Consumer Power to Change the Food System? A Critical Reading of Food Labels as Governance Spaces: The Case of Acai Berry Superfoods

This article argues that the marketing claims on food labels are a governance space worthy of critical examination. We use a case study of superfood açaí berry products to illustrate how marketing claims on food labels encapsulate dominant neoliberal constructions of global food systems. These marketing claims implicitly promise that by making careful choices consumers can resist and redress the ravages of unbridled global capitalism. Food labels suggest that consumers can use market signals to simultaneously govern our own selves and the market to ensure sustainable, fair, and healthy consumption. In response, this article develops, justifies and applies a socio-legal approach to researching food chain governance which uses the food label as its unit of analysis and traces from the micro level of what the everyday consumer is exposed to on a food label to the broader governance processes that the food label both symbolizes and effects. We demonstrate our approach through a “label and chain governance analysis” of açaí berry marketing claims to deconstruct both the regulatory governance of the chain behind the food choices available to the consumer evident from the label and the way in which labels seek to govern consumer choices. Our analysis unpacks the nutritionist, primitivist undertones to the health claims made on these products, the neo-colonial and racist dimensions in their claims regarding fair trade and rural socio-economic development, and, the use of green-washing claims about biodiversity conservation and ecological sustainability. Through our application of this approach to the case study of açaí berry product labels, we show how food labels can legitimize the market-based governance of globalized food chains and misleadingly suggest that capitalist production can be adequately restrained by self-regulation, market-based governance and reflexive consumer choices alone. We conclude by suggesting the need for both greater deconstruction of the governance assumptions behind food labels and to possibilities for collective, public interest oriented regulatory governance of both labelling and the food system

Thematic Analysis of Mainstream Rap Music - Considerations for Culturally Responsive Sexual Consent Education in High School

Background: Much of the research literature on sexual consent and sexual consent education has been focused on college students, providing a significant gap in our understanding of high school students, especially ethnic minority youth, who are at greatest risk for unwanted sexual contact and sexual activity. Furthermore, recent research suggests that music with sexually suggestive and misogynistic themes influence sexual communication and consenting behaviors. An analysis of rap music produced after the year 2000 is necessary to identify themes that may influence sexual communication among youth. Methods: A thematic analysis was conducted to examine the lyrics of mainstream rap music songs. Songs from the Billboard Hot Rap Singles Year-End Charts for the years 2001 through 2011 served as the data corpus for thematic analysis. Results: Each year, an average of 18 songs in the top 25 rap music hits included some level of sexual content. Overall, approximately 74% of the 244 songs made references to sex, sexual expectations and/or relationships. Three major themes emerged from the analysis: (1) It’s Really About Sex or Nothing At All, (2) Substances as the Precursor/Enhancer, and (3) Performance, Parts & Brand. Conclusion: The major themes found here highlight the prevalence of norms that perpetuate non-consensual sex and non-verbal sexual communication in a dominant musical genre. Each theme presented in this study represents rules and expectations related to sexual interactions that could influence an adolescent’s view of sexual communication and consent. Findings here should be further examined to identify how adolescents may perceive them and resonate with their meanings

MA PCMH Eval Week: Christine Johnson on Self-Assessment Medical Home Transformation Tools

Blog post to AEA365, a blog sponsored by the American Evaluation Association (AEA) dedicated to highlighting Hot Tips, Cool Tricks, Rad Resources, and Lessons Learned for evaluators. The American Evaluation Association is an international professional association of evaluators devoted to the application and exploration of program evaluation, personnel evaluation, technology, and many other forms of evaluation. Evaluation involves assessing the strengths and weaknesses of programs, policies, personnel, products, and organizations to improve their effectiveness. This blog post was posted to AEA365 during a week of posts featuring the team at the University of Massachusetts Medical School that helped to evaluate the Massachusetts Patient-Centered Medical Home Initiative

Not Just Objects: Alaska Native Material Culture at the McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture

As a curatorial intern at the McClung Museum at the University of Tennessee, I have come into contact with a collection of over one hundred pieces of material culture that originate from Native communities in what is now the state of Alaska. As a former resident of the state, I understand the diversity of the region’s Indigenous population, and am concerned with the common curatorial practice of lumping all Native Alaskan cultures into one monolithic group (i.e. “Eskimos). In museums, the usage of outdated and inaccurate terminology in identifying the material culture of these communities is a remnant of colonialism and is especially troublesome in a university setting . Through my work at the McClung Museum, I conclude that one of the first steps to eradicate this practice is to engage in community collaboration with members of source communities, especially artists and elders. This paper explores the origins of the misrepresentation of Indigenous people in American museums, the current situation as it pertains to Native Alaskan material culture, examples of successful community collaboration, and my research and collaboration processes with the McClung Museum’s Native Alaskan holdings

Job satisfaction of nonprofit workers

The purpose of this study was to investigate the overall job satisfaction of employees that work in nonprofit organizations that have religious names. The study used individual survey methods to collect its data. Participants for this study were recruited from paid employees of Catholic Charities of San Bernardino and Riverside (CCSBR), one of the largest non-profit organizations in the Inland Empire. A total of 48 employees participated in this study

