Estimating Consumer Willingness to Pay for Country-of-Origin Labeling

Consumer willingness to pay for a mandatory country-of-origin labeling program is assessed. A consumer survey was conducted during 2002 in several grocery stores in Boulder, Denver, and Fort Collins, Colorado. Econometric results indicate that surveyed consumers are willing to pay an average of $184 per household annually for a mandatory country-of-origin labeling program. Respondents were also willing to pay an average of$1.53 and $0.70 per pound more for steak and hamburger labeled as "U.S. Certified Steak" and "U.S. Certified Hamburger," which is equivalent to an increase of 38% and 58%, respectively, over the initial given price.beef, consumer preferences, country-of-origin labeling, dichotomous choice, willingness to pay, Consumer/Household Economics,

ESTIMATING CONSUMER WILLINGNESS-TO-PAY FOR COUNTRY OF-ORIGIN-LABELS FOR BEEF PRODUCTS

Country-of-origin labeling is now being considered as an alternative by the U.S. Senate. Research is still needed to determine what attributes consumers value in domestic versus imported beef, and to quantify the value that consumers place on country-of-origin labels. Preliminary results suggest that U.S. consumers perceived domestic beef as being safer than imported beef, and overall they are willing to pay a premium to obtain U.S. certified beef.Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

A CHOICE EXPERIMENT MODEL FOR BEEF ATTRIBUTES: WHAT CONSUMER PREFERENCES TELL US

This paper reports the main findings obtained from a U.S. consumer choice experiment regarding perceptions of food safety and meat attributes, and to the extent to which these attitudes translate into willingness-to-pay (WTP) for labeled ribeye steaks. The results indicate that USDA food safety inspection labels, labels indicating that the steak is tender, or the ability to trace back the animal to the farm are more important to consumers than country of origin labeling.Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

CONSUMER PREFERENCES AND WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR FOOD LABELING: A DISCUSSION OF EMPIRICAL STUDIES

We discuss empirical research on consumer preferences and willingness to pay for several types of food quality or attribute labeling. The selected categories we include are eco-labels, GM food labels, U.S. state agricultural-product labels and European Protected Geographical Indication labels, BSE-tested-beef labels, and “"Fair Trade”" labels. We discuss generalizations that can be drawn from the studies as a group. Most importantly, we find that consumers must perceive high quality in order for the food product to command a premium. Furthermore, the perception of quality may sometimes differ across consumers.Consumer/Household Economics,

REPUTATION AND STATE COMMODITY PROMOTION: THE CASE OF WASHINGTON APPLES

A dynamic multiple-indicator multiple-cause (MIMIC) framework was used to estimate the latent variable reputation with price premiums for Washington apples and attributes that covered the period July 1996 to November 1999. A maximum likelihood two-stage approach was employed. For comparison purposes, a hedonic regression was also estimated. Results from the first stage of the estimation procedure in the MIMIC reputation model suggest that price premiums are good indicators of reputation. The indicator coefficients, also called factor loadings, imply that the estimated reputation variable is common to the five indicators chosen and that the measurement of reputation is not likely to be obscured by a wide diversity in the indicators. The common factor issue suggests a possible existence of collective 'Washington' reputation. Results from the second stage of the MIMIC reputation model are compared to those from the Hedonic proxy model. In general, results from the MIMIC reputation model make more intuitive sense and are in line with the theoretical literature on reputation than the results from the Hedonic proxy model. Reputation is found to be stationary and that shocks to Washington's reputation are temporary. In the MIMIC reputation model, all the estimated coefficients on the explanatory cause variables had positive signs, except the Red Delicious variety variable. The magnitude of the coefficient on the logo term is large, suggesting a strong impact on reputation. The estimated constant term in the MIMIC reputation model is negative and relatively large, which suggests that reputation is declining. The concerns of declining perceived "eating" quality in Washington varieties thus appear to be real. It appears then that the apple industry is currently benefiting from past/accrued reputation. The current standards in the apple industry give room for some Washington producers to free ride on the collective reputation. Hence, there may be some justification for minimum quality standards. For efficient public policy purposes, our findings suggest that policymakers and the apple industry as a whole should consider reputation in their cost-benefit analysis for purposes of resource allocation.Marketing,

ASSESSING CONSUMER PREFERENCES FOR ORGANIC, ECO-LABELED, AND REGULAR APPLES

We assess consumer choice of eco-labeled, organic, and regular apples, and identify sociodemographic characteristics affecting the choice among those three alternatives. Eco-labeled apples are less desirable than organic when food safety, the environment, and children's needs are considered. Characteristics that may be expected to positively affect the decision to buy eco-labeled apples relative to regular apples actually have the opposite effect with the inclusion of the organic alternative. When considering all three choices, the eco-labeled product is found to be an intermediate choice among consumers.Consumer/Household Economics,

Exploring How Mindfulness May Enhance Perceived Value of Travel Experience

This study aims to explore the effect of tourists’ mindfulness on the perceived value of travel experience (PVTE) through destination images (cognitive, affective, and conative) and tourist experiences. Data (n = 370) were gathered using a self-administered structured questionnaire distributed to travellers departing from Lisbon International airport towards Spain in July 2017. The results show the important role of mindfulness in shaping all dimensions of destination image. Tourist experience acts as a mediator between destination images and PVTE. However, perceived authenticity does not have a moderating, but rather a controlling effect on the relationship between tourist experience and PVTE. From a theoretical point of view, the study makes important contribution in conceptualising the influence of a tourist’s mindfulness on PVTE through destination image components and tourist experience. From a practical perspective, it offers practitioners and DMOs valuable insights into the effective design and implementation of suitable destination marketing activities.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

