An overview of family fish farming: social, politics and food security implications

One characteristic that can be observed in family farming is the diversity of activities that are carried out concurrently on the property, providing and guaranteeing products for personal consumption or sale over the course of the year. Fish farming, an activity destined for fish production, is often one of these activities developed by family farmers and contributes to the access to quality protein for rural families and to increase income. Furthermore, the techniques used for fish production in family farming can foment a sustainable form of production. However, the lack of incentives regarding extension projects, marketing barriers, the lack of integration of traditional communities in decision making, and the absence of adequate technical information for the reality of rural properties make this activity limited and even ineffective in some regions. The encouragement of this activity could provide family farmers with improved economic conditions and food security and, consequently, the reduction of poverty in rural areas. The present study originated from a bibliographic review that addresses the activity of fish production and its impacts on the development of rural family activities, food security, and public and social policies for the maintenance, regularity, and quality of the final product.

Environmental Barriers and Functional Outcomes in Patients with Schizophrenia in Taiwan: The Capacity-Performance Discrepancy

Environmental factors are crucial determinants of disability in schizophrenic patients. Using data from the 2014–2018 Certification of Disability and Care Needs dataset, we identified 3882 adult patients (46.78% females; age, 51.01 ± 13.9 years) with schizophrenia. We found that patients with severe schizophrenia had lower capacity and performance than those with moderate schizophrenia. The chances of having an access barrier to environmental chapter 1 (e1) products and technology in moderate schizophrenic patients and in severe schizophrenic patients were 29.5% and 37.8%, respectively. Logistic regression analyses demonstrated that the performance score was related to accessibility barriers in the categories described in e1, with adequate fitness of models in category e110 for personal consumption, e115 for personal usage in daily living activities, and e120 for personal outdoor and indoor mobility and transportation. Furthermore, the capacity-performance discrepancy was higher in moderate schizophrenic patients with accessibility barriers in the e110, e115, and e120 categories than that in moderate schizophrenic patients without accessibility barriers. However, severe schizophrenic patients with category e120 accessibility barriers were prone to a lower discrepancy, with institutional care a potentially decreasing factor. In conclusion, providing an e1 barrier-free environment is necessary for patients with schizophrenia to decrease their disability.

Motivation, purpose, and purchasing frequency of honey consumption in West Java

Indonesia is home to the greatest diversity of social bees in all over Asia, particularly species of the genus Apis. Thus, expanding the apiculture industry for commercial development is highly considerable. Although this industry has not become a special concern, the products of this industry are very popular among the Indonesian people, both for health, lifestyle, and other benefits. Research plays an essential role for good decision making, however, there is little research related to honey marketing in Indonesia. In this study, we observed the honey consumption of 246 respondents living in West Java by using online questionnaires and Decision Tree Classification to contribute to honey marketing research. This research shows that the motivation of the respondents in buying honey was merely for health reasons and the main purpose was for personal consumption. As for purchasing frequency, 86% of respondents purchased honey more than once a month. Then, a classification model of honey purchasing frequency based on respondents’ demographics which has an accuracy of 70.3% was built. The study results should be considered by the food industry and honey producers to emphasize consumer behaviour to formulate a better marketing strategy.

Prospects for the US economy in 2022

Subject Prospects for the US economy in 2022. Significance The US economy has recovered quickly, with real GDP surpassing the level of the previous peak by the third quarter. Personal consumption spending is 8.6% above pre-pandemic levels but employment remains well below, while supply/demand imbalances will ease only gradually through 2022. Fiscal and monetary policy will be less expansionary, even if President Joe Biden’s second, USD2tn social infrastructure bill passes, and if rates stay on hold well into next year.

Pandangan Ekonomi Islam terhadap Sikap Konsumerisme Akibat Metode Pembayaran Tunda Bayar (PayLater)

The marketplace has experienced unprecedented growth in the last few years, which significantly impacts changing consumers' ways of performing their consumption behaviour by offering a new payment method called PayLater. PayLater is assumed to lead people into consumptive behaviour on buying products due to processing the payment later. Notwithstanding, Islam has certain principles regarding consumption activities, including the prohibition of extravagance in personal consumption and collectively. Thus, in Islam, consumption must be based on needs, not just the fulfilment of lust which is, of course, endless. This study examines the influence of PayLater on Muslim consumption. This study uses descriptive research with a qualitative approach. Based on the analysis, this study confirms that Islam guides all human beings, specifically Muslims, to consume based on their ability. Muslims is suggested to manage their consumption which implies that Muslim's consumption expenditure should not be greater than their income, leading to wasteful behaviour. On the other hand, Muslims should not suppress their expenditure which will lead to destruction.

