Final Straw Research Articles

Evaluating Chinese fiber hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) varieties and planting dates in North Carolina

AbstractField trials were conducted in 2021 and 2022 to evaluate the effects of planting date (mid‐March, mid‐April, and mid‐May) on 11 fiber hemp (Cannabis sativa L. <0.3% total tetrahydrocannabinol) varieties. Trials were conducted in Goldsboro, Kinston, and Salisbury, NC. Each location followed a split‐plot randomized complete block design with at least three blocks where planting date was the main‐plot and variety the sub‐plot. Varieties investigated originated from China and Australia (2021 only). Data collection included flowering time, end of season stand counts, stem height, diameter, and final retted dry straw yield. We found differences among the varieties investigated in both years; however, no distinct trend was observed across years. All varieties investigated flowered at the end of August and beginning of September, allowing for a long growing season and ability to produce abundant biomass. In general, the Chinese genetics yielded higher stem biomass compared to previously reported European genetics. Stem thickness was >7.5 mm, which is generally considered the maximum width for textile‐grade fiber production. To achieve thinner stems from the varieties investigated, harvesting prior to male‐flower initiation may be required. The crop experienced temperatures below freezing in both years with no signs of damage. Taken together, farmers seeking to plant fiber hemp in North Carolina have a wide planting window from mid‐March to mid‐May using these Chinese varieties.

Intelligent classification of maize straw types from UAV remote sensing images using DenseNet201 deep transfer learning algorithm

China has abundant straw resources, but challenges in utilization persist. Utilization rates need improvement, and environmental pollution from straw burning remains a significant issue. Accurate and intelligent remote sensing classification of straw types is crucial for enhancing straw utilization and preventing straw burning. This paper proposed a new approach for the intelligent classification of maize straw types, using the DenseNet201 deep transfer learning algorithm based on RGB images captured by Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). The sample labels dataset was established for maize straw types, utilizing DenseNet201 deep transfer learning algorithm to pre-train the sample set. This pre-training facilitated model transfer and parameter initialization. Subsequently, the second round of deep transfer learning was performed to construct the final maize straw type remote sensing classification models using DenseNet201 deep transfer learning algorithm. This model and results were subsequently compared with maize straw type classification by the ResNet50 and GoogLeNet deep transfer learning algorithms, as well as maize straw type classification using DenseNet201, ResNet50, and GoogLeNet deep learning algorithms. The results showed that the accuracy of the pre-trained maize straw type deep transfer learning remote sensing classification model surpassed that of the untrained maize straw type deep learning remote sensing classification model, resulting in an enhancement of accuracy by 8.59%, 7.38%, and 1.28%, respectively. The DenseNet201 deep transfer learning model for maize straw types exhibited the highest accuracy with the overall accuracy of 95.57%, and the kappa coefficient of 0.9410. Hence, the DenseNet201 deep transfer learning classification of maize straw types enabled the attainment of intelligent remote sensing recognition of maize straw types. The classification methodology, model, and results presented in this paper can serve as valuable technical references, offering essential information support for agricultural and environmental protection departments actively involved in the comprehensive utilization of straw resources and atmospheric environmental protection efforts.

Characterising Biological and Physiological Drought Signals in Diverse Parents of a Wheat Mapping Population.

Water deficit affects the growth as well as physiological and biochemical processes in plants. The aim of this study was to determine differences in physiological and biochemical responses to drought stress in two wheat cultivars-Chinese Spring (CS) and SQ1 (which are parents of a mapping population of doubled haploid lines)-and to relate these responses to final yield and agronomic traits. Drought stress was induced by withholding water for 14 days, after which plants were re-watered and maintained until harvest. Instantaneous gas exchange parameters were evaluated on the 3rd, 5th, 10th, and 14th days of seedling growth under drought. After 14 days, water content and levels of chlorophyll a+b, carotenoids, malondialdehyde, soluble carbohydrates, phenolics, salicylic acid, abscisic acid (ABA), and polyamines were measured. At final maturity, yield components (grain number and weight), biomass, straw weight, and harvest index were evaluated. Physiological and biochemical parameters of CS responded more than those of SQ1 to the 14-day drought, reflected in a greater reduction in final biomass and yield in CS. Marked biochemical differences between responses of CS and SQ1 to the drought were found for soluble carbohydrates and polyamines. These would be good candidates for testing in the mapping population for the coincidence of the genetic control of these traits and final biomass and yield.

