The Treadmill Revisited

Levins, Richard; Cochrane, Willard W.

doi:10.2307/3146915

Cited by 104 publications

(68 citation statements)

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“…Seguindo a categorização de Levins e Cochrane (1996) para o processo inovativo das empresas, há três subgrupos de empresas, sendo as early adpters, ou seja, as líderes no processo de inovação. O segundo grupo são os followers, que se refere ao grupo que possui comportamento mimetizador, ou seja, introduzem somente projetos significativos que já foram testados por outras empresas do setor.…”

Section: Fundamentação Teóricaunclassified

Análise Exploratória da Eficiência Produtiva das Usinas de Cana-de-açúcar na Região Centro-Sul do Brasil

Pereira

Silveira

2016

Rev. Econ. Sociol. Rural

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Resumo: O setor sucroenergético se configura estratégico perante a demanda crescente por novas fontes de energia alternativas ao petróleo e derivados, em virtude das pressões sobre essa matéria-prima. Dada a futura conjuntura que se desenha, o etanol de cana-de-açúcar em muito se adequa e possui vantagens para conquistar novos mercados, mas desde que tenha uma produção eficiente e que faça bom uso dos recursos existentes. Assim sendo, o trabalho analisa a produtividade total dos fatores (PTF) e seus componentes para 17 usinas da região Centro-Sul do Brasil durante o período [2001][2002][2003][2004][2005][2006][2007][2008]. A amostra é considerada significativa, pois o volume de cana moída representa 11,5% do total moído no Brasil. A metodologia se baseia em Coelli et al. (1998), a partir da Análise Envoltória de Dados (DEA), com o uso do índice de Malmquist, que avalia os índices de produtividade ao longo do tempo, decompondo-os em índices que captam variação da eficiência técnica e mudanças tecnológicas. O trabalho conclui que a amostra é composta em sua maioria por followers, ou seja, as usinas não criam e adotam inovações radicais, elas apenas seguem um movimento conjunto em direção a tecnologias já testadas no mercado e de comprovada eficiência por outras usinas. Palavras-chaves:

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Section: Fundamentação Teóricaunclassified

Análise Exploratória da Eficiência Produtiva das Usinas de Cana-de-açúcar na Região Centro-Sul do Brasil

Pereira

Silveira

2016

Rev. Econ. Sociol. Rural

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“…Thus, competitive dynamics compel farmers to (1) adopt technological innovations to lower their per‐unit costs, (2) expand their acreage – competing to buy or rent land – to spread their fixed costs over a larger area (Cochrane ; Bell ) and/or (3) move costs into the externality category with no immediate cost to them. In short, ‘farmers are on a treadmill which, in spite of their constant adoption of new technologies, wears away any profits which might result’ (Levins and Cochrane , p. 550). Scholars and proponents of AFNs often assume that they operate outside of these competitive dynamics, and the influence of capitalism's laws of motion.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eroding the Community in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA): Competition's Effects in Alternative Food Networks in California

et al. 2015

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The effects of competition within alternative food networks (AFNs) remain largely unexplored. Using a study of farms that operate Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programmes in California, the state in the USA with the most CSAs, we empirically examine the effects of competition within alternative food networks. We conducted a statewide survey of CSA farmers in California, which collected data from 111 CSAs. For this analysis we construct a perceived competition index composed of variables that measure farmers' perceptions of competition with numerous market outlets and their being constrained in raising their prices due to competitive pressures. Our analysis shows that perceived competition is negatively correlated with CSA farms' profitability, farmers' satisfaction on a number of fronts, various indicators of the social embeddedness of CSA, and two community food security strategies. We conclude that competition is a real, although differential, phenomenon experienced by many CSA farmers in California, and that this competition impacts CSA in ways that undermine some of its commonly held values, especially fair farmer compensation and strong member-farmer relationships.

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“…In order to explain the apparent contradiction we need to invoke Willard Cochrane's theory of the technological treadmill (1993; 2000). In fact the rapid adoption of Roundup Ready® soybeans is a classic example of the technology treadmill in action as insightfully outlined by Willard Cochrane (1993Cochrane ( , 1996Cochrane ( , 2000. As the theory suggests, given the inability of farmers to affect the prices they receive for their commodity crops, farmers can only increase their profits by adopting new technologies that decrease their costs.…”

Section: Gm Soybeans Seed Saving and The Restructuring Of The Agrifomentioning

confidence: 98%

Seeds of Change: Intellectual Property Rights, Genetically Modified Soybeans and Seed Saving in the United States

Mascarenhas

Busch

2006

Sociologia Ruralis

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Seed saving is a historical cultural phenomenon that dates back to the beginning of agriculture itself. Seeds, because of their unique characteristics -the seed contains within itself the means for its own reproduction -have offered a particularly large stumbling block to capital accumulation. In the US, intellectual property rights legislation and Supreme Court decisions have played a profound role in overcoming these unique characteristics and have made it possible for input supply companies to extract more profit from the farm production process. Our analysis of the historical seed-saving practices of soybean farmers in the US indicates that large farms have consistently saved seed in the US -as much as 60 per cent in some years. However, with the introduction of Roundup Ready® soybeans the nature of seed saving was drastically changed. We argue that the combination of expanding intellectual property rights, 'new' GM technology, and the ideology of the technological treadmill have successfully overcome seeds' inherent obstacles to capitalist accumulation. In capitalising nature's production, Monsanto and other leading seed corporations have been able to incur massive profits from the licensing of commercial seed supplies. As a result, US farmers are facing further loss of control of the farm production process.

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The Treadmill Revisited

Cited by 104 publications

References 0 publications

Análise Exploratória da Eficiência Produtiva das Usinas de Cana-de-açúcar na Região Centro-Sul do Brasil

Análise Exploratória da Eficiência Produtiva das Usinas de Cana-de-açúcar na Região Centro-Sul do Brasil

Eroding the Community in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA): Competition's Effects in Alternative Food Networks in California

Seeds of Change: Intellectual Property Rights, Genetically Modified Soybeans and Seed Saving in the United States

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