Buying in: the influence of interactions at farmers’ markets

Many consumers are motivated to attend Farmers’ Markets (FMs) because of the opportunity to purchase fresh and local products. The subsequent interactions at FMs provide an important pathway for the direct exchange of information. While previous research suggests that people value local food and the FM shopping experience and that purchasing directly from producers can lead to transformative learning, little is known about exactly how the shopping experience at FMs can influence consumer purchasing behavior. This study examines the extent of and mechanism for such “influencing.” Using data from surveys, observations, and interviews gathered at six FMs, we analyze the interactions between consumers and vendors, including the motivations and values of both parties. We explore the question, “How do farmers’ markets facilitate change in consumer purchasing behavior?” We propose that the dynamic of change in consumer purchasing behavior at FMs takes root in the exchange of information between consumers and vendors during interactions. Our results suggest that there are three specific characteristics shared by FM consumers and vendors that lead to these meaningful interactions at FMs: symmetry of motivations to attend FMs, shared values, and mutual dependence on interactions. Then, when a consumer learns new information from a FM vendor during an interaction, the consumer is more likely to make a change in their immediate purchase. Information about the products for sale and the modes of production of those items can especially impact consumers’ immediate purchases at FMs. We found that FM interactions can also impact long-term purchasing behavior, such as purchasing more organic or locally produced foods. Our results suggest that FM interactions may have significant implications for consumer health, local economies, and the environment.     

Experiences and perspectives of farmers from Upstate New York farmers' markets

Despite the growing popularityof farmers' markets (FMs) across the UnitedStates, the experiences and perspectives offarmers who sell at markets have received verylittle research attention. This study describesthe views of 18 farmers from Upstate New Yorkon the importance of FMs as part of theirlifestyle and livelihood, the challenges theyface selling at markets, and their conceptionsof ideal FMs. Through in-depth, semi-structuredinterviews, farmers expressed economic andsocial motivations for selling at FMs; socialbenefits from interacting with customers; andthe challenges they faced as small-scalefarmers and sellers, including extra-marketcompetition, uncooperative and problematicmarket vendors, rising farm input costs, andchanging consumer trends. Farmers alsodiscussed personal values associated withselling at FMs, such as pride in raising andmarketing one's own products, working togetherwith other farmer-vendors, and providingcustomers with honest information. Visions ofideal FMs were varied among farmers, but therewas general agreement that FMs should provide adiversity of products to attract customers andeducational opportunities for the public tolearn more about FMs and local produce. Theinterdependence of FM farmers was a majoremergent theme across interviews. Findingssuggested that market experiences of FMfarmers, including economic success, are notonly contingent on personal effort, but canalso be affected by the work of fellow vendors.Future research may look to further explore howFM farmers and other vendors interact ascooperative and competitive social and economicunits. At the community level, FM leadershipshould continue to focus on the experiences andperspectives of farmers and other marketvendors, in addition to identifying ways forenhancing cooperative FM enterprises.     

Non-GMO vs organic labels: purity or process guarantees in a GMO contaminated landscape

Since 2010, demand for non-GMO food products has grown dramatically. Two non-GMO labels dominate the market: USDA Organic and the Non-GMO Project Verified (the Project). However, the non-GMO status of Organic is not obvious from the label and many consumers are unaware of this. As sales of products carrying the Project’s non-GMO label have exploded, concern has increased among some Organic proponents that demand for non-GMO threatens the organic market. In response, both sides are seeking to build legitimacy and authority for their label by emphasizing the value of their standards for determining a food product’s non-GMO status within a GMO contaminated agrifood system. Drawing on in-depth interviews with key informants with knowledge of non-GMO standards and labels, we examine the knowledge systems, discourses and actors that proponents of the Project and USDA Organic privilege in their effort to legitimize their standards. Here, the Project emphasizes its application of technoscientific norms, especially thresholds and testing, which they argue provide the best means for preventing GMO contamination and helping consumers find (relative) non-GMO ‘purity’. In contrast, proponents of Organic favor a process standard that excludes GMOs, arguing that non-GMO ‘purity’ is unrealistic in today’s agrifood system that is widely contaminated by GMOs and where mandatory testing would unnecessarily harm organic producers. We conclude that tensions between the two groups are unlikely to be easily reconciled since these two distinct marketing labels rely on different knowledge and verification claims to vie for consumers and increase market share.     

