11 pages, Food, waste, and food waste are embroiled in a wide array of political and moral debates in the United States today. These debates are staged across a range of scales and sites—from individual decisions made in front of refrigerators and compost bins to public deliberations on the U.S. Senate and House floors. They often manifest as a moral panic inspiring a range of Americans at seemingly opposed ends of the political spectrum. This article contrasts three distinct sites where food waste is moralized, with the aim of deconstructing connections between discarded food and consumer ethics. In doing so, we argue that across the contemporary American social strata, food waste reduction efforts enfold taken-for-granted ideas of moral justice, or theodicy, that foreground individual responsibility and, as a result, obfuscate broader systemic issues of food inequality perpetuated by late stage capitalism.
10 pages, The study focused on the knowledge of intergenerational farm transfer among cocoa farmers in southwestern Nigeria. A three-stage sampling technique was used to select 5% of the total 6,843 registered cocoa farmers with the Agricultural Development Project (ADP), making a total sample size of 342 cocoa farmers. Data were collected through interviewer-administered questionnaires and analysed using percentages, frequency distributions and chi-square tests. The results revealed that a majority of the respondents were male (77.0%) and had farm sizes of 5 ha and below (84.9%). The respondents had a mean age of 58 years and a mean household size of six persons. The results show that a majority (65.3%) of respondents had low knowledge about intergenerational farm transfer. 56.9% of the respondents had not discussed the issue of intergenerational farm transfer plans with anybody. The results also show that cocoa farmers’ succession plan status has a positive relationship with their knowledge of intergenerational farm transfer. The study concluded that the knowledge of cocoa farmers about the process of farm transfer is poor. The study recommends that cocoa farmers be trained in the process of intergenerational farm transfer to ensure family farm sustainability.
4 pages, A family-skills program for Latino fathers and youth was implemented to prevent youth obesity. Lessons learned focused on practices to address barriers to engagement and retention among fathers and youth within the Latino community. Program development issues included selection of organizations, facilitators, language, and delivery methods. Implementation issues included timing and location. Cultural issues regarding learner needs, and teaching and implementation methods need to be considered. Using the lessons learned, Extension professionals can create impactful programs that engage and retain Latino fathers and youth.
5pgs, Millions of Maine’s fiber dollars is going to a mix of government entities, regional internet service providers, and large, out-of-state companies. Some worry these national companies have not worked well with communities in the past. Others say the investments should be evaluated on what they deliver, not who gets the money.
9pgs, The initiatives of one burgeoning social enterprise give Black-owned farms a platform while connecting them to a wider swath of locals and visitors.
7pgs, Hemp growers say the social media giant’s advertising ban on certain products is stymying the nascent industry, with “incalculable” potential losses.
23 pages, As the media have continued to pay increasing attention to pig epidemic events, some local pig epidemic events may have a large degree of negative impact on the pork market and the whole pig industry chain, leading to pork price fluctuations. Strengthening pig epidemic control, monitoring media reporting sentiment, and stabilizing pork price fluctuations are important measures to improve the economy and people’s livelihood. This paper sets out to identify the relationship between the negative media sentiment about the pig epidemic and the market risk of pork prices within a setting with pig epidemic risk. Based on the provincial panel data of China from January 2011 to December 2022, this paper uses the spatial panel Durbin model to investigate the impact of negative media sentiment about the pig epidemic on pork price fluctuations from the perspective of local and spillover effects, and further discusses the mechanism of consumer sentiment. The empirical results show that: (1) The negative media sentiment about the pig epidemic significantly exacerbates pork price fluctuations, and there is a single threshold effect, which is weakened after crossing the threshold value. (2) The negative media sentiment about the pig epidemic has a significant positive spillover effect on pork price fluctuations, showing the characteristics of “being a neighbor”. The spatial spillover effect shows a significant spatial attenuation feature and an inverted U-shaped change with the inflection point at 1400 km. (3) The effect is related to the heterogeneity of media reputation. The local aggravation effect of local media’s negative sentiment on pork price fluctuations is greater than that of central media and information network platforms. In terms of the spatial spillover effect, the negative sentiment of the information network platforms has the strongest effect on the aggravation of pork price fluctuations in neighboring regions. (4) The mechanism study finds that the negative media sentiment about the pig epidemic positively affects pork price fluctuations through the path of “consumer sentiment”. Therefore, this research recommends that the government department should strengthen the supervision of media sentiment about the pig epidemic and reasonably guide consumer sentiment to stabilize the pork market.
