Number of results to display per page
Search Results
42. Does the sustainability of food products influence consumer choices? The case of Italy
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Banterle, Alessandro (author) and Ricci, Elena Claire (author)
- Format:
- Journal Article
- Publication Date:
- 2013
- Published:
- Italy
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 144 Document Number: D06522
- Journal Title:
- International Journal on Food System Dynamics
- Journal Title Details:
- 4(2) : 149-158
- Notes:
- 10 pages.
43. Valuing information on GM foods in the presence of country-of-origin labels
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Xie, Jing (author), Kim, Hyeyoung (author), and House, Lisa (author)
- Format:
- Journal Article
- Publication Date:
- 2013
- Published:
- International
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 144 Document Number: D06523
- Journal Title:
- International Journal on Food System Dynamics
- Journal Title Details:
- 4(3) : 170-183
- Notes:
- 14 pages.
44. A latent class model to discover household food waste patterns in Lisbon City in support of food security, public health and environmental protection
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Fonseca, Jaime R.S. (author)
- Format:
- Journal Article
- Publication Date:
- 2013
- Published:
- Portugal
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 144 Document Number: D06524
- Journal Title:
- International Journal on Food System Dynamics
- Journal Title Details:
- 4(3) : 184-197
- Notes:
- 14 pages.
45. Factors underlying farmers’ decisions to participate in networks
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Kühne, Bianka (author), Lambrecht, Evelien (author), Vanhonacker, Feliep (author), Pieniak, Zuzanna (author), and Gellynck, Xavier (author)
- Format:
- Journal Article
- Publication Date:
- 2013
- Published:
- Belgium
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 144 Document Number: D06525
- Journal Title:
- International Journal on Food System Dynamics
- Journal Title Details:
- 4(3) : 198-213
- Notes:
- 16 pages.
46. The effect of emphasizing credibility elements and the role of source gender on perceptions of source credibility
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Bigham, Ariana (author), Meyers, Courtney (author), Li, Nan (author), Irlbeck, Erica (author), and Texas Tech University
- Format:
- Journal Article
- Publication Date:
- 2019
- Published:
- United States: New Prairie Press
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 15 Document Number: D10426
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Applied Communications
- Journal Title Details:
- 103(2)
- Notes:
- 20 pages., Via online journal., Agricultural technology continues to evolve to meet the demands of a growing world, but previous advancements in agricultural technology have been met with resistance. Improved science communication efforts can assist in bridging the gap between expert and lay opinion to improve reception of scientific information. Using the framework of the heuristic model of persuasion, the purpose of this study was to examine the impact of emphasizing elements of source credibility – trustworthiness and expertise – and the gender of the source on perceptions of source credibility. A sample of 122 undergraduate students were exposed to one of the four possible developed message treatments. Data collection took place in a laboratory setting using an online instrument that had a randomly-assigned stimulus research design. The results indicated the treatment conditions had higher mean scores for source credibility than the control. Further inferential analysis, however, showed the differences to be non-significant. One significant finding showed the gender of the source can influence perceptions of credibility. This suggests merit in using female sources when presenting scientific information to the Millennial population. While choosing credible sources to present information is important, more research is needed regarding the effect of emphasizing various credibility components and the role of source gender on perceptions of source credibility.
47. Are smallholder farmers’ perceptions of climate variability supported by climatological evidence? Case study of a semi-arid region in South Africa
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Rapholo, Maropene Tebello (author) and Makia, Lawrence Diko (author)
- Format:
- Journal Article
- Publication Date:
- 2020-08-20
- Published:
- International: Emerald
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 201 Document Number: D11860
- Journal Title:
- International Journal of Climate
- Journal Title Details:
- 4
- Notes:
- 15 pages, via online journal, Purpose Literature contends that not much is known about smallholder farmers’ perceptions of climate variability and the impacts thereof on agricultural practices in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Africa in particular. The purpose of this study is to examine the perceptions of smallholder farmers from Botlokwa (a semi-arid region in South Africa) on climate variability in relation to climatological evidence. Design/methodology/approach The study area is in proximity to a meteorological station and comprises mainly rural farmers, involved in rain-fed subsistence agriculture. Focus group discussions and closed-ended questionnaires covering demographics and perceptions were administered to 125 purposely sampled farmers. To assess farmers’ perceptions of climate variability, their responses were compared with linear trend and variability of historical temperature and rainfall data (1985-2015). Descriptive statistics were used to provide insights into respondents’ perceptions. Findings About 64% of the farmers perceived climate variability that was consistent with the meteorological data, whereas 36% either held contrary observations or were unable to discern. Age, level of education, farming experience and accessibility to information influenced the likelihood of farmers to correctly perceive climate variability. No significant differences in perception based on gender were observed. This study concludes that coping and adaption strategies of over one-third of the farmers could be negatively impacted by wrong perceptions of climate variability. Originality/value This study highlights discrepancies in perceptions among farmers with similar demographic characteristics. To guarantee sustainability of the sector, intervention by government and other key stakeholders to address underlying factors responsible for observed discrepancies is recommended.
