Furman Selz

The firm had a unique approach to everything – from hiring employees, selecting clients to providing services. As the firm grew in size and in revenues, its founders realized the need for professional management. This brought about the very first change – in form of Edmund Hails. With a highly structured and consistent approach, Hajji set out to re-form the entire system and expand the company with the help of Steve Belcher, COO.The new P&L's (Profit ; Loss system) and Compensation system were Ingredients of this change management process. During the acquisition process, Farman Sell witnessed drastic culture hinges from the Orlando Clan culture to a Bureaucracy one. Farman Sell was acquired by Xerox Financial Services Inc. In 1987. On one hand, the people of Farman Sell were put-off by the bureaucratic style and on the other hand, the firm enjoyed being under the umbrella of a big brand.Following the ‘Black Monday' of 1987, the financial services sector was badly hit and even though the performance of Farman Sell was above average, Xerox decided to sell its financial services unit and once again, Farman Sell became a private company owned by the firm's management and a group of employees. Edmund Hajji took over the reins and quickly distributed company stocks to key employees in order to retain them. The firm then focused on aggressive hiring of new talent and expansion of Its business.Farman Sell became a very sought-after company to work with. In 1995 the Federal Reserve relaxed the Glass-Steal regulations, which had emerged as a way to control the banking industry after the Great Depression. Then there were few restrictions when commercial banks want to combine with security business and vice versa. As a result, many mid-sized investing banks were looking to merge with larger rims and therefore attain growth and the possibility to participate in larger deals.As business grew across various dimensions, Farman Sell realized that they were à ¢â‚¬Ëœt competitive and they lost a lot of deals because of smaller size of the firm, limited equity and the businesses that were increasingly becoming global, especially when there was huge growth In mergers and acquisitions. This Is when INNING Barings acquired Farman Sell, pursuing an international expansion strategy in both banking and Insurance. The acquisition made by INNING shows clear failures in the 3-Stages Model of Merges and Acquisitions.In the first stage, â€Å"Pre-Combination†, there Is a lack of the cultural assessment needed by the HRS department. It Is needed to evaluate the philosophies and values of both companies, and therefore understand among toners, ten learning styles, relative value AT stats Consolers or ten value AT teamwork versus the individual performance and recognition. Thus, it would be easier for both companies to develop a plan for managing the process of the M;A. In the INNING case, there seems to be a lack of this pre-combination assessmen t, in that the company wanted to climb up the rankings without investing more money.They din ‘t understand that the company the day before the acquisition was the same as the day after. INNING Barings had most of its business in commercial banking and insurance, with absolutely no business lines in areas of Investment banking. Almost immediately, tension started developing between managers of INNING Barings and Farman Sell because there were differences in agreement on key business issues. The complexities in structure of INNING were not taken well by former Farman Sell employees.Regarding the second stage, â€Å"Combination-Integrating the Company', there are several decisions that would help n the process of the acquisition. Firstly, there was no integration manager, who is a key person – not in running of the business, but in attaining a higher percentage of retention of the acquired managers and key employees and at the same time in achieving the business goals ear lier. Second, INNING group decided to have 2 co-leaders in the new company and this created confusion. The workers felt that they din ‘t understand the expectations that INNING had.In order for a M&A to succeed, it is necessary to have a strong leader who can manage the new business combination ND avoid uncertainty, lack of direction and the adjournment of important decisions. In this second stage, clear and positive communication is extremely important. It is also necessary to identify key employees and develop the incentives process in order to retain them. It is evident that INNING did not realize the importance of investing time and money into the newly formed relationship with Farman Sell resulting in failure to achieve common ground while making business decisions.Lack of communication usually leads to confusion, reduced productivity, a high level of uncertainty and low morale. The situation was worsened by the departure of key management personnel, one after the other, in a very short span of time. The problem can be attributed to poor integration post acquisition. It seems that INNING understood who the key players were, and positioned them in different departments, such as Steve Blob (Research), Bill Shutter and Chris Moore (Corporate Finance), who along with Bill Torsos were called the â€Å"troika† and developed a new incentive system to ease the complexity created.The problem arose when as a consequence of the Russian debt crisis, only a small number of top performers received bonuses and most of