How Should America's Anti-Terrorism Budget Be Allocated? Findings from a National Survey of Attitudes of U.S. Residents about Terrorism

U.S. residents are very concerned about future terrorist attacks and they are willing to commit substantial sums to prevent further terrorist acts. Protecting against another 9/11 style incident is important, but U.S. residents are more concerned about protecting the food supply system and preventing release of chemical or biological agents in public areas. On average respondents would allocate 13.3 percent more to protect the food supply chain and 12.0 percent more to protect against release of a toxic chemical or biological agent than they would to protect against another terrorist attack using hijacked aircraft. Approximately $5 billion is currently spent to protect civil aviation. The 2006 budget provided$8.6 billion of fiscal authority for programs protecting against all types of catastrophic terrorist incidents, including protection against radiological or nuclear incidents, as well as protecting the food supply and preventing chemical or biological attacks. No one would argue that decisions on the size and internal allocation of the nation's homeland security budget should be made on the basis of a public opinion survey, but this survey indicates that Americans would likely support additional spending to defend the food system and protect against release of a chemical or biological agent.Political Economy,

Defending America's Food Supply Against Terrorism: Who is Responsible? Who Should Pay?

Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Q18, H44, H56,

Analysis of Media Agenda-Setting Effects on Consumer Confidence in the Safety of the U.S. Food System

Results from continuous tracking of consumer confidence and media coverage of food safety events over a 67 week period between May 2008 and August 2009 are reported. An ordered probit model is used to test the hypothesis that media coverage of food safety events affects consumer confidence in the safety of the U.S. food system. The results show that media coverage significantly and negatively affected consumer confidence in the safety of nation’s food supply during the sample period. Socioeconomic and demographic factors such as geographic region, use of media source, household size, age, ethnicity, education, and gender also had significant affects on consumer confidence in the safety of United States food supply.Food Safety, Consumer Confidence, Mass media, ordered probit, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Consumer Confidence in the Food System, Media Coverage and Stock Prices of Food Companies: A Regression Analysis

A series of recent and serious food safety incidents have generated a national debate over the significant costs that they impose on various stakeholders - consumers, industry, or the government. This paper examines the impact of media coverage of food safety and defense issues on consumer confidence in food safety, and measures the response of stock prices of food companies to changes in consumer confidence. Results show that, increases in media coverage have a negative impact on consumer confidence, and that decreases in the levels of consumer confidence on food safety have a negative impact on stock prices of food companies, in particular for the larger firms. These findings confirm that the financial performance of food the industry is negatively affected by category-specific food safety events, and the effects of media coverage on consumer confidence in the safety of the food system.Agribusiness, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Parent calcium-rich-food practices/perceptions are associated with calcium intake among parents and their early adolescent children

Objective: The study aimed to (i) segment parents of early adolescents into subgroups according to their Ca-rich-food (CRF) practices and perceptions regarding early adolescent CRF intake and (ii) determine whether Ca intake of parents and early adolescents differed by subgroup. Design: A cross-sectional convenience sample of 509 parents and their early adolescent children completed a questionnaire in 2006–2007 to assess parent CRF practices and perceptions and to estimate parent and child Ca intakes. Setting: Self-administered questionnaires were completed in community settings or homes across nine US states. Subjects: Parents self-reporting as Asian, Hispanic or non-Hispanic White with a child aged 10–13 years were recruited through youth or parent events. Results: Three parent CRF practice/perception segments were identified, including ‘Dedicated-Milk Providers/Drinkers’ (49 %), ‘Water Regulars’ (30 %) and ‘Sweet-Drink-Permissive Parents’ (23 %). Dedicated-Milk Providers/Drinkers were somewhat older and more likely to be non-Hispanic White than other groups. Ca intakes from all food sources, milk/dairy foods and milk only, and milk intakes, were higher among early adolescent children of Dedicated-Milk Providers/Drinkers compared with early adolescents of parents in other segments. Soda pop intakes were highest for early adolescents with parents in the Water Regulars group than other groups. Dedicated-Milk Providers/Drinkers scored higher on culture/tradition, health benefits and ease of use/convenience subscales and lower on a dairy/milk intolerance subscale and were more likely to report eating family dinners daily than parents in the other groups. Conclusions: Parent education programmes should address CRF practices/perceptions tailored to parent group to improve Ca intake of early adolescent children.Keywords: Calcium-rich foods, Parenting practice, Parents, Early adolescent childre

