Consumers' perception of and attitudes towards organic food in Galicia (Northern Spain)

Although the organic sector is still relatively small, the demand for organic food is increasing throughout the world. The characterization of consumers' perception of and attitudes towards organic food is important to enable the development of marketing policies aimed at attracting conventional consumers to the sector. Consumers' behaviour studies must be conducted specifically for different regions and countries as perceptions and attitudes vary across the world. In the present study, a questionnaire was designed for administration to consumers in Galicia (Northern Spain). The questionnaire was administered to 830 consumers in 200 establishments to obtain data about the consumers' perception of and attitudes towards organic food. The survey results showed that one‐third of responders consume organic food and that the typical profile of a consumer of organic food is a middle‐aged, medium‐high class, university‐educated female living in a large village, who shops in supermarkets and preferably consume vegetables, fruits and eggs. Most people who declared that they consume organic products confuse these with home and locally produced food, indicating the potential for growth of the organic sector by providing such consumers with appropriate information. Most consumers (including conventional consumers) have a good opinion of organic food and consider that it is better for health, is of better quality than conventional food and avoid pesticide residues. However, price continues to be a barrier to the consumption of organic produce. Most respondents stated that they would consume more organic food if the price was only between 10% and 30% higher than the conventional equivalent. Finally, organic consumers in Galicia showed positive attitudes towards using local breeds in organic agriculture, both for producing food and for ecotourism and educational activities. Such activities could contribute to conserving breed biodiversity and adding value to organic farming.     

Policy lessons from spatiotemporal enrollment patterns of payment for ecosystem service programs in Argentina

Payment for ecosystem services schemes (PES) are lauded as a market-based solution to curtail deforestation and restore degraded ecosystems. However, PES programs often fail to conserve sites under strong long-term deforestation pressures. Underperformance, in part, is likely due to adverse selection. Spatial adverse selection occurs when landowners are more likely to enroll parcels with low deforestation pressure than parcels with high deforestation pressure. Temporal adverse selection arises when parcels are enrolled for short time periods. In both cases, financial resources are allocated without having a sizeable impact on long-term land use change. Improving program performance to overcome these shortcomings requires understanding attributes of landowners and their parcels across large scales to identify spatial and temporal enrollment patterns that drive adverse selection. In this paper, we examine these patterns in Argentina’s PES program in Chaco forest, a global deforestation hotspot. Our study area covers 252,319 km². Results from multinomial logistic regression models showed that large parcels of enrolled land and parcels owned by absentee landowners exhibit greater evidence of spatiotemporal adverse selection than smaller parcels or parcels owned by local landowners. Furthermore, parcels managed under land use plans for conservation and restoration are more likely to be associated with adverse selection than parcels managed for financial returns such as harvest of non-timber forest products, silviculture, and silvopasture. However, prior to recommending that PES programs focus on land uses with higher potential earnings, a greater understanding is needed of the degree to which these land uses meet ecological and biodiversity goals of PES programs. We suggest that increased spatial targeting of enrollment, along with enrollment of local landowners and further incentives for land uses that support conservation and restoration, could promote long-term conservation of forest lands.     

Payments for agrobiodiversity conservation services: An overview of Latin American experiences,lessons learned and upscaling challenges

Many developing countries face a major challenge today: how to safeguard the biodiversity maintained in the fields of the rural poor - which constitute a national and global public good - whilst meeting those same people's development needs and rights? A solution to this dilemma has thus been sought in adapting the design and implementation of Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) concepts to the conservation of agrobiodiversity.Here we review the application of nine such Payments for Agrobiodiversity Conservation (PACS) schemes that have been applied to date in four Latin American countries over the period 2010–2018. These covered 130 threatened varieties across a number of major food crops, and involved over 100 farming communities and 1,100 farmers (45 % of which were women). Conservation service offers were received through a competitive tender mechanism. Average bid offers revealed high heterogeneity, varying between US$675/ha. to ten times as much.In relation to issues identified as key to PES, such as spatial targeting, differentiated payments and conditionality, the underlying design of the PACS schemes may be considered solid. PACS-related prioritisation processes allow for the a priori identification of sites with high ecosystem service densities and high threat levels. The use of competitive tenders permits accounting for cost heterogeneity in the provision of conservation services and for payments to be differentiated. Conditionality is strong.In terms of implementation, a “back of the envelope” calculation based on the results of the competitive tenders suggests that conservation costs are modest. For a priority conservation portfolio of 100 varieties (which may be from different crops) each with a target area of five hectares, costs would amount to just under US$860,000 over twenty years or US$70,000 p.a. at a 5 % discount rate. The small-scale and one-off nature of the interventions realised to date, along with threatened crop variety seed availability constraints, have however meant that environmental effectiveness has been incomplete in the short-term (area cultivated with specific threatened varieties increased, but still below the “not at risk” threshold). The establishment of systematic monitoring systems is required to determine longer-term impacts and inform more regular PACS interventions within a dynamically evolving systems context.     

