No abstract

Rising energy costs, increasing herd sizes, and other structural changes affecting the New York dairy industry may make farmers receptive to new energy production technologies. Anaerobic digestion represents a possible benefit to farmers by reducing odor while producing methane for electricity. However, current digester designs are for herd sizes of 300 or more cows, with significant economies of scale, so smaller operators may have little interest in the technology. Moreover, without a favorable policy environment and reliable grant programs, the initial investments required for digester installation might deter operators. One solution to these issues may be community digesters, which are centrally located facilities that accept manure from multiple farms. Data from a survey of New York dairy farmers were used to assess farmers' interest in community digesters. In general, interest was associated with power generation outcomes and reservations about organic farming practices; advocates might encourage their use among smaller conventional farm operators looking for new sources of profit and diversification.

Structural change in the US dairy industry toward fewer and very large farms has fueled interest and government funding of research into the feasibility of constructing anaerobic digesters (ADs) on large operations as a waste management strategy. Some groups opposed to increasing scale and concentration in the livestock sectors, including dairy, also oppose ADs because of the connection with larger scale operations and the potential for facilitating increased concentration in agricultural production. But the connection between AD technology and large scale is a social construction promoted by its incorporation into the debates over agricultural industrialization. The technology per se is essentially scale neutral and its scale-implications are artifacts of design choices, as is seen by its successful application to both very small farms around the world and large-scale agricultural enterprises in the USA. Using a survey of dairy farmers in New York, we find that interest in AD technology occurs at all farm sizes; and that factors other than farm size are important in determining interest in the technology. We conclude that the technoscientific question raised by these findings is: will applications to, and interest by, smaller dairy farmer operators result in shifts in policy and funding priorities toward more diverse agricultural research agendas regarding AD technology?

Objective. The far Right's rise to power in Poland in 2005 left many observers curious about the relationship between conditions of rising inequality, recent E.U. accession, and the changing resonance of right-wing ideology. This study analyzes Polish voting patterns over the 1991-2005 period in order to determine the effects of ideological and social-structural variables on political behavior in a postsocialist context. Methods. The study employs bivariate analysis to assess the persistence or novelty of associations between conservative ideologies and right-wing voting throughout a period of macro-structural change. The data are drawn from the Polish General Social Survey. Results. The analysis indicates that by 2001, three ideological factors became newly correlated with voting for the Right: religious traditionalism, anti-Communism, and free market values. Structurally, Poles with more years of education were the new base of party support by 2001. Conclusions. Contrary to expectations, postsocialism's economic ''losers''-those with less education, less income, the unemployed-were not more likely to turn to the Right. Middle-class interests began to have greater political influence by the end of this period, a conclusion that seems supported by more recent election outcomes.