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Transformative agroecology challenges industrialized food and farming systems, proposing an alternative vision in which farms are designed around ecological symbioses and embedded within socially just food networks. However, at a policy level, alternative conceptualizations of agroecology have emerged that emphasize on-farm efficiency gains but lack broader objectives of agroecosystem and food system transformation. This phenomenological inquiry explores the agroecological narrative among Scottish farmers and considers its impacts on agroecosystem and food system change. Interviews were conducted across 15 farms in Scotland (20 participants) following the trans positional cognition approach (TPCA). Actualizations of agroecology were found to be value-driven approaches to developing individualized, lower-input farming systems. All farms were attempting to influence agroecosystem change through the application of ecological principles, and most (11/15) were contributing to food system change directly through involvement in alternative food networks. Smaller-scale farmers appear to deliver the most authentic actualizations of transformative agroecology but emphasized more strongly their financial challenges. A key recommendation for policymakers is to strengthen the support mechanisms available for small-scale ecological agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we assess the relationship between how women access the land they farm, and their farming identities, roles, and future succession plans. Utilizing a Bourdieusian approach, we conceptualize inheritance of farmland as a long‐term process of symbolic and economic investment. We conducted a cohort analysis of women living or working on farms in Scotland, UK who (a) were or were not raised on farms; and (b) bought into or inherited agricultural land (directly or through their spouses). Data comprised on‐line survey responses, qualitative interviews and focus groups. Analysis demonstrated that women who were raised on farms and either inherited farms or established new farms, were more likely to identify themselves as farmers, engage in machinery work and identify female successors. Women who accessed farmland through marriage tended to engage in more home‐making tasks, to identify themselves as farmers' wives, and to occupy larger farms. These largest, potentially most viable farms thus continue to be inherited by men. However, when women inherit farms, a step change occurs, where daughters are much more likely to be identified as future successors. Enabling women raised on farms to inherit and/or establish new farms is thus critical to altering patriarchal succession cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents research carried out in Scotland that explored the role of advisors in supporting the adoption of variable rate precision farming (VRPF). Examining data from in‐depth interviews with farmers and advisors in Scotland through a responsible research and innovation lens with a focus on inclusion, we consider the implications of a changing advisory landscape for responsible digital innovation. Our findings show that the main advisors supporting the adoption of VRPF are based in commercial companies, which mostly target large farms. We explore concerns over bias in the advisory process on the one hand and long‐running trusted relationships between commercial advisors and farmers on the other. The research shows that the current system excludes certain stakeholders from the process. Recommendations include policy and programmes to support collaboration between a broader range of stakeholders, including advisory suppliers and farmers in the innovation process. This can promote more inclusive development of VRPF technologies, which represent the interests of more diverse farm types and avoid exacerbating agricultural digital divides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a radial-grouping-based planning method for the electrical collector systems (ECSs) to design the topology and select the cross-sections of ECS submarine cables in tidal current generation farms (TCGFs) while minimizing investment and operation costs. First, an angle-based radial-grouping method is proposed to group the tidal current turbines (TCTs) in a TCGF, considering their capacity limitations while avoiding the trans -region crossing of submarine cables. Second, an optimal planning model is presented to determine the connection scheme for the TCTs within the same group in a TCGF. The investment and trenching costs of submarine cables and ECS power losses are modeled to minimize the comprehensive annual equivalent cost of ECS, while satisfying the submarine cables' voltage drop and capacity limitation constraints. Third, an efficient solution method is developed by modifying a genetic algorithm with the Prufer number, which retains the ECS radial topology and connectivity with high computational efficiency. Finally, two TCGFs with distinct characteristics in the North Orkney Islands, Scotland, and their measured tidal current data are used to demonstrate the effectiveness, correctness and adaptability of the proposed method. • A radial-grouping method is developed to avoid the crossings of submarine cables. • ECS topology and submarine cable types are simultaneously designed. • Investment and operational costs of ECS are optimized by the planning model. • GA is modified by Prufer number to effectively and efficiently solve the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural land covers a significant portion of the earths land surface. Although the predominant function of agricultural land is food production, environmental public goods, such as biodiversity or soil maintenance, are also essential for long-term sustainability. In arable farms the type of cropping system used has a major impact on delivery of these environmental goods. Low input, integrated and regenerative cropping systems aim to improve environmental outcomes of arable farming, with the goal of reducing external inputs by supporting