Abandoning Their Beloved Land: The Politics of Bracero Migration in Mexico. By Alberto García

In a 1948 letter to Mexico’s federal agrarian officials, Cleofas Hernández and Alberto Rodríguez expressed their desire to migrate to the United States as braceros. For years, socio-economic precarity in Southern Guanajuato made it difficult for them to provide for their families. Then came the final straw: Presa del Aguacate’s ejidatarios seized their land. Authorities refused to intervene on campesinos’ behalf. And so, the pair decided, they had one choice: to “abandon their dearly beloved land.” This is one of many evocative testimonies that Alberto García skillfully mines—along with a trove of government documents from federal, state, and municipal archives—to unravel the politics of bracero migration in Mexico. For García, bracero migration was much more than a socio-economic phenomenon. Instead, it was shaped by the ideologies and ambitions of Mexican elites, Catholic activists, local powerbrokers, and migrants themselves. As the author convincingly explains, the roots of bracero migration lie in the failures of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional’s (PRI) agrarian reform and the upheaval generated by conservative Catholic opposition to the revolutionary state’s secular agenda. Importantly, García reveals that while politicians of all stripes treated prospective braceros like pawns, the men who wished to join the program were anything but pliable victims. At its core, the decision to migrate was a shrewd rejection of the PRI regime and the endemic corruption that gripped large swathes of Mexican society.

The final straw? Bhola cyclone, 1970 election, disaster politics, and the making of Bangladesh

ABSTRACT The article explores the impact of one of the deadliest disasters in the twentieth century, the East Pakistan cyclone of 1970, also known as the Great Bhola Cyclone, on the first-ever general election held in united Pakistan immediately thereafter. It argues that the cumulative dissidence of the eastern bloc since the partition of India in 1947 had reached its crescendo and made a landfall impact following the disastrous aftermath of the cyclone, which was evidenced in the general election of December 1970, creating the very triggering effect that led to a series of political events and the bloodbath that followed, eventually culminating in the formation of an independent nation-state of Bangladesh in 1971. While doing so, the article builds on the literature on disaster and electoral politics, historical disasters, and uses hitherto underexplored sources, both official and unofficial, archives, and personal memoirs.

The Final Straw

The straw that broke the camel's back came from a most unexpected source. It was the sudden removal of all access to safe drinking water in an acute medical unit in one of the largest hospitals in the country. This action left a 58 bedded unit with over 100 members of staff without access to a vital ingredient of health and wellbeing. In a system which has come through unpredictable, unreliable and inadequate access to personal protection equipment throughout the various surges of the COVID-19 pandemic, this was something that all the mandatory training in resilience should have given strength to pull through. But sadly, it seemed to be the final straw. 
 So, I was going to suggest a different strategy, one that included arranging rotations with international partners and of inducting colleagues from allied health professions to share responsibilities of patient care much more than they are able to do at present. Both of these moves will require an open mind, a long-range vision from our leaders and flexibility from our regulators. We need sustainable models where junior doctors and nurses come on planned rotations from countries such as the Commonwealth where education and training are aligned but return to their countries enriched with their experience. The BAPIO Training Academy has similar schemes in place and all the Medical Royal colleges are keen to populate their medical training initiatives with international partner institutions. There needs to be a recognition and celebration of the diversity of the workforce and the contribution of migrants. An acceptance by the people of how the war was won and the country was rebuilt by the blood, sweat and tears of migrants working shoulder to shoulder with their UK peers. This change in mindset has to come from the top. Many had hoped that the first UK Prime Minister of colour may bring that change in mindset. Unfortunately, this is not what appears as Rt Hon Rishi Sunak MP moving swiftly from the diversity of Diwali celebrations in Downing Street to pushing the boats back rhetoric. A change is needed. We, in the health service need to be the change (in mindset of equality, diversity and inclusion) that we wish to see. The final straw must not break the camel’s back.