48. The Influence of Framing Effects on Public Opinion of Antibiotic use in Livestock
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Steede, Garrett M. (author), Meyers, Courtney (author), and Li, Nan (author)
- Format:
- Journal Article
- Publication Date:
- 2020-01-01
- Published:
- United States: New Prairie Press
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 201 Document Number: D11861
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Applied Communications
- Journal Title Details:
- 2, Volume 104
- Notes:
- 16 pages, After years of debates and opposition from pharmaceutical companies, the Final rule of the Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) went into effect in January 2017 requiring antibiotics used for both humans and animals for the purpose of growth promotion to be discontinued. This study sought to determine the effects framing content regarding antibiotic use in livestock and antibiotic resistance had on public opinion. Using a between-subjects experimental survey research design, 297 respondents indicated their perceptions of antibiotic use in livestock and the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria before being randomly assigned to one of three conditions. Each condition was a mock Twitter account framed differently based on findings from previous studies. After reading their assigned mock Twitter page, respondents indicated their trust of the information contained in the account, their information seeking behavior, demographics, and their support for antibiotic use in livestock. Using an ANCOVA, results indicated the frame influenced trust of information (F = 8.7, p < .05) and information seeking behavior (F = 4.48, p = .01) while support was not significant (F = 2.7, p = .07). Results suggest the blame frame has the greatest influence on shaping public opinion of antibiotic use in livestock and the development of antibiotic resistance.
49. Can Mobile Phones build social trust? Insights from rural Kenya
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Parlasca, Martin C. (author), Hermann, Daniel (author), and Mußhoff, Oliver (author)
- Format:
- Journal Article
- Publication Date:
- 2020-10-01
- Published:
- International: Elsevier
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 201 Document Number: D11862
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Rural Studies
- Journal Title Details:
- 79
- Notes:
- 15 pages, Generalized trust, which refers to trust towards people that are not well known (Yamagishi and Yamagishi, 1994; Stolle, 2002; Uslaner, 2002; Freitag and Traunmüller, 2009), is needed for many situations of economic interaction such as daily market activities. Considering that trust acts as a lubricant for social interaction, a lack of generalized trust can severely restrict a persons reach of efficient economic exchange. Increases of generalized trust within a society thus have the potential to create large efficiency gains (Fafchamps and Minten, 2002; Fafchamps, 2006). Given the importance of trust for social interaction and various welfare dimensions, a growing body of economic, sociological, and psychological research has been devoted to examining the circumstances under which trust can thrive. A reoccurring notion in all three disciplines is that communication represents a key factor in the formation of trust (Lewicki et al., 2006; Glanville and Paxton, 2007). Ostrom et al. (1992), for example, find that communication and sanctioning in a common pool resource experiment lead to substantially more efficient outcomes. In a laboratory setting, personal communication has shown to enhance trust (Buchan et al., 2006), and is even more powerful in creating mutually benefitting exchanges than the possibility to engage in non-binding contracts (Ben-Ner and Putterman, 2009). In this paper, we analyze whether mobile phones which constitute a fundamental component of modern information and communications technologies (ICT) can help build social trust among pastoral communities in Northern Kenya.1 In most African countries, trust levels are remarkably low; out of all regions in the world, people living in sub-Sahara Africa exhibit the lowest levels of generalized trust (Mattes and Moreno, 2018). In the study region of Northern Kenya, it is particularly relevant to increase trust for several reasons. First, the relatively weak legal system jeopardizes contract enforcement, which means that any economic interaction requires substantial amounts of trust between the contract partners. This has caused a strong reliance on trust-based relationships in Northern Kenyas livestock sector (Mahmoud, 2008; Pavanello, 2010; Roba et al., 2018). Furthermore, low trust levels between ethnic tribes have also reinforced longstanding intertribal conflicts in the region, and impede solutions to share resources peacefully and effectively (Schilling et al., 2012). Lastly, the low population density and long physical