Cultivating citizenship,equity, and social inclusion? Putting civic agriculture into practice through urban farming

Civic agriculture is an approach to agriculture and food production that—in contrast with the industrial food system—is embedded in local environmental, social, and economic contexts. Alongside proliferation of the alternative food projects that characterize civic agriculture, growing literature critiques how their implementation runs counter to the ideal of civic agriculture. This study assesses the relevance of three such critiques to urban farming, aiming to understand how different farming models balance civic and economic exchange, prioritize food justice, and create socially inclusive spaces. Using a case study approach that incorporated interviews, participant observation, and document review, I compare two urban farms in Baltimore, Maryland—a “community farm” that emphasizes community engagement, and a “commercial farm” that focuses on job creation. Findings reveal the community farm prioritizes civic participation and food access for low-income residents, and strives to create socially inclusive space. However, the farmers’ “outsider” status challenges community engagement efforts. The commercial farm focuses on financial sustainability rather than participatory processes or food equity, reflecting the use of food production as a means toward community development rather than propagation of a food citizenry. Both farms meet authentic needs that contribute to neighborhood improvement, though findings suggest a lack of interest by residents in obtaining urban farm food, raising concerns about its appeal and accessibility to diverse consumers. Though not equally participatory, equitable, or social inclusive, both farms exemplify projects physically and philosophically rooted in the local social context, necessary characteristics for promoting civic engagement with the food system.     

Reconnecting through local food initiatives? Purpose,practice and conceptions of ‘value’

Reconnection between producers and consumers is often presented as an integral part of the local food narrative. However, questions can arise as to whether local food producers and their food purchasers align in mindset and the value proposition that underpins their involvement. This paper draws on interview data collected from producers and consumers participating in direct-sell meat operations to explore so-called value propositions between these two actors in local food initiatives (LFIs) in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. We suggest that because producers and consumers value their participation and associated ‘reconnection’ for different reasons and experience practical limitations in satisfying diverse expectations, the ‘reconnection’ metaphor is complex and contingent—especially at the level of the individual. The findings suggest that new roles, realities and beliefs for each party in regard to marketing, customer relations, distribution, and (in)convenience might predispose participants to be in favor of other arrangements (without direct contact) if they became more readily available and were capable of guaranteeing both profitability for the producer and healthy foods for the consumer.     

The labor of terroir and the terroir of labor: Geographical Indication and Darjeeling tea plantations

In 1999, Darjeeling tea became India’s first Geographical Indication (GI). GI has proliferated worldwide as a legal protection for foods with terroir, or “taste of place,” a concept most often associated with artisan foods produced by small farmers in specific regions of the Global North. GI gives market protection to terroir in an increasingly homogenous food system. This article asks how Darjeeling tea, grown in an industrial plantation system rooted in British colonialism, has become convincingly associated with artisan GIs such as Champagne, Cognac, and Roquefort. The answer lies in a conceptual dyad that frames how British colonial officials, the Indian state, and international consumers have understood Darjeeling and its signature commodity. Since the colonial era, these actors have conceived Darjeeling as both an idyllic “garden” space and an industrial “plantation” space. As I show through an analysis of GI marketing materials and interviews with planters, pluckers, and consumers, this dyad maps in surprising ways onto labor relations. While planters’ and marketers’ discourses tend to emphasize the “garden,” laborers’ investment in GI lies primarily in an active—if also ambivalent—embrace of the plantation, encapsulated in the Nepali word “kamān.”     

北京都市型现代农业发展的挑战与机遇

从农业布局、农业基础、农业产业体系等角度分析了北京都市型现代农业的发展概况,对新时期北京都市型现代农业发展所面临的挑战与机遇进行了研究,结果表明,北京都市型现代农业存在资源短缺、环境恶化、生产成本过高等劣势,但也具有市场空间大、农业产业经验先进和发展契机众多等优势。在此基础上,提出了"十二五"期间北京都市型现代农业的发展思路,即必须进一步提高农业的基础性、融合性、创意性、示范性,以市场为导向,坚持满足中高端市场需求,积极培育、发展壮大农业产业化水平,打造特色唯一性产品品牌,提高农产品的附加值。     

Agrarianism,wealth, and economics

Is it possible to avoid “the agrarian myth” while recognizing the genuine value—which is not necessarily the economic or monetary value—of agrarian pursuits? My answer is that such a recognition of genuine agrarian values is possible, but only if we recapture a lost sense of the value of productive activities generally.An impediment to this recognition, I maintain, is modern economics—both socialist and free market; one important means to it, the natural law philosophy of the eighteenth century French Physiocrats.     