Charles Darwin

At six foot even, Charles Darwin was not a towering figure physically—especially compared to his father Robert Darwin and his father’s father Erasmus Darwin, who were not only taller but also immensely obese. But his importance to science is so great that his biographers often have erected outsized monuments in response: Janet Browne’s magnificent biography occupies two volumes (Charles Darwin: Voyaging, 1995, and Charles Darwin: The Power of Place, 2002) and more than 1200 pages. Such a compendious treatment, which allots no fewer than six pages just to Darwin’s collection of photographs, is not for everyone, though, and J. David Archibald’s Charles Darwin is a marvelous alternative for anyone seeking a concise, accurate, and readable guide to the life and works of the great naturalist.A distinguished paleobiologist at San Diego State University, Archibald turned in his retirement to the history of biology, writing Aristotle’s Ladder, Darwin’s Tree: The Evolution of Visual Metaphors for Biological Order (2014), Origins of Darwin’s Evolution: Solving the Species Puzzle Through Time and Place (2017), and Charles Darwin: A Reference Guide to His Life and Works (2018). Clearly Darwin was never far from his mind! His new biography (published in a series of short critical biographies of various important cultural figures) consists of a preface, eleven chapters that proceed in a straightforward chronological order, and endnotes and a bibliography; unfortunately, there is no index. The text is appealingly punctuated by dozens of black-and-white illustrations.Understandably, there are no surprises in the narrative, which dutifully follows Darwin from his birth in Shrewsbury in 1802 to Edinburgh to Cambridge, then around the world on the Beagle, and back to London, Down House, and finally Westminster Abbey, where he was buried in 1882. But Archibald’s choice of what topics to address is judicious, his transitions are effectively managed, and his sense of pacing and emphasis is excellent. He consistently presents both the historical and the scientific issues concisely and clearly. Especially worthwhile is his discussion of Darwin’s often overlooked taxonomical work on barnacles (occupying the bulk of chapter 6), although he overexplains the delightful anecdote of Darwin’s son George asking a playmate, “Where does your father do his barnacles?” (emphasis mine).Archibald takes the opportunity to debunk a handful of legends about Darwin, including Lady Hope’s claim that he recanted evolution on his deathbed. It is therefore surprising that he writes, in the same context of Darwin’s religious views, that “the death of his much beloved ten-year-old daughter Annie in 1851 was the final straw for his religious beliefs” (p. 185), a claim itself plausibly challenged as legendary in “The Annie Hypothesis,” a 2012 paper in the journal Centaurus by John van Wyhe (who endorsed Archibald’s book) and Mark J. Pallen. Otherwise, ignoring a handful of inconsequential errors (for example, the description of the Scottish lawyer-turned-geologist Charles Lyell as Scottish on p. 7 but English on p. 74), the book is highly reliable.Archibald’s biography is vastly superior to Paul Johnson’s Darwin: Portrait of a Genius (2012) and A. N. Wilson’s Charles Darwin: Victorian Mythmaker (2017)—both of which are unreliable, tendentious, and shoddy—but on a par with David Quammen’s The Reluctant Mr. Darwin (2006); Adrian Desmond, James Moore, and Janet Browne’s Charles Darwin (2007, reprinting their entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004); and Tim M. Berra’s Charles Darwin: The Concise Story of an Extraordinary Man (2009). But Archibald’s is the most up-to-date of these, even noting the theft of Darwin’s Notebooks B (with the famous “I think” tree diagram) and C, which was not revealed until 2020. Thankfully, a future biographer will be able to add that the notebooks were returned in March 2022.

The COVID 19 Pandemic-the Final Straw for Irish Rheumatology Services?

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused disruption to the worldwide provision of acute and chronic care to patients. The effect has been particularly marked in rheumatology in Ireland, where the ability to provide acute and chronic care has been dramatically curtailed due to the combined effects of social distancing, staff redeployment and the repurposing of rheumatology units. Prior to the pandemic, there were significant challenges from an infrastructural and staffing level in Irish rheumatology. Methods: Using a questionnaire, the authors evaluated the effect of the first wave of the COVID 19 pandemic on rheumatology services. Results: Responses from 87% of Rheumatology specialist services in Ireland indicate that 83% of review appointments were remote, with 87% of new patient assessments in OPD were “in person”. Only 41% of usual outpatient activity could occur within existing infrastructure given guidelines re social distancing which would result a shortfall of 42000 patient appointments. Significant numbers of staff were reassigned from Rheumatology to services elsewhere. Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant negative impact on access to struggling Irish Rheumatology services. Implementation of agreed recommendations for augmenting services must occur urgently.

