Fork2Farmer: Enabling Success of Small Farms Through Partnerships with Well-Known Chefs and the Tourism Sector

A team of economic development, local foods, and tourism specialists from North Carolina Cooperative Extension is pursuing an initiative titled Fork2Farmer. The goal is to increase visits to local farms and diversify farm income by leveraging the high visibility of well-known farm-to-table chefs who support local small farms. To do this, those involved in the initiative are (a) producing and disseminating short videos about collaborative relationships between chefs and the farmers who supply their restaurants and (b) developing educational programs to facilitate agritourism microentrepreneurship and to nurture and leverage farmers\u27 partnerships with chefs

The Effect of Synergies Between the Informal and Formal Tourism Sectors on Farmers’ Tourism Microentrepreneurial Intentions

Leveraging the popularity of the foodie scene, signature farm tourism is emerging as one of the most promising niches for tourism microentrepreneurs. However, both psychological and structural constraints seem to be holding farmers back in their intention to start offering farm experiences or expanding their existing farm tourism portfolio. We argue that Permatourism-enabled bridging social capital affords farmers sources of entrepreneurial self-efficacy, which enhances entrepreneurial intention. To test our conceptual model, we surveyed 207 farmers in NC and used SEM to examine relationships between constructs. The analysis revealed an adequate model fit and strong significant relationships between bridging social capital and both dimensions of tourism microentrepreneurial self-efficacy. Internal self-efficacy was strongly and significantly associated with entrepreneurial intention, while external self-efficacy was non-significant. We provide meaning to these results through triangulation with qualitative data from five years of participatory action-research with farm tourism microentrepreneurs

Resisting socioeconomic apartheid through tourism microentrepreneurship in Bahía de Banderas — Puerto Vallarta

Despite receiving harsh criticisms from academia, the model of enclave tourism continues to be widely implemented by transnational conglomerates. Accordingly, enclave mass tourism development, materialized in the form of all-inclusive, self-contained resorts, may create apparent socioeconomic apartheid at destinations, through removing locals from tourist spaces where host-guest exchanges are most likely to occur. However, preliminary results from a qualitative study being conducted in Bahía de Banderas — Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, suggest that despite adverse conditions, microentrepreneurs are still able to glean some economic opportunities. Microentrepreneurs must be extremely judicious in how they choose to take advantage of available opportunities; there seems to be a thin line between moderate success on the one hand and total failure on the other, with immediate repercussions in their livelihoods

Challenges Faced by Women Entrepreneurs Involved in Agritourism

Finding themselves in today’s rapidly changing economic landscape, farmers are compelled to seek supplementary income generating activities such as agritourism. Women have been identified as the primary driver of a variety of agritourism activities with significant contribution toward its development and maintenance. In spite of their contribution, women tend to earn less in agritourism compared to their male counterparts. However, no research thus far has looked at the specific challenges faced by women in agritourism. We conducted a study in North Carolina using qualitative techniques (i.e. focus group, nominal group technique, and in-depth interviews). Our results identify a number of new challenges; these are: lacking reliable staff, managing growth, lacking institutional support, ensuring farm perpetuation, being pluriactive, and constantly facing new challenges. We also found support for challenges existing in the literature, namely, lacking resources, lacking credibility as farmers and juggling traditional roles

Jonathan Spence’s Yale Lectures: A Memoir

I first heard Jonathan Spence give a lecture thirty minutes or so after the first time I heard his name. It was the beginning of my fourth semester at Yale in 1995 during the chaotic week known on campus as “shopping period,” when students are allowed to attend any classes they choose. My roommate had announced that she was going to “shop Spence” and invited me to join her. Fortunately, she wasn’t too aghast to bring me along after I’d replied, “Sure, I’ll come with you, but what’s Spence?” I don’t remember precisely how she answered, but whatever she said persuaded me to get dressed in a hurry and follow her to Yale’s largest auditorium a full half hour before the first lecture of History of Modern China was scheduled to begin. As my roommate had predicted, the huge room filled up quickly. A few minutes after we arrived, a figure in a hooded coat slipped through the crowd toward the blackboard and began, silently, to fill it with a list of unfamiliar words written in slender uppercase letters. When he took the lectern, he made no sales-pitch to the assembled shoppers. He said only, “I’d like to start now” and began a lecture he called, “Ten Things I Find Fascinating About China.” I’ve lost the notes I took that day—though I’m fairly certain the list included the Three Gorges Dam, the future of the one-child policy and the legacy of June 4th—but what has stuck with me, indelibly, is how quickly after Spence began to speak I knew that anything he found fascinating was something I needed to hear more about

