scholarly journals Consumer Attitudes for Asian Vegetables in Direct Markets

2008 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 500-505 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Alan Walters ◽  
Kurt T. Range ◽  
Bradley H. Taylor ◽  
Wanki Moon

Because the demand for Asian vegetables is rapidly increasing in the United States, these crops may provide local market growers new revenue opportunities with high returns per acre. However, consumer attitudes and purchasing habits regarding Asian vegetable crops are poorly understood. Therefore, consumers were surveyed in two direct-market venues (on-farm and farmers market) to measure their familiarity and preferences for Asian vegetables. Attributes that may influence buying decisions such as purchase frequency, consumption behavior, and knowledge of preparation and use were measured. Respondents were generally not familiar with fresh Asian vegetables. Although greater than 80% consumed less than 5 lb per year and less than once per month, the consumers surveyed expressed a strong interest to learn more about these vegetables. Consumers purchased Asian vegetables most often at supermarkets (29.4%) and restaurants (28.1%), and much less at local direct markets (12.5%). Results also indicated that Asians as well as consumers with higher income levels were most likely to consume these vegetables. Thirty-eight percent of consumers strongly indicated that the availability of recipes for various Asian vegetables at direct markets would increase the likelihood for purchase; thus, the opportunity exists to add these vegetables to local production and marketing systems, if recipes were made available at the point-of-purchase.

2007 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan R. Hunt

AbstractConsumers interact with each other and vendors on a social level at farmers' markets. Some consumer social interactions, such as enjoying the market, talking with farmers about seasonal products and making a trip to the market a family event, are significant and positive influences on spending at farmers' markets as identified through a survey of 216 shoppers at eight farmers' markets in Maine. Vendors at these markets were also surveyed, with 65 of the 81 vendors being farmers. Through direct farmer/consumer relations, farmers indicated a willingness to reduce chemical inputs to meet customer demands, suggesting that customer interaction has the potential to affect environmental quality. By examining the linkages between producers and consumers at a direct market—often embedded with a sense of local identity—there is the potential to better understand social interactions that can support the economic and environmental sustainability of local agriculture.


2021 ◽  
pp. 107755872110166
Author(s):  
Gary Gaumer ◽  
Robert Coulam ◽  
Rose Desilets

This article examines minority participation in hospital senior management and how participation varies across areas in response to demographic and other market influences. We use data from Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, United States from 2008 to 2014 reported by private hospitals in the United States, grouped into 381 metropolitan areas. Analysis shows minority participation is sensitive to some local market factors including total population, share of minorities in the population, relative number of minorities with bachelor’s degrees in the population, and the concentration of local hospital markets. But, unlike markets for other hospital jobs (professionals, middle managers, and other jobs), changes in these factors create only small changes in minority participation for senior managers. Our results demonstrate that minority participation in senior management is not going to improve very much from future increases in minority populations and from educational parity. Public policies and deliberate organizational strategies will be required to make substantial improvements in diversity of senior management.


HortScience ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Ronald S. Revord ◽  
J. Michael Nave ◽  
Ronald S. Revord ◽  
J. Michael Nave ◽  
Gregory Miller ◽  
...  

The Chinese chestnut (Castanea mollissima Blume) and other Castanea species (Castanea spp. Mill.) have been imported and circulated among growers and scientists in the United States for more than a century. Initially, importations of C. mollissima after 1914 were motivated by efforts to restore the American chestnut [Castanea dentata (Marsh.) Borkh.], with interests in timber-type characters and chestnut blight resistance. Chestnut for orchard nut production spun off from these early works. Starting in the early 20th century, open-pollinated seeds from seedlings of Chinese chestnut and other Castanea species were distributed widely to interested growers throughout much of the eastern United States to plant and evaluate. Germplasm curation and sharing increased quite robustly through grower networks over the 20th century and continues today. More than 100 cultivars have been named in the United States, although a smaller subset remains relevant for commercial production and breeding. The University of Missouri Center for Agroforestry curates and maintains a repository of more than 60 cultivars, and open-pollinated seed from this collection has been provided to growers since 2008. Currently, more than 1000 farms cultivate seedlings or grafted trees of the cultivars in this collection, and interest in participatory on-farm research is high. Here, we report descriptions of 57 of the collection’s cultivars as a comprehensive, readily accessible resource to support continued participatory research.


Author(s):  
Andrew Ross

Nothing has driven the growth of metro Phoenix more than the sun’s rays. For most of its residents and visitors, the chief reason for coming to the region was its 334 days of annual sunshine, yet precious little of this radiation showed up in the energy supply. Indeed, Arizona has often been held up as an object of shame for the cause of solar power. Despite the bounty of its sun cover, by 2009 the state generated only 7 watts of photovoltaic power (PV) per capita, while New Jersey, with only half the available sunlight, managed 14.6 watts per capita, and Germany, with even less, delivered 100 watts to each person. If the solar industry was to have its long-deferred day in the United States, then the Valley of the Sun had to be at, or near the top, of the location list. Surely, it should be easier to generate “clean electrons” here than almost anywhere else. Yet the dismal historical record shows that the abundance of this natural resource mattered very little in the face of a political and economic environment that has prevented the sun’s energy from being enjoyed by its liberty-loving residents, let alone developed on an industrial scale. For a metropolis in the deepest trough of the Great Recession, the prospect of developing solar industry was just about the only source of boosterism I could find among the business community. Glenn Hamer, president of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, bragged that, with the help of federal and state incentives currently available, “the cocktail is in place for Arizona to truly be a national and international leader in solar. . . . with our incredible natural advantage, we have just about the world’s best solar resource.” Someone in his position could reasonably be expected to be gung ho about any new local market for investment, but Hamer also happened to be former national director of the Solar Energy Industries Association.


