ALL FOR EFFICIENCY AND EFFICIENCY FOR ALL -- DISPELLING MYTHS ABOUT "COSTLY" NEW QUALITY ATTRIBUTES IN FOOD PRODUCTS

As new quality attributes for food products emerge, questions arise about the relative "efficiencies" of alternative market responses to these changes. This paper discusses two closely related issues: different perspectives about "efficiency" found in the literature, and the potential responses to the introduction of new food product attributes by individual firms. Comparing different understandings of "efficiency" and analyzing different firm-level market responses lead to conclusions about the use of "efficiency" for prescriptive decisions by firms and value-laden recommendations by economists.Marketing,

Assessing the Impact of Cowpea and Sorghum Research and Extension in Northern Cameroon

Crop Production/Industries, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession, Downloads July 2008 - July 2009: 7,

Assessing the Impact of Cowpea and Sorghum Research and Extension in Northern Cameroon

Throughout Africa, per capita food production has been declining since the early 1960s. Cameroon has sought to counter this trend by increasing agricultural productivity through research and extension. In order to establish future investment priorities, policy makers need to know if past agricultural research investments have earned sufficient returns to justify continued funding. Further, national experiences need to be compared to see if returns varied across programs, and in cases where they did, explanations need to be sought to discover why these variations exist. To address these issues, data were collected in Cameroon and analyzed in order to estimate the benefits and costs of investments in sorghum and cowpea research and extension in northern Cameroon. Specific data that were needed to construct benefit and cost streams included the following: yields of traditional and introduced technologies, area harvested, adoption rates of technological innovations, prices of both inputs and outputs, climatic factors influencing both the research agenda and the returns to this research, and the costs of research and extension efforts. Focusing on the period 1979-87, the analysis addressed three questions: What were the returns to past investments? What factors explained the estimated returns and any variability in returns between the sorghum and cowpea programs? And how did institutions influence these returns and the distribution of their benefits?food security, food policy, cowpea, sorghum, Crop Production/Industries, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Downloads July 2008 - June 2009: 17, Q16,

WHY ADOPT INTEGRATED CROP PRODUCTION? A PERSPECTIVE FROM THE FRENCH FRUIT SECTOR

Are changes in consumer demand and concentration in food retail altering market structures so that integrated production practices like IPM and ICM will become not only widely adopted but essential if growers want to maintain access to markets? Data on the European fresh produce sector are analyzed, applying Randall Bartlett's economic theory of power. The authors conclude that if current trends continue, then the answer to the question posed could soon be, "yes."Crop Production/Industries,

FOCUS GROUPS AS A USEFUL APPROACH TO AGRIBUSINESS RESEARCH

As the agricultural economics profession increasingly strives to find relevant and useful approaches for addressing a broad array of research questions, particularly in terms of agribusiness research, there will be a growing need to adopt a wide set of research methods and methodologies. Historical research strategies typically emphasized by agricultural economists have focused primarily on surveys, archival/secondary data and econometrics. However, these approaches are, at times, limited in their applicability and scope relative to some of the research questions that have the greatest priority for agribusiness researchers and their clientele. Some of the research methods now being more widely used by agribusiness-oriented agricultural economists are more qualitative, as is already evident with a growing acceptance of case studies within the profession. This paper discusses an additional qualitative approach that has substantial potential for agribusiness research focus groups.Agribusiness, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

SHOULD IMPORTS FREE-RIDE OR HELP PAY-- DECISIONS ABOUT GENERIC PROMOTION PROGRAMS FOR AGRICULTURAL COMMODITIES

Many U.S. agricultural commodity industries are currently considering if and how they might implement a mandatory national generic promotion program. As U.S. industries consider how to finance these programs, one of the key decisions they face is the choice to include or exempt imported products from promotional assessment fees. Free-riders, unwilling riders, exclusion costs, economies of scale, market share, seasonality of production, storage constraints, and the role of government are reviewed within the context of this choice. The paper concludes that perceptions of fairness and ownership of decision processes, commonly held objectives, and effective communication links are key factors affecting decisions about the structures of generic commodity promotion programs.Marketing,

The International Congress of Scientists on the Human Environment, Kyoto, Japan, November 17-26, 1975 - a report

The International Congress of Scientists on Human Environment was convened under the combined auspices of the Science Council of Japan; the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), Man and the Biosphere (MAB), the Scientists\u27 Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE) and the Special Committee on the Environment of the International Social Science Council (ISSC). The 519 participants in the Congress included 95 representing 27 countries in addition to Japan. The Congress was organized by General Secretary, Prof. Y. Fukushima for the Science Council of Japan, an elected group representing 200,000 scientists. The Congress built upon the 1970 Tokyo Symposium on Environmental Disruption of the International Social Science Council and on the 1972 UN Stockholm Conference. Impetus for the Congress originated in environmental activities since the eruption of environmental interest in 1970 to 1972 and from the appearance of organized counter-activity by industry and institutions

The Statutes of the Teutonic Knights: A Study of Religious Chivalry

From the Preface: The purpose of this study is to examine the role of the religious military orders, and of the Teutonic Knights in particular, within the process of change in developing the concept of a religious and a Christian warrior during the Crusades, or, in other words, how the existing Latin ideal of religious retreat was adapted, blended and attached to the chivalric image of Western Europe in the Holy Land, as reflected in the statutes of the Teutonic Knights. For this purpose the statutes of the other two prominent religious military orders, the Knights Templars and the Knights Hospitallers, and also the Rules and Constitutions of other contemporary religious orders are compared with, and studied as possible sources of, the statutes of the Teutonic Knights. Also the organization and membership of the Teutonic Order are described and analyzed. Basic to all this is the first English translation of the statutes, the Book of the Order, made from the German text of 1264, found in the oldest extant manuscript

STRATEGIC CHOICES IN PRODUCE MARKETING: ISSUES OF COMPATIBLE USE AND EXCLUSION COSTS

Fresh produce suppliers in Europe and the United States use a mix of price and non-price marketing strategies. This paper shows that these strategies create, using Mancur Olson's terms, two collective goods: overall consumer confidence in the market's ability to deliver credence attributes, and overall consumer satisfaction with the experience attributes of fresh produce. The characteristics of these two collective goods, i.e., their compatible use and high costs of exclusion, influence the costs, effectiveness, and nature of the marketing strategies of firms. This paper presents examples from the fresh produce industries of Europe and the U.S. to show how compatible-use and high-exclusion costs influence firm strategies. It concludes that there are unavoidable interdependencies that create a need for collective action -- a need that will increase as consumer and retailer demand for quality attributes in fresh produce increases.Demand and Price Analysis, Marketing,

QUALITY AND QUALITY ASSURANCE IN THE FRESH PRODUCE SECTOR: A CASE STUDY OF EUROPEAN RETAILERS

Quality and quality assurance are among the most critical issues facing the fresh produce industry. This paper shows that while quality is widely noted to be an important concept, it is not clearly defined in the literature. Several definitions of quality are presented. The terminology associated with quality assurance is analyzed. An array of quality assurance systems used in the European fresh product sector are presented. Conclusions are drawn that while fresh produce quality will always be a factor retailers use to compete for consumers, there is evidence of industry consensus on some quality attributes, particularly, safety, environmental, and social attributes.Marketing,