China Behind the Headlines: Xu Zhiyong

Earlier this year, a graduate of his country’s most prestigious law school with an impressive record of public service, a comfortable academic post at a major university, and a political office he’d won in a trailblazing election summarized his life’s mission for a local newspaper. “I strive to be a worthy citizen, a member of a group of people who promote the progress of the nation,” he told the reporter. “I want to make people believe in ideals and in justice and help them see that there is hope for change.” Like a more well-known community organizer, Xu Zhiyong has made a career of breaching barriers and raising hopes. But, as we were reminded, painfully, last week, this kind of project looks different in the cavernous plazas and narrow lanes of Beijing than it does on the streets of Chicago. The victories are harder to see, the defeats loom larger. In the week since Xu was detained at his apartment on July 29, much has been written about the reasons for his disappearance, what they may augur, how much worse things may get. Most stories have mentioned at least a few of Xu’s long list of achievements. But none has quite captured the remarkable breadth of his activities and the distinctive approach he brings to his work. I’ve known Xu for five years. I met him in my capacity as a journalist and got to know him better through his work with my husband who works at Yale’s China Law Center. As was the case for many people in China, I first heard Xu’s name in June of 2003. A young graphic designer in Shenzhen named Sun Zhigang had been beaten to death in detention after being picked up by police for not carrying his household registration ID. In part because of Xu’s involvement, the case had become a national news event and I was covering the story for TIME. Others protested the brutality of the beating and the way the police had mishandled Sun’s arrest or complained about the notorious corruption of Custody and Repatriation, the system of extra-judicial jails for “vagrants” to which Sun had fallen prey

When the Quick Fix Doesn\u27t Work: Evaluating the Effect of Parent Education on Child Abuse

The article outlines an evaluation in which multiple attempts were made to negotiate a more powerful program design. Results of a parent education intervention are briefly reported. Lasting change in human behavior requires the application of intense program dosages across ecological systems. Despite these recommendations from behavior change literature, many programs seek quick fixes with low dosage, uni-level interventions. What role should scholars and program evaluators play in informing clients about the duration and intensity required for effective parent education interventions? Implications and questions are presented for others involved in creating powerful behavior change interventions to address complex social issues

Fluoxetine exposure throughout neurodevelopment differentially influences basilar dendritic morphology in the motor and prefrontal cortices

The significance of serotonin (5HT) in mental health is underscored by the serotonergic action of many classes of psychiatric medication. 5HT is known to have a significant role in neurodevelopment, thus 5HT disruption during development may have a long term impact on brain structure and circuits. We previously generated a model of 5HT alteration throughout neurodevelopment by maternal administration of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor fluoxetine. We found resulting social behavior alterations in the offspring during both postnatal and adult ages. Previous work by others has indicated that early 5HT disruption influences neuronal morphology. Therefore, in the current study we sought to determine if dendritic morphological changes occur in areas involved in the social behavior deficits we previously observed, specifically the primary motor (M1) and medial prefrontal (mPFC) cortices. We quantified dendritic morphology of projection neurons in M1 and mPFC at postnatal day (P)10 and P79 in mice exposed to fluoxetine. Basilar dendritic complexity and spine density were persistently decreased in M1 fluoxetine-exposed neurons while in the mPFC, similar reductions were observed at P79 but were not present at P10. Our findings underscore that the developing brain, specifically the projection cortex, is vulnerable to 5HT system perturbation, which may be related to later behavioral disruptions