Weed Science ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 463-473
Author(s):  
Douglas Bessette ◽  
Robyn Wilson ◽  
Christian Beaudrie ◽  
Clayton Schroeder

AbstractWeeds remain the most commonly cited concern of organic farmers. Without the benefit of synthetic herbicides, organic farmers must rely on a host of ecological weed management (EWM) practices to control weeds. Despite EWM’s ability to improve soil quality, the perceived rate of integrated EWM strategy adoption remains low. This low adoption is likely a result of the complexity in designing and evaluating EWM strategies, the tendency for outreach to focus on the risks of EWM strategies rather than their benefits, and a lack of quantitative measures linking the performance of EWM strategies to farmers’ on-farm objectives and practices. Here we report on the development and deployment of an easy-to-use online decision support tool (DST) that aids organic farmers in identifying their on-farm objectives, characterizing the performance of their practices, and evaluating EWM strategies recommended by an expert advisory panel. Informed by the principles of structured decision making, the DST uses multiple choice tasks to help farmers evaluate the short- and long-term trade-offs of EWM strategies, while also focusing their attention on their most important objectives. We then invited organic farmers across the United States, in particular those whose email addresses were registered on the USDA’s Organic Research Integrity Database, to engage the DST online. Results show considerable movement in participants’ (n = 45) preferences from practices focused on reducing weeding costs and labor in the short term to EWM strategies focused on improving soil quality in the long term. Indeed, nearly half of those farmers (48%) who initially ranked a strategy composed of their current practices highest ultimately preferred a better-performing EWM strategy focused on eliminating the weed seedbank over 5 yr.


Animals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 1202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brooklyn Wagner ◽  
Kenneth Royal ◽  
Rachel Park ◽  
Monique Pairis-Garcia

Surgical castration is a painful husbandry procedure performed on piglets in the United States (US) to improve meat quality. Veterinarians play a crucial role in developing pain management protocols. However, providing pain management for castration is not common practice in US swine production systems. Therefore, the objective of the present study is to identify factors influencing swine veterinarian decision-making in regard to pain management protocols for piglet castration using focus group methodologies. Swine veterinarians (n = 21) were recruited to participate in one of three focus groups. Audio recordings were transcribed verbatim and analyzed by two independent coders who identified three areas of focus, including (1) the lack of approved products validated for efficacy, (2) economic limitations and challenges, and (3) deficient guidelines and training for veterinarians to develop protocols. Although participating veterinarians acknowledged the importance of pain management from an animal welfare standpoint, these barriers must be addressed to ensure that castration pain can be successfully mitigated on-farm.


2020 ◽  
Vol 67 (S1) ◽  
pp. 36-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randall S. Singer ◽  
Leah J. Porter ◽  
Nora F. D. Schrag ◽  
Peter R. Davies ◽  
Michael D. Apley ◽  
...  

2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 387-401 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Angioloni ◽  
Genti Kostandini ◽  
Walid Q. Alali ◽  
Corliss A. O'Bryan

AbstractThe use of mobile processing units (MPUs) for pasture poultry is growing rapidly. This study compared the economic feasibility of MPUs to two processing alternatives, traditional stationary processing on-farm plants and off-farm processing facilities. Our study combined a survey of pasture poultry farmers in Georgia, Louisiana, and Arkansas with the published research. Our findings suggest that MPUs and traditional on-farm processing alternatives have a lower processing cost, but that they require a higher initial investment than the off-farm option. In addition, off-farm processing at the United States Department of Agriculture-inspected facility allows selling products for a higher price. We therefore expect, on average, a higher per-bird profit than with the other two options. However, the excess processing capacity of the MPU can make this option the most profitable.


Molecules ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (10) ◽  
pp. 1932 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qingchun Liu ◽  
Kang Qiao ◽  
Shouan Zhang

Carvacrol, a plant-derived volatile small molecule, is effective against various agents that can cause damage to humans, the food processing industry, and plants, and is considered a safe substance for human consumption. In this short communication, previous studies on the effectiveness of carvacrol against various agents, particularly plant pathogens and their associated mechanisms are described. In our study, carvacrol was found to be effective on media against several soilborne pathogens and in planta against three foliar pathogens (Xanthomonas perforans, Alternaria tomatophila, and Podosphaeraxanthii) of important vegetable crops in south Florida of the United States. Current research findings indicated that the effectiveness of carvacrol against various plant pathogens tested was associated with its direct bactericidal/fungicidal effect, which was affected greatly by its volatility. Development of new formulations to overcome the volatility and to prolong the effectiveness of carvacrol was also presented. Our studies on carvacrol suggested that, with advanced development of new formulations, carvacrol could be used as a promising tool in the integrated pest management for bacterial, fungal, and viral pathogens of important vegetable crops in Florida, the USA, and the world.


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