internal regulation of system processes. However, the production of environmental goods does not have an immediate market value to the farmer, and often comes at a cost, particularly in the early stages of transition to a more sustainable system. We estimate the on-farm costs and benefits of an integrated cropping system during the first six years of transition from intensive conventional management at the Centre for Sustainable Cropping in north east Scotland. Although integrated cropping had better environmental outcomes, all crops had higher financial margins in the conventional system compared to the integrated system, which suffered a loss of over £500 per ha per year across the full rotation. This indicates that financial incentives are likely to be important to allow farmers to transition towards a more environmentally friendly cropping system. • Cropping systems can impact the land's ability to produce environmental goods. • Integrated cropping systems aim to improve environmental outcomes of arable farming. • We estimate the on-farm costs and benefits of an integrated cropping system. • Integrated cropping had better environmental outcomes, but lower margins. • Financial incentives are therefore needed for environmentally friendly farming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the distributional consequences of farm income mobility in Scotland, focusing on the extent to which farm income inequality is a chronic as opposed to a temporary phenomenon and on the nature of the dynamic processes driving changes in farm income inequality over time. The empirical results reveal that the majority of farm income inequality was long-run or structural in nature, reflecting differences in both farm business size and farm-specific factors such as land quality, managerial ability and business structures. Evidence of absolute convergence in farm incomes is explained by short-run adjustments towards equilibrium or target incomes conditional upon prices, technology and farm business size, with farm business growth conditional upon survival found to have had no significant redistributive effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European agriculture is experiencing a recruitment crisis that threatens the continuation of both family farming and associated rural communities. Conventionally, researchers and policymakers see farm succession as driven by discrete factors such as education level, farm size, profitability, enterprise type, and so on. This article offers an alternative perspective. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 22 farm families in Scotland, it uses a single case-study to outline the concept of endogenous succession cycles based on the iterative and interlinked development of successor identity and farm structure. In this way, succession is seen as predominantly socially constructed. We suggest that the key to succession lies in the development and maintenance of these endogenous cycles as, when they are broken or uninitiated, attracting a successor on to the farm is likely to be exceptionally difficult whatever the policy incentive. We conclude that the current crisis can partly be explained by the breakdown of early childhood socialisation, a key stage of the cycle, caused by changes to agriculture such as the use of larger machinery, more health and safety regulations, fewer farm workers, and so on. As a result, the process of constructing successor identities in early childhood through extended contact between the farmer, the child and the farm is becoming increasingly difficult. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agroforestry has a potentially important role in helping agriculture address both the climate and biodiversity crises. It provides a means of producing additional marketable goods from agricultural land and enhancing biodiversity at the same time as increasing carbon sequestration and, in silvo-pastural systems, reducing carbon emissions if livestock stocking rates are reduced. However, the uptake of agroforestry in the UK has been limited. This paper adopts Real Options techniques to explore how the decision to adopt agroforestry is influenced by the relative levels of returns from agriculture, forestry and the price of carbon under the scenario where there are financial penalties from livestock Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, financial benefits from carbon sequestration in trees and reversibility in land use decisions. The results are compared to the equivalent findings from a Land Equivalent Value capital budgeting approach to agroforestry adoption. Analysis is based on data from a case study upland livestock farm in Scotland, comparing the impacts of introducing agroforestry into the hill sheep enterprise or the low ground cattle and sheep enterprise. The results suggest that the adoption of agroforestry is far less likely than would be suggested by standard budgeting approaches, especially in more extensive upland enterprises (hill area) where sequestration benefits are low relative to more productive farmland areas (low ground area). Upfront support payments are shown to increase the likelihood of agroforestry adoption. They also have the effect of reducing the rotation length of forestry in such systems. • Real Options techniques are useful for understanding agroforestry adoption. • Agroforestry adoption is unlikely at current carbon price levels. • Biophysical factors have a significant influence on agroforestry adoption. • Upfront payments will significantly increase agroforestry adoption. • Standard budgeting approaches fail to recognise key barriers to agroforestry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Landscape adaptation to climate change requires policies that facilitate species dispersal, to counteract the effects of fragmentation and allow tracking of a species’ ‘climatic niche’. Expanding existing ecological networks is often proposed as a measure to maintain functional connectivity for forest species in multi-functional landscapes. In the next decades, however, such networks will