Ex-post incentive compatible and individually rational assignments in housing markets with interdependent values

This paper presents a model for housing markets with interdependent values. We introduce private information on the quality of a house (i.e., high or low), which is known only to the initial owner. Interdependency means that the ex-post preference of an agent depends on the private information of the other agents with regard to the quality of houses. We prove that on a domain satisfying a richness condition, the no-trade rule is the only rule that satisfies ex-post incentive compatibility and ex-post individual rationality.     

财政分权对城市创新的影响 ——基于地方政府竞争视角

本文利用2003—2016年中国278个城市的面板数据，基于地方政府竞争视角，探讨财政分权对城市创新水平的影响。结果表明：财政分权显著抑制城市创新水平的提升，且经过一系列稳健性检验后该结论依然成立；财政分权对城市创新水平的影响具有异质性，如在科教水平较低、级别较低及中小城市，财政分权显著抑制城市创新，而在科教水平较高、级别较高及大城市却并未抑制城市创新；财政分权通过促进地方政府“为增长而竞争”“为引资而竞争”、抑制地方政府“为创新而竞争”等途径对城市创新水平产生负向影响。研究结论为从政府财政体制改革视角促进城市创新提供启示。     

Transition Belsize Veg Bag scheme: The role of ICTs in enabling new voices and community alliances around local food production and consumption

This paper explores an unusual community-supported agriculture pilot project in London, concentrating on the contribution of ICTs in its development and impact. The paper contextualises the project within wider waves of local food activism and reflects on the relevance of using ICTs to increase awareness and community participation in the production and consumption of locally-grown food. The results are also analysed in light of the author's parallel research on the use of ICT for agricultural development, or “e-agriculture”, in Kenya. The paper contributes to ongoing debates on ICTs and agricultural development, by highlighting community-building and the emergence of new voices and conversations as key roles played by ICTs, contributing to the development of more participatory, resilient and locally-centred food systems. The results of the pilot however also acknowledge the essential role played by activities in real life in building communal food growing practices, which can be enhanced but not substituted by online communities.     

Fair value accounting from a distributed cognition perspective

This study offers a unique interdisciplinary perspective on fair value accounting. The growing influence of esoteric financial instruments whose valuation is becoming increasingly complex makes it necessary to focus on actual valuation practices. Based on an extensive review, this paper regards fair value accounting for complex financial instruments as involving processes distributed among actors located inside and/or outside a reporting entity. It also draws attention to collaboration by organizations that apply their external and internal resources to perform complex financial valuations. Furthermore, it demonstrates that cases involving unusual market conditions underline the importance of human interactions to the valuation process.     

国家标准《数值修约规则与极限数值的表示和判定》在车用汽油胶质含量测定中的应用

本文根据胶质含量测定试验方法的要求，以车用汽油中胶质含量（包括未洗胶质含量和溶剂洗胶质含量）测定为例，探讨了0．5单位数值修约、极限数值的表示和判定在胶质含量测定数据处理和结果判定中的应用。目的在于使车用汽油产品检测工作中在数据处理、报告和结果判定方面更加规范和统一。     

基于信任视角的社区养老服务研究

从信任视角对“嘉兴空巢老人失救离世”事件进行逻辑分析,探讨了城市居民社区低水平信任产生的原因以及由此产生的负面影响。政府、社区及相关机构和组织应该全面、积极促进居民社区信任水平、促进居民参与社区养老服务发展,以保障社区养老服务机制的有效运行。     

新型军人养老保险制度的构建及其转轨成本测算

我国现行军人养老保险是军队统筹,且保障范围狭窄、制度衔接不畅、实际养老待遇较低、财政负担过重、基金管理效率低下;为实现养老保险制度全民统筹和切实保障军人的养老权益,应构建社会统筹与个人账户相结合、辅以年金账户的新型军人养老保险制度。军人养老保险制度的转轨成本来源于当前军人养老保险制度下隐性债务的显性化,采用系统动力学模型对军人养老保险制度的转轨成本进行模拟测算,结果表明：截至2090年底转轨成本将全部显性化,“老人”和“中人”的转轨成本都呈先增后减的趋势,2035—2065年的转轨成本最高;借助社会统筹账户资金积累的缓冲和人口年龄与人口结构的变化,能够分散制度转轨带来的财务支付风险,改革不会对政府财政带来巨大压力。因此,应坚持养老保险社会统筹的改革方向,积极推进军人养老保险制度改革。