“Wild fish are a blessing”: changes in fishing practices and folk fish cuisine around Laguna Lake, Northern Philippines

Several coastal communities rely heavily on wild-caught fish for personal consumption and their livelihoods, thus being sensitive to the rapid global change affecting fish availability. However, in the last century, aquaculture has been increasingly adopted. To understand the uses and changes of wild-caught fish, we conducted 30 semi-structured interviews with fishers of Laguna Lake, Philippines. Fishermen, with up to 60 years’ experience, reported catching 31 fish species as a staple food. The taxa with the greatest variety of food uses were the farmed Oreochromis aureus, and the wild Channa striata and Cyprinus carpio. Fish was boiled, fried, grilled and dried, and over 20 different local dishes were reported. Fishers reported that local communities previously relied more on wild fish, while today a greater proportion of consumed fish comes from aquaculture fish species such as Oreochromis aureus and Hypophthalmichthys nobilis. Wild fish remains a crucial aspect of local gastronomic diversity, underpinning the biodiversity of the Laguna Lake, while also representing an important element for food sovereignty. The study stresses the need to sustain local ecological knowledge to ensure the ecological, social and economic sustainability of the communities.

The perfect storm of personal consumption

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the governments of almost all countries to introduce lockdowns in 2020, which sharply reduced the supply in a number of large service sectors: transport, recreation, catering, tourism. The recession began without a crisis, and the unique supply of cheap money and fiscal incentives prevented the development of a “liquidity crunch”. On the contrary, it led to an increase in stock prices, real estate prices, and a reduction in bankruptcies. There was no drop in the value of pension and investment funds. The working population has faced a reduction in employment in labor-intensive service industries, a violation of traditional lifestyle models. The course of the recession in these conditions has changed the structure of personal consumption in developed countries, with its severe adaptation in medium-developed and less developed countries. The pandemic and the recession have caused an uneven compression of activity and consumption across social strata that leads to an increase in social disparities on exiting the recession. The drivers of the demand-side recovery in developed countries are the growth of investments in housing and durable goods, and developing countries are gradually restoring normal consumption of non-durable goods and exports.

Cluster analysis of agricultural products storage infrastructure in Kazakhstan: directions and development prospects

Purpose - the article is devoted to identifying the needs of the economy of Kazakhstan in infrastructure facilities for storing agricultural products and the prospects for its further development. Methods - statistical, factorial and k-mean cluster analysis. Results - the influence of an efficiently functioning network of storage facilities for agricultural products on the stability of providing the population with food, reducing the volatility of prices and supplies in the off-season is justified. The authors revealed that modern premises for warehousing and preserving the quality of agricultural products in foreign countries combine the functions of storage and marketing by creating logistics wholesale distribution centers (WDC), which allow the use of modern information technologies and computer systems aimed to form consumer applications for formulating commodity groups and delivery of the required product volumes to the consumer with minimal costs. Based on the analysis of indicators of harvesting and use of the main types of agricultural products in the republic (stocks at the beginning of the year, gross harvest, imports, industrial use and domestic consumption, losses, exports, personal consumption by the population, reserves at the end of the year, availability of storage facilities, shortage), the need in the storage infrastructure has been determined. The clustering of warehouse buildings was carried out according to the main features: the volume of one-time preservation, level of losses, availability of climatic warehouses and transport mechanism, on the basis of which five clusters have been identified. Conclusions - cluster analysis of storages showed their uneven and irrigation distribution across the regions of the country. It is necessary to modernize and build new such facilities of various capacities on the basis of the WDC - large hubs concentrated in various regions of Kazakhstan, depending on their needs.

From trend to threat? Assessing the sustainability of wild edible plant foraging by linking local perception to ecological inference

Wild edible plants as culturally-appropriate sources of nutrition and for food security are now well-recognised. In Europe, the use of wild edible plants is shifting from a subsistence activity to an emerging trend in high-end gastronomy. The environmental impacts of this shift are poorly known. Foraging is increasingly popular for personal consumption and commercially, not least in the Nordic countries where popularity is fuelled by the New Nordic Food movement. Here, we evaluate if this trend entails biodiversity conservation risks in Norway. In collaboration with the Norwegian Association for Mycology and Foraging, we conducted 18 face-to-face interviews with key stakeholders and we published an online questionnaire filled by 219 recreational and professional foragers. We enquired on what species are harvested, by whom and how, where do foragers learn and what are their perspectives on the sustainability of foraging. We combined these data with an assessment of foraging impact based on foraging pressure, ecological traits and conservation assessments. Our results show that 272 different wild edible plants are foraged and that this is mostly sustainable.However, some risks arise from the harvest of threatened plants, the potential spread of invasive species, and the overharvesting of extremely popular or ‘fashionable’ species. Foraging fosters a strong connection with the natural environment and the majority of foragers report to forage as part of a sustainable lifestyle. We suggest that careful encouragement to forage and the participatory development of local guidelines for sustainable foraging in Norway can enhance people-nature relationships while safeguarding foraged plant populations.