USA: Food and Environment Reporting Network (FERN)
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 199 Document Number: D09876
Notes:
Via FERN website. 7 pages., Addresses the broad issue of "fake news" through a case example focused on reporting at the "complex intersection of the meatpacking industry, immigration, the rise of fake news, and the changing face of America's heartland." The example focuses on reporting about Somali and other refugees working at a meat packing plant near Garden City, Kansas.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 170 Document Number: D09010
Notes:
Online from the Food and Environment Reporting Network. 2 pages., Author describes an investigative reporting effort by Ted Genoway, a Nebraska-based writer. Provides link to the story, "Terror in the heartland."
4 pages., Online from publication website., Describes experimentation with slow-growth meat breeds of chickens. Article includes references to implications for marketing communications; consumer attitudes and preferences; and consumer responses to higher retail costs for slow-growth poultry meat.
Tarpley, Troy G. (author), Steede, Garrett M. (author), Gorham, Laura M. (author), Krause, Amber (author), Cummins, R. Glenn (author), and Akers, Cindy (author)
Format:
Conference paper
Publication Date:
2017-02
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 163 Document Number: D08158
Notes:
Research paper presented in the Agricultural Communications Section, Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists (SAAS) conference in Mobile, Alabama, February 4-7, 2017. 23 pages.
Risius, Antje (author), Hamm, Ulrich (author), and University of Kassel, Faculty of Organic Agriculture, Food and Agricultural Marketing, Steinstr.19, Witzenhausen, Germany
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
2017-02
Published:
Germany: Elsevier Ltd.
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 162 Document Number: D08138
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 161 Document Number: D07917
Notes:
5 pages., Author of "Bare Knuckles" blog shares with members of the AgriculturalRelations Council hs blog about "how the beef industry responded to soddy science and shoddy reporting about cancer risk in red and processed meats.."
25 pages., Online via UI e-subscription., Researchers investigated consumer attitudes toward vegetarianism, using two studies involving interviews with vegetarians and meat eaters. Text analysis revealed that "emotionally calibrated consumers were 'moral vegetarians' who find meat repulsive and make ethical food choices." Cognitively calibrated consumers were found to be 'health vegetarians' who "scanned the nutrition information, avoided meat due to health restrictions, and embraced vegetarianism for healthy life." Findings prompted suggestions for promoting vegetarianism.
9 pages., Online via UI electronic subscription, Using a panel selection model, researchers found robust evidence that the 2003 Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) caused a change in the way people viewed and responded to recalls of ground beef, a change (reduction of purchase) that persisted for at least two years.
22 pages., via database., "The U.S. lamb industry's generic lamb advertising program has positively impacted their markets, enhanced profitability of the industry, and increased the industry's share of domestic lamb consumption."
16 pages., Animals, Justice and the Law Part 2., Author offered information and perspectives about development of "Ag-Gag" laws in some states involving the reporting of production and slaughter practices in the meat industry, their effect on society, and limitations of self-regulation.
19 pages., Via online journal., While in vitro animal meat (IVM) is not yet commercially available, the public has already begun to form opinions of IVM as a result of news stories and events drawing attention to its development. As such, we can discern public perceptions of the ethics of IVM before its commercial release. This affords advocates of environmentally sustainable, healthy, and just diets with a unique opportunity to reflect on the social desirability of the development of IVM. This work draws upon an analysis of ethical perceptions of IVM in 814 US news blog comments related to the August 2013 tasting of the world’s first IVM hamburger. Specifically, I address three primary questions: (1) How does the public perceive the ethics of IVM development? (2) How acceptable is IVM to the public relative to alternative approaches to reducing animal meat consumption? and (3) What should all of this mean for the ongoing development and promotion of IVM? Ultimately, it is argued that there is a strong need for facilitation of public dialogue around IVM, as well as further research comparing the acceptability of IVM to other alternatives.
18 pages., While in vitro animal meat (IVM) is not yet commercially available, the public has already begun to form opinions of IVM as a result of news stories and events drawing attention to its development. As such, we can discern public perceptions of the ethics of IVM before its commercial release. This affords advocates of environmentally sustainable, healthy, and just diets with a unique opportunity to reflect on the social desirability of the development of IVM. This work draws upon an analysis of ethical perceptions of IVM in 814 US news blog comments related to the August 2013 tasting of the world’s first IVM hamburger. Specifically, I address three primary questions: (1) How does the public perceive the ethics of IVM development? (2) How acceptable is IVM to the public relative to alternative approaches to reducing animal meat consumption? and (3) What should all of this mean for the ongoing development and promotion of IVM? Ultimately, it is argued that there is a strong need for facilitation of public dialogue around IVM, as well as further research comparing the acceptability of IVM to other alternatives.
