This thesis analyses the subjective importance, attitudinal influences and cognitive representation of marketing health and nutrition claims. Examining the importance of claims to choices of members of the public revealed that claims were accorded the highest subjective importance, despite low visual attention. This finding was replicated with students and staff of a Food Science department, an indication that relatively higher knowledge does not alter their perceived importance. The attitudinal influence of claim information was measured by ratings on attributes, previously generated specifically for the study, for packages shown with and without claims on computer. Packages with-claims were perceived as significantly more informative, easier to purchase and influenced participants to believe that others, whose opinion is important to them, would think that they should buy them. Data reduction of the attribute scores produced three factors; enjoyment, nutrition and surface appearance. Enjoyment was twice as important to participants' attitude to purchase than nutrition. With French participants, the results showed that the claims only influenced the perception of flavour, which was thought to be worse in the with-claims condition. There was no replication of the finding that others would be significantly more likely to think they should buy the products that displayed claims. Both population samples thought the provision of information on food labels to be highly important. The cognitive representation of claims was explored using recognition and recollection tests. The first experiments revealed that British consumers have an expectation that claims will be worded in implication form to avoid legal infringements. Food and vocabulary related knowledge differences did not alter this finding. Testing long term memory showed an increased effect with British participants, but no effect with the French owing to their lack of experience of such claims. Finally, no distinction between the meaning of the implied and asserted forms of the claims were shown in a test conducted using only British participants.

No description available.

No description available.

This thesis employs participatory research in community urban food projects to understand not only what these projects can contribute towards environmental justice but also how the issues they raise influence the way that environmental justice is conceptualised. Following protests in 1970s USA, environmental justice has developed into a protest movement and an area of policy and research that appears to be reconceptualising sustainable development discourses around notions of social justice. In particular, concern has been raised about the inequitable distribution of exposure to environmental pollution and access to environmental resources, exclusion from democratic decision making, and lack of recognition of particular understandings of an experiences of the environment, not only in planning but in the environmental movement itself. Where food has been discussed, it has been almost exclusively in terms of food accessibility, yet the intimate relationship between food, health and the environment and social impacts of the food sector globally, means that it is an important theme in understanding environmental justice. The two main case studies are understood through four conceptual lenses: involvement, access, protection and recognition. Interviews with supplementary cases and representatives of the policy community in Greater Manchester put the case studies into context. The discussion that follows addresses crosscutting themes including the dilemma of relying on volunteers, the importance of recognising cultural differences, and the tensions between pursuing democratic involvement at the same time as adopting health promotion and sustainable development as normative frameworks. In doing so, the food sector is found to pose particular challenges to the development and operationalisation of the environmental just concept. The thesis therefore not only raises important issues and tensions in environmental justice, but also shows how urban food projects can contribute to addressing these.

