10 pages, Enormous quantities of data are generated through social and online media in the era of Web 2.0. Understanding consumer perceptions or demand efficiently and cost effectively remains a focus for economists, retailer/consumer sciences, and production industries. Most of the efforts to understand demand for food products rely on reports of past market performance along with survey data. Given the movement of content-generation online to lay users via social media, the potential to capture market-influencing shifts in sentiment exists in online data. This analysis presents a novel approach to studying consumer perceptions of production system attributes using eggs and laying hen housing, which have received significant attention in recent years. The housing systems cage-free and free-range had the greatest number of online hits in the searches conducted, compared with the other laying hen housing types. Less online discussion surrounded enriched cages, which were found by other methods/researchers to meet many key consumer preferences. These results, in conjunction with insights into net sentiment and words associated with different laying hen housing in online and social media, exemplify how social media listening may complement traditional methods to inform decision-makers regarding agribusiness marketing, food systems, management, and regulation. Employing web-derived data for decision-making within agrifood firms offers the opportunity for actionable insights tailored to individual businesses or products.
23pgs, Media scholarship has commonly regarded newspapers as an essential element of strong democratic societies: a forum that structures public debate, providing engaged citizens with coherent frameworks to identify, interpret and tackle complex issues. Despite general agreement on the merits of this goal, there is little empirical evidence suggesting it approximates the democratic role historically played by newspapers. We examined three decades of newspaper coverage of chicken meat production in the UK to find evidence relevant to the normative expectations of the democratic role of newspapers as forum for public debate, by means of a two-stage framing analysis of 766 relevant articles from seven outlets. We found mutually disconnected episodic coverage of specific issues whose aggregate effect is consistent with the diffusion rather than the structuring of public debate. Newspapers here afforded polemic rather than the systemic contestation expected. The polemic contestation we found, with diffusion of public debate as an emergent political effect, troubles the assumptions subsequent to which it is possible to argue for the democratic role of newspapers.
16 pages, Poultry production holds an important place in Arkansas economically and as a food source. The viability of poultry production ultimately hinges on consumer demand and the perceptions that drive their purchases. With this in mind, this study surveyed consumers to assess their perceptions of poultry production in Arkansas. The instrument used to survey consumers was created by the researcher and an expert committee at the University of Arkansas. Consumers were surveyed through direct communication at grocery stores in Northwest Arkansas. Data gathered from the study were analyzed using descriptive and correlational statistics. Consumers were uncertain as to whether or not conventionally produced poultry possessed unsafe levels of antibiotics and hormones (M = 3.68, SD = 1.45). Consumers also thought the majority of poultry farms in Arkansas were factory farms (M = 4.15, SD = 1.37). Consumers perceived organic poultry as a more healthy food than conventionally produced poultry (M = 4.47, SD = 1.39). Based on these results, specific recommendations were made to maintain the viability of poultry production in Arkansas. Marketing and communication efforts should be tailored to improve consumer understanding of antibiotic and hormone use in poultry production and the healthiness of conventionally produced poultry. Messaging and marketing should depict the reality of conventional poultry production, and agricultural communicators should work to improve logic and reason for combating campaigns that misinform the public about agriculture. This research also highlights the need for further research to better understand the ways consumers develop perceptions of poultry production.
Morkbak, Morten Raun (author), Christensen, Tove (author), and Hasler, Berit (author)
Format:
Book chapter
Publication Date:
2009
Published:
Denmark
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: C29850
Notes:
Pages 221-233 in Adam Lindgreen, Martin K. Hingley and Joelle Vanhamme (eds.), The crisis of food brands: sustaining safe, innovative and competitive food supply. Gower Publishing Limited, Surrey, England. 352 pages.
Walley, Keith (author), Custance, Paul (author), and Parsons, Stephen (author)
Format:
Book chapter
Publication Date:
2009
Published:
UK
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: C29849
Notes:
Pages 197-219 in Adam Lindgreen, Martin K. Hingley and Joelle Vanhamme (eds.), The crisis of food brands: sustaining safe, innovative and competitive food supply. Gower Publishing Limited, Surrey, England. 352 pages.
18 pages, Consumer preferences for food produced using currently prohibited production methods matter, especially in relation to potential trade deals. We conduct four discrete choice experiments examining UK consumer attitudes for food produced using several agricultural production methods currently prohibited in the UK, including chlorine washed chicken. Our results reveal negative preferences for these forms of agricultural production methods whereas EU food safety standards are highly valued. Willingness-to-pay estimates indicate that the positive values for food safety are frequently greater than the negative values placed on prohibited food production methods. Similarly, UK country of origin was highly valued but organic production was less valued. We discuss the implications of these results and, more generally, the use of stated preference estimates in economic modelling underpinning trade negotiations.
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.
28 pages, Large broiler chicken companies have been under pressure by consumers to reduce their carbon footprint, improve animal welfare and labor practices, and enhance environmental quality across the industry. This study examines how large broiler chicken companies have addressed sustainability within video content directed toward consumers and posted on YouTube. To conceptualize this study, we used the 1990 Farm Bill definition of agricultural sustainability. It is important to examine articulations of agricultural sustainability as company messages often incorporate sustainability philosophies and ideologies while referencing specific production practices and goals. This study used qualitative content analysis to analyze 440 videos, and framing analysis to closely examine a subset of 55 videos, from three of the largest broiler chicken companies in the United States. The framing analysis revealed that stewardship, natural state, and catalyst for change were the three most frequently used sustainability frames across the companies. These frames focus on elements of caretaking, responsibility, and public accountability, and apply these ideals to people, chickens, and profit within the organization. Few discussions of environmental stewardship were found within our analysis. While frames were not necessarily connected to production practices, each company did tend to leverage frames in ways that align with brand positioning. Companies should consider implementing discussions of how production practices affect the environment more directly, since protecting the environment and replenishing natural resources are concepts consumers associate with sustainability.
6pgs, Small producers won’t have the testing and control tools available to chicken-industry giants, some farmers say. That could give big producers one more advantage in a market where they already exercise a lot of control.
