions and concerns of farmers regarding the potential adoption of this “new” crop. Importantly, research should be conducted before the crop becomes widely available so that farmers can make informed decisions and avoid costly mistakes. My dissertation consists of four chapters. In Chapter 1, I examine the literature for weed management in hemp production and identify research gaps. In Chapter 2, I investigate the complex legal framework that surrounds Cannabisand the resulting complications for hemp production. In Chapter 3, I present research conducted to determine the attitudes, perceptions, interests and concerns of organic farmers regarding the reintroduction and potential adoption of hemp was completed through survey research. Finally, in the fourth chapter, I present research conducted to characterize the growth and phenology of industrial hemp cultivars and identify cultivars suitable for growing conditions in the Midwest, and to determine the effect of delayed planting on the phenology and growth of seed and fiber hemp varieties in the Midwest.</p><p>Weed control and weed management in industrial hemp production is a surprisingly understudied field. Few peer-reviewed field studies on hemp exist on any subject and in particular, weed control and weed management is understudied. Specifically, only three studies designed to address a weed management issues exist in the literature dating back to 1900. Most commodity crops have extensive literature discussing weed management, and such an extensive gap in the hemp literature suggests that research needs to be conducted to determine the impacts of weeds on hemp production. Discrepancies among state laws and current federal drug legislation have created a convoluted, confusing, and impractical framework currently surrounds hemp production in the U.S. The building of pesticide regulation and product safety systems that are specific to the many end uses of Cannabis have yet to occur in the U.S. Interactions between producers, state and federal government, and third-party testing laboratories need to be facilitated to build regulation systems along with educational programs to train growers appropriate best management. Organic farmers are generally considered less risk adverse than the general farming population and often considered early adopters of technology. I surveyed organic farmers in seven Midwestern states and found that 98.5% of the respondents were generally open to new technologies, but that demographics variables explained little of the variation for respondents’ level of innovativeness as well as their openness to hemp.The respondents were generally open to hemp production (88.2% agreed with the statement that they were open to trying hemp production on their farm) and found that attributes of hemp production that conferred relative advantage and were compatible with existing systems were important. Delayed planting of hemp generally reduced the onset and duration of female flowering and the time to seed formation but the magnitude of these effects varied among cultivars. Seed, stalk, and total above ground dry weight yields varied across cultivar and planting date which may have been impacted by inconsistent stand densities stemming from heavy rainfall and wet soils. Results from this dissertation suggest that hemp is an understudied crop in the U.S., but that interest in its production among organic farmers exists. Field results support the importance of both planting date and cultivar for hemp phenology discussed in previous literature and so research needs to be conducted to explore best hemp production practices in the U.S.<br></p><p></p>

Orientador: Silvia Selingardi Sampaio / Banca: João Cleps Junior / Banca: Carlos Bray / Banca: Sylvio Luiz Andreozzi / Banca: Auro Aparecido Mendes / Resumo: O presente trabalho é fundamentado em pesquisa que teve como objetivo central compreender o processo, as transformações e os impactos/efeitos socioespaciais derivados da instalação do complexo agroindustrial da Perdigão S/A, no município de Rio Verde (Sudoeste de Goiás). Utilizamos como procedimentos metodológicos: pesquisas bibliográfica, documental e de campo; entrevistas junto a Perdigão e empresas, indústrias, instituições financeiras e de ensino, e produtores integrados. A Perdigão, a partir da década de 1990, expandiu o seu território de atuação para fora da região Sul, instalando uma nova unidade no Sudoeste de Goiás (Rio Verde). A agroindústria foi atraída, sobretudo, pelos incentivos fiscais e financeiros oferecidos pelos governos federal, estadual e municipal, e pelas vantagens do território (produção de grãos, vantagens ambientais para uso de dejetos, etc). A implantação do complexo da Perdigão desencadeou impactos sociais (fortalecimento da cultura do trabalho industrial, surgimento de associações de produtores, etc), e transformações/efeitos no espaço urbano de Rio Verde e no espaço agrário regional (novos bairros, novas indústrias, incremento do comércio e dos serviços locais, geração de milhares de postos de trabalho, aumento do rebanho de aves e suínos, um novo sistema de integração, consolidação do CAI de carnes, etc). A instalação da Perdigão trouxe uma nova "onda" de agroindustrialização, através da consolidação do CAI de carnes, transformando as realidades espaciais local e regional. / Abstract: This academic work is based on research with the central objective to understand the process and the sociospatial transformations/impacts derived from the implantation of the agro-industrial complex of Perdigão S/A, in Rio Verde district (South-West of Goiás-Brazil). We have used as methodological proceedures: bibliographical and documental researches, field investigation; interview of Perdigão and other companies, industries, financial and educational institutions, and integrated producers. Perdigão, since the decade of 1990, has expanded its business activity to outside South region, installing one new unity in South-West of Goiás (Rio Verde). Agro-industry was attracted by fiscal and financial incentives given by the federal, state and city governments, and by territory advantages (grain prodution, environmental advantages of the use of excrements, etc). The establishment of the Perdigão complex enabled social impacts (the solidification of the industrial work culture, the creation of producers' associations, etc) and effects in Rio Verde's urban area and in the regional countryside (new neighborhoods, new industries, local business and services improvement, opening of many job positions, increase of chicken and pig herds, one new integration system, consolidation of meat agribusiness, etc). Perdigão's installation brought a new agro-industrial "fad" through consolidation of the meat agribusiness, changing the local and regional spatial reality. / Doutor