distances between settlements in the region make communication over long distances difficult and therefore induce high monitoring costs. Potential benefits of enhancing trust are therefore particularly high in the context of Northern Kenya. To compensate for physical remoteness, rural communities have a high need for digital connectivity but have oftentimes suffered from poor connection and inclusion in existing networks in the past (Salemink et al., 2017). Over the last decade, however, mobile phones have become available to most pastoralists in Northern Kenya (Butt, 2015; Asaka and Smucker, 2016; Parlasca et al., 2020). A large and growing body of research has pointed out that mobile phones can help increase several paramount welfare dimensions of rural populations in sub-Saharan Africa, such as income and income equality, financial development, gender equality, or institutional quality (Aker and Mbiti, 2010; Asongu, 2015; Asongu and Nwachukwu, 2016; Rotondi et al., 2020). However, the research on the implications of mobile phones on social capital formation is much less extensive. To the best of our knowledge, the potential of mobile phones to affect trust is so far solely based on qualitative or anecdotal evidence (Molony, 2006, 2009; Overå, 2006) and lacks quantitative assessments. This paper aims to close this gap. In this study, we elicit trust levels with an incentivized experiment, namely the canonical trust game by Berg et al. (1995). Experimental sessions were conducted from July 2018 to August 2018 in 17 different villages in Turkana County, Northern Kenya, and included a total of 402 respondents. We differentiate with regard to the object of trust by measuring trust towards fellow villagers, trust towards people from a neighboring village, and trust towards city dwellers from the county capital. Past research in rural sub-Saharan Africa indicates that smallholder farmers exhibit less trust towards people from different villages (Etang, 2010; Etang et al., 2011) or people from the next larger city (Parlasca et al., 2019). The differentiation of the object of trust therefore allows investigating heterogeneous effects of mobile phone use on trust depending on the physical distance between trustor and trustee. This research adds add to the existing literature in several ways: to the extent of our knowledge, this is the first study to explore the direct link between mobile phone use and trust using quantitative household data from a low-income country. Thus far, no study has analyzed the role of geographical distance in the relationship between mobile phone use and trust. Lastly, this analysis contributes to the extremely sparse literature on trust in the context of pastoralist communities in sub-Saharan Africa. The remainder of the study is organized as follows. Section 2 lays out the conceptual framework that guides the analysis. The data are explained in section 3 and the empirical framework is presented in section 4. The results are discussed section 5, followed by concluding remarks in section 6.
50. Post Covid 19 and Food Pathways to sustainable transformation
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Blay-Palmer, Alison (author), Carey, Rachel (author), Valette, Elodie (author), and Sanderson, Matthew R. (author)
- Format:
- Journal Article
- Publication Date:
- 2020-09-03
- Published:
- United States: Springer Nature
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 201 Document Number: D11863
- Journal Title:
- Agriculture and Human Values
- Journal Title Details:
- 3, volume 37
- Notes:
- 3 pages, The COVID 19 pandemic has demonstrated clearly that change can happen suddenly and dramatically, creating great uncertainty. Social distancing is the norm world-wide as we all work to ‘flatten the curve’. The economy is crashing, and despite stabilizing attempts, continues to stagger. The combination of a pandemic with economies in decline around the world is increasing food insecurity across the globe (UN-FAO 2020). But in uncertainty, new possibilities arise and new pathways open. Change creates the conditions for transformation. We now have an opportunity—perhaps a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity—to learn from past weaknesses and create food systems that are more healthy, sustainable, equitable and resilient. Thinking ahead to post-COVID 19 food systems, it is important to ask, what are we learning about our level of preparedness? And what next steps are suggested by food system weaknesses at local, regional and global scales in the context of the international pandemic? Lessons are already emerging from this crisis—and from the multiple innovative responses to it—about how to retool food systems toward sustainability and resilience. For example, numerous food providers and retailers have moved online (Open Food Network) and social enterprises are delivering fresh local food and backyard growing kits to vulnerable population groups.