The role of antimicrobial stress on Pseudomonas aeruginosa colony morphology diversity, tolerance and virulence

In natural environments, as well as in infections, bacteria faced several stresses like starvation, heat exposure, antimicrobials and host defense after entry in human body. The ability to quickly adapt to a new environment is critical to bacteria and the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. One of the strategies adopted by bacteria is a high frequency of phenotype switching by a mechanism called phase variation. A sign of these bacterial changes is the altered colony morphology on solid media. Several colony morphologies have been isolated from clinical strains, being the best-studied the small colony variants, the rugose small colony variants and the mucoid phenotype. It was aimed to study the prevalence and diversity of colony morphologies from planktonic and sessile P. aeruginosa (Pa) ATCC, chemically stressed, and to compare with the ones developed by a P. aeruginosa isolated from a medical device (Pa I). Pa is one of the most important opportunistic pathogen commonly found in clinical arena being often responsible for acute and chronic infections. Planktonic and sessile Pa and Pa I were in vitro stressed by continuous exposure to benzalkonium chloride (BZK) and peroxide hydrogen and by attack with the same products. The stressed bacteria were collected, serial diluted and plated onto TSA to inspect colony morphology variants. Each predominant bacterial morphology was harvested and reserved for further phenotypic and motility characterization. The results demonstrated that cells coming from biofilm and planktonic growth of Pa, regardless they were stressed or not or the type of stress implemented, develop colonies mostly with the same morphotype, type II, characterized by big and regular colony circumference, with small and dark center and wrinkled surface. This colony type showed to have a good ability to form biofilms, although the colonies from the stressed cultures developed biofilms with higher biomass accumulated. The Pa I gave rise to high diversity of colony morphotypes, being 3 of them more prevalent and cataloged as type XVII, XXIII, XXVIII. The types XVII and XXVIII are characterized by regular colony circumferences with craters in the center. However their superficial area presented different colors. Type XXIII has irregular colony shape with craters in the center. These 3 morphotypes showed similar biofilm formation ability between them but lower than type II. Nonetheless the phenotypic differences found between the several morphotypes, all of them generated biofilms with identical tolerance to antimicrobials (BZK and the fluoroquinolone antibiotic ciprofloxacin-CIP). However, the cells resulting from the planktonic growth of Pa I morphotypes demonstrated two-fold tolerance to BZK and CIP than their Pa counterparts. Regarding bacteria motility, results highlighted that all Pa I morphotypes had impaired swimming motilities compared to type II. This result seems to indicate that the capacity of adhesion or invasion of Pa I morphotypes to, respectively, surfaces or tissues was compromised, which may interfere with their virulence. Although, the latter is not sustained by the susceptibility patterns, emphasizing the ambiguous relationship between virulence and antimicrobial resistance. The morphologies described are not similar with previous reports and the colony morphologies more prevalent seemed to be less virulent than typical ones. Among the various colony morphologies detected, no Pa I morphotype match with Pa type. So, it can be concluded that phase variation is an adaptive strategy of bacteria to respond to fluctuating environment leading to mixed populations where the chances for survival is higher. The generation of varied bacterial phenotypes may be the sum of previous and successive adaptations suffer by Pa I as an attempt to adjust to adverse habitats.IBB-CEB and FCT, for the financial support (Project PTDC/SAUESA/64609/2006; PhD Grant SFRH/BD/31065/2006

In vitro adaptation of P. aeruginosa: colony morphology variants selection and virulence characterization

One of the bacterial strategies to respond to environmental pressures is the switch of their phenotypic traits by a mechanism called phase variation. This reversible process provides the generation of varied bacterial phenotypes, leading to a mixed population and colony diversity. In this work it was aimed to isolate and characterize the virulence of colony morphology variants selected by environmental pressures from planktonic and sessile P.aeruginosa, in order to understand the biological significance of phase variation in virulent-bacteria selection. Bacteria were in vitro stressed by continuous exposure to increased concentrations of benzalkonium chloride (BZK) and by heat and peroxide hydrogen shock. The stressed bacteria were suspended, serial diluted and plated onto TSA to inspect and collect colony morphology variants. It was observed, for planktonic and biofilm states, that adaptation and heat and chemical shocks selected different colony morphologies. These differences were in colony circumference and outer edge (smooth or irregular), surface texture and surface shape (craters). All the colony morphotypes were collected and used to evaluate their biofilm formation ability and its susceptibility to some antimicrobials. Data revealed that some morphotypes shown less ability to form biofilms but were more tolerant to BZK. Other morphotypes, with more ability to form biofilms, were resistant to Ciprofloxacin, and others were susceptible to Ciprofloxacin but resistant to Erytromicine. It can be concluded that P.aeruginosa is capable to undertake phenotypic changes when facing stress pressure. These different morphology variants may play a significant role in P.aeruginosa antimicrobial resistance, contributing its increased pathogenicity

3-( E )-But-2-enoxy-1,2-benzisothiazole 1,1-dioxide: unusual C—O—C ether bond lengths and reactivity

Ethers such as the title compound, C~HIINO3S, (1), rearrange thermally to give N-allyl isomers, (2), in high yield. The X-ray structure determination of the title ether shows a central C--O--C linkage which has one very short (notional) C--O single bond and one exceptionally long single C--O bond. The thermal migration of allyl from the O to the N atom involves the breaking of one of the ether bonds in (1) and a shortening of the other as it becomes a formal carbonyl group in the product (2). The rearrangement is thus considerably assisted by the ground-state structure of the starting ether, in which the bond to be broken is already stretched and the one that is to form a carbonyl group is already a substantial partial double bond