be threatened by climate change through its effects on land use change, as global drivers are likely to have an increasing influence on national land use policy. Evaluation of indirect effects of climate change, on habitat networks, mediated by land use change, is therefore needed. We used an approach integrating climate, soil properties, and landscape resistance to dispersal, the latter estimated using Circuit Theory, to evaluate the vulnerability to land use change of forest habitat networks in Scotland, given two scenarios of land use change. In Scotland a combination of high food prices and improved land capability for agriculture could lead to decreased landscape connectivity for woodland species, especially in the East and South, with potentially large trade-offs between agriculture and woodland connectivity in the case of loss of woodland on prime agricultural land. We suggest that planning of ecological networks needs to account for future land use change. Adaptation and mitigation strategies across multiple sectors should be reconciled. Woodland networks will benefit from minimising creation of new woodlands on future prime agricultural land, the protection of existing patches, and the creation of wide-scale dispersal pathways along climatic gradients, i.e. in the N–S and E–W directions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article reviews historical changes in the total phosphorus (TP) inputs to Loch Leven, Scotland, UK. Data derived from palaeolimnological records suggest that inputs in the early 1900s were about 6 t TP year−1 (0.45 g TP m−2 year−1). By 1985, this had risen to about 20 t TP year−1 (1.5 g TP m−2 year−1) due to increases in runoff from agricultural land and discharges from point sources. By the late 1970s, increased TP inputs were causing serious degradation of lake water quality. Most noticeably, there had been an increase in cyanobacterial blooms. A catchment management plan was implemented in the early 1990s. This resulted in a 60% reduction in the annual TP input between 1985 (20 t TP year−1/1.5 g TP m−2 year−1) and 1995 (8 t TP year−1/0.6 g TP m−2 year−1). The main reduction was associated with better control of point source discharges, but attempts were also made to reduce inputs from diffuse sources. The reduction in external TP loading to the lake led to a marked decline in TP retention by the lake each year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent decades have seen a gradual erosion of farming incomes across the UK due to falling commodity prices and changes to the subsidy regime. This study examines what resources farmers are able to access informally and how this 'social capital' is generated and maintained in farming communities. Using a conceptual framework based on Bourdieu's conceptualisations of social and cultural capital, this study explores the evolving informal exchange relationships between farmers in a case study of Upper Deeside, Scotland. We find that although cultural capital is important for accessing social capital, the technological treadmill characteristic of 'good farming' creates a disincentive for informally sharing machinery amongst large-scale farmers. However, social capital remains an important resource for smaller scale farmers, particularly in terms of their access to labour. We conclude by suggesting that, far from being a low-cost means of facilitating community economic development, increasing the level of social capital will be difficult in communities where labour is a scarce or expensive resource. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: To assess whether flies and slugs acquire strains of Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli present in local ruminant faeces. Methods and Results: Campylobacter was cultured from flies, slugs and ruminant faeces that were collected from a single farm in Scotland over a 19-week period. The isolates were typed using multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) and compared with isolates from cattle and sheep faeces. Campylobacter jejuni and Camp. coli were isolated from 5·8% ( n = 155, average of 75 flies per pool) and 13·3% ( n = 15, average of 8·5 slugs per pool) of pooled fly and slug samples, respectively. The most common sequence type (ST) in flies was Camp. coli ST-962 (approx. 40%) regardless of the prevalence in local cattle (2·3%) or sheep (25·0%) faeces. Two positive slug pools generated the same ST that has not been reported elsewhere. Conclusions: Despite their low carriage rate, flies are able to acquire Campylobacter STs that are locally present, although the subset carried may be biased when compared to local source. Slugs were shown to carry a previously unreported Campylobacter ST. Significance and Impact of the Study: This study has demonstrated that flies carry viable Campylobacter and may contribute to the transfer of STs within and between groups of animals on farms. Further, they may therefore present a risk to human health via their contact with ready-to-eat foods or surfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1 The population of peach-potato aphid Myzus persicae in Scotland is comprised almost entirely of long-term asexual clones. 2 Over a ten year period, M. persicae from Scottish fields and suction traps were analysed with six microsatellite markers. 3 Out of 1497 individuals analysed, 14 clones (denoted A–N) comprised over 98% of the collection. 4 Some clones were particularly abundant but most clones had a widespread distribution on all available plants. 5 Clones E and L had distinct features in their distributions as clone L was geographically totally restricted to the north east of Scotland and clone E showed a marked preference for brassica crops. 