The report entitled An Analysis of the Canadian Research and Development System for Agriculture/Food which was presented to the Science Council of Canada in July, 1991 contains many far-reaching recommendations for revisions of the research and educational components of the Agriculture/Food System in Canada. The report calls for research of holistic and interdisciplinary nature. It calls for determination of research priorities by broadly constituted committees which would include reporesentaitves heretofore not included in the process of decisionmaking regarding scientific research. In (...) addition, it calls for restructuring of the agricultural education system. The Co-editors of this Journal, believe that these recommendations should be wildely discussed and, therefore, requested publication of the Executive Summary of this Report. (shrink)

By comparison with the Atlantic Ocean, the physical oceanography of the Pacific was poorly known as late as the end of the 1930s. International collaboration to study the Pacific, attempted by oceanography committees of the Pacific Science Association, was a failure, owing to the scale of the enterprise, the low scientific abilities of the Pacific nations, and the lack of a compelling need. Even in the U.S.A., where the Scripps Institution of Oceanography was active, lack of good ships and personnel (...) reduced the effectiveness of Pacific oceanography. Scripps's physical oceanographer George F. McEwen was more physicist than physical oceanographer; he also became side-tracked into climatology. Only with the arrival of H. U. Sverdrup at Scripps in 1936 did Pacific physical oceanography begin to prosper, but its greatest success followed World War II, when techniques and approaches transplanted from the Atlantic became established. (shrink)

Why did Hume drop sympathy as a key concept of his moral philosophy, and why—on the other hand—did Smith make it into the ‘didactic principle’ of his Theory of Moral Sentiments? These questions confront us with the basic issue of ethical theory concerning human nature. My point in dealing with these questions is to show what views of human nature their respective choices involved. And my procedure will be to take a close look at the revisions they made to their (...) ethical theories to bring out the contrasting aspects of their views of human nature. (shrink)

Veterinarians play an essential role in the animal-based food chain. They are professionally responsible for the health of farm animals to secure food safety and public health. In the last decades, food scandals and zoonotic disease outbreaks have shown how much animal and human health are entangled. Therefore, the concept of One Health is broadly promoted within veterinary medicine. The profession embraces this idea that the health of humans, animals and the environment is inextricably linked and supports the related call (...) for transdisciplinary collaboration. Especially in zoonotic disease control, the benefits of the cooperation between veterinarians and human doctors seem evident. However, applying a One Health approach also makes moral problems explicit. For instance, how should veterinarians deal with situations in which measures to protect public health negatively affect animal health? This creates a conflict of professional responsibilities. To deal with such moral problems and to strengthen the veterinarian’s position, the starting point is a holistic perspective on One Health. We will argue for an ‘encapsulated health’ argument: the best way to safeguard human health is to promote the health of animals and the environment. This also holds for the responsibility of the veterinary profession: to serve public health, the central responsibility of veterinarians should be to be experts in animal health and welfare. We elaborate this point by using a case study on the role of the veterinary profession in antimicrobial resistance policies in the Netherlands. (shrink)

There is a Mexican, as well as a Canadian version of the American Dream. What drives political idealism in Mexico is less the idea of individual right, or respect for the rights of communities, than it is the 'indigenous' right of an historically oppressed people to a political culture and life wholly their own.

Corruption is consciously taking advantage of one's special position, power or wealth for personal gain. It is spreading because there is ignorance and absence of adequate knowledge on the subject and how to correct and control it. Added to this is the innocence of the believers in the infallibility of the legal, political, bureau cratic and other social systems. They become the victims of the exploiters of the system who know the system weaknesses and how to take advantage of it (...) for their personal gain. There are two levels of corruption—the grand corruption of those in power and the petty corruption of the lower levels. Corruption is a malady affecting both affluent and poor nations. while affluent nations do not exhibit much evidence of petty cor ruption, poor nations are subject to the effects of both grand and petty corruption from within their own bor ders and the effects of the grand corruption by the affluent. Social systems, value education, spiritual leam ing and character building are necessary to eradicate this cancer. (shrink)

(1884). ANNUAL ADDRESS READ BEFORE THE “SOUTH AFRICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY,”. Transactions of the South African Philosophical Society: Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. xxx-liii.