Book Review of Raising Less Corn, More Hell: The Case for the Independent Farm and Against Industrial Food by George Pyle

Raising Less Corn, More Hell may sound like a rallying cry for the nation's heartland farmers, but this well-written series of essays by George Pyle is meant for those who eat corn. Or rather, for those of us who eat the livestock fed on corn in confined animal feeding operations, then wash down those meals with drinks high in high-fructose corn syrups. Pyle, an editorial writer from Kansas now living in Utah, brings his journalist's skills to bear on what our industrial food system has brought us. It's not appetizing as he makes his case against a corporate-controlled system that doesn't have to be this way.

RB30-250 Raising Early Lambs from Aged Western Ewes

Many farm flocks in Nebraska are comprised of aged western ewes. They are easily obtained because of the state's geographical position with reference to the sheep-producing sections of the West and the leading feeder lamb markets. Nebraska ranks second in number of western lambs fed. This also tends to acquaint farmers with range sheep. This 1930 research bulletin discusses factors in early lamb production; objects of the experiment, experimental procedure, and experimental data of raising early lambs from aged western ewes.

RB31-258 The Contribution fo Nebraska Farm Women to Family Income Through Poultry and Dairy Products

This investigation was made in 1929-1930 for the purpose of studying the activities of Nebraska farm women in the raising of poultry and in the care of dairy products, to discover whether or not such activities resulted in a contribution to the family income. With this in view, a group of women were asked to keep records for one year (from April 1, 1929 to March 31, 1930) of the value and amount of dairy and poultry products sold or used, of all expense incurred in production, and of the time spent both by the homemaker herself and by all other members of the household, in the production and sale of dairy and poultry products. When this study was outlined it was intended to cover only actual cash addition to the family income. This, however, did not prove to be feasible, as a considerable portion of the contribution to the family income was in the form of dairy and poultry products used at home.

Poverty Reduction and the Income Inequality in China

In 2000, the United Nations adopted the Millennium Development Goals which set targets for raising living standards in low-income countries. The first goal was to “eradicate extreme poverty and hunger” (United Nations). The World Bank defines extreme poverty as income of less than $1.25 per day (World Bank, 2010a). Based on this definition, the World Bank estimates that the percentage of the population in China living in extreme poverty has fallen from 84 percent in 1981 to about 16 percent in 2005, a period during which China’s population grew by more than 300 million people (see Table 1 on last page). Because China is a very large country with a current population approaching 1.4 billion (more than four times the United States population), its dramatic reduction in poverty over the past 30 years has had a profound effect on global poverty measures. In fact, poverty reduction in China is the main reason that the incidence of extreme poverty in developing countries has fallen from about 52 percent in 1981 to 25 percent in 2005 (Table 1). While the absolute number of poor in China fell by some 627 million, the number of poor in other developing countries actually grew slightly (from 1,065 million to 1,166 million). These figures represent a decline in the percentage of the total population in poverty in other developing countries because of general population growth over that 25-year period (World Bank, 2010b).

Literacy Research: Issues of Authority, Ownership, and Representation

With the “social turn” of language in the past decade within English studies, ethnographic and teacher research methods increasingly have acquired legitimacy as a means of studying student literacy. And with this legitimacy, graduate students specializing in literacy and composition studies increasingly are being encouraged to use ethnographic and teacher research methods to study student literacy within classrooms. Yet few of the narratives produced from these studies discuss the problems that frequently arise when participant observers enter the classroom. Recently, some researchers have begun to interrogate the extent to which ethnographic and teacher research methods are able to construct and disseminate knowledge in empowering ways (Anderson & Irvine, 1993; Bishop, 1993; Fine, 1994; Fleischer. 1994; McLaren, 1992). While ethnographic and teacher research methods have oftentimes been touted as being more democratic and nonhierarchical than quantitative methods—-which oftentimes erase individuals lived experiences with numbers and statistical formulas—-researchers are just beginning to probe the ways that ethnographic and teacher research models can also be silencing, unreflective, and oppressive. Those who have begun to question the ethics of conducting, writing about, and disseminating knowledge in education have coined the term “critical” research, a rather vague and loose term that proposes a position of reflexivity and self-critique for all research methods, not just ethnography or teacher research. Drawing upon theories of feminist consciousness-raising, liberatory praxis, and community-action research, theories of critical research aim to involve researchers and participants in a highly participatory framework for constructing knowledge, an inquiry that seeks to question, disrupt, or intervene in the conditions under study for some socially transformative end. While critical research methods are always contingent upon the context being studied, in general they are undergirded by principles of non-hierarchical relations, participatory collaboration, problem-posing, dialogic inquiry, and multiple and multi-voiced interpretations. In distinguishing between critical and traditional ethnographic processes, for instance, Peter McLaren says that critical ethnography asks questions such as “[u]nder what conditions and to what ends do we. as educational researchers, enter into relations of cooperation. mutuality, and reciprocity with those who we research?” (p. 78) and “what social effects do you want your evaluations and understandings to have?” (p. 83). In»the same vein, Michelle Fine suggests that critical researchers must move beyond notions of the etic/emic dichotomy of researcher positionality in order to “probe how we are in relation with the contexts we study and with our informants, understanding that we are all multiple in those relations” (p. 72). Researchers in composition and literacy stud¬ies who endorse critical research methods, then, aim to enact some sort of positive transformative change in keeping with the needs and interests of the participants with whom they work.