other employee din t receive anything, even though INNING Barings had no part in the Russian problem. As a result of pessimism and the problems with bonuses, many talented people left the company. Statistics reveal that about 70-80% of mergers fail to provide value to the company. The people driving the business are the single most important factor determining the success of a merger or acquisition and this fact cannot be ignored.The 6th Princ iple for Managing Change shows us the importance of the different stakeholders in the company when it under goes changes. The company needs to understand who are these key stakeholders and prioritize them. While the senior management of Farman Sell was supporting the acquisition there were many employees across several levels of management that fold under the category of Skeptics. I nose are ten people winos n seas nave to De reassess Tort smooth transitioning. Looking at the Change Curve we see several reactions of employees of Farman Sell – from initial shock to denial and anger.It is evident from the fact that people felt betrayed when they realized that they were ;t going to be an independent subsidiary. At the same time, HRS personnel at Farman Sell were not forth coming in haring information, because they were angry at how things had been handled. Finally, everything led to Depression, when a lot of key employees left the company. If INNING had invested sufficient money and effort towards smooth integration, the curve could follow the intended path to acceptance, discovery and integration.Now that Farman Sell has already been acquired by INNING Barings, we strongly recommend that INNING invests additional funds as well as effort for a smooth integration and sustainability. This includes looking into various issues: * Management issues * Talent recruitment, compensations and rewards Alignment of HRS policies * Defining a vision for the newly acquired company * Identifying procedures that work well with both parties * Identifying cultural barriers to progress In addition, internal communication is also a critical tool.A seamless communication will ensure that people do not become pessimistic and lose confidence. It will reassure employees and instill a greater sense of belonging. In cases of M & A, involving cross-border deals, cultural differences, legislative complexities, local know- how and ways of doing business all provide obstacles to smooth transitioning and progress. A lot more sensitivity is required when affecting such deals – both pre acquisitions as well as post-acquisition.For example, the newly formed teams may face inter-personal conflict and not be clear about its responsibilities and goals. Ideally, post an acquisition, efforts should be made to allow the acquired firm retain its best management practices and values that are important to its managers. This will help create greater harmony in operations. In addition, a feedback taken from different levels of management can help identify problem areas and allow senior managers find ways to resolve them.

The Value Of Health Across Cultures

Evaluating the Value of Health and Cultural Heritage across Cultures Culture and values are standards that influence and shape human behaviors, decision making processes, personal relationships, and status of health and happiness. The United States has become a symbol of a multicultural society representing many different ethnicities and minority groups. As our culture continues to grow rapidly so is the necessity to increase awareness, understanding, and tolerance of these diverse groups. As health care providers we must understand the basic needs of our patients, whether they are black, white, green or purple, and the repercussions of prejudices and cultural insensitivities. Health care providers need to become responsive to the cultural values of different peoples and how these could augment effective and humanistic care delivery (Edelman, 2010). The Heritage Assessment Tools allows you to identify individual cultural beliefs and behaviors. These beliefs have shaped how we value health, the ways we maintain our health and the practice/acceptance of modern medicine. For example, if a patient identifies those relationships with family members or members from the community are highly valued then the nurse should consider lenience with the hospital visiting policy to meet the patients needs to maintain and restore their health. Many cultures value a caring holistic approach to medicine that incorporates family and supports systems to promote healing. Some cultures do not emphasis the practices of western medicine and utilize healers like priests, herbalists, or scientologist. By applying a heritage assessment in evaluating the needs of the patient as well as maintaining an open and understanding relationship of their culture, nurses can work to meet their needs in a holistic approach. How we have learned to take care of ourselves or our â€Å"health maintenance â€Å"varies from culture to culture. I grew up in a culture where regular exercise, watching what you ate, and â€Å"being thin is in† were highly valued. I and most of my friends had retainers and braces to maintain the image of good health with a picture perfect smile. As kids we were all active and parents provided healthy snacks as well as well balanced meals. Fast food and take-out was a once-in-a-while indulgence. For ethnic groups, health as a value may have different definitions and their