Casca de tungue (CT) é resíduo da indústria de óleo de tungue, composto pela casca do fruto e testa de sementes. Seu elevado teor de fibra e sua lenta decomposição sugerem seu potencial como componente para substratos. Estudos foram conduzidos com objetivo de descrever a performance da CT na produção de plantas em recipientes. Em uma primeira etapa, a CT com seis meses de compostagem foi dividida em cinco frações granulométricas. A CT apresentou características físicas e químicas distintas de acordo com o tamanho da partícula, com maior retenção de água e salinidade verificada na presença de partículas menores. Em uma segunda etapa, misturas de CT e casca de arroz carbonizada (CAC) foram avaliadas no enraizamento de estacas de crisântemos. A CAC foi um condicionador de drenagem adequado para CT. Mudas enraizadas nas misturas contendo CT apresentaram, no entanto, formação de raízes curtas, numerosas e escurecidas, evidenciando a presença de compostos fenólicos, confirmados em teste qualitativo com FeCI3, KOH e gelatina. Estudos posteriores com tratamentos da CT com sulfato de ferro III (1 gl=1) e mistura com vermiculita (14% v:v) mostraram ser possível reduzir o efeito dos compostos fenólicos, aumentando o comprimento de raízes de estacas de crisântemo. Na produção de mudas de alface, no entanto, somente a vermiculita apresentou efeito positivo no aumento da biomassa das plantas. Com base nestes resultados, cultivos de mudas de alface e de crisântemos em vaso foram realizados com misturas de CT e CAC+vermiculita (6:1 v:v), obtendo-se resultados superiores na proporção 1:3 (v:v). / Tung Husks (TH) is a by-product of the tung oil industry, composed of seed coats and seed walis. The high content of long lasting fibers suggests that TH should be appropriate to be mixed in substrates for potted plants. Some studies where conducted to verify the performance of TH on container plant production. In a first stage, samples of 6-month-aged TH were separated into five granulometric fractions. TH showed different physical and chemical characteristics according to grain size. Higher water retention and salinity were verified in the presence of finer particles. Based on the first results, mixtures of TH and carbonized rice hulls (CRH) were used as a rooting media for chrysanthemums. CRH showed to perform well as a drainage component for TH. Cuttings rooted in mixes containing TH, however, had short, numerous and darker roots, showing the presence of phenols, confirmed in a qualitative test with FeCI3, KOH and gelatin. Further studies using TH with Ferric Sulfate (1g1:1) and in mixes with vermiculite (14% v:v) demonstrated the possibility to reduce the phenols effect in plant growth, with an increase in chrysanthemums root length. In lettuce plugs, however, only vermiculite showed positive effects in total plant biomass increase. Based in these results, lettuce plugs and pot mums where produced in TH and CRH+vermiculite (6:1 v:v) mixes, with better results in 1:3 (v:v).

Estágio realizado na ATMAD e orientado pelo Eng.ª Noémia Cristina Rodrigues dos Santos / Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia do Ambiente. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 2009

Rapport de recherche bibliographique (DPSSIB) : Ecole nationale supérieure des sciences de l'information et des bibliothèques : Villeurbanne (France) : 2001. / DPSSIB = Diplôme professionnel supérieur en sciences de l'information et des bibliothèques. Notes bibliogr.

