22 pages, Support for the agricultural sector from the European Union via the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is evolving. The last CAP reform in 2014 made one further step toward mandatory approaches. To understand the "social thinking" and behavior when faced with these measures, an innovative application has been adopted. Globally, the farmers' discourse manifests contradictions between environmental concern and the financial dimension, which is the expression of their daily difficulties. Mandatory approaches to sustainable agriculture may favor what the Theory of Conditionality called "legitimate transgressions" if regulations appear unadapted to real practices because compliance and opportunity costs are too high.
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17 pages, We examined the effect of multidimensional farmers' beliefs on the likelihood of cultivating planting materials of biofortified orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) varieties. Using a panel dataset and combining difference-in-differences regression with propensity score matching, results showed positive effects of beliefs related to health benefits, yielding ability, sweetness, disease-resistance, storability, early maturity, colour, and that children enjoy eating OFSP roots, on cultivation of OFSP varieties. The proportion of OFSP roots out of total sweet potato production for a household increased among farmers' who held these beliefs. Efforts to promote biofortified crops can, therefore, benefit from taking farmers' multidimensional beliefs into consideration.
10 pages, This study sought to understand Extension Education's trends and research needs as perceived by members of the American Association for Agricultural Education (AAAE) and Joint Council of Extension Professionals (JCEP) by comparing and contrasting findings from questionnaires using open-ended questions. Both groups identified changing technology and new audiences as key trends requiring Extension to adapt, and JCEP respondents noted makers and entrepreneurs as prominent new audiences. For Extension Education research needs, both groups prioritized research to heighten professional development among Extension professionals. JCEP respondents desire Agricultural and Extension Education (AEE) Departments to lead research in Extension administrative leadership. On the contrary, AAAE respondents prioritized Extension program evaluation research. Regarding Extension professional development, JCEP respondents identified program planning and evaluation, but AAAE respondents named research methods as prioritized needs. JCEP respondents prioritized practical experiences in Extension Education college courses, and AAAE members reported some internships, practicums, and experiential learning in their AEE curriculum. The results have implications for AEE Departments in planning professional development for Extension professionals and college instruction producing Extension-career-ready graduates. Recommendations emphasize the need to coordinate college curriculum and professional development and to prepare students for Extension careers.
15 pages, Trust is often an assumed outcome of participation in Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) as they directly connect producers with consumers. It is based on this potential for trust “between producers and consumers” that AFNs have emerged as a significant field of food studies analysis as it also suggests a capacity for AFNs to foster associated embedded qualities, like ‘morality’, ‘social justice’, ‘ecology’ and ‘equity’. These positive benefits of AFNs, however, cannot be taken for granted as trust is not necessarily an outcome of AFN participation. Using Chinese case studies of AFNs, which are characterised by a distinct form of trust pressure—consumers who are particularly cynical about small scale farmers, food safety and the organic credentials of producers—this paper highlights how the dynamics of trust are in constant flux between producers and consumers. I suggest that it is the careful construction of the aesthetic and multi-sensory qualities of food, which is often celebrated via social media, that human centred relations in Chinese AFNs are mediated. This leads to two key conclusions: first, that the key variable for establishing trust is satisfying the consumer’s desire for safe (i.e. "fresh") food; and second, the materiality of the food and the perception of foods materiality (especially through social media), must both be actively constructed by the farmer to fit the consumer’s ideal of freshness.
