Social capital in Russian agricultural production co-operatives

When the Soviet kolkhozy and sovkhozy were converted, a large number of agricultural production co-operatives was created. Most of these co-operatives still exist in Russia and some of them have a strong market position, accounting for almost one-third of the aggregate volume produced by large farms. This study explores whether social capital might be the explanation for this relative success, i.e. that members support their co-operative because they trust their fellow members as well as the leadership. Interviews with co-operative members resulted in 1401 usable answers. The results from an ordered logit model indicate that social capital plays a partial role. Members who consider co-operatives to be an efficient business form value social ties to other members, even though the leadership does not enjoy much social capital

Body appreciation around the world: Measurement invariance of the Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2) across 65 nations, 40 languages, gender identities, and age.

The Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2) is a widely used measure of a core facet of the positive body image construct. However, extant research concerning measurement invariance of the BAS-2 across a large number of nations remains limited. Here, we utilised the Body Image in Nature (BINS) dataset - with data collected between 2020 and 2022 - to assess measurement invariance of the BAS-2 across 65 nations, 40 languages, gender identities, and age groups. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis indicated that full scalar invariance was upheld across all nations, languages, gender identities, and age groups, suggesting that the unidimensional BAS-2 model has widespread applicability. There were large differences across nations and languages in latent body appreciation, while differences across gender identities and age groups were negligible-to-small. Additionally, greater body appreciation was significantly associated with higher life satisfaction, being single (versus being married or in a committed relationship), and greater rurality (versus urbanicity). Across a subset of nations where nation-level data were available, greater body appreciation was also significantly associated with greater cultural distance from the United States and greater relative income inequality. These findings suggest that the BAS-2 likely captures a near-universal conceptualisation of the body appreciation construct, which should facilitate further cross-cultural research. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

From field to table? The marketing of organic products in Norway

While 3 percent of the fields in Norway are grown organically in the advent of the 21st century, only a small share of the resulting products reaches the consumers as organic food. A number of factors can explain the relative lack of success of organic products through the value chain. Lack of differentiation from conventional foods may discourage consumers. Extra costs limit the interest of processors and retailers. The political decisions and subsidies are directed at production, and have few direct effects on the organization of the value chain. The marketing of organic products has followed different strategies. Organic milk is handled through the national dairy cooperative, and around forty percent is sold as organic varieties of conventional brands. Meat producers have been less successful as only about twenty percent of the certified production is marketed as organic. In some of the more promising cases organic products are marketed in a niche strategy where organic production methods is one of several differentiating product attributes

Male DCIS diagnosed after use of over-the-counter hormonal supplement

•As illustrated in this case report, male ductal carcinoma in-situ is a rare disease, and treatment is not standardized.•Hormone-containing male enhancement supplements are unregulated and available over-the-counter.•Hormonal supplementation may be related to the development or worsening of rare cases of male breast cancer. Male breast cancer is a rare disease. Although epidemiologic and genetic factors are associated with male breast cancer, hormonal factors may also play a role. We report the case of a 39-year-old BRCA negative male patient taking a sexual performance enhancement supplement who presented with worsening asymmetric gynecomastia and unilateral spontaneous bloody nipple discharge and was found to have ductal carcinoma in-situ. The altered cellular environment related to the hormone contents of the supplement coincided with the rapid worsening of his gynecomastia and may have played a role in the development of the ductal carcinoma in-situ, or growth of an existing focus. The use of hormonal male enhancement supplements can lead to higher levels of androgens in users. It is possible for this altered hormonal environment to cause the growth of tumor or promote the progression of an existing focus

Quantitative assessment of economic, social and environmental sustainability of short food supply chains and impact on rural territories

The main objective of this report is to assess the economic, social and environmental impacts of Short Food Supply Chains (SFSC) on rural territories.The first observation concerns the fact that individual producers participate simultaneously in several, short and long chains. This creates a dimension for hybridity – whereby producers participate in a mix of supply chains, combining different production methods and distribution paths. The study confirms that participation in SFSC is beneficial for producers from a strictly economic perspective. Short chains provide a relatively high Price Premium since they allow to capture a large proportion of margin, otherwise realized by different intermediaries. Producers’ self-evaluation of different chains and their bargaining power within different channels were examined in the context of the social sustainability dimension. The results suggest that short chains appear to perform noticeably better compared to longer chains. Moreover, SFSC seem to promote gender balance due to greater employment of women in the preparation of sales and sales activities in contrast to long chains, where the role of women in distribution is rather limited. Taking into account both economic and social advantages, the evidence suggests that SFSC may be particularly advantageous for small and medium scale producers who may have often a difficulty accessing long, conventional food chains otherwise