10 pages., Via online journal., Development of natural resource user typologies has been viewed as a potentially
effective means of improving the effectiveness of natural resource management engagement
strategies. Prior research on Corn Belt farmers’ perspectives on climate change employed
a latent class analysis (LCA) that created a six-class typology—the Concerned, Uneasy,
Uncertain, Unconcerned, Confident, and Detached—to develop a better understanding of
farmer perspectives on climate change and inform more effective climate adaptation and
mitigation outreach strategies. The LCA employed 34 variables that are generally unobservable—beliefs about climate change, experience with extreme weather, perceived risks of
climate change, and attitudes toward climate action—to identify types. The research reported
in this paper builds on this typology of Corn Belt farmers by exploring 33 measures of observable farm enterprise characteristics, land management practices, and farmer demographics to
assess whether variations in these observable characteristics between the six farmer classes
display systematic patterns that might be sufficiently distinctive to guide audience segmentation strategies. While analyses detected some statistically significant differences, there were
few systematic, meaningful observable patterns of difference between groups of farmers with
differing perspectives on climate change. In other words, farmers who believe that anthropogenic climate change is occurring, that it poses risks to agriculture, and that adaptive action
should be taken, may look very much like farmers who deny the existence of climate change
and do not support action. The overall implication of this finding is that climate change
engagement efforts by Extension and other agricultural advisors should use caution when
looking to observable characteristics to facilitate audience segmentation. Additional analyses
indicated that the farmer types that tended to be more concerned about climate change and
supportive of adaptive action (e.g., Concerned and Uneasy) reported that they were more
influenced by key private and public sector actors in agricultural social networks. On the
other hand, farmers who were not concerned about climate change or supportive of adaptation (e.g., the Unconcerned, Confident, and Detached groups, comprising between one-third
and one-half of respondents) were less integrated into agricultural networks. This suggests that
Extension and other agricultural advisors should expand outreach efforts to farmers who are
not already within their spheres of influence.
13 pages., via online journal., Communication plays a vital role in a developing society as it could be used for developing of perspectives. This study aimed to analyze the communication and perspectives on climate change among layer farmers in San Jose, Batangas, Philippines. Descriptive research design in a quantitative approach, along with distributed survey questionnaires to the respondents in the said municipality were utilized to answer the research objectives. Systematic random sampling was used to get the sample size of the layer farmers. Statistical tools such as frequency/percentage, weighted mean and Pearson’s correlation were also used. The layer farmers were greatly exposed in interpersonal communication platforms. Demonstration, meetings, seminars and trainings were of less extent. Radio, television and cellphones were widely used by the layer farmers, while very few had access on the internet. Furthermore, they agreed on food security, water sufficiency, ecological and environmental stability, human security and knowledge and capacity development. However, they moderately agreed on climate-smart industries and services, and sustainable energy. Findings also showed that there is a significant relationship between the layer farmers’ perspectives to the communication platforms they were exposed to.
13 pages., Article #:v58-1a2, via online journal., According to the 2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, without urgent global changes, climate catastrophe caused by warming of greater than 1.5°C will occur by 2030, endangering the planet's capacity to sustain human populations and livelihoods. The National Network for Sustainable Living Education administered a national survey in January 2017 to assess how well-positioned Extension is to address sustainability in the communities the organization serves. Educators from 40 states responded, and 1,395 usable surveys were received. Survey results will help Extension employees discover opportunities for innovation and relevancy in their programming.
22 pages., Via online journal, Private consumption is increasingly being blamed for resource depletion and environmental degradation, and the discourse of ascribing environmental responsibility to the individual consumer has become a part of mainstream policy-making. Measures aimed at promoting consumers' voluntary engagement through sustainable consumption now constitute an important part of public sustainability strategies. Nevertheless, the actual progress made in changing people's consumption patterns in a more sustainable direction has been modest. Based on a quantitative and a qualitative content analysis of articles on environmentally sustainable consumption of meat published in five national and regional newspapers in Norway between 2000 and 2010, it is argued in this article that an important reason for the lack of both political and consumer engagement in the issue can be attributed to a discursive confusion that arises from a simultaneous existence of mainly two clashing discourses on what is actually environmentally sustainable consumption of meat. One that is focusing on the environmentally malign aspects of consumption and production of (especially) red meat, and another that is focusing on the environmentally benign aspects of production and consumption of red meat. The findings imply that the lack of consensus on the character of the problem constitutes a major barrier for the opportunity to change people's consumption patterns in a more environmentally sustainable direction through the use of voluntary measures.
17 pages., via online journal article, The Sustainable Forestry and African American Land Retention
Program (SFLR) was launched in 2012 to increase adoption of sustainable forestry practices among African American landowners in
the southeastern United States to prevent land loss, increase forest
health, and build economic assets. One of its main goals was to
build communication networks through which African American
landowners could obtain and share information about forestry practices and landowner assistance programs independent of public agencies. To measure and examine the growth of these communication
networks over a three-year period (2014-2017), we conducted 87
interviews with landowners (24 of whom were interviewed multiple
times), SFLR personnel, and Federal and State staff members in
North Carolina. We used complementary methods of data gathering
and analysis, including social network analysis and qualitative analysis. Our results showed expanding communication networks will be
sustained independently of the program over time, although there is
still a heavy reliance on program personnel.