6 Clones E and L provide direct evidence of a role for local adaptations in the distribution of M. persicae clones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A national survey was conducted to determine the prevalence of Escherichia coli O26, O103, O111, and O145 in feces of Scottish cattle. In total, 6,086 fecal pats from 338 farms were tested. The weighted mean percentages of farms on which shedding was detected were 23% for E. coli O26, 22% for E. coli O103, and 10% for E. coli O145. The weighted mean prevalences in fecal pats were 4.6% for E. coli O26, 2.7% for E. coli O103, and 0.7% for E. coli O145. No E. coli O111 was detected. Farms with cattle shedding E. coli serogroup O26, O103, or O145 were widely dispersed across Scotland and were identified most often in summer and autumn. However, on individual farms, fecal shedding of E. coli O26, O103, or O145 was frequently undetectable or the numbers of pats testing positive were small. For serogroup O26 or O103 there was clustering of positive pats within management groups, and the presence of an animal shedding one of these serogroups was a positive predictor for shedding by others, suggesting local transmission of infection. Carriage of vtx was rare in E. coli O103 and O145 isolates, but 49.0% of E. coli O26 isolates possessed vtx, invariably vtx1 alone or vtx1 and vtx2 together. The carriage of eae and ehxA genes was highly associated in all three serogroups. Among E. coli serogroup O26 isolates, 28.9% carried vtx, eae, and ehxA—a profile consistent with E. coli O26 strains known to cause human disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Using a sample of 949 Scottish farms with finishing cattle, the spatial distribution of Escherichia coli O157-positive farms was investigated using disease mapping models. The overall prevalence of E. coli O157-positive farms was estimated as 22%. The regions used in this study were the 16 postcode areas of Scotland. For each region, the posterior relative risk (RR) was estimated as a model-based alternative to the saturated standardized morbidity ratio (SMR), i.e., the ratio between observed and expected cases in a region. Three Bayesian hierarchical models with generalized linear modeling of the area-specific risks were used to estimate the posterior relative risk of E. coli O157-positive farms in the postcode areas: a random-effects model incorporating only spatially uncorrelated heterogeneity; a model incorporating both spatially correlated and uncorrelated heterogeneity; and a pseudo-mixture model with unstructured correlation and a weighted mix of two variance components representing the spatial correlation and a jump structure. None of the models identified any areas with a significant increase or decrease in risk. The deviance information criteria slightly favored the simplest model (RR range: 0.92–1.09). However, this model appeared to smooth out more of the variation in the RR compared to the pseudo-mixture model, which gave a more informative pattern of the posterior relative risks (range: 0.81–1.22). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article focuses on the lotted land systems in North East Scotland since 1850. The system was an adaptation of the long narrow fields or rigs associated with medieval royal burghs. Additional land was added as villages grew. The establishment of these villages are explained by several factors. One is that they were associated with enclosure and remodeling of farms and another is that planned villages offer a number of uses such as for part-time farming and employment opportunities for tradesmen.

I.D. Ogden, M. MacRae and N.J.C. Strachan. 2004.To study the presence, numbers and virulence profiles ofEscherichia coliO157 in sheep faeces and validate the microbiological methods used to attain these data.Flock level prevalence was found to be 40% (six from 15) and 6·5% of faecal samples tested were found to be positive. Two farms gave samples defined as high shedding (>104 CFU g−1), one of which comprised 91% positive samples with 13/33 at the high shedding level.These data confirmed that sheep are an important reservoir ofE. coliO157.Sheep play a significant role in the maintenance and dispersal ofE. coliO157 in the farming environment and are an important source of human infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rectal fecal samples were taken once a week from 49 calves on the same farm. In addition, the dams of the calves were sampled at the time of calf birth and at the end of the study. Strains of verocytotoxin-producing Escherichia coli (VTEC) were isolated from these samples by using PCR and DNA probe hybridization tests and were characterized with respect to serotype, verocytotoxin gene (vtx) type, and the presence of the intimin (eae) and hemolysin (ehxA) genes. A total of 170 VTEC strains were isolated during 21 weeks from 130 (20%) of 664 samples from calves and from 40 (47%) of 86 samples from their dams. The characteristics of the calf strains differed from those strains isolated from the dams with respect to verocytotoxin 2 and the presence of the eae gene. In addition, no calf shed the same VTEC serogroup (excluding O?) as its dam at birth or at the end of the study. The most frequently detected serogroups in calves were serogroup O26 and provisional serogroup E40874 (VTEC 026 was found in 25 calves), whereas in dams serogroup O91 and provisional serogroup E54071 were the most common serogroups. VTEC O26 shedding appeared to be associated with very young calves and declined as the calves aged, whereas VTEC O2 shedding was associated with housing of the animals. VTEC O26 strains from calves were characterized by the presence of the vtx1, eae, and ehxA genes, whereas vtx2 was associated with VTEC O2 and provisional serogroup E40874. The high prevalence of VTEC O26 and of VTEC strains harboring the eae gene in this calf cohort is notable because of the association of the O26 serogroup and the presence of the eae gene with human disease. No association between calf diarrhea and any of the VTEC serogroups was identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the discovery of a 12th-century stockaded farmstead without obvious excavated parallels at the former grounds of Perceton House in Irvine, Scotland. Significance of the discovery; Need for a mitigation strategy involving sample excavation of all threatened features of the site; Historical background of the discovered site.

