8 pages, - The ways in which consumers receive and process information have changed as they become more reliant on the internet.
- A significant proportion of consumers have little or no farming knowledge, but they wish to understand how their food is produced and don't always trust the information that is provided.
- Consumers see academics, farmers, and ranchers as highly credible food production information sources, and “mom scientists” rate highly as technical experts who share consumers' values.
- To ensure current and future animal science industry sustainability, better communication with consumers is required—a variety of tools are available to achieve this goal.
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.
Online from publication. 2 pages., Report of a panel discussion at the Produce Marketing Association's Fresh Summit. Includes reference to need in marketing communications for greater orientation to consumer needs and desires.
16 pages., via online journal., Fraudulent activities in the international honey market affect 10% of food, and cost the global food market $50 billion per annum. Although many developed countries have created regulations to combat food fraud, illegally imported honey, especially originating from China, still enters through transshipments and relabelling to mask its true origin. This honey laundering poses a health risk to consumers, as Chinese honey potentially contains illegal and unsafe antibiotics and high levels of herbicides and pesticides. We analyse whether information about the negative health impacts of laundered honey increases the proportion of consumers willing to pay a premium for local fraud‐free honey. Using a laboratory experiment, we find when consumers are given honey laundering information, their willingness to pay a premium for local fraud‐free honey increases by as much as 27 percentage points. Our findings suggest that by conveying honey laundering information and guaranteeing their honey is fraud‐free, producers can potentially increase revenues and reduce the prevalence of food fraud. Our results further show that consumers' preference for various honey characteristics and age also influence the probability of paying a premium for local honey.
Gifford, Claude W. (author / Director, Office of Communication, U.S. Department of Agriculture)
Format:
Report
Publication Date:
Circa 1975
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 49 Document Number: D10718
Notes:
Claude W. Gifford Collection. Beyond his materials in the ACDC collection, the Claude W. Gifford Papers, 1919-2004 are deposited in the University of Illinois Archives. Serial Number 8/3/81. Locate finding aid at https://archives.library.illinois.edu/archon/, 3 pages., Detailed listing of more than 40 information services provided by the Office of Communication for varied audiences, including policy makers, producers, consumers, and others. Includes counts and audience sizes of many media services, from daily phone calls to the annual Yearbook of Agriculture. Specific year(s) involved are not identified.
Dole Food Company, Inc. hopes to encourage Americans to eat more fresh fruit and vegetables in honor of May’s National Salad Month and all year long, with the release of a dozen original salad recipes linked to the specific astrological personalities of the 12 Zodiac signs.