published_or_final_version / Zoology / Master / Master of Philosophy

The 2014 Agricultural Act (Economic Research Division) (aka: The Farm Bill) was an important limelight shone on the issue of access to healthy foods, food education and the correlation between an increasingly unhealthy population and proximity to fresh, healthy food. Further legislation such as the Urban Agricultural Production Act of 2017 has been introduced to leverage the Farm Bill's financial incentives to promote urban agricultural programs and transform vacant land into agricultural use. Specifically, this has become increasingly common in many lower income and disadvantaged communities affected by a lack of access to fresh food stores. Additionally, in response many public schools have pro-actively sought funds to transform their schoolyards into gardens and teaching classrooms (Gamson) in order to provide food literacy and education however, this practice remains the exception. Many children still face a lack of healthy food options or the availability of any fresh food outside of their school environment. What if the standard education facility could be used as a tool to confront not only the architecture of the learning space, but a school-as-ecosystem, representing a neighborhood catalyst to teach through action – addressing comprehensive global issues brought on by food desert environments and a child's perspective about their own health? This thesis explores the possibility of casting the urban ecological net wide- envisioning a timescale for transforming public spaces and school grounds using green infrastructure practices, biological remediation, planning for changes in transportation technology and the expectations of a public education and child's perception about their environment. Emphasizing a broad focus on all of the potential sites for food production in the city (including the school, schoolyard and what they represent to the community), surfaces a multi-functioning methodology encompassing community identity, amenity, ecology, infrastructure and beauty envisions what could become of urban areas in the future. The primary goal is to educate future generations in the value of the food network and to give them the kind of direct hands-on experience that educators emphasize while concurrently nourishing urban communities through development of a project carried out in common, one that has health benefits for the population, that engenders a sense of long-term pride, and that empowers people to make change in their environment, even in modest or temporary ways. The idea that school design can encourage and facilitate, hinder and inhibit behaviors at school, and the architectural symbolism of schools can have a profoundly wider impact on children and their behaviors in and outside of school (Tucker). There is a significant psychological difference in learning about the environment, for the environment and in the environment (Malone). Creating public space focused on individual learning and the physical and mental health of the individual aims to balance the scales of social economic injustices. It is going to take every effort from the hyper-localized to city-wide and even regional scales to make significant urban changes to create a taxonomy of spaces to support the growth of our cities while simultaneously educating young minds on the value of understanding our ecological relationship to the city and surrounding environment. / Master of Science / The 2014 Agricultural Act (Economic Research Division) (aka: The Farm Bill) was an important limelight shone on the issue of access to healthy foods, food education and the correlation between an increasingly unhealthy population and proximity to fresh, healthy food. Further legislation such as the Urban Agricultural Production Act of 2017 has been introduced to leverage the Farm Bill’s financial incentives to promote urban agricultural programs and transform vacant land into agricultural use. Specifically, this has become increasingly common in many lower income and disadvantaged communities affected by a lack of access to fresh food stores. Additionally, in response many public schools have pro-actively sought funds to transform their schoolyards into gardens and teaching classrooms (Gamson) in order to provide food literacy and education however, this practice remains the exception. Many children still face a lack of healthy food options or the availability of any fresh food outside of their school environment. What if the standard education facility could be used as a tool to confront not only the architecture of the learning space, but a school-as-ecosystem, representing a neighborhood catalyst to teach through action – addressing comprehensive global issues brought on by food desert environments and a child’s perspective about their own health? This thesis explores the possibility of casting the urban ecological net wide- envisioning a timescale for transforming public spaces and school grounds using green infrastructure practices, biological remediation, planning for changes in transportation technology and the expectations of a public education and child’s perception about their environment. Emphasizing a broad focus on all of the potential sites for food production in the city (including the school, schoolyard and what they represent to the community), surfaces a multi-functioning methodology encompassing community identity, amenity, ecology, infrastructure and beauty envisions what could become of urban areas in the future. The primary goal is to educate future generations in the value of the food network and to give them the kind of direct hands-on experience that educators emphasize while concurrently nourishing urban communities through development of a project carried out in common, one that has health benefits for the population, that engenders a sense of long-term pride, and that empowers people to make change in their environment, even in modest or temporary ways. The idea that school design can encourage and facilitate, hinder and inhibit behaviors at school, and the architectural symbolism of schools can have a profoundly wider impact on children and their behaviors in and outside of school (Tucker). There is a significant psychological difference in learning about the environment, for the environment and in the environment (Malone). Creating public space focused on individual learning and the physical and mental health of the individual aims to balance the scales of social economic injustices. It is going to take every effort from the hyper-localized to city-wide and even regional scales to make significant urban changes to create a taxonomy of spaces to support the growth of our cities while simultaneously educating young minds on the value of understanding our ecological relationship to the city and surrounding environment.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 245-252).

Consumers have increasing choice in food products and within the social environment of today's consumer, the factors of demand are increasingly complex. Food is no longer simply a primary necessity for survival, it is a leisure and family activity, the participation in which, takes up a considerable amount of time. Today, food is a social and a political issue - something about which people have opinions, be it food quality, healthiness, or the food supply itself. It is also central to consumer's self-image. There is a large sector of the economy which supplies food demand, and this sector is itself now under considerable scrutiny from the consumer. This thesis examines consumer behaviour and attitudes towards food, with particular reference to the health aspects of food issues. It describes a programme of qualitative and quantitative research - group discussions, personal interviews and postal questionnaires. The programme examines milk (particularly low fat milk) as a diet and health case study; knowledge about food; attitudes towards food; the food industry and related issues; shopping behaviour and eating habits. It is important to both the consumer and the supplier of food, that consumer behaviour and attitudes are understood as fully as possible. This research highlights the misunderstandings between consumer and producer, emphasises the mistrust of the consumer for the producer and concludes with the need for communication between them. The thesis discusses the background to diet and health as an issue, describes the development of the current consumer environment and gives a profile of today's consumer. It then goes on to detail the research - two quantitative surveys, each undertaken over two years and a series of group discussions. The final section summarises the findings of each individual piece of the programme as a whole for various groups: food Oroducers; food manufacturers; food retailers; advertisers; the media; health professionals; the consumer; consumer organisations and government.

