Farmers’ markets – linking food consumption and the ecology of food production?

Urban and industrialised societies usually involve little connection between consumers and the resource base upon which the production of goods depends. Changing this situation could potentially enhance social and ecological sustainability. This study explored ecological aspects of the educational role of local food supply, with the aim of identifying signs of enhanced consumer understanding or awareness of the ecology of food production resulting from producer–consumer interaction. A series of qualitative interviews were carried out with customers at a farmers’ market in Stockholm. The results showed that the interviewees were mainly concerned with quality, price and taste, and not production conditions. In addition, a number of interviewees experienced a sense of trust when shopping at the market. We found few examples of contributions to ecological knowledge among customers at the market, but there were some examples of learning opportunities. The local food supplied by the market reminded customers of the seasonality of production. Stallholders also provided information on how to store, prepare and cook vegetables, which may encourage a change in diet that is preferable from an environmental standpoint.     

Consumer safety evaluation after monitoring of endocrine disruptor pesticide residues: a case study of Thessaly,Central Greece

Abstract

A large number of pesticides used in agricultural practice has been characterized or suspected to be Endocrine Disruptors, with dietary intake to be the major route of consumer’s exposure. In the present study the safety to consumer after the consumption of pome fruits and fruiting vegetables originated from the area of Thessaly, Central Greece was assessed. Objective samplings of 110 samples were conducted in local retail markets in an effort to quantify potential residues of targeted pesticides, previously characterized as endocrine disruptors. For the determination of residues, a QuEChERs-based multiresidue method coupled with liquid and gas chromatographic systems was applied and fully validated in accordance with the European Unions’s requirements in apples and tomatoes in three fortification levels. Acceptable results were obtained for all the validation parameters studied and the limit of quantification of 0.01?mg/kg and limit of detection of 0.0033?mg/kg were achieved. Based on the determined results, the most frequently determined pesticide was chlorpyrifos with a maximum concentration of 0.32?mg/kg in tomato samples. Cypermethrin and dimethoate were also determined in tomatoes and aubergines. The EFSA PRIMo rev.3.1 model was applied for all positive samples and acute risk for consumers was confirmed only in the case of determination of chlorpyrifos in tomatoes.     

消费端食物浪费：影响与行动

食物浪费已经成为全球性问题,引发社会各界广泛关注。消费端是造成食物浪费的重要环节,且呈日趋严重的趋势。消费端的食物浪费主要分为家庭食物浪费和在外食物浪费;消费端的食物浪费对国家粮食安全、资源环境、社会经济发展等方面均产生不同的影响;影响消费端食物浪费的重要因素包括社会经济发展水平、文化因素、人口特征、消费者的行为与意识等。目前对消费端食物浪费的研究多采用称重（或估算）和计量模型等方法,仍需要通过发展更合理的量化方法、建立更完整的理论模型、提出更完善的研究方法进行深入探究。此外,减少消费端食物浪费需要从政府、社会、个人等多角度出发,促使多方利益相关者形成合力应对消费端食物浪费问题。     

Estimate of zearalenone exposure through the intake of white and brown rice in the Korean population

Rice samples (n = 482) harvested for 2010–2012 in South Korea were analyzed for zearalenone content by high-performance liquid chromatography and fluorescence detection. The exposure of the Korean populations was assessed by a deterministic approach. Because the proportion of non-detectable results was >80% in white rice but less than <60% in brown rice, the zearalenone levels for white rice were reported as 0.52 µg kg^?1 as lower bound and 2.54 µg kg^?1 as upper bound, while for brown rice the middle bound value was 13.9 µg kg^?1. The average dietary intake of zearalenone from white and brown rice by the Korean population was estimated to be 1.5 ng kg^?1 body weight (bw) day^?1 each. For heavy consumers, the average intakes were 18.5 and 10.1 ng kg^?1 bw day^?1, respectively. The age groups with the highest zearalenone intake were 1–2-year-old children for white rice and 3–6-year-old children for brown rice. Overall, the dietary exposure of the Korean population to zearalenone from white and brown rice was found to be lower than the provisional maximum tolerable daily intake of 0.5 μg kg^?1 bw day^?1.     