11 pages., Objective
To understand current public perceptions of in vitro meat (IVM) in light of its potential to be a more environmentally sustainable alternative to conventional meat.
Design
A qualitative content analysis of the comments made on online news articles highlighting the development of IVM and the world’s first IVM hamburger in August 2013.
Setting
News article comment sections across seven US-based online news sources (The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Cable News Network and National Public Radio).
Subjects
Four hundred and sixty-two commenters who made eight hundred and fourteen publicly available online comments addressing IVM.
Results
Key themes in commenter perceptions of IVM included environmental and public health benefits, but also negative themes such as IVM’s status as an unnatural and unappealing food. Overall, the tone of comments was more negative than positive.
Consumer acceptance of cultured meat is expected to depend on a wide diversity of determinants ranging from technology-related perceptions to product-specific expectations, and including wider contextual factors like media coverage, public involvement, and trust in science, policy and society. This paper discusses the case of cultured meat against this multitude of possible determinants shaping future consumer acceptance or rejection. The paper also presents insights from a primary exploratory study performed in April 2013 with consumers from Flanders (Belgium) (n=180). The concept of cultured meat was only known (unaided) by 13% of the study participants. After receiving basic information about what cultured meat is, participants expressed favorable expectations about the concept. Only 9% rejected the idea of trying cultured meat, while two thirds hesitated and about quarter indicated to be willing to try it. The provision of additional information about the environmental benefits of cultured meat compared to traditional meat resulted in 43% of the participants indicating to be willing to try this novel food, while another 51% indicated to be ‘maybe’ willing to do so. Price and sensory expectations emerged as major obstacles. Consumers eating mostly vegetarian meals were less convinced that cultured meat might be healthy, suggesting that vegetarians may not be the ideal primary target group for this novel meat substitute. Although exploratory rather than conclusive, the findings generally underscore doubts among consumers about trying this product when it would become available, and therefore also the challenge for cultured meat to mimic traditional meat in terms of sensory quality at an affordable price in order to become acceptable for future consumers.
This paper examines the media coverage of the 2013 London cultured meat tasting event, particularly in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Using major news outlets, prominent magazines covering food and science issues, and advocacy websites concerning meat consumption, the paper characterizes the overall emphases of the coverage, the tenor of the coverage, and compares the media portrayal of the important issues to the demographic and psychological realities of the actual consumer market into which cultured meat will compete. In particular, the paper argues that Western media gives a distorted picture of what obstacles are in the path of cultured meat acceptance, especially by overemphasizing and overrepresenting the importance of the reception of cultured meat among vegetarians. Promoters of cultured meat should recognize the skewed impression that this media coverage provides and pay attention to the demographic data that suggests strict vegetarians are a demographically negligible group. Resources for promoting cultured meat should focus on the empirical demographics of the consumer market and the empirical psychology of mainstream consumers.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 138 Document Number: D05789
Notes:
Paper presented in the Agricultural Communications Section of the annual conference of the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists, Atlanta, Georgia, January 31-February 1, 2015. 21 pages., "Consumers' perceptions of food safety and food safety concerns are not consistent with the major causes of foodborne illness."
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 138 Document Number: D05753
Notes:
Online via Drovers CattleNetwork, Lenexa,Kansas. 3 pages., Comments about a strange story in New York Times newspaper from an experience in 1876 involving meat falling mysteriously from the sky in Olympia Springs, Kentucky. Speculation about causes.
Chang, Kuo-Liang (author), Elliott, Lisa M. (author), Sand, Shannon (author), Dailey, Rocky (author), and Blachford, Sierra (author)
Format:
Paper
Publication Date:
2014-07
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 127 Document Number: D02709
Notes:
Paper presented at the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association 2014 AAEA annual meeting, Minneapolis, MN, July 27-29, 2014. 18 pages., Description of a research project in progress. No results reported, but literature review, conceptual approach and methods described.
Heise, Heinke (author), Pirsich,Wiebke (author), and Theuvsen, Ludwig (author)
Format:
Poster
Publication Date:
2014-05
Published:
International
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 127 Document Number: D02719
Notes:
Poster presented at the 2014 AAEA/EAAE/CAES joint symposium: Social networks, social media and the economics of food, Montreal, Canada, May 29-30, 2014. 2 pages.