Intensive methods for the mass production of Oreochromis niloticus (Chitralada strain) seed using concrete tanks, hapas within earthen ponds and earthen ponds were investigated. On the basis of these trials, the productivity and economic performance of various production strategies for hormonally sex-reversed Oreochromis fry (MT fry) were then compared and modelled for adoption in Central and Northeast Thailand. Regular disturbance and harvesting of seed after a short period of spawning opportunity (5-10 days) was found to increase seed production in concrete spawning tanks. Exchange of female broodfish increased synchrony of breeding. A change in conditioning and spawning environment had no effect on seed yield from spawning tanks and hapas (area =12.57 m2and 40m2 respectively). Seed wet weight, seed clutch size and weight was greater in female fish spawned in tanks than hapas. Females conditioned in hapas however produced heavier seed clutches of larger absolute and relative size than tank conditioned fish. Records of tagged females indicated considerable differences in the frequency of spawning; in hapas the distribution was normal wheras in tanks it was skewed. The evidence suggests that hierarchy is important in the control of reproduction and exerts it's strongest effect in clear water, densely stocked tanks. Selective female broodfish exchange optimised seed yield per unit weight of broodfish and seed production was not improved by conditioning females for periods longer than 10 days. Male broodfish exchange did not significantly improve (P > 0.05) seed yields. Early nutrition of broodfish raised under different supplemental feeding regimes in fertilised earthen ponds had a significant effect on later spawning frequency in concrete tanks. However, this effect was confined to broodfish maintained at densities lower or higher than optimal for seed production. Broodfish stocked over a range of densities for extended periods (201 days) showed greater variability of seed production in hapa than tank production systems. This was mainly due to periods of poor water quality in hapas; when water quality was high seed production was significantly higher in hapas than tanks over a range of broodfish densities. The optimal density of broodfish for seed production was exceeded in tanks but not hapas. The relationship between seed production and broodfish density over time suggested that both stocking biomass and number have an effect on fry output. Density of broodfish showed an inverse relationship to clutch size in both tanks and hapas and synchrony of spawning in tanks. Production of swim-up fry in large earthen ponds (area=1740m2) was not significantly different (P>0.05) at 2 levels of harvest intensity. The use of small broodfish however produced double the yield of hormone treatable fry than a similar biomass of larger broodfish of the same cohort. A commercial scale incubation system was devised and evaluated in order to allow tank and hapa systems harvesting unhatched seed to be compared with the production of swim-up fry obtained from earthen ponds. Seed removed from mouthbrooding females was roughly staged and incubated in batches of similar development to give information on survival to swim-up fry. A simple incubation system was designed with a capacity for hatching >100,000 eggs/set. A mean survival of 75% of all harvested seed to swim-up fry was obtained over several trials. A trend to intensification (fry/mVday) from ponds to hapas to tanks was evident when yields of swim-up fry are compared. Productivity exceeded any in the published literature for comparable systems, largely because of the intensity of broodstock management and early and efficient harvest of seed. Broodfish productivities (fry/kg female/month) were also higher across the range of systems tested often by a factor of 1.5-3. The best strategies were selected over a range of total investment cost using dominance analysis. Economic analysis suggested that for a start-up operation in Central Thailand fry production in earthen ponds can give the best return on levels of investment of less than Baht 0.8 million. Substitution of techniques into current carp fry production operations in Northeast Thailand indicated that more intensive methods (production in tanks and hapas) are more attractive over a range of investment levels. The break-even price of MT fry after hormone treatment in nylon hapas was approximately half the cost of treatment in a recirculated water concrete tank system. The break-even price in Central Thailand was lower than the Northeast by a factor of around 1.5 but the break-even price for both areas was lower than the current price of untreated Oreochromis fry.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.