behavior may reflect this(Edelman, 2010). I interviewed a Hispanic female and her family about how her culture has influenced her maintenance of day-to-day health. Family is an important dynamic in her culture, putting everyone else in her family before herself. Her family has influence of her everyday decision making, sure her children and grown parents are always well taken care of. Diet is based on being able to provide for the family more than the value of the foods nutrients. She admits that fast food is a cheaper option for feeding her children than stocking up on healthy produce at the grocery store. Her home is shared with her husband, four children, and her two parents, so they are all involved in taking care of one another. I also had the opportunity to meet with a family that traveled from Saudi Arabia to receive cardiac evaluation and treatment at the world renowned Texas Medical Center. The adult male patient as his wife were very private and did express interest in developing personal relationship with their nurse, so most my assessment was made from conversations held with their daughter a practicing physician in the same hospital. She told me that health maintenance is highly valued and the government provides a number of health care services to the public. Those who can afford it will travel elsewhere for expert opinions and cutting edge treatments. In regards to their routine values of health maintenance, their family practices and beliefs are based from Islamic religion and culture. Islam promotes heath and wellness with meditation, proper diet, regular activity and cleanliness (bathing, fragrance, attention to hair and nails). Lastly, their culture strictly dictates the foods they eat as well as what is considered toxic or harmful to their health. The ways of preventing disease or â€Å"health protection† has made an impact on health care. Growing up with access to health insurance, routine doctors visits, vaccinations, and educational programs to promote heath and wellness such as the D. A. R. E program was normal practice. One of the biggest obstacles for the Hispanic family was not having access to affordable health are. Health care insurance is not affordable for many poor Americans, whose priorities are the basic needs of health including food, clothing, and shelter rather than health care(Edelman, 2010). They admit to not having good preventative health care like routine physicals, medication compliance, attending follow-up appointments, and regula r dental hygiene. Being hospitalized is often a last resort because of the finical stress is can cause because of lack of health insurance. In contrast to the Hispanic American family, the Saudi family viewed out of pocket expenses a low priority when considering health protection. This patient needed to have heart surgery and with support from immediate and extended family members in the United States, some practicing as physicians, this was the best option. Good health is often a sign of affluence and high social status. How individuals deal with disease and restore health is based from cultural beliefs and learned experiences. Learning from personal experience with my family members being hospitalized and being treated for disease, we are aggressive with treatment and expect the information and results quickly. We expect to have everything done to treat illness and when modern medicine fails we have a hard time accepting that reality because of our faith in the health care system, doctors, and nurses. The Islamic culture also encourages individuals to seek medical help and treatment. Religion plays a huge part in healing and health restoration. I witnessed my patient and his wife praying regularly. Family is also key for this culture, demonstrating strong ties with both immediate and extended family at the bedside involved in regular discussion with physicians and other health care providers. Being able to afford out of pocket expenses hey expect the highest level of expertise and excellence in care from their health care providers. Sometimes family members will contribute to these expenses. Hispanic cultures typically cater towards men, children, and the elders in the household. This Hispanic American female admits that even immediately after having her fourth baby, she was still the primary care giver to her children and homemaker/care taker of the household. Also, she admits that even though not having regular access to medical care this does not influence how she provides attention and nurtures her family members during times illness. Her culture has a strong emphasis on family and religion as well as practicing traditional home remedies. Being surrounded by family and prayer helps her and her family in times sickness and promotes healthy recovery. Based on the three different cultures evaluated there is one strong common value, family. Health traditions and beliefs are greatly influenced from learned family practices as well as from influential support systems. This century will continue to be a time of great challenges as the population of the U. S. continues to be a nation of diverse peoples(Edelman, 2010). Nurses continue to make many positive moves toward understanding culturally diverse populations (Edelman, 2010). As we have learned, culture is a very unique and complex set of values. By being aware of cultural differences and gaining cultural knowledge nurses can help promote and ensure a healthy society.