Méthode by Mary Dorsan

Reviewed by: Méthode by Mary Dorsan Eilene Hoft-March Dorsan, Mary. Méthode. P.O.L, 2021. ISBN 978-2-8180-5289-1. Pp. 272. We all have our methods for attempting to invest our lives, and perhaps even the lives of others, with meaning. Mary Dorsan's unnamed narrator turns to volunteering for a local union of healthcare workers and support staff in order to do just that: something meaningful. During her very first volunteer shift, she is taken aback both by the personal nature of the aid required of her and by the deep inequalities revealed—with no little irony—in health and human service workplaces. Her first client is a black staff worker of long tenure in a health facility. A tense encounter between him and a man intent on asserting his privilege has resulted in disciplinary action against the staff worker. More terrible still, the sanction comes as the final straw in a lifetime of injustices. The man, whom the narrator will name "Méthode," has a breakdown and contemplates aloud a suicidal car accident. Méthode's revelation of brokenness and the narrator's powerlessness to prevent it thus become the impetus for the journal (i.e., the novel): she will methodically invent the supportive influences Méthode will need to be able to rise from the nadir of his life. She imagines for him a wife, family, and friends who will lift him out of depression or at least redirect him away from self-harm. This magical thinking reminds readers constantly that the novel vacillates along a continuum ranging from "reality" to "fiction." On one hand, the narrator consumes novels that she rates as page-turners and tearjerkers, fully aware that they pander to a readership that does not want to be challenged. On the other hand, the narrator/author draws on a real case of human-rights abuse, a Burundi man named Méthode Sindayigaya who was enslaved in a basement in France for ten years by a Burundi diplomat and his wife. The original Méthode offers knowledge of human cruelty and remedy for it through almost superhuman effort ("knowledge" and "remedy" being etymological origins of "method"). Although the narrator adopts this method—both character and strategy—she implicitly critiques her own occasional lack of method: when she ignores a homeless person or indulges in damaging gossip or refrains from renewing close relationships, especially through writing. This novel has the ruminative quality of an autobiography paired with an acute attention to its own fictionalizing. It has disarming depth if little in the way of rapid or focused plot development. Many of its journal entries describe the dreary decor of the union office, the convoluted tales of woe by aggrieved workers, the hit-or-miss solutions proffered to clients. It reminds us that making good faith attempts at addressing injustice often begins with finding the correct official form(s), listening closely, and even just showing up. [End Page 246] Eilene Hoft-March Lawrence University (WI) Copyright © 2022 American Association of Teachers of French

Kurdish Allies and Kurdish Enemies: Turkey’s New War Against The PKK

This paper focuses on the post-2015 Turkish warfare against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party PKK in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and the long-running relationship between the Turkish state and the ruling Barzani family. The commentary presents an overview of the interests behind the Ankara-Erbil coalition and the wider stakes in the current conflict It is argued that the Turkish military operations not only have taken a great toll on the civilian population of the KRI and the ecology of the region, but destabilizes the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. A full-blown civil war in the KRI between the PKK and KDP provoked by Turkey could be the final straw removing the last of the post-Islamic State stability in Iraq.

