Understanding Consumer Attitudes Towards Antimicrobial Risk Reducing Practices

The emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance is a natural evolutionary reaction to antimicrobial exposure. However, the misuse and overuse of antimicrobial drugs in human medicine and in agriculture are speeding up the process. Antimicrobials have been used in food-producing animals for therapeutic purposes as well as to promote growth by applying low concentrations in animal feed. Antimicrobial resistant pathogens can enter the food chain through food containing residues of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and cause infections in humans. In the United States, millions of people are infected every year with antimicrobial resistant bacterial diseases causing approximately 23,000 deaths (CDC 2013). This study examines the public’s objective and subjective (self-assessed) knowledge and perceptions of antibiotic use in the livestock and poultry industries as well as knowledge and perceptions of antibiotic resistance. The study further examines the public’s level of acceptance of antibiotic use in food animals for disease prevention, disease control, disease treatment, and as growth promotants, as well as how attitudes towards animal welfare may impact antibiotic use acceptance. A quantitative survey questionnaire was developed to achieve study objectives, and it was administered online by the survey firm IRI between May and June 2018. A random sample of 1,030 individuals across the United States participated in the survey. Data on participants’ subjective and objective knowledge of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance, acceptance of antibiotic use in livestock animals, perceptions of antibiotic use and antibiotic resistance, food safety perceptions, attitudes towards animal welfare and demographic variables were collected. An ordered Probit model was used to determine the level of acceptance of different uses of antibiotics in food animal production. Marginal effects in an ordered Probit model were used to estimate the probability change in the level of acceptance of study participants. Results indicate that the level of acceptance for each use of antibiotics is influenced by the participants’ subjective and objective knowledge of both antibiotic use and antibiotic resistance. The results further demonstrate that food safety perceptions play a significant role in the level of acceptance of antibiotics in food animal production. Further, results show that attitudes towards animal welfare and demographic variables such as age, sex and race affect the level of acceptance of antibiotic use in food animal production. Advisors: Amalia Yiannaka and Kathleen Brook

Adaptive capacity beyond the household: a systematic review of empirical social-ecological research

The concept of adaptive capacity has received significant attention within social-ecological and environmental change research. Within both the resilience and vulnerability literatures specifically, adaptive capacity has emerged as a fundamental concept for assessing the ability of social-ecological systems to adapt to environmental change. Although methods and indicators used to evaluate adaptive capacity are broad, the focus of existing scholarship has predominately been at the individual- and household- levels. However, the capacities necessary for humans to adapt to global environmental change are often a function of individual and societal characteristics, as well as cumulative and emergent capacities across communities and jurisdictions. In this paper, we apply a systematic literature review and co-citation analysis to investigate empirical research on adaptive capacity that focus on societal levels beyond the household. Our review demonstrates that assessments of adaptive capacity at higher societal levels are increasing in frequency, yet vary widely in approach, framing, and results; analyses focus on adaptive capacity at many different levels (e.g. community, municipality, global region), geographic locations, and cover multiple types of disturbances and their impacts across sectors. We also found that there are considerable challenges with regard to the ‘fit’ between data collected and analytical methods used in adequately capturing the cross-scale and cross-level determinants of adaptive capacity. Current approaches to assessing adaptive capacity at societal levels beyond the household tend to simply aggregate individual- or household-level data, which we argue oversimplifies and ignores the inherent interactions within and across societal levels of decision-making that shape the capacity of humans to adapt to environmental change across multiple scales. In order for future adaptive capacity research to be more practice-oriented and effectively guide policy, there is a need to develop indicators and assessments that are matched with the levels of potential policy applications

Understanding Consumer Attitudes Towards Antimicrobial Risk Reducing Practices

The emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance is a natural evolutionary reaction to antimicrobial exposure. However, the misuse and overuse of antimicrobial drugs in human medicine and in agriculture are speeding up the process. Antimicrobials have been used in food-producing animals for therapeutic purposes as well as to promote growth by applying low concentrations in animal feed. Antimicrobial resistant pathogens can enter the food chain through food containing residues of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and cause infections in humans. In the United States, millions of people are infected every year with antimicrobial resistant bacterial diseases causing approximately 23,000 deaths (CDC 2013). This study examines the public’s objective and subjective (self-assessed) knowledge and perceptions of antibiotic use in the livestock and poultry industries as well as knowledge and perceptions of antibiotic resistance. The study further examines the public’s level of acceptance of antibiotic use in food animals for disease prevention, disease control, disease treatment, and as growth promotants, as well as how attitudes towards animal welfare may impact antibiotic use acceptance. A quantitative survey questionnaire was developed to achieve study objectives, and it was administered online by the survey firm IRI between May and June 2018. A random sample of 1,030 individuals across the United States participated in the survey. Data on participants’ subjective and objective knowledge of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance, acceptance of antibiotic use in livestock animals, perceptions of antibiotic use and antibiotic resistance, food safety perceptions, attitudes towards animal welfare and demographic variables were collected. An ordered Probit model was used to determine the level of acceptance of different uses of antibiotics in food animal production. Marginal effects in an ordered Probit model were used to estimate the probability change in the level of acceptance of study participants. Results indicate that the level of acceptance for each use of antibiotics is influenced by the participants’ subjective and objective knowledge of both antibiotic use and antibiotic resistance. The results further demonstrate that food safety perceptions play a significant role in the level of acceptance of antibiotics in food animal production. Further, results show that attitudes towards animal welfare and demographic variables such as age, sex and race affect the level of acceptance of antibiotic use in food animal production. Advisors: Amalia Yiannaka and Kathleen Brook

