Leisure in Living Local through Food and Farming

This article reflects on aligning leisure research with the local foods movement while placing the local foods movement into the larger framework of sustainability and the fields of leisure and recreation. The local foods movement has persisted during difficult economic times; growth in local foods venues and young people endeavoring to establish small-scale sustainable farms continues to flourish. Given the history of leisure research and its continued success alleviating participation barriers and constraints, the need for leisure researchers to focus on local food systems is imperative and timely. This essay highlights the notion of leisure in living through local foods and the serious leisure aspects of small-scale sustainable agriculture. This article also encourages leisure researchers to explore and assess the relationships between the local foods movement and small-scale farming as embedded in the larger framework of sustainability.     

Comparing online reviews of hyper-local restaurants using deductive content analysis

This study explored consumer-generated online reviews of six hyper-local restaurants in UK and US. A deductive content analysis was carried out involving intrinsic and extrinsic cues of locally grown food. Overall quality, taste, price, region of origin, and menu information were found to be important variables of hyper-local restaurants’ online reviews. Although there were substantially more reviews about price in the UK-based hyper-local restaurants, consumers were found to be more critical of price in the US restaurants. In the UK hyper-local restaurants, a need to provide great selections and variety in the menu offerings was noticed, whereas the US counterparts showcased a need for more creativity in addition to offering a great selection of food and drinks. Region of origin (local) is more important and positive to consumers in the UK restaurants. Contrary to popular beliefs, health benefit and to some extent freshness were not found to be important variables.     

中国粮食生产能力发展状况分析

研究目的:通过分析全国及各省40年来的粮食生产能力发展变化状况,提出稳定和提高粮食生产能力的对策措施,为保障国家粮食安全提供有效支撑。研究方法:根据粮食生产的S型曲线,分4种类型分别对各省粮食生产能力发展状况进行分析。研究结果:经济发展水平较高的省区,粮食生产能力开始出现下降趋势,其中有部分省属于粮食主产区,应引起高度重视;而经济发展水平一般或较低的省区,粮食生产能力仍在不断增加。研究结论:粮食播种面积的变化是影响粮食生产能力变化的最直接的因素,但耕地面积减少导致粮食的减少是刚性的;要稳定和提高粮食生产能力可通过稳定粮食播种面积、加大土地开发整理力度进一步提升粮食单产水平、加大粮食生产的政策保障等措施来实现。     

货币供给、通货膨胀和粮食价格波动互动关系研究

在VAR模型和方差分解基础上,利用1997年以来的月度数据,分析货币供应量、通货膨胀和粮食价格之间的关系。结果显示：通货膨胀对粮食价格有显著影响,存在货币供应量、通货膨胀到粮食价格变动这一传导途径,同时发现通货膨胀有较强的自身惯性,通过抑制粮食价格来控制通货膨胀是无效的。     

HACCP体系在水产品冷链物流中的运用

水产品富含优质蛋白和人体所需的矿物质,风味独特,其市场和消费人群不断扩大.但水产品在捕捞、生产加工、冷藏运输到销售过程中易受到损伤,严重时会受到微生物污染导致腐败变质,从而使其鲜度和品质下降.因此,应在水产品冷链物流全过程建立HACCP体系,对其质量进行严格且精密的监督和管理.     

论当前形势下食品抽检监测与食品安全

当前食品安全事关人们的身体健康,食品抽检监测质量与食品安全问题已经引发全社会的关注和重视.本文主要讨论了当前形势下抽检监测对于食品安全的重要意义.针对我国存在的食品安全主要问题展开分析,针对现存问题采取科学、有序的食品抽检监测措施,为保障人们的生命安全和健康做出积极贡献.     

THE CASE FOR A COMMUNITY TRANSACTION ENGINE: GETTING COASE FOR THE TWENTY‐FIRST CENTURY

New types of marketplace are now becoming viable. They can slash transaction costs, bring new resources into the economy and expand economic opportunity. These markets can be grown by the private sector. But, to deliver their full potential, they need a change in the mindset of government.     

Estimating effects of cooperative membership on farmers’ safe production behaviors: Evidence from pig sector in China

This research studies the determinants of pig farmers’ participation in farmers’ cooperatives and the effects of farmers’ cooperatives on pig farmers’ behaviors in adopting safe production practices using data from a household survey of 540 cooperative farmers and 270 non-cooperative farmers from four main pig production provinces in China. The propensity score matching (PSM) method was adopted to deal with possible self-selection bias associated with farmers’ participation in farmers’ cooperatives due to observables, which is further supplemented by a sensitivity analysis to assess the degree to which the PSM results are robust to the presence of unobservables. The PSM results show that the cooperative membership has significant and positive influence on farmers’ propensity to adopt safe production practices and the effects are heterogeneous across a number of key cooperative, farm and household attributes. Specifically, the membership effects tend to be bigger for cooperatives led by Investor-owned firms (IOFs) and farms of small production scale. And the effects tend to be greater for households (1) of medium and high level of education, (2) of less than 10 years of pig production experience, (3) of no off-farm job experience, and (4) that are specialized in pig production. The sensitivity analysis further increases our confidence in the results for the feed use and the breed use, however, the results for vaccination, drug use and waste disposable are more sensitive to the influence of unobservables, therefore should be interpreted with caution.     

Understanding heterogeneity in price changes and firm responses to a national unhealthy food tax in Mexico

To address the high prevalence of overweight and obesity in Mexico, an eight percent ad valorem excise tax on non-essential energy-dense foods came into effect on 1 January 2014. This paper estimates price changes after the tax implementation among the top four food categories and by leading vs. non-leading firms using purchase information from over 6000 urban households in the 2012–2015 Nielsen Mexico Consumer Panel. We create product-city-month specific prices that correct for potential biases associated with household and retailer characteristics. Using these corrected prices, we conduct before and after quasi-experimental analyses and find that price increases were larger than eight percent for cookies but were less than eight percent for ready-to-eat cereals, salty snacks, and pre-packaged sweet bread. For the latter food group, event-study analyses on the gradual price change over time suggest that price changes might be the result of an increasing price trend rather than the tax implementation. Firm-level analyses mostly show that price increases by the leading firms were larger than the overall increase at the food market level, helping explain variability in post-tax declines in food purchases as reported in other research. We also find that price changes are generally underestimated when we do not correct prices for biases associated with households and retailers. These results improve our understanding of the mechanisms behind heterogeneous changes in purchases after the tax implementation. Additionally, these results can assist policymakers when designing or improving taxes on non-essential energy-dense foods at a time when these policy options are high on the agenda in many places.     

Effects of broadband availability on total factor productivity in service sector firms: Evidence from Ireland

While broadband is widely believed to augment productivity, there is little firm-level evidence of a generalised causal effect. In this paper we examine whether the introduction of digital subscriber line (DSL) broadband services increased firms' productivity in nine sub-sectors within the services and distribution sector in Ireland from 2006 to 2012. Firm-level panel data on firms' characteristics are linked to spatial information on the rollout of DSL. While we do not find significant productivity effects in the services sectors taken together, we do find positive and significant effects on firm's total factor productivity in Information & Communication and Administrative & Support Services.