Net Gains from 'Net Purchases? Farmers' Preferences for Online and Local Input Purchases

E-commerce represents both threats to and opportunities for rural communities. This study addresses one element of the issue: farmers' willingness to substitute online merchants or national farm input stores for local businesses. Results of a conjoint analysis of contingent choice experiments suggest that farmers are willing to purchase from online or national stores outside their communities if compensated with lower prices or greater services. Results also demonstrate that the context of the input purchase, such as time constraints, was very important not only in valuing these services, but, more broadly, in terms of the farmer's loyalty to a local merchant.e-commerce, farm input purchase, willingness to pay, contingent choice, rural communities, Farm Management, Marketing,

Are E-Grocers Serving the Right Markets?

Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Where are E-Grocers, and Why?

Agribusiness,

A QUANTITATIVE ASSESSMENT OF E-GROCERS

Agribusiness,

Willingness to pay for locally produced foods: A customer intercept study of direct market and grocery store shoppers

Increasingly, grocery stores are marketing foods differentiated as locally produced. Freshness and taste are obvious reasons for consumer preference for these goods, but also important may be home-bias. Whatever the motive, there is substantial evidence that some consumers are willing to pay premium prices for food characterized as locally produced. A customer-intercept survey and a choice experiment of food shoppers in direct markets and traditional grocery stores was analyzed using Conjoint methods to evaluate WTP for characteristics related to locally grown fresh strawberries. Our results suggest that consumers are willing to pay more for locally produced berries: Customers intercepted in grocery stores would pay an average of 64 cents more per quart, while those intercepted at direct markets would pay nearly $1.17 more per carton of strawberries that was grown locally rather than berries identified simply as "produced in the U.S." These conclusions provide a solid rationale for the existence of niche market potential for local berry producers.Consumer/Household Economics,

THE MARKET FOR E-COMMERCE SERVICES IN AGRICULTURE

We report results of a survey of 608 Ohio agribusinesses in 1999 and show them to be divided in their attitudes and acceptance of e-commerce. Half of the respondents report that their business has a web site, although many had taken a negative stance toward such a move. Nearly all say that the internet will significantly change their sector, and the majority of managers report that e-commerce has significantly affected the way they view their business.Marketing,

TRACKING THE EVOLUTION OF E-GROCERS: A QUANTITATIVE ASSESSMENT

Forecasts of the proportion of food retailing likely to be conducted over the Internet remain small, perhaps only contributing 2 percent of sales. One reason for this low market share is the challenge E-Grocers face in developing strategies which respond to four key areas of interest to consumers: signals of firm quality; signals of product quality; the range of products offered; and service, or customer-relationship management (CRM). Careful attention to these consumer concerns is important in all retail relationships–-online or offline. This paper compares indicators of these factors across U.S. E-Grocers. A quantitative four-period ranking of online food-retailing strategies is presented for the nascent industry. Data from the third and fourth quarters of 2001, the fourth quarter of 2002, and the first quarter of 2004 provide the basis of this discussion. After initial setbacks, data show traditional ("“bricks”") grocery retailers successfully developing online strategies. Firms not primarily focused on groceries exited the E-Grocery sector, while the development of specialty food suppliers blurred the concept of online food retailing. Gaps in current strategies are indicated using content analyses of E-Grocery web sites.Agribusiness,

Fifteen new risk loci for coronary artery disease highlight arterial-wall-specific mechanisms

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Although 58 genomic regions have been associated with CAD thus far, most of the heritability is unexplained, indicating that additional susceptibility loci await identification. An efficient discovery strategy may be larger-scale evaluation of promising associations suggested by genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Hence, we genotyped 56,309 participants using a targeted gene array derived from earlier GWAS results and performed meta-analysis of results with 194,427 participants previously genotyped, totaling 88,192 CAD cases and 162,544 controls. We identified 25 new SNP-CAD associations (P < 5 × 10(-8), in fixed-effects meta-analysis) from 15 genomic regions, including SNPs in or near genes involved in cellular adhesion, leukocyte migration and atherosclerosis (PECAM1, rs1867624), coagulation and inflammation (PROCR, rs867186 (p.Ser219Gly)) and vascular smooth muscle cell differentiation (LMOD1, rs2820315). Correlation of these regions with cell-type-specific gene expression and plasma protein levels sheds light on potential disease mechanisms

Large Scale Comparison of Innate Responses to Viral and Bacterial Pathogens in Mouse and Macaque

Viral and bacterial infections of the lower respiratory tract are major causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Alveolar macrophages line the alveolar spaces and are the first cells of the immune system to respond to invading pathogens. To determine the similarities and differences between the responses of mice and macaques to invading pathogens we profiled alveolar macrophages from these species following infection with two viral (PR8 and Fuj/02 influenza A) and two bacterial (Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Francisella tularensis Schu S4) pathogens. Cells were collected at 6 time points following each infection and expression profiles were compared across and between species. Our analyses identified a core set of genes, activated in both species and across all pathogens that were predominantly part of the interferon response pathway. In addition, we identified similarities across species in the way innate immune cells respond to lethal versus non-lethal pathogens. On the other hand we also found several species and pathogen specific response patterns. These results provide new insights into mechanisms by which the innate immune system responds to, and interacts with, invading pathogens