The Liege-balloon program

The Liege-balloon program is intended to make high-spectral resolution observations of the sun in the near- and intermediate infrared regions not accessible from the ground. A description of the equipment, followed by a summary of the data obtained till now is presented. Except for ozone whose maximum of concentration lies near 25 Km altitude, the residual mass distribution of the other mentioned molecules decreases with altitude. This is a self-explanatory argument for carrying out spectroscopic observations from platforms transcending the densest layers of the earth's atmosphere. The Liege balloon equipment is primarily intended for very high-resolution solar observations from about 27-30 Km altitude, in all spectral regions between 1.5 and 15.0 microns, not accessible from the ground

Modelling crop rotations of organic farms

With the described holistic model approach it is possible to generate agronomically-suitable and detailed 3-8 year crop rotations for diluvial sites in north-eastern Germany under the special demands of organic farming systems with and without livestock production. The stand-alone version can be used for crop rotation planning at the farm level. In addition, this model version may be applied for studying the influence of the parameter and estimation algorithm ranges within the model on the complex interactions between site condition, cropping methods and the rotational cropping systems. Sensitivity analyses show those model parameters and estimation algorithms which have to be managed with special care and those for which further research is needed

Bio-Blumen in kleinen Strukturen

Im ökologischen Zierpflanzenbau besteht Informationsbedarf. Viele Betriebe kombinieren aus Unsicherheit heraus den Zierpflanzenbau mit dem Anbau von Obst und Gemüse. Dies ergab eine Umfrage, die die Uni Hannover bei ökologisch geführten Zierpflanzenbetrieben durchgeführt hatte. (zitiert aus: Zander, K und Panschow, I (2001) Bio-Blumen in kleinen Strukturen, bioland 5/2001, 22

Preoccupied by the past - the case of Estonia's Museum of Occupations

The nation is born out of the resistance, ideally without external aid, of its nascent citizens against oppression [...] An effective founding struggle should contain memorable massacres, atrocities, assassinations and the like, which serve to unite and strengthen resistance and render the resulting victory the more justified and the more fulfilling. They also can provide a focus for a "remember the x atrocity" historical narrative.(1

Regional production’ and ‘Fairness’ in organic farming: Evidence from a CORE Organic project

The CORE Organic pilot project ‘Farmer Consumer Partnerships’ aims to strengthen the partnership between producers and consumers through better communication. To achieve this the project first mapped concerns of organic stakeholders in relation to a broad range of ethical values and then compared them with the European regulations for organic food before testing a limited number of communication arguments related to those concerns with consumers. Stakeholders of organic supply chains refer to a broad range of values that include concerns about systems integrity, regional origin, fairness issues as well as impact on the environment, on animals and other social impact. Several concerns including regional origin of products and fairness issues are not directly covered by the European Regulation for organic food. Seven different ethical attributes were tested with about 1200 consumers in relation to product prices and additional premiums by means of an Information‐Display‐Matrix (IDM) in five European countries. In all countries the most important ethical attributes to consumers turned out to be 'animal welfare', 'regional production' and 'fair prices for farmers'. It is concluded that communicating ethical quality of organic products that are produced in ways that go beyond the requirements of the European Regulation represents an opportunity for differentiation in an increasingly competitive market. Increasing transparency could be the first step in facing the difficulties in defining mandatory standards, particularly regarding ‘fairness’ and ‘local/regional production’

Farmer Consumer Partnerships: Information search and decision making - the case of ethical values of organic products