市场常见色泽异常肉的检验和处理

运用改进了的技术对市场上五种常见色泽异常肉的检验, 为广大消费者提供了便利的鉴别手段, 为消费者能“吃上放心肉”提供了可靠的依据。通过临床实践检验, 采用对比法以及实验室快速检验法对五种常见色泽异常肉进行不同程度的处理。通过检验和处理常见色泽异常肉, 反映出我国肉类市场存在的严重问题, 有待于我们进一步加强肉类食品的检验和管理。     

高等植物功能性分子标记的开发与利用

在比较遗传分析中常用的随机DNA分子标记及目的基因标记的基础上,综述高等植物中最新定义的分子标记类型,即功能性分子标记,它包括间接类型及直接类型的功能性分子标记。功能性分子标记是建立在关联分析或近等基因系中等位基因的功能性基序中单核苷酸多态性位点基础上的一类新型显性分子标记,它不依赖于分子遗传作图;利用该标记可大大提高分子标记辅助选择的效率。     

Gender power in Kenyan dairy: cows,commodities, and commercialization

In Western Kenya, smallholder dairy production is becoming incrementally commercialized through the commodification and sale of milk through formal market channels. While commercialization is often construed as a way to boost rural livelihoods through increased income from milk, emerging evidence suggests that married women are not directly benefiting from formal milk market participation. This critical issue of gender power imbalance has been framed by development interventions in economic efficiency and social justice perspectives, but thus far interventions in the sector have not addressed how underlying social-market mechanisms embedded in gendered ideology influence smallholder engagement in dairy commercialization. Drawing on feminist theories of power and social embeddedness, this study investigates how gendered power relationships materialize and influence formal milk marketing engagement and practices in Western Kenya. Facilitated discussion groups with smallholder farmers revealed the gendered ideologies and norms that ascribe masculinized meaning to cattle, milk, and commercial enterprise. Key informant interviews with commercial dairy management and farmers were used to identify current practices for increasing women’s formal market participation—namely, direct payments to women for milk deliveries. Findings from this study indicate that cattle and formal dairy market participation are imbued with gendered meaning that create legitimacy around men’s privilege over dairy proceeds. Interventions in the sector aimed at addressing gender power imbalances must acknowledge this dynamic, and accept the social trade-offs and gendered costs of dairy commercialization.     

Local is not fair: indigenous peasant farmer preference for export markets

The food sovereignty movement calls for a reversal of the neoliberal globalization of food, toward an alternative development model that supports peasant production for local consumption. The movement holds an ambiguous stance on peasant production for export markets, and clearly prioritizes localized trade. Food sovereignty discourse often simplifies and romanticizes the peasantry—overlooking agrarian class categories and ignoring the interests of export-oriented peasants. Drawing on 8 months of participant observation in the Andean countryside and 85 interviews with indigenous peasant farmers, this paper finds that export markets are viewed as more fair than local markets. The indigenous peasants in this study prefer export trade because it offers a more stable and viable livelihood. Feeding the national population through local market intermediaries, by contrast, is perceived as unfair because of oversupply and low, fluctuating prices. This perspective, from the ground, offers important insight to movement actors and scholars who risk oversimplifying peasant values, interests, and actions.     

不同区域森林火灾对生态因子的响应及其概率模型

火灾是影响森林生态系统过程的重要干扰之一,其对森林生态系统内各生态因子的响应各不相同.由于植被状况及生态环境的不同,森林火灾的时空分布特征在中国不同植被气候类型内表现不同,根据植被气候类型分类系统,将中国主要森林火灾地区划分为4个区域:东北(冷温带松林)、华北(落叶阔叶林)、东南(常绿阔叶林)和西南(热带雨林),应用遥感监测数据和地面环境数据,以时空变量、生态因子(植被生长变化指数、湿度等)为可选自变量,应用半参数化Logistic回归模型,就森林火险对不同生态影响因子的响应规律进行了分析,建立了基于生态因子的着火概率模型和大火蔓延概率模型,通过模拟及实际数据散点图、火险概率图,评估了模型应用价值.结果表明,土壤湿度及植被含水量在落叶阔叶林、常绿阔叶林、热带雨林地区对着火概率影响显著.在4个植被气候区内,土壤及凋落物湿度对大火蔓延的作用较小.在冷温带松林、落叶阔叶林、常绿阔叶林地区,植被生长的年内变化对火灾发生的影响显著,在常绿阔叶林地区,年内植被生长变化对大火蔓延的作用较小.森林火险概率与各生态因子的相关关系主要呈现出非线性.不同植被气候区内,火险概率受不同生态因子组合的影响,这与不同区域的植被状况及生态环境不同有关.在不同植被气候类型,应用时空变量、生态因子建立半参数化logistic回归模型,进行着火概率和大火蔓延概率的模拟具有可行性和实际应用能力.为进一步分析森林生态系统与火灾之间的动态关系、展开生态系统火灾干扰研究提供了理论基础.     