Discusses the external costs of public access on privately-owned farm and estate land in Scotland. Survey of farms and estates; Characteristics and arrangements for access; Income and costs associated with access; Indications of variable and site-specific costs associated with public access to the countryside.

There is a complex relationship between land-use, the environment, food production and quality. Regulatory and non-regulatory interventions, such as application of biosolids to agricultural land, are often undertaken at a field- or farm- level and the aggregated effects across farms and regions are difficult to understand, predict, and communicate to others both spatially and temporally. The aim of this paper was to introduce Waste to Land (W2L). W2L is a novel, holistic tool that combines spatial data analysis methods, multi-criteria analysis, and numerical models to detect areas for optimum biosolids application and to predict the spatial effect of applying biosolids to land. A robust framework was developed first to chart the effects of applied biosolids on the environment and, potentially, on the human food chain. Selecting cadmium as a prototype contaminant, a conceptual model was designed as the basis to define the workflow for the tool. Using the open-source, statistical language R and freely available data, the operation and outputs from the tool were demonstrated at a national scale in Scotland, UK. The results provided fresh intelligence on the ability of the Scottish Landbank to receive biosolids and on the spatial effect of landspreading biosolids, to facilitate the exchange of information between stakeholders, and to enable decision-making in a context of spreading biosolids on farmland. • A novel tool to predict the spatial effect of applying biosolids to land is proposed • The tool combines spatial data analysis, multi-criteria analysis, and numerical models in R • The tool's feasibility and potential was verified through stakeholder engagement • The tool will allow gaining new knowledge, enhancing communication among stakeholders, and aiding the decision-making process [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grain legumes have declined to a low base in many regions of intensified agriculture yet have the potential both to safeguard food security and satisfy rising ethical demands from food consumers. Here, the scope for legume expansion is examined in a long‐established agricultural region in eastern Scotland where grain legumes declined to <0.3% of cropped area in the 1930s and now vary around 1%. Data from the EU's Integrated Administrative and Control System (IACS) were combined with national agricultural survey to resolve uncertainties over possible restrictions to expansion following 20th‐century intensification. The grain legumes, peas and beans for animal and human consumption, were found to occupy six crop‐grass systems covering a wide range of agronomic input and geographical location. The phase of agricultural intensification between 1950 and 1990 had widened rather than restricted the systems in which they occur and could expand. Moreover, the diversity of the crop‐grass systems provides scope for complementary expansion of several products such as beans for aquaculture, pulses for human consumption, and peas for stockfeed without diminishing the areas of the most profitable crops. Among crop systems, N inputs following 20% legume inclusion would fall from the current 178 to 140 kg/ha (78.6%) at the high‐input end of the range and from 92 to 71 kg/ha (77.0%) at the low‐input end. Further reductions to 50%–60% of the existing N input to intensive crop sequences were estimated assuming a residual fixed nitrogen of 50–75 kg/ha and legume inclusion of 33%. Legume expansion would also bring a range of environmental benefits across all crop‐grass systems. While analysis using IACS brought many insights, major limitations to estimating national N‐balances were identified in lack of data on residual N following legumes, in imported animal feed and in the contribution of forage legumes to grassland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]