Essays on the Social Networks and Technology Adoption

The two chapters of this dissertation focus on the role of social networks in the process of technology adoption in the context of Undesirable Vegetation Transitions (UVTs) using a survey and an economic experiment. The first chapter investigates the impact of specific social network characteristics on the technology adoption process using data collected via a survey of a cross section of Nebraska producers. The study first examines how specific social network characteristics such as variation in the type of information effects producer’s information seeking behavior regarding new management practices and technologies. Next it explores the influence of information from social networks on the likelihood of adopting mapping and scanning technology in the face of UVTs. The results indicate that the social network characteristics of individuals have no significant effect on information seeking behavior and significant effects on the likelihood of adopting mapping and scanning technology. Specifically, occupation diversity among the producers’ social network contacts, frequency of interaction between producers and their contacts and network density are positively related to technology adoption, However, network openness, which is the extent to which producers’ network exhibit structural holes, or lack of connections between contacts, is negatively related to technology adoption. The second chapter examines the extent to which information acquired from strong ties (to own community members) and weak ties (to members of another community) influences technology adoption .This study uses a lab experiment in a dynamic public good setting to evaluate the impact of three treatments: i) StrongTie: to capture the effects of information exchange between strong ties ii) WeakTieHigh quality: which considers the effect of information obtained from weak ties with same risk preferences and iii) WeakTieLow quality which evaluates the impact of information obtained from weak ties with different risk preferences as the subject. Results indicate that there is no significant effect of information received from strong ties and weak ties on an individual’s adoption decision. However, we observed that in the WeakTieHigh treatment subjects contributed more than StrongTie and WeakTieLow treatment

Role of Social Network on Technology Adoption: Application to Nebraska Producers in the Face of Undesirable Vegetation Transitions

Conclusion Producers need to have access to information regarding new conservation practices and technologies to ensure land management in the face of ecological threats in general and vegetation transitions (VTs) in the context of our study. This study investigates the role of an individual producer\u27s social network on the willingness to seek information about technologies and management practices and the likelihood of new technology adoption with special attention to risk attitudes and producer spillover effects. Our results provide evidence that network composition and information obtained through a producer\u27s social network don\u27t influence an individual\u27s willingness to seek information about new technologies or management practices. However, when it comes to adopting specific technology, like screening and imaging technology, social network measures have a significant impact. Additionally, we found risk attitude and spillover effect positively influence the likelihood of technology adoption. The significant positive impact of the spillover effect confirms that producers are reactive to the effects of VTs that they observe within their neighbor\u27s land and are willing to seek information regarding new practices and technologies and adopt them. Considering the above results, it is evident that if public and private agencies are interested in addressing negative effects of VTs through changes in producer behaviors, they would be well served to invoke the mechanism of producer personal social networks to ensure effective receipt and dissemination of information regarding the new technology. Such effective information transmission can be combined with existing (and new) environmental policies to address VTs issues in Nebraska (and possibly in other areas where producers have similar profiles)

U.S. Consumer Attitudes toward Antibiotic Use in Livestock Production

Antimicrobial resistance, which decreases the efficacy of antibiotics and other antimicrobials, has led to concerns about the use of antibiotics in livestock production. Consumers play an important role in influencing producers’ decisions about the use of antimicrobials through their choices in the marketplace, which are driven by attitudes toward these practices. This study examines consumers’ levels of concern about (and acceptance of) the use of antibiotics in livestock production for four objectives: to treat, control, and prevent infections, and to promote growth. Results reveal that the majority of respondents were highly concerned about antibiotic use to promote growth in livestock production and considered this use to be unacceptable. Participants with higher objective knowledge of antibiotic resistance and antibiotic use in livestock production were more likely to accept antibiotic use to treat and control disease, but less likely to accept its use to prevent disease or to promote growth. Participants with high levels of trust in the livestock industry were more likely to accept antibiotic use to control and prevent infections and to be neutral about antibiotic use to promote growth in food animals. Respondents who believed that antibiotic use decreases animal welfare were more likely to be very concerned about antibiotic use to treat, prevent, and control disease, and less likely to accept antibiotic use to treat diseases in food animals. The study findings should be of interest to producers considering the adoption of sustainable technologies and production practices, food retailers making procurement decisions, and policymakers identifying policies that can alleviate antimicrobial resistance in the agri-food sector