Texte remanié de: Th. doct.--Montpellier--Centre international de hautes études agronomiques méditerranéennes, 1997. / Bibliogr. p. 95-100. Résumé en français et en anglais.

There are two ways of understanding assemblages of humans and non-humans inspired by actor-network theory (ANT): consolidation and fluidification. ANT argues that both subjects and objects take shape as a result of assemblages of numerous heterogeneous ingredients. There is, however, some disagreement over how these subjects and objects travel far and endure while staying the same. On the one hand, ‘consolidation’ suggests that heterogeneous materials should be consolidated into networks so that the integrity of assemblages remains while subjects and objects relocate. On the other hand, ‘fluidification’ suggests that fluid-like adaptation may be more feasible, although the integrity of subjects or objects may be at stake. The thesis investigates this tension between the two modes of assemblage via a historical and ethnographic study of milkfish farming in Taiwan and an examination of unsuccessful efforts to export them to mainland China. This study first explores the mutual formation of milkfish and milkfish farming and argues that not only are the physical characteristics of milkfish shaped alongside the socio-technical transformation of the milkfish assemblage, but the fish also act as an agent involved in the shaping of milkfish assemblage. Secondly, this study draws attention to how an industrial version of milkfish as a bulk commodity takes shape as well as how it is enacted so that it becomes the dominant reality for milkfish. It is argued that, paradoxically, this version of reality is maintained through fluidification, in which human actors compromise with enacted multiplicities of milkfish. Thirdly, this study turns to the milkfish export scheme. Set up under the auspices of the Chinese government in 2011, milkfish were exported to Shanghai. But milkfish failed to find a market in Shanghai, and so the export scheme was terminated in 2016. This study first reveals that the material characteristics of ‘ready-made’ milkfish are not easy to integrate into local ways of cooking and eating. Moreover, the fish are excluded from adaptation, while the scheme was adapted in practice to suit the requirements of various other actors brought together by the scheme. This thesis suggests that the lower the demand for milkfish in China, the higher is the need for such an export scheme in Taiwan, but that such a scheme will most likely take the form of continued ‘consolidation’, keeping the export of unsalable fish going while bringing minimal changes to the status quo of milkfish assemblage. Overall, this study of milkfish argues for the co-existence, in tension, of consolidation and fluidification. That is, neither mode of assemblage is in opposition to nor replaceable by the other. The implications for material politics of this study include not only a need to make visible the work of ‘purification’ that keeps both subjects and objects apparently separate from one another, and from others within each realm, but also a need to highlight efforts to erase other possible modes of assemblage, in which the formation of objects and of object-oriented collectives are embedded differently.

Nourrir une population mondiale croissante dans un contexte de changements globaux pose de nouveaux défis à l’agriculture en termes d’efficience de production et d’impacts environnementaux. Rendre les systèmes agro-alimentaires plus soutenables nécessite de mieux recycler la biomasse et les nutriments, c’est-à-dire de tendre vers des flux de fertilisants, de produits végétaux, d’aliments du bétail, de coproduits et de déchets plus circulaires. À ce titre, il est nécessaire de développer de nouveaux outils pour mieux explorer et évaluer les échanges de matières entre les fermes et leurs partenaires économiques amont et aval dans les territoires. Dans le travail présent, l’état de l’art concernant les méthodes d’analyse, de modélisation et d’évaluation environnementale des flux de biomasse et d’éléments minéraux à différentes échelles est réalisé. Le modèle multi-agents FAN (« Flows in Agricultural Network») qui simule les flux des matières entre les fermes et leurs partenaires économiques dans les territoires agricoles a été développé. Les processus de FAN sont expliqués en détail et une analyse de sensibilité des variables clefs est présentée. Par ailleurs, le modèle FAN a été appliqué à un cas d’études en France pour évaluer la performance des scénarios contrastés visant à améliorer l’efficience d’utilisation des éléments minéraux, développer le recyclage de la matière, favoriser la production du biogaz ou reconcevoir les systèmes de production. Les sorties de simulations des scénarios sont analysées en termes de production alimentaire et énergétique, de flux de matières et de logistique, de cycle des nutriments et d’émissions de gaz à effet de serre. Ce travail montre l’utilité des outils de prospective et modèles multi-agents pour améliorer la durabilité des systèmes agricoles et des chaines alimentaires, pour créer et évaluer des solutions collectives tendant vers l’économie circulaire et pour prendre en charge les interactions entre acteurs économiques au sein des chaines et filières alimentaires complexes. / Feeding the growing global population in a context of global change raises new challenges for agriculture regarding its production efficiency and impacts on natural resources. Solutions for towards farming sustainability require to improve nutrient and biomass recycling in agro-food systems, i.e. to move from linear to more circular flows of fertilizers, crop products, feedstuff, by-products and organic wastes. Innovative tools exploring material exchanges between farms and their upstream and downstream partners in agro-food systems at the local scale are needed. In the present work, the state of the art about analysis methods, models and environmental tools addressing nutrient and biomass flows at different scales is reviewed. The FAN (“Flows in Agricultural Network”) model, an agent-based model that simulates a range of material flows among farms and their partners within agricultural districts is developed. FAN processes are explained in details and a sensitivity analysis to some key variables is performed. In addition, the FAN model is applied to a French case-study to assess the performances of contrasted scenarios aiming to enhance nutrient use efficiency, recycling strategies, biogas production and system redesign. The outcomes from the scenario simulation are analyzed are assessed in terms of food provisioning, nutrient cycling and greenhouse gas emissions. This work shows the usefulness of prospective, agent-based tools for greater farming and food-chain sustainability, to design and evaluate collective solutions for circular economy and to account for interactions among economic actors within complex agro-food systems.