22 pages., Via online journal, Private consumption is increasingly being blamed for resource depletion and environmental degradation, and the discourse of ascribing environmental responsibility to the individual consumer has become a part of mainstream policy-making. Measures aimed at promoting consumers' voluntary engagement through sustainable consumption now constitute an important part of public sustainability strategies. Nevertheless, the actual progress made in changing people's consumption patterns in a more sustainable direction has been modest. Based on a quantitative and a qualitative content analysis of articles on environmentally sustainable consumption of meat published in five national and regional newspapers in Norway between 2000 and 2010, it is argued in this article that an important reason for the lack of both political and consumer engagement in the issue can be attributed to a discursive confusion that arises from a simultaneous existence of mainly two clashing discourses on what is actually environmentally sustainable consumption of meat. One that is focusing on the environmentally malign aspects of consumption and production of (especially) red meat, and another that is focusing on the environmentally benign aspects of production and consumption of red meat. The findings imply that the lack of consensus on the character of the problem constitutes a major barrier for the opportunity to change people's consumption patterns in a more environmentally sustainable direction through the use of voluntary measures.
690 German survey recipients were given one of four different fictitious "newspaper articles" describing negative effects of meat consumption - either in terms of adverse effects on human health, on climate change, on animal welfare or on personal image. Findings showed that animal welfare and health arguments had the strongest effects at reducing meat consumption in both men and women.
15 pages., This study sought to explore the informational themes and information sources cited by the media to cover stories of cultured meat in both the United States and the European Union. The results indicated that cultured meat news articles in both the United States and the European Union commonly discuss cultured meat in terms of benefits, history, process, time, livestock production problems, and skepticism. Additionally, the information sources commonly cited in the articles included cultured meat researchers, sources from academia, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), New Harvest, Winston Churchill, restaurant owners/chefs, and sources from the opposing countries (e.g. US use some EU sources and vice versa). The implications of this study will allow meat scientists to understand how the media is influencing consumers' perceptions about the topic, and also allow them to strategize how to shape future communication about cultured meat.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 189 Document Number: D01643
Notes:
Online via Drovers CattleNetwork, Vance Publishing Corporation. 1 page., Summary of consumer research about lean, finely textured beef (LFTB), which became known as "pink slime."
2 pages., Introduces a new monthly national online survey that tracks consumer preferences and sentiments on the safety, quality and price of food at home and away from home, with particular emphasis on meat demand.
7 pages., Via online journal, This study analyzes retailer attitude towards animal welfare in Spain, and how this attitude has changed over recent years (2006–2011). Retailers were concerned about animal welfare issues but a declining trend is observed recently, probably due to the financial crisis. The concern about animal welfare was affected by sex, with women retailers expressing a more positive attitude towards animal welfare issues than men. Retailers, based on their experience, perceive a low level of willingness to pay more for welfare friendly products (WFP) on behalf of their customers. This fact is reflected in the sales of the WFP, which declined from 2006 to 2011. The main reason for consumers to buy WFP, according to retailer perception, is organoleptic quality, with improved welfare being second. The results obtained provide a pessimistic picture in relation to the current market positioning of WFP, which is probably a consequence of market contraction.
Cites findings of a 2012 national consumer survey, "Building trust in what we eat: consumers' knowledge of and trust in food production and how food marketers can improve it," by Sullivan Higdon and Sink.
7 pages., Via online journal., Policy makers in the European Union are envisioning the introduction of a community farm animal welfare label which would allow consumers to align their consumption habits with their farm animal welfare preferences. For welfare labeling to be viable the market for livestock products produced to higher welfare standards has to be sufficiently segmented with consumers having sufficiently distinct and behaviourally consistent preferences. The present study investigates consumers’ preferences for meat produced to different welfare standards using a hypothetical welfare score. Data is obtained from a contingent valuation study carried out in Britain. The ordered prohbit model was estimated using Bayesian inference to obtain mean willingness to pay. We find decreasing marginal WTP as animal welfare levels increase and that people’s preferences for different levels of farm animal welfare are sufficiently differentiated making the introduction of a la belling scheme in the form of a certified rating system appear feasible.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 168 Document Number: D08545
Notes:
ACDC holds introduction, including table of marketing resources., Online from the Agricultural Marketing Resource Center (AgMRC) maintained by USDA Rural Development, Washington,D.C., and Iowa State University, Ames. 98 pages.
