Crisis? What Crisis? The Normality of the Current Food Crisis

The 2005–8 food crisis was a shock to political elites, but in some respects the situation was normal. Food policies are failing to respond adequately to the squeeze on land, people, health and environment. Strong evidence of systems failure and stress, termed here New Fundamentals, ought to reframe twenty-first century food politics and effort. Yet so far, international discourse is too often narrow and technical. The paper suggests that 2005–8 reinforced how the dominant twentieth century productionist policy paradigm is running out of steam. This assumed that producing more food would resolve social problems. Yet distortions in markets, access and culture remain. At national and international levels of governance, despite realization of the enormity of the challenge ahead, there is still a belief in slow incremental change

Circular agri-food approaches : will consumers buy novel products made from vegetable waste?

This article discusses the challenges associated with managing waste in the horticultural sector by presenting the circular economy framework as a solution to the problem of food waste. The research focuses on consumers’ role and value adding as one strategy that transforms food waste for reuse in accordance with a circular economy. A structured questionnaire was collected from a sample (n = 330) of Australian households to assess consumers’ willingness buy food derived from underutilised biomass. The survey found half of the sample was willing to buy value-added food. Helping Australian farmers was the top-ranking factor driving demand. Awareness of the food waste problem is significant in distinguishing consumers who are willing to buy value-added food from those who are not. Marketing recommendations for communication design a circular economy are to stress empathy and care for farmers and highlight the consequences of food waste for both the natural environment and people

Texture‐modified 3D printed dark chocolate: sensory evaluation and consumer perception study

This study aimed to assess the preferences and perceptions of texture-modified 3D printed chocolate through three measures, two tasting tests and one survey. In the first test, 30 semi-trained panellists ranked their overall preference from among the three samples of chocolate printed in a honeycomb pattern with infill percentages of 25%, 50% and 100%. The panellists ranked the samples based on appearance and hardness. In the second test, the same panellists nominated one preference between a 3D printed sample (100% infill percentage) and a cast commercial chocolate sample. Friedman test indicated that there was no significant difference in overall preferences for hardness although the panellists significantly preferred the appearance of samples with 25% and 50% over the 100% infill. Further, there was no significant difference in preference between the cast and 100% infill samples. The texture data of the chocolate samples showed that a higher force was required to break the chocolate samples as the infill percentage increased from 25% (20.4 ± 1.1 N) to 100% (54.4 ± 1.5 N). Also, the 3D printed chocolate (printed in 100% infill percentage) was found to be less hard than that of casted chocolate. In the survey of consumer perceptions, a total of 244 participated and assessed the samples for their intricate design and novel technology concept through a questionnaire. While there was a general awareness of 3D printing technology among these participants, many were impressed with the application of 3D printing to chocolate, as this was the first time they had seen this. The results obtained from the sensory tests and consumer survey provided a useful insight into consumers' perception of 3D food printing and the 3D products design. This awareness will be beneficial to promote this technology in the food industry. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

What drives risk perceptions? Revisiting public perceptions of food hazards associated with production and consumption

As food technology continues to advance, the potential for new food products to enter the food market grows, attracting considerable media interest. Whilst previous research has explored public perceptions of food-related hazards, much of this took place over 10 years ago. Continued technological developments have yielded new food products, for which there is no extant research on public perceptions. In light of this, there is a pressing need to update and extend research exploring public perceptions of food-related hazards. Using a psychometric approach, a nationally representative UK sample (n = 907) provided ratings of 11 old and new food hazards on a total of 12 risk characteristics (identified from previous research). Principal components analysis identified two main components: ‘dread’ and ‘knowledge’, which explained 80.8% of the variance in perceptions, consistent with past findings. Additives were perceived as the least dreaded and most known of the hazards considered, whereas ractopamine pork, atrazine corn and hormone beef were dreaded the most. 3D printed food and lab-grown meat were perceived as the least known. Our results highlight the importance of knowledge in shaping risk perceptions and have implications for risk management. An understanding of the factors which determine risk perceptions is vital for the development of effective risk management and risk communication strategies

Sociopsychological perspectives on the active roles of domestic actors in transition to a lower carbon electricity economy

This paper explores the active roles that domestic consumers might play in different transition pathways to a lower carbon electricity economy. It begins with a review of psychological and sociological perspectives on the drivers for everyday energy-use patterns, situating these in the context of the body of research on transitions in sociotechnical systems. On the basis of the review, a social-science-based framework is proposed for analysing the active ways in which domestic actors might facilitate or support the transition to a lower carbon economy. Applying the framework to an analysis of centralised and decentralised transitions pathways suggests that domestic actors can play an active role in transition through establishing new routine and conventional uses of energy in everyday life. Domesticating lower carbon technologies such as smart meters and microgeneration equipment supports the disruption of unsustainable energy-using routines and could help to make energy consumption and energy costs more visible and relevant to the everyday lives of domestic users. The findings call attention to the need to consider the wider effects of energy-system transition within and around consumer-oriented lifestyles