Managerial Economics: A Game Theoretic Approach Essay

Using computations from Assignment 1, determine the market structure in which the low-calorie frozen, microwavable food company operates. The market structure that this company is likely to be in is the oligopoly structure whereby it could be in a duopoly or not. A duopoly is a market structure in which there are few firms in the industry. It is a market structure that lies between two market structures, that is, perfectly competitive market and monopoly. There are two or more sellers but the number of sellers is not as large as that of the ones present in a perfectly competitive market. The firm can be categorized as a monopoly mainly because of the cross sectional demand of the firm. The cross price elasticity demand of this particular firm is 0.68. This simply means that an increase in the prices of the competitors ’ product by one unit implies a 0.68 unit increase in terms of the quantity demanded. This basically implies that the cross sectional demand in inelastic. As such, the increase in price, decrease in price or generally the change of prices by this particular firm will not have a significant effect i n terms of the quantity demanded. This is the ideal representation of a firm in an oligopoly. The scope for individual action can be said to be way greater than in the case that the product was differentiated. In other words, one individual seller does not stand to lose in the case that he or she decides to charge a higher price. For this reason, this firm is definitely under an oligopoly market structure.(Webster, 2003) Outline a plan that will assess the effectiveness of the market structure for the company’s operations The issue of prices is basically the basis of the plan that is to be formulated. Generally, the price quantity combination depends upon the actions that are taken by the rest of the firms in the duopoly. In other words, the profit that is accrued by each and every seller is a result of the decisions that have been reached by each individual seller. The monopoly price that will be charged under this market structure could come with a series of consultations or simply individual experiments. For this particular firm to maximize its profits it needs to fix its price through an analysis with the assumption that there exists only one firm in the market. In the event that the firm fixes its price higher than this price, it will make gains. In the event that it fixes the price lower, it will lose. Given that business operations have changed from the market structure specified in the original scenario in Assignment 1, determine two (2) likely factors that might have caused the change. Predict the primary manner in which this change would likely impact business operations in the new market environment. The assumed market structure was that the firm was under a perfectly competitive market. It however turns out that the firm is in an imperfect market, a duopoly precisely. There are a number of f actors that are likely to have caused the change in this market structure. One of the reasons is that there probably existed one factor of production that is owned by a few firms only. As a result, not many firms are able to produce the product. Besides, it is also a possibility that there existed many firms initially in the market under a perfectly competitive market. These firms could have decided to merge thereafter and consolidated themselves into one major firm with the aim of reducing competition. In this way, the number of sellers reduces. Analyze the major short run and long cost functions for the low-calorie, frozen microwaveable food company given the cost functions below. Suggest substantive ways in which the low-calorie food company may use this information in order to make decisions in both the short-run and the long-run. TC = 160,000,000 + 100Q + 0.0063212Q2 VC = 100Q + 0.0063212Q2 MC= 100 + 0.0126424Q The total cost function is an increasing function of quantity produced. This implies that an increase in the quantity produced results to an increase in the cost of production. This is consistent with economic theory. The intercept of the total cost function is 160,000 meaning that when no quantity is produced, or rather when the quantity produced is zero, the fixed cost is 160,000. The Marginal Cost function is also an increasing function of quantity produced. It gives the effect of producing an extra unit. The firm should thereby produce up to a level whereby the cost of producing an extra unit does not exceed the returns from that particular unit.(Hirschey, 2008) Determine the possible circumstances under which the company should discontinue operations. Suggest key actions that management should take in order to confront these circumstances. Provide a rationale for your response The firm should discontinue its operations in the case that the Total costs are more than the total revenue. This would imply that the firm is making losses. The firm should also discontinue its operations in the event that the marginal costs are greater than the marginal revenue. That is, the cost of producing an additional unit is greater than the cost of selling that additional unit. The firm should also discontinue its operations in the event that the marginal revenue is zero or less. This is with regard to the law of diminishing marginal revenue which holds that the revenue from selling an additional unit will increase to a point where an additional unit of input will not increase the quantity produced. In this case therefore, extra costs will be incurred in the process of producing an extra unit but revenue will not change. This is an unproductive phase of production. Suggest one (1) pricing policy that will enable your low-calorie, frozen microwavable food company to maximize profits. Provide a rationale for your suggestion. At ceteris Paribus, the demand function of the market is The demand equation will be as shown below, with all other factors held constant: Q = -5200 – 42*(P) + 20*600 + 5.2*5500 + 0.2*10000 + 0.25*5000 Q = 38650 – 42(P) P = 38650/42 – (Q)/42 The equilibrium prices and quantities are; 5200 + 45P=38650 – 42P 33,450=87P P = 384.48 Q = 5200 + 45*(384.48) = 22,501.6 Total Revenue = Price X Quantity = {38650/42 – (Q)/42  }Q MR= 38650/42 = 920. 