This op-ed argues that American agriculture must become more energy efficient if it is to remain globally competitive and ecologically sound. This issue is of critical importance to the nation's farmers who are likely to receive record high prices for their crops in 2011, but low profits because of skyrocketing input costs. The piece further questions why Democratic presidents, who have a history of pushing for energy efficiency and conservation, have continued to support high energy input agriculture. The article also challenges arguments suggesting that high-input agriculture is needed to feed the world.

High food prices in 2008 touched off food riots around the world, with urban West Africa arguably suffering many of these disturbances. Urban Mali appears to have been spared the worst of this crisis as consumers shifted from rice to sorghum, a grain whose production increased steeply as cotton production collapsed in the wake of lower global prices for this commodity. This paper comments on the ‘rice bias’ in policy circles, the tension between the cotton and food production, and the hidden blessing of geographic isolation. The findings are based on household surveys and analysis of national level production data.

A response to Eric Sheppard's article on New Economic Geography.

This paper explores three questions. 1) How active are academics in the op-ed pages of American newspapers and how do geographers compare on this front? 2) Are there patterns that emerge among those geographers who have published commentaries in American newspapers in terms of their rank and gender? 3) Are there common themes or perspectives which emerge in the opinion pieces penned by geographers. These questions are answered by an analysis of newspaper op-eds published in the United States over the 2004-2008 period using the LexisNexis Academic database. Geography ranks sixth out of the seven disciplines measured in terms of the total number of op-eds published, yet fourth out of seven when the different sizes of disciplines are taken into account. Within geography, authors with the rank of full professor are the most likely to publish a commentary.

Remarkably few studies have been undertaken to assess the level of university geography resources within Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. While reviews of the state of geography have been done in some African countries, none have been attempted at the continental scale. Such assessments are a starting point for beginning to understand whether or not African students and governments have adequate access to sufficient amounts of geographic knowledge, perspectives and techniques; skills which are increasingly crucial for surviving in a world dominated by rapid change. This study presents and analyzes a simple inventory of geography programs in SSA. The spatial distribution of geography programs across the continent is assessed, as well as the rank of countries in terms of their university-level geography programs. The authors further seek to explain the observed distribution of geography programs and comment on some broader historical trends within academic geography on the continent.

This study examines the impact of two decades of neoliberal policy reform on food production and household livelihood security in three West African countries. The rice sectors in The Gambia, Côte d’Ivoire and Mali are scrutinized as well as cotton and its relationship to sorghum production in Mali. While market reforms were intended to improve food production, the net result was an increasing reliance on imported rice. The vulnerability of the urban populations in The Gambia and Côte d’Ivoire became especially clear during the 2007-08 global food crisis when world prices for rice spiked. Urban Mali was spared the worst of this crisis because the country produces more of its own rice and the poorest consumers shifted from rice to sorghum, a grain whose production increased steeply as cotton production collapsed. The findings are based on household and market surveys as well as an analysis of national level production data.

In this editorial, the author argues that the study of global processes and a grounded understanding of world regions constitute the yin and yang of a solid internationalist curriculum.

Internationally focused faculty at the nation’s top liberal arts colleges face an increasingly challenging mix of expectations. First, junior faculty must clearly maintain a high level of scholarly productivity. Second, faculty-student research collaborations are increasingly encouraged even though such mentoring is especially difficult for scholars with an international research agenda. Finally, the integration of research and teaching is also encouraged at many of these same institutions. Study abroad programs may represent underutilized opportunities for faculty to further their own research and contacts, to involve students in aspects of their own scholarship, and as venues for sharing their expertise and place-based knowledge. Using a Macalester-Pomona-Swarthmore sponsored program at the University of Cape Town as a case study, this article explores how study abroad opportunities may be leveraged in support of: the research imperatives of junior faculty; a mechanism for encouraging student-faculty research collaborations; a vehicle for exploring collaboration with non-US faculty and a joyful opportunity for sharing faculty member’s place-based knowledge. In exploring these synergies, I seek to answer the question of how study abroad programs might further encourage the participation of junior faculty.

Attention to scale, use of space and connections between places and regions are general, yet distinctive, geographical concepts that may be employed in introductory level human-environment geography courses to distinguish them for other environmental studies offerings. The article demonstrates how attention to the aforementioned concepts provides fresh insight into the notions of exploitation, conservation and preservation for many environmental studies students. Furthermore, it is suggested that the Hetch Hetchy Valley controversy, commonly used in many U.S. environmental studies textbooks to demonstrate the difference between conservation and preservation, is actually quite problematic when critically assessed from alternative geographic perspectives.