Isles of Passages: Transport geography perspective on Calayan and Lubang as gateways to the main Island of Luzon (Metal ages to early historical period, 500 BCE to CE 1600)

Archaeological works have tended to privilege the processes behind the rise and fall of ancient culture- centers (as defined by Wallerstein 2004 in World Systems Theory) while some have attempted to integrate more data on the changes that take place in strategic nodes or peripheries that ‘feed’ into these centers (Junker and Smith, 2017; Hendrickson et al., 2013). This paper tackles how social-historical transformations may have become an impetus in the waxing and waning of gateway/ gatekeeper locations using transport geography perspective. At the center of the case study are two strategic island nodes connecting to the main Island of Luzon- – Calayan and Lubang group. The paper attempts to demonstrate that due to social-historical factors specifically evolving trade, colonial assimilation, and technological diffusion, these key players have eventually taken a backseat in the transportation and communication network in this crucial passage to Island Southeast Asia. The crux of the argument lies on probative evidence that these islands possibly supported more inhabitants before the Spanish Contact period in the 16th c, using boat shaped burial complexes and ijang (garrison) complexes as proxy indicators. Aided by geomatics and remote sensing and geographic information systems (RS-GIS) algorithms including maximum likelihood classification, band maths as well as principal component analysis, the paper emphasizes the density of possible archaeological sites in both island locales as the proxy indicator to the pre-Contact period populations. The paper argues that the introduction of blue water maritime vessels with the opening of the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade (Wu, 2019; Dizon, 2004; Dizon, 2003; Schurz, 1985 on the Manila Galleon) contributed to the waning of the strategic importance of these island nodes with the final straw being the Spanish colonial administrations’ policy of depopulating these smaller islands and relocating them to their colonial- panoptic landscapes in Luzon. The role of the prevailing market situation as dictated by rapidly evolving scales of transactions from evanescent to more permanent markets (Canilao, 2020) may have also contributed to the emergent new status quo in these isles of passage.

Genesis of end-Guadalupian bauxite and pyrite deposits in the Youjiang Basin (South China): Insights into the causative link between magmatic events and mass extinction

Mass extinction was commonly considered as the response to interaction between geosystems, and volcanism can be viewed as a vital link between the surface systems and deep geodynamic processes. This causative link between end-Guadalupian mass extinction and volcanism has been clarified, based on the research of bauxite and pyrite deposits in the Youjiang Basin, South China Block (SCB). Geochronological and geochemical evidences show that the source materials of bauxite-pyrite deposits were mainly derived from the Emeishan large igneous province (LIP) to the northwest and the continental arc along the SW margin of SCB associated with the subduction of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean underneath the Indochina block. Volcanic ash fallout by atmospheric dispersal driven by the easterly trade winds could best account for the spatial variation of both bauxite and pyrite deposits given their relative paleogeographic positions with respect to the two flanking sources. Massive volcanic tephra from arc volcanism fell on exposed carbonate platforms, underwent intensive chemical weathering and transformed into bauxites under the warm and humid tropical climate in Tethys, which could be also favored by acid precipitation caused by volcanic degassing. Extensive SO2 released from Emeishan LIP emission could be the major source of pyrite ores, probably with minor contribution from arc volcanism. This indicates that the prolonged and extensive continental arc volcanism induced environmental stress in the poorly-ventilated Paleo-Tethys Ocean, while the coincidental eruption of the large igneous provinces was the final straw, leading to the dramatic biotic crises during the Middle-Late Permian interval.

Cerebral Palsy and Criteria Implicating Intrapartum Hypoxia in Neonatal Encephalopathy - An Obstetric Perspective for the South African Setting.

The science surrounding cerebral palsy indicates that it is a complex medical condition with multiple contributing variables and factors, and causal pathways are often extremely difficult to delineate. The pathophysiological processes are often juxtaposed on antenatal factors, genetics, toxins, fetal priming, failure of neuroscientific autoregulatory mechanisms, abnormal biochemistry and abnormal metabolic pathways. Placing this primed compromised compensated brain through the stresses of an intrapartum process could be the final straw in the pathway to brain injury and later CP. It is thus simplistic to base causation of cerebral palsy on only an intrapartum perspective with radiological 'confirmation', as is often the practice in medicolegal cases in South African courts. The present modalities (MRI and CTG when available) that retrospectively attempt to determine causation in courts are inadequate when used in isolation. Unless a holistic scientific review of the case including all contributing clinical factors (antepartum, intrapartum and neonatal), fetal heart rate monitoring, neonatal MRI if possible (and preferred) or late MRI, and histology (placental histology if performed) are taken into account, success for plaintiff or defendant currently in a court of law will depend on eloquent legal argument rather than true scientific causality. The 10 criteria set out in this document to implicate acute intrapartum hypoxia in hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy/neonatal encephalopathy serve as a guideline in the medicolegal setting.