荷兰有机农业生产状况及启示

为探讨贵州有机农业生产的发展,采用收集二手资料、访谈以及参与式观察对荷兰的有机农业生产进行了调查研究。对荷兰的有机农业生产情况及社区支持型有机农场进行了介绍:政府对有机农业生产提供补贴,并建有专门的管理机构和学校。社区支持型有机农场把消费者看作是农场的重要组成成分,消费者参与农场的发展规划和各种活动,对农场的发展提出建议。笔者认为:贵州的有机农业生产应该考虑在学校中设立相关的培训课程,培养具有相关知识的学生;另可考虑发展社区支持型有机农场。     

Antisocial punishment across societies

We document the widespread existence of antisocial punishment, that is, the sanctioning of people who behave prosocially. Our evidence comes from public goods experiments that we conducted in 16 comparable participant pools around the world. However, there is a huge cross-societal variation. Some participant pools punished the high contributors as much as they punished the low contributors, whereas in others people only punished low contributors. In some participant pools, antisocial punishment was strong enough to remove the cooperation-enhancing effect of punishment. We also show that weak norms of civic cooperation and the weakness of the rule of law in a country are significant predictors of antisocial punishment. Our results show that punishment opportunities are socially beneficial only if complemented by strong social norms of cooperation.     

农产品质量安全建设推动力分析

农产品质量安全是目前社会关注的焦点。文章叙述了在农产品质量安全建设中,主要存在农产品企业、政府、消费者、媒体、国外市场五大推动力,并且分析了它们各自扮演的推动农产品质量安全建设发展的不可替代的角色作用。提出了农产品质量安全建设的推动方式可以表述为:内外结合——1个内力和4个外力相结合。     

运用稳定同位素技术研究千岛湖秋季刺网渔获物的食性和营养级

利用稳定性同位素技术,对2011年9月至11月期间利用浙江千岛湖主要渔具之一的刺网采集的渔获物开展了食物源和营养级的分析研究。结果表明,千岛湖鱼类主要食物源的δ13C值跨度范围较大(-29.7‰~-23.9‰),其中浮游植物的δ13C值最高,颗粒有机物(POM)的δ13C值最低。食物源的δ15N值变化范围较小,以浮游植物最高(8.5‰),颗粒有机物最低(5.1‰)。与食物源的同位素值分布趋势相反,消费者的δ13C值浮动范围相对较小(-29.7‰~-21.6‰),而δ15N值的浮动范围相对较大(5.1‰~14.8‰)。消费者的营养级从1.9到3.6,分属于3个营养等级,鱼类的营养级全部分布在第3到第4营养级之间,且与其食性特征有较好的一致性,但是两种外来种鱼类中的一种草食性鱼类团头鲂的营养级却高达3.4,而肉食性的斑点叉尾的营养级则仅为3.0,说明其在千岛湖的食性均已发生了很大变化。同位素示踪方法研究的结果还表明千岛湖水体中的碳源主要是浮游植物。     

金融经营者不当销售行为的法律规制——以信义义务为进路

一些金融经营者在金融商品交易过程中存在不当销售行为，给金融消费者带来财产损失。然而依据我国现行的有关法律规则，消费者通常难以获得有效的法律救济。在英美法国家，法院通过信义关系理论将金融经营者与金融消费者之间的关系认定为一种信义关系，并在此基础上对经营者设定信义义务的约束，相关原理和规则值得我国立法借鉴。我国立法宜应明确以适当性原则以及说明义务为主要内容的信义义务规则，确立违反信义义务的民事责任，从而为消费者提供可以援引的私法规则。     

农产品市场“柠檬困境”下的消费者行为分析

在介绍＂柠檬市场＂理论的内涵以及农产品市场中的＂柠檬＂现象基础上,剖析了农产品＂柠檬市场＂中的消费者行为特征：一是农产品消费者在市场谈判过程中心理契约形成的非平等性;二是农产品＂柠檬市场＂中购买决策规则趋向简单化;三是在农产品＂柠檬市场＂中,消费者更容易产生从众行为。剖析了农产品市场＂柠檬困境＂对消费者影响的经济学含义,从农产品信息收集存在一定的不确定性、农产品信息使用过程中存在一定的不确定性2个方面分析了产生影响的成因。为了解决农产品市场中的＂柠檬＂问题,提出了以下对策与建议：一是构建优质农产品信息产生的体制、机制;二是鼓励多渠道、多形式、多层次的农产品经营模式,促进市场功能优化;三是拓宽农产品信息传播渠道,建立高效反馈通路;四是转变农产品消费者传统消费思维方式,促进农产品市场的健康、有序、良性发展。     

农村土地经营流转多重均衡发展分析

在农村土地流转实践探索与理论研究的基础上,对农村土地经营权流转的多重性均衡发展进行了分析。研究认为,寻求经济效率、公共利益和农村市场社会的多重均衡,在于遵循农村土地资源流转中农民群体、政府与市场参与方利益的动态均衡,各种要素投入土地流转过程中获得动态化的价值回报;在于土地资源的动态价值评估、土地流转的产权界定以及土地流转市场竞争。