The Identity of Place: Pitcairn Island in Cultural and Historical Geography

ABSTRACTTHE IDENTITY OF PLACE: PITCAIRN ISLAND IN CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHYCHRISTINE K. JOHNSONPitcairn Island is a small, remote Pacific island in southeastern Polynesia. Although the archaeological record shows traces of human habitation in the island's prehistory, Pitcairn is more famous for its contemporary history derived from a notorious maritime adventure: the mutiny on the Bounty in 1789. Pitcairn Island is both a home to forty-eight permanent residents and a sort of living museum, with endemic species of plants and birds, Bounty-era artifacts moved into a small museum, and scattered across the landscape, and a landscape that itself has innate historical points of interest. With 224 years of recorded history, Pitcairn has a living legacy from the Bounty saga, and is a place of interest for seafaring captains, tourists, historians, filmmakers, and authors. Polynesia markets itself as Paradise, with tourism a primary industry for the last thirty years. However, if "Paradise" is a place of the imagination, Pitcairn Island is very real, subject to the ideals and perceptions of an increasingly globalized world intent on exploiting island history, perhaps to the detriment of the residents of Pitcairn. Neither wholly Polynesian nor British in culture, the Pitcairners live in an island landscape with challenges but also benefits housed within a paradisiacal region, and work daily to counteract a negative image as a haven for deviance and misbehavior that has developed beyond their control. The impact of a negative image externally imposed on a place as small as Pitcairn is telling, and will require changes to attain economic sustainability in the future

The methods of communication and education used to train forest and fire personnel through the Swanton Pacific Ranch

California does not have a cohesive curriculum for educating and training forest and fire professionals. The Swanton Pacific Ranch Fuels Management Training Program is Cal Fire affiliated and provides online and in person training to assist in equipping fire and forest professionals throughout California with the necessary skills to be successful fire and forest practitioners and managers. An exit survey was offered to all workshop participants after the Swanton workshop concluded. The survey was answered by 331 Swanton workshop participants to assess the effectiveness of the training program, the educational practices used to teach participants, and what factors of a participant’s background influence their change in knowledge. Analyses indicate that specific elements of a Swanton workshop participant’s background (i.e., gender and years of experience) as well as workshop type strongly correlate with their overall change in knowledge. Swanton workshop participants identified five best educational practices for their learning experience that also aligned with best practices identified in the literature. These practices included personal experiences, engaging instructors, presentations, explanations, external resources, detailed definitions, and a facilitated question and answer portion. Multiple instructors during hands-on and online Zoom sessions were beneficial for engagement and organization. The workshop\u27s accessibility benefits those in the industry thus making it helpful. The employment of the five best practices also showed significant correlation with greater changes in workshop participant\u27s change in knowledge. The results also indicate that the Swanton Pacific Ranch Fuels Management Training Program is effective due to a consistent increase in knowledge obtained after the workshop. These results can be used to create a cohesive training curriculum for the state of California to ensure that well rounded fire and forest personnel are maintaining California forests. The results can also assist in creating a cohesive framework for all Swanton workshops to follow to maintain effectiveness

Student Perceived Motivational Climate, Enjoyment, and Physical Activity in Middle School Physical Education

Youth physical activity (PA) levels, specifically that of girls, decline as they enter the middle grades (Parish & Treasure, 2003). Physical education (PE) is one area in the school environment where student PA can be increased. One goal recognized by the Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE) is for students to be physically active for at least 50% of class time and be offered PE for at least 225 minutes per week (SHAPE, 2013). Achievement Goal Theory (AGT) suggests student perceived motivational climate can influence PA levels, student enjoyment, and intrinsic motivation. The purpose of this study was to determine if student perceived motivational climate predicted student enjoyment and PA levels in PE while controlling for school, gender, grade, and ethnicity. Youth from three middle schools in the southeast United States were asked to wear a pedometer to measure PA levels in PE and complete a questionnaire to measure perceived motivational climate and enjoyment. Participants included 290 students (n = 108 6th grade students, n = 94 7th grade students, n = 88 8th grade students). Results revealed males were more active than females during PE (Mm=57%, Mf=48%), 7th grade participants had the highest PA levels (M=56%, SD= 16), and Hispanic students were the least active (M=45%, SD=16). After controlling for gender, it was found that males had significantly higher levels of enjoyment during PE (Mm =4.29, Mf = 3.87, p\u3c.01), and a mastery climate was perceived over a performance climate by majority of student regardless of gender, grade, or ethnicity (Mmc=3.78, Mpc=2.2). Statistically significant relationships were found between both mastery (p\u3c.01) and performance scores (p\u3c.01) with enjoyment. The performance relationship was negative while the mastery relationship was positive. There was not a significant relationship between the mastery climate and PA and only the performance climate subcategory Unequal Recognition (p\u3c.001) had a significant relationship with and PA during PE

A Centralized Service for Accessing the NCS Brain Simulator Through a Web Interface

UNR's Neocortical Simulator (NCS) is a large scale brain simulator that allows neuroscientists to run simulations with created brain models and receive output data generated by those simulations. Initially, NCS could only be accessed with text files and Python script files. The NCS web interface was recently developed to provide neuroscientists with a visual tool for creating brain models, setting simulation parameters, and analyzing simulation output data. The use of the web interface requires a protocol for communicating with NCS, as well as the management of a database used to store brain models and user accounts. This thesis presents a centralized service for managing communication between the web interface and NCS and between the web interface and the database. The service also has features for performing conversions between the Python scripts used to define simulation parameters and simulations created with the web interface, and streaming simulation data in real time while queuing any data if it is not able to be received by the user. The implementation of this service has provided the necessary link for data exchange between the web interface and NCS, and allowed for the addition of features to the web interface that will expectantly enhance user experience