Cerebral Palsy and Criteria Implicating Acute Intrapartum Hypoxia in Neonatal Encephalopathy - An Obstetric Perspective for the South African Setting.

The science surrounding cerebral palsy indicates that it is a complex medical condition with multiple contributing variables and factors, and causal pathways are often extremely difficult to delineate. The pathophysiological processes are often juxtaposed on antenatal factors, genetics, toxins, fetal priming, failure of neuroscientific autoregulatory mechanisms, abnormal biochemistry and abnormal metabolic pathways. Placing this primed compromised compensated brain through the stresses of an intrapartum process could be the final straw in the pathway to brain injury and later CP. It is thus simplistic to base causation of cerebral palsy on only an intrapartum perspective with radiological 'confirmation', as is often the practice in medicolegal cases in South African courts. The present modalities (MRI and CTG when available) that retrospectively attempt to determine causation in courts are inadequate when used in isolation. Unless a holistic scientific review of the case including all contributing clinical factors (antepartum, intrapartum and neonatal), fetal heart rate monitoring, neonatal MRI if possible (and preferred) or late MRI, and histology (placental histology if performed) are taken into account, success for plaintiff or defendant currently in a court of law will depend on eloquent legal argument rather than true scientific causality. The 10 criteria set out in this document to implicate acute intrapartum hypoxia in hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy/neonatal encephalopathy serve as a guideline in the medicolegal setting.

Rates relief must stay

Will the business rate holiday for nurseries be extended beyond March when it is due to end? The Chancellor's decision will be either the final straw or a glimmer of hope, says Purnima Tanuku.

The final straw: High school dropout for marginal students

We investigate the consequences of failing a high-stakes exam in Norwegian high schools. Second-year high school students are randomly assigned to either a locally graded oral exam or a centrally graded written exam. Students assigned to written exams consistently receive lower grades and have a greater probability of failing, particularly in the case of already low-performing students. Because passing the exam is required to obtain a high school diploma, this translates into a reduction in high school graduation rates that remains significant over time, permanently shifting a group of marginal students into dropping out of high school altogether. We show that these marginal students are severely disadvantaged across several dimensions, even more so than dropouts in general. Our analysis of what predicts dropout among these marginal students suggests that effective policies for combating high school dropout should target students exclusively on the basis of poor academic performance, rather than other measures of disadvantage such as socioeconomic status, even though these characteristics are associated with dropout among students in general.

Honduras: A Decade of Popular Resistance

Popular outrage boiled over again in Honduras in 2019 as diverse groups waged a major protest campaign against reforms aimed at privatizing the health care and education systems. The final straw ki...

Construction on vacuum-compatible straw tracker for COMET Phase-I

The COMET experiment at J-PARC aims to search for a lepton-flavour violating process of muon to electron conversion in a muonic atom, μ-e conversion, with a branching-ratio sensitivity of better than 10−16, 4 orders of magnitude better than the present limit, in order to explore the parameter region predicted by most of well-motivated theoretical models beyond the Standard Model. The need for such an excellent sensitivity places several stringent requirements on the detector; (i) good momentum resolution, <2%, for 100 MeV/c electron, which is primarily limited by multiple scattering effect for this momentum region, and (ii) high rate capability, up to 5×109μ−/s muon beam by J-PARC. In order fulfil such requirements, we decided to develop the straw-base planar tracker which is operational in vacuum and made of an extremely light material. The COMET straw tracker consists of 10 mm diameter straw tube, longer than 1 m length, with 20μm-thick Mylar foil and 70 nm-thick aluminium cathode.Recently, two big milestones, detector-performance verification by the full-scale prototype with 100 MeV/c electron beam, and start the assembly of final straw tracker for COMET Phase-I, were achieved. In this article, details of these two big milestones are provided. In addition, some prospects on the straw tracker development towards the COMET Phase-II are also given.

