Thesis (Ph.D.)--Tufts University, 2006. / Submitted to the School of Nutrition Science and Policy. Adviser: William Lockeretz. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 212-232). Access restricted to members of the Tufts University community. Also available via the World Wide Web;

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2008. / Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 293-308).

abstract / Japanese Studies / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This dissertation, Fresh from the Factory: Breakfast Cereal, Natural Food, and the Marketing of Reform, 1890–1920, challenges dominant depictions of industry and environmental activism as adversarial by investigating producers who sought to reform capitalism with a new consumer good. Cereal companies at the end of the nineteenth century became some of the first manufacturers to distribute ready-to-eat food to consumers nationwide. Breakfast cereal’s ubiquitous advertising spoke of the virtues of “natural food” made in some of the country’s most impressive factories. Aimed squarely at women, this advertising preached the virtues of machine-made “natural food” by associating it with nutritional science, religious imagery, and stereotypes about the closeness-to-nature of women and racialized people. Selling a vision in which people could “return to nature” without going anywhere, industrialists persuaded consumers to pursue communion with nature by buying and eating packaged breakfast food. Breakfast cereal manufacturers became some of the world’s largest food processors— and among its most widely-read nature writers, health authorities, and social reformers. Fresh from the Factory follows the production and promotion of cereal as it developed in the early twentieth century. The first chapter tracks the cereal industry’s emergence out of a natural food movement that warmed to mass commerce over the nineteenth century. This movement’s spokespeople claimed to alone know what God, interchangeable with Nature, wanted people to eat. God’s authority proved useful for breakfast cereal producers, too, in branding their goods as “natural.” Subsequent chapters follow breakfast cereal from nature to table. To sell natural food, cereal companies spread new definitions of nature. These depictions rarely included plants or farms, instead emphasizing factories as the source of breakfast food and distribution in packages as the key to its freshness; in company nature writing, it was electric power, machinery, and pasteboard boxes that best mimicked the Garden of Eden. As cereal reached the table, consumers, regulators, and writers embraced, criticized, or even litigated against the product. Men often satirized the expensive grains in garish boxes, but many women found in cereal a more promising cure for sick children and arduous housework than the country retreats then favored by literary nature writers. By the early 1900s, breakfast cereal had become an American staple food, altering the country’s relationship to nature, cities, and the consumer economy. The dissertation ends in the 1920s. By this point, the federal government did more to protect national health, more people bought prepared packaged foods, and vitamins and calories had ascended over religion-infused ideas about nutrition. Still, the breakfast cereal industry’s ideas of nature persisted, and so the dissertation concludes by reflecting on continuing links between reform, business, and nature. I intend for scholars across fields to find this dissertation useful in considering how industry and the environment shape each other and the capacity of capitalism to reform itself.

The phenomenon of organic agriculture in the Mid North of South Australia is explored in seven case studies of local organic producers. The research issue asks how these organic producers organise to survive in a marketplace where they remain marginal players. The research is framed around Sonnino and Marsden's (2006) two-dimensional model of alternative agriculture, which structures the case study analysis at two levels: a horizontal dimension concerning farmer agency and grassroots innovations, and a vertical dimension focusing on farmer interaction with regulatory and governance frameworks in organic agriculture. To enrich understanding of farmer practices at the grassroots level, two additions are made to the horizontal dimension: the role that beliefs play in determining agency and innovation in motivating farmers to 'go organic' and 'stay organic' and how alternative beliefs, particularly about nature and localism, influence the construction by organic farmers of 'new platforms of action' (Sonnino and Marsden 2006), essential for survival in the marketplace. / PhD Doctorate

M.A. (Anthropology) / The global organic food industry has experienced incredibly high growth rates over the past twenty years. In many parts of the world the formal retail of organic food sourced consumers from an already established informal trade. The formalisation of organic food thus necessitated engagement with and monetisation of the ‘organic ethos’ inherent in the informal trade, and played an important part in the popularisation of ethical consumption. This has stimulated many larger discussions about the relationship of humankind, and industry, with the natural world, and has contributed to debates surrounding how to study the forces directing the evolution of agro-food economies. This study contributes to these debates by framing them within the South African context. Through a twenty three month mixed methods study rooted in participant observation and guided by the tenets of constructivist grounded theory, this investigation of the formal organic food industry aims to achieve both theoretical and practical goals. On a practical level, it suggests reasons for the unique growth and composition of the industry witnessed in South Africa, while contributing to global debates surrounding the meaning of organic. On a theoretical level, it suggests that Dixon’s conception of the Cultural Economic Model may overcome some of the analytical divides witnessed in agro-food theory, ultimately contributing to a more balanced, humanised account of the forces directing the shape and shift of food economies.

by Cheung Chi-kong, Chu Hok-keung, Ting Wai-tong. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1990. / Bibliography: leaf 83. / Chapter I. --- BACKGROUND --- p.1 / Introduction --- p.1 / The Origin of Chinese Medicine --- p.2 / A Definition of Chinese Medicine --- p.5 / A Survey --- p.6 / Chapter II. --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.7 / Chapter III. --- METHODOLOGY --- p.14 / Data Sources --- p.14 / Sample Design --- p.15 / Data Processing --- p.16 / Chapter IV. --- FINDINGS FROM THE STUDY --- p.17 / Chinese Herbal Drugs --- p.17 / Chinese Health Foods --- p.23 / Further Analysis --- p.29 / Chapter V. --- SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS --- p.37 / Summary --- p.37 / Chinese Herbal Drugs : Recommendations --- p.39 / Chinese Health Foods : Recommendations --- p.52 / APPENDIX --- p.65 / Profiles of Respondents --- p.65 / Questionnaire (English/Chinese Version) --- p.68 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.83

In this thesis, the optimal location for a large format, organic food retail store is determined using the Huff Model in Montreal, Canada. The Huff Model has been widely used in marketing analysis to determine the optimal location in a variety of contexts. First, the study used Statistics Canada 2001 food expenditure data for Montreal to generate a double log linear food expenditure model for Montreal consumers. Variance Inflation Factors were calculated to test if there were multicollinearity problems, and a Breusch-Pagen test was done to test for heteroskedasticity. Neither of the results showed any statistical problems. Second, AC Nielson survey results were used to facilitate the organic food expenditure calculation process. Third, the travel distance from all census tracts in Montreal to the candidate store locations were calculated using the Manhattan distance calculator (McLafferty and Grady, 2005). Finally, the Huff Model was used to calculate an attractiveness index for each candidate location. The conclusion from the results of the empirical analysis was that, among the 45 candidate locations, which are scattered all across Montreal, 5445 de Gaspe gained the highest attractiveness index. This location is situated close to relatively affluent and highly populated areas of the city, and is also very accessible. Not only is this just a few blocks from two metro stations, and close to city bus routes, it is also adjacent to several major streets such as Saint-Laurent to the west, Saint-Denis to the east, Rosemont to the north and Saint-Joseph to the south. This thesis has provided a new application of the Huff model, which could be used in various markets, and has provided an interesting combination of models from the field of Economic Geography, and Agricultural Economics.

Thesis (M.Inst.Agrar.(Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Abstract in English. Includes bibliographical references.

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