23 = P The average revenue should be equal to the price and give the demand function. The best pricing solution that this firm can and should make is to produce at this price. Outline a plan, based on the information provided in the scenario, which the company could use in order to evaluate its financial performance. Consider all the key drivers of performance, such as company profit or loss for both the short term and long term, and the fundamental manner in which each factor influences managerial decisions. Being a firm under the oligopoly market structure, the firm should put the concept of price leadership into practice. Essentially, this simply implies that the firm should be able to put itself out as a dominant firm and as such it should be able to command the authority to set the prices in the market. It should also be able to be the firm that commands any change when it comes to prices in such a way that it has the ability to change prices while the other firms follow suit. The firm therefore is in a situation in which it is able to control prices to its benefit. As a consequence, the other competing firms will not be able to maximize their own profits unless they follow the prices that are set by this firm. In other words, a special monopoly is created in the duopoly. (Washick, 2005) Recommend two (2) actions that the company could take in order to improve its profitability and deliver more value to its stakeholders. Outline, in brief, a plan to implement your recommendations. Due to the homogenization of products, there is the problem of competition especially among the buyers. This simply implies that there will be one single price for sellers. As a result, the best recommendation with regard to the action that the firm should take is to ensure that they maximize on output. A change in terms of output by the seller has a very significant effect in terms of the prices of the good that is produced. As much as the actions of his or her rivals could be somewhat unknown, it is most definite that the other sellers will change or alter the prices in a way that they will match the output. An increase in terms of the output also implies that the firm will also increase its revenue. The Collusion Solution is also another recommendation that could be used by this particular firm in question. This basically implies that the market participants could always try and join together in the event that the participants find that the competition is too much, they could join together so as to create one competitive firm. (Waschick,2005) References   Fisher, T., & Waschick, R. (2005). Managerial Economics: A Game Theoretic Approach. London : Routledge. Hirschey, M. (2008). Managerial Economics. New York: Cengage Learning. Webster, T. J. (2003). Managerial Economics: Theory and Practice. London: Academic Press. Source document

Canadian Contribution for World Peace

I have read Suresh Canagarajah's article ‘ The Fortunate Traveler: Shuttling between Communities and Literacies by Economy Class ‘. He is a good writer and he has many good idea about learning English to improve literacies. In Suresh Canagarajah's opinion, every English learners need to find a adaptive way, that will enhance their interests to learn English. Countries' tradition is influencing local people's aethestic standard, so many readers are hard to accept foreign writing style. As a entreprenant writer, when they faced to conflicting and competing in different communities, they will adjust their writing style.Suresh believes that â€Å"a curiosity towards the language, the ability to intuit languistic rules from observation of actual usage, a metalinguistic awareness of the system behind languages, and the ability to creatively negotiate meaning in text are the good strategy to improve literacy†. In my heart, Chinese is my mother language, and I always talk with my Chinese friends. I'm afraid of saying something to for English speaker. When I sit on the subway or bus, sometimes I will pay attention to somebody's conversation.At the beginning, I can catch a little information, but gradually I feel it's hard to follow them. At last, I feel depressed and give up. In Canada, English is used in everywhere. We can learn many grammar and syntactic from there as long as carefully observed. When we read a long article, we maybe feel it's difficult to finish and understand its meaning. I was accustomed to translate word by word, I know it's a bad reading habit. In fact, understand the meaning in context can accurately know what message author want to deliver to readers. I think these suggestions are useful.When Suresh Canagarajah come to western academic community, he hasn't get the expected praise. Suresh believes that â€Å"the exaggerated, passionate personalized style of writing wasn't universally appreciated in the academic community†. Because Western academic community prefer to restrained and rigid essay rather than personalized and passionate essay. Their tradition and culture influence the writing style, so they are hard to accept foreign writing style. For example , Chinese people think some Chinese author's opus is very nice, but none of Chinese author can obtain the Nobel Prize in Literature.Because Western audience can't adapt Chinese writing style and understand the meaning. According to Suresh (1986), the conflicts he has faced as he shuttled between his native community and Western academic community generated many useful insights into the ideological and rhetorical challenges in academic communication. He believes that † be humble when leaning knowledge, adopt a reflective learning attitude, critical questioning of dominant practices, and contextually grounded theorization are the good way to treat conflicts.As a entreprenant writer, when he faced to conflicting and competing in different comm unities, they will adjust their writing style. Thus, he can try some different kinds of writing style to adapt the audience all over the world . This is a constantly move forward success. I have learned some good strategy to improve lieracy from the article by Suresh Canagarajah, I will try these ideas in learning English. In addition, if I want to write some good essay to please audiences in Canada, I think I need to change my writing style. Suresh is a good model for me to improve lieracy.

