This first sustained ethnographic study of organic agriculture outside the United States traces its meanings, practices, and politics in two nations typically considered worlds apart: Latvia and Costa Rica. Situated on the frontiers of the European Union and the United States, these geopolitically and economically in-between places illustrate ways that international treaties have created contradictory pressures for organic farmers. Organic farmers in both countries build multispecies networks of biological and social diversity and create spaces of sovereignty within state and suprastate governance bodies. Organic associations in Central America and Eastern Europe face parallel challenges in balancing multiple identities as social movements, market sectors, and NGOs while finding their place in regions and nations reshaped by world events.

A rich, original study of the social and bureaucratic life of organic quality that challenges assumptions of what organic means Tracing the social and bureaucratic life of organic quality, this book yields new understandings of this fraught concept. Shaila Seshia Galvin examines certified organic agriculture in India's central Himalayas, revealing how organic is less a material property of land or its produce than a quality produced in discursive, regulatory, and affective registers. Becoming Organic is a nuanced account of development practice in rural India, as it has unfolded through complex relationships forged among state authorities, private corporations, and new agrarian intermediaries.

A significantly updated translation of Lichtabsorption und Photochemie Organischer Molekule, published by VCH in 1989. A graduate textbook that provides a qualitative description of electronic excitation in organic molecules and of the associated spectroscopy, photophysics, and photochemistry. The treatment is non- mathematical and emphasizes the use of simple qualitative models for developing an intuitive feeling for the course of photophysical and photochemical processes in terms of potential energy hypersurfaces. Special attention is paid to recent developments, particularly to the role of conical intersections. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Globalizing Organic focuses on the globalization of a culture of "eating for change" and the ways in which local meanings attached to the production of foods embed ecological and social values. Rafi Grosglik examines how organic agriculture was integrated in Israel—a state in which agriculture was a key mechanism in promoting Jewish nationalism and in time has become highly mechanized and technologically sophisticated. He explores how organic food, which signifies environmental protection and social equity, has been realized in a country where environmental issues are perceived as less pressing compared to inner political conflicts, the Israeli-Arab conflict, and recurrent wars. Based on more than a decade of ethnographic fieldwork, interviews, and analysis of historical documents and media, Grosglik traces how alternative food movements are affected by global and local trends. He covers a wide range of topics, including the ethos of halutzim ("pioneers," Zionist ideological farmers and workers), the utopian visions of the Israeli kibbutz, indigeneity that is claimed both by Palestinians and Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank, biblical meanings that have been ascribed to environmental and countercultural ideas, the Americanization of Israeli society, and its neoliberalized economy.

This book is based on the results of many years of experimental work by the author and his colleagues, dealing with the electronic properties of organic crystals. E. Silinsh has played a leading role in pOinting out the importance of the polarization energy by an excess carrier, in determining not only the character of the carrier mobility in organic crystals, but in determining the band gap and the nature of the all-important trapping site in these crystals. The one-electron model of electronic conductivity that has been so successful in dealing with inorganic semiconductors is singular ly unsuccessful in rationalizing the unusual physical properties of organic crystals. A many-body theory is required, and the experimental manifestation of this is the central role played by the crystal polarization enerqies in transferring the results obtained with the isolated molecule, to the solid. The careful studies of E. Silinsh in this field have shown tn detail how this polarization energy develops around the excess carrier (and also the hole-electron pair) sitting on a molecular site in the crystal. As with all insulators, trapping sites playa dominant role in reducing the magnitude of ~he current that can theoretically pass through the organic crystal. It is usually the case that these trapping sites are energetically distributed within the forbidden band of the crystal. For many years, an exponential distribution has shown itself to be useful and reasonably correct: However,' E.

Organic lasers are broadly tunable coherent sources, potentially compact, convenient and manufactured at low-costs. Appeared in the mid 60’s as solid-state alternatives for liquid dye lasers, they recently gained a new dimension after the demonstration of organic semiconductor lasers in the 90's. More recently, new perspectives appeared at the nanoscale, with organic polariton and surface plasmon lasers. After a brief reminder to laser physics, a first chapter exposes what makes organic solid-state organic lasers specific. The laser architectures used in organic lasers are then reviewed, with a state-of-the-art review of the performances of devices with regard to output power, threshold, lifetime, beam quality etc. A survey of the recent trends in the field is given, highlighting the latest developments with a special focus on the challenges remaining for achieving direct electrical pumping of organic semiconductor lasers. A last chapter covers the applications of organic solid-state lasers.

Most organic reactions have long been carried out in organic solvents without concern for their real necessity, reaction efficiency, and pollution problems. Very recently, we have found that most organic reactions can be carried out in the absence of a solvent, namely, in the solid state. In many cases, the solid-state reaction proceeds more easily and efficiently, and even more selectively than solution reaction. This shows that molecules move easily and selectively in the solid state. This finding changed the classical idea which suggests "molecules do not move and reactions do not occur in the solid state", and opened up a new research field for the study molecular dynamics in the solid state. The organic solid state reactions have many possibilities to be developed. For example, enantioselective reactions can easily be accomplished by carrying out the reaction in an inclusion complex crystal with an optically active host compound. Catalytic reactions also proceed in the solid state. Moreover, the solid-state reactions are more economical and ecologically sound. In the future, pollution-free synthetic procedures in the solid state will become increasingly important, not only in chemical industries but also in university laboratories.

A bold, science-based corrective to the groundswell of misinformation about food and how it's produced, examining in detail local and organic food, food companies, nutrition labeling, ethical treatment of animals, environmental impact, and every other aspect from farm to table. Consumers want to know more about their food—including the farm from which it came, the chemicals used to grow it, its nutritional value, how the animals were treated, and the costs to the environment. They are being told that buying organic foods, unprocessed and sourced from small local farms, is the most healthful and sustainable option. But what if we’re wrong? In Resetting the Table, Robert Paarlberg reviews the evidence and finds abundant reason to disagree. He delineates the ways in which global food markets have in fact improved our diet, and how "industrial" farming has recently turned green, thanks to GPS-guided precision methods that cut energy use and chemical pollution. He makes clear that America's serious obesity crisis does not come from farms, or from food deserts, but instead from "food swamps" created by food companies, retailers, and restaurant chains. And he explains how, though animal welfare is lagging behind, progress can be made through continued advocacy, more progressive regulations, and perhaps plant-based imitation meat. He finds solutions that can make sense for farmers and consumers alike and provides a road map through the rapidly changing worlds of food and farming, laying out a practical path to bring the two together.