The CORE Organic pilot project ‘Farmer Consumer Partnerships’ aims at analysing and testing innovative communication strategies of organic companies with respect to ethical values as a means of reconnecting organic farmers and consumers against the varying cultural and behavioural backgrounds of consumers in five European countries (AT, CH, DE, IT UK). The previous work packages (WP1 and WP2) provided a selection of the most promising communication arguments with respect to ethical values of organic food based on literature review and on the farmers’ or farmers’ initiatives point of view. Based on this, the task is to narrow down the wide range of existing arguments related to ethical values in organic food production. Therefore, the arguments were categorised in a pragmatic way, taking into consideration the likely beneficiaries of these ethical activities and the expert rating of research partners. The final selection included the three major categories of economic, social and environmental concerns and, additionally, animal welfare as well as cultural issues. Finally, 14 ethical arguments belonging to the following sub-dimensions were chosen: biodiversity, animal welfare, regional production, fairness in relation to the farmer, care farming, social aspects of production, and the preservation of cultural features. The aim of this work package was to confront consumers with these ethical concerns and to identify the most promising communication attributes for further analyses within the next work packages. It was to be determined which ethical information is most interesting for consumers in the partner countries with respect to the purchase decision on organic food. Chapter 2 concentrates on the theoretical perspective of information search within consumer behaviour. Factors influencing extensiveness and content of information search are presented. Chapter 3 is dedicated to the description of the methodological approach of the research within this research step. For the analyses within this research, it was decided to use the Information Display Matrix (IDM). The IDM is a process tracing method aiming at monitoring the cognitive processes underlying information search, judgement and choice. The IDM was used to analyse the depth of information search regarding ethical values of organic food and to identify those ethical attributes most relevant for decision making. The two-dimensional matrix lists alternative product stimuli in columns, while product attributes are listed in rows. Each cell contains concealed information about a product-related attribute, which has to be accessed one after another by the subject in order to obtain the information (Jacoby et al. 1987, Mühlbacher and Kirchler 2003). The ethical attributes were tested with the product organic milk. The IDM was accompanied by a questionnaire aiming at the validation of the results obtained by the IDM, at an explanation of the information acquisition behaviour and at giving answers on the ‘real life’ information behaviour concerning organic food. 240 organic milk buyers were interviewed face-to-face, in a computer assisted manner in the five study countries. Subject of chapter 4 is the description of the sample regarding socio-demographic indicators of participants and ‘real life’ information and purchasing behaviour. Concerning the sources of information on organic food, the results show that ‘articles in newspapers etc.’ are preferred, followed by ‘conversation with family and friends’ and ‘product packaging’. ‘Information by sales personnel’ was frequently mentioned in Italy but rarely in Switzerland and in the UK. ‘Reports on radio or TV’ seem to be less important in Italy than in all other countries. When asked for the kind of information they had actively been looking for within the last two months, ‘product origin’ was mentioned most often, followed by information on ‘ingredients’. In Switzerland and Germany, on the other hand, information on ‘organic certification’ and ‘production and processing methods’ was ranked higher than information on ‘ingredients’. In Italy, information on ‘product quality’ was more frequently asked for than on ‘ingredients’ whereas in the UK, information on ‘food miles’ is more important. Information on ‘prices’ seems to be much more important in Austria than in all the other countries. Chapter 5 concentrates on the depth and content of information search for ethical values of organic food obtained by means of the IDM. On average, respondents spent 4:28 minutes for information search and opened 34 information fields within the IDM. There are marked differences between the countries. Besides socio-demographic factors like age and the level of education, attitudes regarding organic food consumption could be identified to have an impact on the amount of information looked for preceding the product choice. The importance of different attributes for the choice of the organic product was analysed via the share that each attribute has in all firstly accessed attributes and via the frequency of accession of each attribute. According to these indicators, the most important attributes are ‘animal welfare’, ‘regional production’ and ‘fair prices for farmers‘. These attributes were followed by ‘product price’, indicating that consumers tend to prefer cheaper products over ethical products with attributes like ‘care farming’, ‘social criteria of production’, ‘protection of biodiversity’ and ‘cultural aspects’. There are only minor differences between the countries in the order of the most important attributes. Only in Italy ‘product price’ seems to be more important than ‘fair prices’ and ‘animal welfare’. Factors impacting on the preferred ethical concern are age, gender, level of education and motives for organic consumption. Expected relationships between attitudes towards organic consumption and the preferred ethical concern proved to be weak. The choice decision shows that the cheaper organic product without any additional ethical values was preferred by 6% of the respondents only. While in Germany 3% decided in favour of the cheaper product, 9% of the Austrian respondents chose the cheaper one. This result allows the conclusion that a large share of consumers of organic food would be willing to pay a price premium for ethical products. The report is completed by some concluding remarks (Chapter 6) pointing at the appropriateness of the IDM for the task fulfilled but also its methodological limitations. The central result of the analyses of work package 3 for the whole project is the identification of the most important ethical values from the consumers’ point of view. However, there are still some open research questions, particularly as for the joint effect of different variables on the respondents’ information behaviour. The corresponding analyses will take place during the next months and will be published in scientific journals

OrganicPlus values and their relevance to consumers: First results from the CORE FCP project

The CORE funded project Farmer Consumer Partnerships (FCP) aims to develop innovative generic communication arguments that can strengthen the link between producers and consumers in the European organic sector. The aim of this conference presentation was to present some first results of the project. Ethical concerns and values important to various stakeholders of organic food and farming were contrasted with the new European Regulation (EC) 834/2007 to identify organicPlus values that go beyond minimal organic requirements. An increasing number of individual companies and some certification bodies have introduced activities concerning ethical attributes of organic production, but no comprehensive and accessible framework that provides practical support and tools for the verification and communication of organicPlus arguments could be identified. Subsequently, seven different organic plus attributes and the product price were tested with about 1200 consumers in the project partner countries (AT, DE, CH, IT, UK) in May to July 2008 by means of an Information-Display-Matrix (IDM). The results show that a considerable proportion of consumers appears willing to pay a premium for organic products with ethical attributes. Communication should focus on attributes that are most important to consumers, such as ‘animal welfare’, ‘regional production’ and ‘fair prices to farmers’. Further research in the project will investigate how these attributes can be communicated and will explore the consumers’ willingness to pay