Regionalization and the rescaling of agro-food governance: Case study evidence from two English regions

Some researchers detected a new-found subsidiarity in rural policy after England’s 2001 Foot and Mouth Disease epidemic, with regional and sub-regional institutions working together to implement an economic recovery strategy. While such research began to link debates on the new regionalism and the rescaling of agro-food governance, its conception of the latter focused too narrowly on the ‘turn to quality’, thereby overlooking other important aspects of food relocalisation. Based on interviews conducted in England’s South West and West Midlands regions, this paper examines whether the attitudes of key actors from regional and sub-regional governance institutions provided a sound basis for partnership working on the food relocalisation policies recommended in the Government’s Strategy for Sustainable Farming and Food. It finds different attitudes on the part of regional and sub-regional actors, with the former favouring regional foods and the latter local foods. Despite scepticism from both groups about the ability of the England Rural Development Programme (2000–2006) to promote food relocalisation, grants were awarded to both regional and local food entrepreneurs, suggesting that the programme contributed more to food relocalisation than previously thought.     

Historical Climatology and coastal change associated with the ‘Great Storm’ of January 2005, South Uist and Benbecula,Scottish Outer Hebrides

Abstract

This paper describes some of the changes that affected the coastlines of South Uist and Benbecula following the ‘Great Storm’ of 11 January 2005. The paper considers historical changes in patterns of winter storminess and addresses the issue of whether or not there has been a recent increase in regional storminess, manifested partly by this particular storm. The paper concludes on the basis of available Greenland ice core chemistry data and historical climate data, together with recent meteorological data, that no such increase has taken place. This surprising conclusion is further discussed in relation to current thinking on the nature of recent climate change.     

Between gay and bigot's liberation

Dennis Altman, Homosexual: Oppression and Liberation, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1972, pp. 237 + xiv, $4.95.     

Human Palaeoecological Interactions and Owl Roosting at Tron Bon Lei,Alor Island,Eastern Indonesia

We report on tetrapod (Reptilia, Amphibia, Mammalia, Aves) vertebrates recovered during excavations at Tron Bon Lei rockshelter on the south coast of Alor Island, eastern Indonesia. These include both archaeological specimens recovered from a 1 m² test pit dating from ～21 kya cal BP to the late Holocene, and a modern eastern barn owl deposit recovered nearby. To discern between the depositional processes that accumulated the small numbers of micro- and macrovertebrate remains from the archaeological deposits, the taphonomic signature of the natural assemblage was quantified and compared to the archaeological record. The taphonomic data indicates that the tetrapod archaeofaunal remains are a combination of barn owl predation of microfauna and human predation of larger fauna. This approach provides new information on human-tetrapod interactions on Alor in Wallacea during the late Quaternary, including an apparent increase in cave site use and hunting intensity during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, sea turtle butchery and probable transport, and extinctions of previously unknown giant to large rat species.