Consumer Control of Salt Marshes Driven by Human Disturbance

Abstract:  Salt marsh ecosystems are widely considered to be controlled exclusively by bottom–up forces, but there is mounting evidence that human disturbances are triggering consumer control in western Atlantic salt marshes, often with catastrophic consequences. In other marine ecosystems, human disturbances routinely dampen (e.g., coral reefs, sea grass beds) and strengthen (e.g., kelps) consumer control, but current marsh theory predicts little potential interaction between humans and marsh consumers. Thus, human modification of top–down control in salt marshes was not anticipated and was even discounted in current marsh theory, despite loud warnings about the potential for cascading human impacts from work in other marine ecosystems. In spite of recent experiments that have challenged established marsh dogma and demonstrated consumer-driven die-off of salt marsh ecosystems, government agencies and nongovernmental organizations continue to manage marsh die-offs under the old theoretical framework and only consider bottom–up forces as causal agents. This intellectual dependency of many coastal ecologists and managers on system-specific theory (i.e., marsh bottom–up theory) has the potential to have grave repercussions for coastal ecosystem management and conservation in the face of increasing human threats. We stress that marine vascular plant communities (salt marshes, sea grass beds, mangroves) are likely more vulnerable to runaway grazing and consumer-driven collapse than is currently recognized by theory, particularly in low-diversity ecosystems like Atlantic salt marshes.     

Negotiating Virtue and Vice: Articulations of Lay Conceptions of Health and Sustainability in Social Media Conversations around Natural Beverages

Prior studies have suggested that despite increasing sustainability awareness, many consumers are confused about the impact of green products on their health and the environment. Unlike those studies that privilege professional discourse and adopt unrealistic presumptions of rationality and morality, this article showcases consumers as active co-producers of value and meanings. Using netnography, it analyzes social media conversations around Naked Juice and Innocent smoothies—two products marketed as healthy, all-natural, and environmentally sustainable beverages. The findings reveal a baseline picture of the products' virtues of healthiness feeling (hedonic) and holistic health image (symbolic). The article illustrates how this moral conception was dynamically constructed and transformed in the course of consumers' communicative practices. It proposes three discursive strategies by which consumers negotiate the nature and boundaries of good and bad choices vis-à-vis the products: highlighting (separating virtue from vice), balancing (reconciling virtue and vice), and resisting (reconstructing virtue as vice).     

Chemicals in Household Products: Problems with Solutions

The success of a regulatory regime in decreasing point-source emissions of some harmful chemicals has highlighted the significance of other sources. A growing number of potentially harmful chemicals have been incorporated into an expanding range of domestic household products and are sold worldwide. Tighter regulation has been proposed, and the European Commission has introduced the Regulation on the Registration, Evaluation, and Authorisation of Chemicals to address this concern. However, it is clear that in addition to the regulation, there is a potential to effect change through retailer and consumer attitudes and behaviours. Interviews were conducted with 7 key stakeholder groups to identify critical issues, which were then explored using a public survey questionnaire (1,008 respondents) and 8 subsequent focus groups. The findings demonstrated that the issue of chemicals in products is of concern to consumers for reasons of personal health rather than environmental protection. Key obstacles to the wider purchase of “green-alternative” products included perceived high cost and poor performance, lack of availability of products, and poor information concerning such products. Although improved regulation was seen as part of the solution, consumers must also play a role. It was clear from this study that consumers are not currently able to make informed choices about the chemicals they use but that they would be receptive to moving toward a more sustainable use of chemicals in the future if empowered to do so.     

THE VALUES OF GOODS AND SERVICES–IMPLICATIONS FOR A FLEXIBLE NATIONAL WATER POLICY1

ABSTRACT: This paper evolved from a concern that water resource administrators and planners do not have a consistent definition of the value of goods and services of outputs from projects and programs. A more flexible approach to planning and evaluation is presented that recognizes the interaction of production and consumption through the use of commodity demand curves. Use of the concept of consumer surplus permits measurement of the differential impacts on producers' and consumers' welfare. Quadratic programming is suggested as a consistent means of quantifying these differential impacts.     

中国股市账面市值比效应成因分析：基于行为金融视角

本文将账面市值比分解为反映公司基本面的有形收益和反映投资者主观预期的无形收益,以1994-2008年间在沪深两市交易的A股公司为研究样本,实证考察投资者对账面市值比中不同元素的反应,结果显示,投资者对公司发展前景的主观预期过分乐观或者悲观引发市场过度反应,随着市场回归理性,股票收益发生反转导致账面市值比效应。     

2006年中国出口欧美消费品安全召回情况分析

为对我国出口产品的安全状况进行了解,为我国产品召回制度的建立提供数据支持,统计分析了2006年1月至11月间美国与欧盟对源产于中国的消费品实施召回或其他安全措施的情况,结果表明:我国出口至美国的消费品被召回的次数与件数超过了其他任何国家,分别占总数的52.5%与60.1%,出口至欧盟的消费品被采取限制性措施的次数占总数的49.5%;涉及产品主要包括儿童玩具及用品、电子电器、机械产品等.因此,我国应尽快建立并完善缺陷产品召回制度,建立国家产品伤害监测系统,完善产品安全标准体系.