Signal Failure: Communications in the British Expeditionary Force, September 1939–June 1940

The article examines the communication difficulties faced by the British Expeditionary Force during the France campaign of 1939–40 and determines the extent to which they were self-inflicted. Among the many assessments of the German invasion of May 1940 and associated collapse of the French, the British acceptance of long-standing deficiencies in vital systems has been overlooked. The Phoney War encouraged unrealistic expectation and insatiable demand, which compounded flawed equipment, personnel, and procedure. Opportunities to ease vulnerabilities, via efficiencies and best practice, were missed. Combat and, in particular, mobile operations, were the final straw, prompting immediate collapse and, eventually, evacuation.

Human Geography and Post-Crisis Agricultural Policy: Insights from the Venezuelan Andes

Human Geography and Post-Crisis Agricultural Policy:Insights from the Venezuelan Andes Martina Angela Caretta Venezuela is in shambles. blocked exchange with the U.S. dollar and falling crude oil prices have resulted in a rapidly shrinking economy. Essential goods are increasingly unattainable for most citizens, and food scarcity and malnourishment are common. According to the survey on living conditions published yearly by a consortium of Venezuelan universities, Venezuelans report having lost an average of eleven kilograms in 2017, 80 percent of households surveyed were food insecure, and more than 60 percent of the population lived in extreme poverty (ENCOVI, 2017). Political and social turmoil has engulfed the country since late President Hugo Chavez's health decline in 2012 and ultimate death in 2013. This has only increased since mid-2017, when the installation of a Constituent Assembly by President Nicolás Maduro nullified the role of the National Assembly, leading to a constitutional crisis and the existence of two concurrent governments: Maduro's socialist dictatorship (which remains in power and still controls the military) and National Assembly President Juan Guaido's interim government (which has been recognized by numerous foreign countries). Those who can, especially young people, have left the country; the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that three million Venezuelans, migrants, and refugees have fled as a result of the ongoing crisis (UNHCR, 2018). Those who cannot migrate but who do have access to land have turned to farming, as happened in Cuba in the 1990s (Altieri et al., 1999). This measure is necessary in a context of continuous food shortages and seemingly interminable lines to access limited government-subsidized food. Yet Venezuela's agricultural sector has been suffering from at least a century of negligence. Following failed land reforms at the beginning of the 1900s, which did not effectively redistribute land that was mostly controlled by caudillos, the upsurge in revenues from the vast oil reserves in 1960s and 1970s was the final straw for Venezuelan agriculture (Wilpert, 2006). [End Page 152] Agricultural land was abandoned as people migrated to the cities. In the early 2000s, Chavez's government launched an effort to reverse this trend and, as part of the Bolivarian political project of returning power to the people and combating foreign businesses, it nationalized big agribusiness (Schiavoni & Camaro, 2009). Principles of food sovereignty, agro-ecology, and land use over ownership guided a long overdue agrarian reform. Ultimately, however, this reform failed due to lack of infrastructure, an underdeveloped market, and lack of long-term vision (Enriquez, 2013; Wilpert, 2006). Because food insecurity haunts Venezuelans every day, reverting or turning to agriculture, even in small urban lots, has become a necessity for many (see also Altieri et al., 1999). Old and new farmers are extending cultivated areas and intensifying production while struggling to increase yields due to the high cost of agricultural inputs, including seeds and fertilizers. As geographers, it is challenging to examine this phenomenon from a distance. From the outside, our governments and universities advise us to avoid, or even prohibit us from traveling to Venezuela for fieldwork. From the inside, many Venezuelan academics have left the country, and those who remain are struggling to get by on a salary that is the equivalent of approximately US$6 per month (Reuters, 2019). Yet, these should not be reasons for us to turn our attention away from the country. Rather, we should redouble our focus on the only sector of the economy that effectively allows people to get by on a daily basis: agriculture. Social unrest and food shortages demand that we pay closer attention to agricultural waterscapes and their changing importance among Venezuelans in this time of crisis. Focusing on irrigated agriculture in Venezuela is relevant because we do not know how the ongoing economic crisis affects social adaptation to environmental change in the Venezuelan Andes. Studies tend to focus on the science of climate change in the Andes (e.g. Vuille et al., 2008) and rarely engage with questions around the social consequences of what a change in the climate means for communities' livelihoods and institutions (cf. Valdivia et al., 2010), particularly in moments of profound economic crisis and...