How Would Americans Allocate Anti-Terrorism Spending? Findings from a National Survey of Attitudes about Terrorism

This article appeared in Homeland Security Affairs (June 2007), v.3 no.2U.S. residents are very concerned about terrorist attacks and they are willing to commit substantial sums to prevent further terrorist incidents, according to the results of a large national survey of the public's thoughts about terrorism. Protecting against another 9/11-style incident is essential, but American's are more concerned about protecting the food supply system and preventing the release of chemical or biologic agents in congested public areas. The survey finds that, on average, the public would allocate 13.3 percent more to protect the food supply chain and 12.0 percent more to protect against release of a toxic chemical or biologic agent than to protect against another terrorist attack using hijacked aircraft. No one would argue that decisions on the size and internal allocation of the nation's homeland security budget should be made solely on the basis of a public opinion survey, but measures of consumers' concerns about alternative terrorism actions should be considered in future budgetary decisions.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

How Should America's Anti-Terrorism Budget Be Allocated? Findings from a National Survey of Attitudes of U.S. Residents about Terrorism

U.S. residents are very concerned about future terrorist attacks and they are willing to commit substantial sums to prevent further terrorist acts. Protecting against another 9/11 style incident is important, but U.S. residents are more concerned about protecting the food supply system and preventing release of chemical or biological agents in public areas. On average respondents would allocate 13.3 percent more to protect the food supply chain and 12.0 percent more to protect against release of a toxic chemical or biological agent than they would to protect against another terrorist attack using hijacked aircraft. Approximately $5 billion is currently spent to protect civil aviation. The 2006 budget provided$8.6 billion of fiscal authority for programs protecting against all types of catastrophic terrorist incidents, including protection against radiological or nuclear incidents, as well as protecting the food supply and preventing chemical or biological attacks. No one would argue that decisions on the size and internal allocation of the nation's homeland security budget should be made on the basis of a public opinion survey, but this survey indicates that Americans would likely support additional spending to defend the food system and protect against release of a chemical or biological agent

A Segmentation of U.S. Consumers on Attitudes Relating to Terrorism, and their Communication Preferences; Findings from a National Survey of Attitudes of U.S. Residents about Terrorism

In the light of lessons learned from recent disasters (The London Subway Bombings, and Hurricane Katrina), it has become clear that government and private organizations need to be prepared to communicate effectively with consumers before, during and after a disaster in order to minimize harm to consumers and to the nation. Findings from a national survey of attitudes of U.S. Residents about terrorism provides information for the development of such communications. Using "Predictive Segmentation" this study demonstrates that consumers can be grouped based on their general attitudes and values in such a way that their diversity can be captured in a simple framework of six segments reflecting striking differences with respect to their level of concern over potential terrorist attacks. The segments were named as follows: "Fear Tethered, "Principled & Self-Disciplined," "Intelligentsia," "Predestinarians," "Optimistic & Self-Reliant," and "Uncommitted C'est la vie." Each of these segments differ on their preferences for information should an attack happen, and on their preferred source of news. Based on their information needs and media behavior, some preliminary guidance is offered for the development of communication strategies for each segment

Weight Gain Prevention among Midlife Women: A Randomized Controlled Trial to Address Needs Related to the Physical and Social Environment

Women tend to gain weight at midlife (40–60 years) increasing risk of obesity-related chronic diseases. Within specific eating occasions, needs related to the physical and social environment may result in less healthy eating behavior, which can lead to weight gain over time. The purpose of this study was to determine if a dietitian-delivered nutrition counseling intervention tailored to eating occasion needs could improve diet and prevent weight gain among midlife women over two years. A randomized controlled trial was conducted with healthy midlife women (n = 354) in one U.S. metropolitan area. The intervention group (n = 185) received ten hours of individual nutrition counseling from dietitians over six months, while women in a control group (n = 169) received no counseling. Measured height, weight and waist circumference, and dietary intakes were collected at baseline and every six months over two years. Mixed linear models were used to test for intervention effect on change in outcome variables over time. Dietary intakes of fruit, reduced/low-fat dairy foods and refined grains were significantly improved over time in the intervention compared to control group. However, the intervention had no effect on weight over time (p = 0.48). Nutrition counseling tailored to address eating occasion needs improved self-reported diet but did not significantly affect weight change