International Auditing Standards Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

International Auditing Standards - Essay Example ISA 400 provided a description of internal control and the types of internal controls, as well as the factors and procedures included in each type. One of management's responsibilities is to ensure that there are adequate internal controls implemented in an entity. What is required of the auditor is to have a "sufficient understanding of the internal control" as such an understanding will mean a more efficient and effective audit planning and audit approach". According to Ricchiute (2003), in actual application, to obtain such an understanding, the auditor will need to perform the following: (1) perform a preliminary review of the internal control system through the "review of prior-year audit working papers", inquiries of management and personnel and observations; (2) document the internal controls found in the system and identify transaction cycles, either through a flowchart or a "narrative memorandum"; (3) perform a walk-through of a sample transaction; and, (4) identify controls that will reduce to an acceptable or low level the risk of material misstatements (Ricchiute, 2003, p. 214 - 220). In number 4, the auditor may op t to perform only a walkthrough of a transaction or a walkthrough of the transactions and the related controls and test of controls. The choice depends on the auditor's assessment of control risk. If the assessment is high, the auditor will just do a walkthrough of a sample transaction and go directly to substantive testing. If the assessment is low, the auditor will have to perform a more detailed walkthrough, not only of the transaction but also of the related controls, and test the controls the auditor thinks will support the lower risk assessment. The understanding of the internal control system and the subsequent walkthrough or testing is critical to the external auditor since this will dictate the substantive audit procedures that will be done subsequently. This is because a lower level of control risk assessment will decrease the level of detection risk of an auditor. This generally means less extensive and persuasive substantive audit procedures that could be done during the interim rather than during the year-end, resulting to earlier completion of the audit work (Ricchiute, 2003, p. 232). What about fraud concerns, as these is one of the purposes for setting up the internal control system, in the first place' An external auditor's procedures "cannot be expected to detect immaterial frauds". If a fraudulent transaction or event results to a material misstatement in the financial statements, the external auditor's audit procedures may discover the fraud incident. However, "there is certainly no guarantee of detection" as the "perpetrator(s) may go to extensive lengths to deceive the auditor and hide the defalcation" (Tedd). Lastly, one of the concerns regarding ISA 400 (and the other auditing standards) is that this may

The Ethics of Food Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The Ethics of Food - Term Paper Example Ethical considerations with respect to the food industry are a maze of complex questions that pin moral responsibility on any number of different sources, whether consumers, producers, the media, the government, or scientists. In the increasingly intricate food production process, there are many steps in the process where things could be positively changed and such positive changes could be introduced by any of these ethical food sources. Ethics is the philosophical study of moral values and rules. Applied to food, this means a study of what values and rules ought to be embraced as the norm for the production and consumption of food through each step of the process. An ethics of food is particularly important because food is essential to human life. For instance, to deny a person food for any prolonged period will inevitably lead to that person’s death. Although the denial of a specific person food for a time is not subject to ethical debate, millions of people each year die o f hunger that could be prevented in theory. Here, we will examine the sources of ethical duty within the food production process, starting with governments and ending with scientists. This analysis depends, in large part, on an overview of theory with a great deal of empirical application and comparison to real life. When dealing with an applied ethical issue such as the ethics of food, it is particularly important to bear in mind that one’s philosophical conclusions have very real and widespread effects on human life. Sources that serve as a general introduction to the ethics of food often take the form of a series of questions, of which there are always more than there are answers. All of these questions have something to do with the distinction between an ethical and an unethical act. For instance, a question might be â€Å"Is buying ‘local’ food always better for the environment?