14 pages., Online via journal by open access., Researcher proposed an appropriate mechanism for the maintenance of traditional knowledge associated with wild edible plants, seaweeds, and mushrooms in these ecosystems. Assessment of linkages between traditional knowledge and human well-being showed that both the decline in traditional knowledge and the drivers of change adversely affect fundamental components of human well-being: health, development of good social relations, and security.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D08852
Notes:
Pages 109-128 in Kunelius, Risto Eide, Elisabeth Tegelberg, Matthew Yagodin, Dmitry (eds.), Media and global climate knowledge: journalism and the IPCC. United States: Palgrave Macmillan, New York City, New York. 309 pages.
11 pages, In this paper, we investigate the interdependence among changes in the prices of beef, pork, and chicken in Japan using a time-varying coefficient vector autoregressive model. Our empirical analysis using monthly data from January 1990 to March 2014 shows that changes in beef prices have long-term influences on changes in pork and chicken prices. Moreover, current changes in the prices of beef, pork, and chicken are closely related to changes in their prices in the preceding two months. Additionally, we do not find that the bovine spongiform encephalopathy outbreak announced by the Japanese government in September 2001 had a long-term influence on the dynamic relationships among changes in the prices of beef, pork, and chicken in Japan.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 163 Document Number: D11646
Notes:
8 pages., Results of Gallup World Poll 2019. Online from publisher., "On the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, Gallup offers a snapshot of how satisfied people in 145 countries and areas around the world were in 2019 with their efforts to preserve the environment and with the quality of their air and water."
6 pages., via online journal., Sustainable agriculture is spreading in Japan in response to growing concerns about the environmental burden of the agriculture sector, but less than 1% of the total crop area for each vegetable in Japan is grown sustainably. Environmentally friendly agricultural products are produced by using organic and low-input farming techniques; low-input farming aims to reduce chemical inputs, such as fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, by half. Here, we used komatsuna (Japanese mustard spinach, Brassica rapa var. perviridis) as a model vegetable to study the environmental impact of low-input farming and ways to promote the purchase of organically and low-input farmed vegetables. We first assessed greenhouse gas emissions resulting from organic, low-input, and conventional farming of komatsuna. We also evaluated the effectiveness of providing consumers with detailed farm management and seasonality information to market organically and low-input farmed vegetables. We estimated marginal willingness-to-pay (MWTP) using choice-based conjoint analysis, based on attributes of price, fertilizer use, pesticide use, and region of origin. For seasonality, the questionnaire incorporating these attributes was conducted twice: once assuming purchasing in season, the other out of season. The greenhouse gas emissions of organic farming per area (196.7 kg CO2-eq/10 a/year) and per yield (72.3 kg CO2-eq/t/year) were less than those of low-input (322.6 kg CO2-eq/10 a/year, 120.7 kg CO2-eq/t/year) and conventional (594.0 kg CO2-eq/10 a/year, 220.7 kg CO2-eq/t/year) farming. MWTPs were highest for pesticide-free komatsuna (76.9 yen out of season, 66.2 yen in season), followed by full organic fertilizer (66.0 yen out of season, 63.4 yen in season), half organic fertilizer (35.8 yen out of season, 19.8 yen in season), and half pesticide (29.2 yen out of season, 21.0 yen in season). Consumers showed greater preference for organically and low-input farmed komatsuna out of season than in season. Consumers were more interested in pesticide information than in fertilizer and region of origin information. Our findings suggest that providing detailed cultivation and seasonality information would be a beneficial consumer communication tool to increase the market for sustainable agricultural products.