Casca de tungue (CT) é resíduo da indústria de óleo de tungue, composto pela casca do fruto e testa de sementes. Seu elevado teor de fibra e sua lenta decomposição sugerem seu potencial como componente para substratos. Estudos foram conduzidos com objetivo de descrever a performance da CT na produção de plantas em recipientes. Em uma primeira etapa, a CT com seis meses de compostagem foi dividida em cinco frações granulométricas. A CT apresentou características físicas e químicas distintas de acordo com o tamanho da partícula, com maior retenção de água e salinidade verificada na presença de partículas menores. Em uma segunda etapa, misturas de CT e casca de arroz carbonizada (CAC) foram avaliadas no enraizamento de estacas de crisântemos. A CAC foi um condicionador de drenagem adequado para CT. Mudas enraizadas nas misturas contendo CT apresentaram, no entanto, formação de raízes curtas, numerosas e escurecidas, evidenciando a presença de compostos fenólicos, confirmados em teste qualitativo com FeCI3, KOH e gelatina. Estudos posteriores com tratamentos da CT com sulfato de ferro III (1 gl=1) e mistura com vermiculita (14% v:v) mostraram ser possível reduzir o efeito dos compostos fenólicos, aumentando o comprimento de raízes de estacas de crisântemo. Na produção de mudas de alface, no entanto, somente a vermiculita apresentou efeito positivo no aumento da biomassa das plantas. Com base nestes resultados, cultivos de mudas de alface e de crisântemos em vaso foram realizados com misturas de CT e CAC+vermiculita (6:1 v:v), obtendo-se resultados superiores na proporção 1:3 (v:v). / Tung Husks (TH) is a by-product of the tung oil industry, composed of seed coats and seed walis. The high content of long lasting fibers suggests that TH should be appropriate to be mixed in substrates for potted plants. Some studies where conducted to verify the performance of TH on container plant production. In a first stage, samples of 6-month-aged TH were separated into five granulometric fractions. TH showed different physical and chemical characteristics according to grain size. Higher water retention and salinity were verified in the presence of finer particles. Based on the first results, mixtures of TH and carbonized rice hulls (CRH) were used as a rooting media for chrysanthemums. CRH showed to perform well as a drainage component for TH. Cuttings rooted in mixes containing TH, however, had short, numerous and darker roots, showing the presence of phenols, confirmed in a qualitative test with FeCI3, KOH and gelatin. Further studies using TH with Ferric Sulfate (1g1:1) and in mixes with vermiculite (14% v:v) demonstrated the possibility to reduce the phenols effect in plant growth, with an increase in chrysanthemums root length. In lettuce plugs, however, only vermiculite showed positive effects in total plant biomass increase. Based in these results, lettuce plugs and pot mums where produced in TH and CRH+vermiculite (6:1 v:v) mixes, with better results in 1:3 (v:v).

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