† (Prince, et al., 2007, p. 2). This question implicates food consumers mo st directly, but also food producers. The explicit moral value is the environment; namely, how does one best achieve what is best for the environment, which is taken to be morally superior to an act that degrades the environment. The moral duty implied for consumers in this question revolves around the issue of how one goes about helping the environment, and an answer to this question (if it exists) would make this moral duty more clear. Additionally, the question presumes some role of producers in helping the environment: namely, that by producing and selling foods locally, food producers can help the environment in ways that previous generations of producers have not been able to. Accordingly, every question posed in the ethics of food should be addressed in this manner: first, identifying to what or to whom the question implies we have a moral obligation to, secondly identifying the nature of that moral obligation, and thirdly specifically who bears that moral obligation. An addi tional preliminary comment is that moral obligations about food choices bear weight. The objection that food choice, or the ethics of food, does not really matter will not work. The majority of Americans deal with obesity, which affects the American workforce, healthcare costs, and a degraded environment. Unhealthy food choices lead to decreased brain function, developmental problems in children, and malnutrition from a lack of vital nutrients. Environmentally, poor diets compromise our resources by increasing the need for pesticides and fertilizers that corrupt lakes, streams, and oceans, creates disease in livestock, and releases greenhouse gases that cause irreversible damage in terms of global warming. At current trends, this kind of diet will lead to even more significant social problems in the future (Young & Leehr, 2009). In this sense, one cannot claim that food choices do not matter, or that ethics does not have a role in which direction Americans take. At this point, as Yo ung and Leehr (2009) contend, it does not matter which side of the debate between agri-business

Agriculture in the next 30 years Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Agriculture in the next 30 years - Assignment Example For quite a long time, researchers have ranked agriculture as the major source of income globally. In this regard, as the main economic activity and many countries’ economic backbone, speculations have always been made in fear of what might happen the next minute.A renowned scholar, Glen Hiemstra, of futurist.com once noted that any individual who does not emprise technology that comes along with agriculture remain a stumbling block to countries economic progress. In support to Hiemstra words, every individual’s effort towards agriculture helps to boost country’s GDP and per capita income.As an activity drawing scholarly interest, several definitions have been brought forth all inclined towards recognizing agriculture as farming or husbandry, a way of animal cultivation, plants and fungi production as well as production of foods and fiber all geared towards human life sustainability (Rosner, 2009). As a study majorly phrased as agricultural science refers to huma n activities. This paper gives an in-depth analysis of the future expectations of agriculture, drawing argument from past and present happenings. Agricultural activities date back thousands of years and it has developed tremendously due to different climates, cultures, and technology. Being the backbone of human life, agriculture had to be developed continuously to sustain the needs of the people in the world. In confirmation of the importance of the activity in generating income, most of the industries worldwide deal with agricultural product in their operations (Li, Liu, & Chen, 2011). Agriculture is thus a core activity to the world and people cannot live without it. The economy has to grow through the help of agriculture as the main activity. In general, as years go by, the need for foods, feed, fibers, biofuels, and fishing will increase significantly thus the need to develop and diversify agricultural sector. This will greatly be attributed by the desire to feed the constantly growing population, creation of employment activities to the citizens, need for a source of income and due to the fact that it is a source of foreign exchange. As such, every individual expects positive development of agriculture in the future. This is from the understanding of the impact it has to a county’s development. Agriculture is a very costly exercise in terms of cost and involvement, like for instance, buying of pesticides, nutrient runoff, excessive water usage and many more. Furthermore, pesticide poisoning, pollution of environment through chemicals emitted by agricultural activities are the major negative impacts by agriculture. Pollution of water by biofuels emitted from industries causes water scarcity hence increased the challenge of producing enough food for the growing population. Thus, the need to fulfill agricultural needs results to environmental degradation and negative implications on peoples lives in terms of high costs and their health and therefore the need for stern measures to be taken to counter the effects. It is expected therefore that in the future, having in mind the increasing living standards, the cost of all the above-mentioned will increase notably (Hiemstra, 2000). However, other scholars are for the opinion that better and cheaper means of farming might be initiated cutting down much of the expenses and hence bettering and increasing the production. The presently initiated biotechnological products will in the future, if not well handled expose human beings to dangerous infections such as cancer, diabetes, and heart attacks. People infected with such disease may even end up dying or developing lifetime complexities (Mundlak, 2000). The need to feed the growing population has called for swift development in crop production and pest control. In future, it is expected that technological advancements will be developed swiftly to curb food shortage and various pest control techniques. Disease prevalence in crops has ho wever remained constant despite all the