15 pages., via online journal., Since the first Earth Day in the 1970s, corporate environmental performance has increased dramatically, and cases of greenwashing have increased sharply. The term greenwash refers to a variety of different misleading communications that aim to form overly positive beliefs among stakeholders about a company's environmental practices. The growing number of corporate social responsibility claims, whether founded or not, creates difficulties for stakeholders in distinguishing between truly positive business performance and companies that only appear to embrace a model of sustainable development. In this context, through the lens of legitimacy and signalling theory, we intend to understand and assess the different influences that various types of misleading communications about environmental issues have on stakeholders' perceptions of corporate environmental responsibility and greenwashing. Stakeholder responses to an environmental scandal will also be assessed. The hypotheses tested through a four‐for‐two design experiment reveal that different levels of greenwashing have a significantly different influence on stakeholders' perceptions of corporate environmental responsibility and stakeholders' reactions to environmental scandals.
14 pages., via online journal., While dealing with weather variability has always been a source of stress for farmers, a generally warmer, wetter climate with the potential for increasingly intensive precipitation poses a threat to long-term farm viability. Knowing how farmers think about increasingly variable weather patterns (IVWP) is important for educators, agency staff, and others to learn how to work with producers on adaptation strategies to protect natural resources and prevent crop failure. In 2011, the University of Maine Cooperative Extension conducted focus group sessions with farmers from seven different commodity groups, five mixed farmer sessions, and two sessions with consultants, educators, and agency staff who work with growers to learn about grower perceptions of environmental changes, and to learn about changes they may be making to their farming operations to protect their operations from IVWP. Farmers discussed over 40 practices that could be construed as adaptation measures to buffer against IVWP. Fruit (apple and blueberry) growers spent the most time on the subject and expressed the most concern about the effects of IVWP, while dairy and potato growers spent the least. Given the divergence of opinion on the subject of climate change that Maine growers expressed, successful outreach education through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Cooperative Extension should likely emphasize short-term risk management, resilience, and stability of farm operations as opposed to communicating the need to adopt strategies based on climate change.
30 pages., via online journal., Information communication technology (ICT) and environmental innovation (EI) are
relevant waves of the ongoing technological revolution. We study the
complementarity in innovation adoption to test the research hypothesis that the higher
the diffusion and intensity of usage of ICT and EI, the higher a firm’s productivity
performance might be. However, it is not certain that the use of different innovations
stemming from different innovation paths generates higher productivity. To test our
hypothesis, we use original survey data concerning manufacturing firms in Northeast
Italy including detailed information on both ICT and EI. Empirical evidence shows
that there are still wide margins to improve the integration between EI and ICT in
order to exploit their potential benefits on productivity. The awareness of specific
synergies seems to mainly characterise the heavy polluting firms that are subject to
more stringent environmental constraints, while some trade-offs tend to emerge for
the remaining firms.
10 pages., via online journal., This article analyses the role of media in the representation and circulation of the term ‘social licence’ within public debate. It does so in the context of an increasingly global political economy of forests, growing public interest in resource procurement and environmental sustainability, and new forms of mediatized environmental conflict that carry volatile notions of ‘the affected’. Drawing on a longitudinal study of the three-decade-long conflict over forests and forestry in the Australia's southern island state of Tasmania, this research outlines the emergence, embedding and decline of the term ‘social licence’ in national and local media coverage. The article argues that the term's openness and strategic deployment by stakeholders in news media exposes industries, markets and communities to continuing conflict, while making the term a site for conflict itself. The article concludes by asking how – within the context of expanding international markets and complex supply chains, and sophisticated use of media by campaigners, corporations and governments – ‘social licence’ can be a publicly useful concept.
15 pages., Article #: 4690, via online journal., As with environment and sustainable development, there has been a rapid rise in the
worldwide consumption of organic foods over the last years, as well as the quickly growing potential
of organic markets in China, and their direct influence on consumer health awareness and social
opinion. This study provides insights into Chinese consumers’ attitudes toward organic foods and
evaluates purchase intention’s impact as a mediator in the relationship between external and internal
factors on purchase intention. This empirical study is based on an online questionnaire using a sample
of 1421 Chinese consumers. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used as the main practical
approach for data analysis, and six hypotheses were examined. The results show that a more positive
attitude on the part of consumers toward organic foods will further reinforce their purchasing
intentions, whereas, there was no significant impact of marketing price and communication on
consumers’ attitudes toward organic foods. Furthermore, the results show that intention was a
full or a whole mediator among the three exogenous constructs of environment awareness, health
consciousness, and subjective norms. Based on the findings, marketing communication strategies
should concentrate on offering more value to consumers regarding the features of nutritional value.
Long-term environment friendliness, health benefits, and social status symbols should be assumed to
enhance consumers’ purchase intention in the organic foods industry.
