Exploring the Feasibility of Farmers' Rights

In many developing countries, there is concern that a conventional system of plant breeders' rights provides no rewards to farmers for their role in the conservation and enhancement of agro‐biodiversity. To redress this imbalance, developing countries are incorporating farmers' rights provisions in their plant variety protection legislation. This article examines the feasibility of farmers' rights provisions based on intellectual property rights. It argues that the farmers' rights provisions crafted by some developing countries will involve enormous operational difficulties, while IPR‐based farmers' rights are unlikely to provide significant economic returns to farmers or farming communities. At the same time, farmers' rights provisions, as currently conceived, are likely significantly to dilute the incentives for innovation provided to institutional plant breeders.     

A Comparative Analysis of the Use of Microfinance and Formal and Informal Credit by Farmers in Less Developed Areas of Rural China

Based on household survey data, this article shows that farmers' demand for credit in poor areas of rural China has increased significantly in recent years, and credits from various sources are used differently in production and consumption. For example, microfinance is used primarily in livestock and non‐agricultural investments, formal credit is often used in crop production, and informal credit is largely used to meet farmers' consumption requirements. Developing a complementary system with various financial channels in rural China, particularly for non‐governmental microfinance, is crucial for meeting farmers' rising demand for credit in both production and consumption.     

Squaring Farm Security and Food Security in Two Types of Alternative Food Institutions*

Abstract Even though both farmers' markets and community supported agriculture were first developed to provide markets for farmers, recently the goals of food security have been attached to these market‐based alternative food institutions, based on their potential to be 'win‐win” economic solutions for both small‐scale farmers and low‐income consumers. This article reports on survey and interview research conducted in California during 2004–2005 designed to examine to what extent CSAs and farmers' markets are addressing food security in both concept and practice. Findings show that managers of these institutions generally support the idea of improving the affordability of the food they provide, and most have made an effort to do so, although these efforts vary with institutional capacity. Still, some hedged their interest in supporting food security goals with countervailing concerns such as the need to support farmers first. It is ironic, then, that the way that private CSAs and farmers' markets achieve some elements of food security is by virtue of the support of public food assistance programs.     

‘My Grandfather Would Roll Over in His Grave’: Family Farming and Tree Plantations on Farmland*

Abstract In this paper we hypothesize that farmers with a stronger valuation of family farming will be more resistant to converting farmland to tree plantations. Our survey data analysis from 106 farmers in northern Alberta reveals that general opposition to trees on farmland is the strongest predictor of farmers' resistance to the establishment of poplar tree plantations on privately‐owned land. Valuation of family farming is the strongest determinant of resistance to trees on farmland. Among the potential intervening variables influencing support for tree plantations, including county, age, gender, number of children, and percent of income from farming, number of children and percent of income from farming had significant direct effects on valuation of family farming. This study suggests that economic incentives alone are unlikely to influence farmers' willingness to convert their land to non‐traditional uses, and that intergenerational transfer of land, and its relationship to valuation of family farming, deserves further attention in rural sociological scholarship.     

Linking Local Food Systems and the Social Economy? Future Roles for Farmers' Markets in Alberta and British Columbia*

Often organized as grassroots, nonprofit organizations, many farmers' markets serve as strategic venues linking producers and consumers of local food while fulfilling multiple social, economic, and environmental objectives. This article examines the potential of farmers' markets to play a catalyst role in linking local food systems to the social economy in western Canada. We used the Delphi method of inquiry to solicit and synthesize perspectives on the future role of farmers' markets within local food systems and the social economy from farmers' market vendors, market managers, and policy and government representatives in each province. We found that negotiations over the definition of local food systems, the dynamics of supply and demand relationships, and perceptions of “authenticity” affect the positionality of farmers' markets in relation to other marketing channels within regional food systems. Stakeholders engaged in this Delphi inquiry strategized ways to scale up local food systems beyond current limits while also maintaining the “authentic experience” offered by farmers' markets that has helped to fuel increased consumer interest, demand, and growth. Results confirm the need for further investigation of the relationship between the social economy, infrastructure, and authenticity in the development of local food systems.     

Infants' Listening Preferences: Baby Talk or Happy Talk?

The most robust finding on infants' listening preferences has been widely characterized as a preference for baby talk (BT) over adult‐directed speech (ADS). Although prosodic modifications characteristic of BT also convey positive affect, differences in affect across BT and ADS speech registers have not been controlled in previous studies. This set of experiments sought to elucidate the basis for 6‐month‐olds' listening preference by independently manipulating affect and speech register. When affect was held constant, no preference for any speech register was observed. Moreover, when ADS stimuli presented more positive affect than BT stimuli, infants' preferences followed the positive affect. Higher and more variable pitch was neither necessary nor sufficient for determining infants' preferences, although pitch characteristics may modulate affect‐based preferences. The BT preference is thus attributable to a more general preference for speech that imparts relatively positive affect, a preference perhaps ascribable to a preexisting general‐purpose mechanism opportunistically exploited by language.     

Time,Money and the Gender Order: Work Orientations and Working‐Time Preferences in Britain

In the context of economic restructuring and the reorganization of working time, the question of working‐time preferences is emerging as an important component of both academic and policy debates. Much of the debate about preferences is based upon conjuncture or inadequate indicators, often drawing oppositional models of gender differences in preferences which neglect the similarities between the sexes. This article starts by developing a framework for interpreting preference formation and change, with particular emphasis on the societal institutional system and existing national working‐time regime in which individuals' behaviour and preferences are located. This framework is then applied to highlight the particular features of the national working‐time regime and associated ‘gender order’ in Britain, followed by an analysis of gender similarities and differences in work orientations and working‐time preferences in this country. The results show that work orientations and working‐time preferences are related to labour market circumstances for both sexes. Similarity between women and men in the influences of workplace variables coexists with a gender‐differentiated effect of household circumstances on the types of work schedules preferred; childcare and domestic responsibilities figure more largely in women's accounts of their preferences than in men's. For both, however, the most popular reform would be increased time sovereignty in the organization of their work schedules.     

Social Learning and Innovation at Retail Farmers' Markets*

Abstract Retail farmers' markets are seen as key institutions in a more “civic agriculture,” but little is known about how they promote small business entrepreneurship. Drawing on research in economic sociology and economic geography, this paper examines the role of social learning in vendor innovation. Data from a 1999 mail survey of farmers' market vendors in California, New York and Iowa show that business innovation, as represented by intensity of vendors' innovative marketing practices and vendors' successful enterprise expansion, was modest. Social learning through engagement with customers contributed to more innovative marketing by vendors, while social learning through engagement with customers and fellow vendors increased the likelihood of vendors diversifying to additional markets beyond the farmers' market. Certain individual and enterprise characteristics also influenced vendor innovation. This suggests that, although important, the beneficial effects of social learning for vendors at farmers' markets remain moderated by human capital and structural factors.     

Smallholder Preferences for Agri‐environmental Change at the Bhoj Wetland,India

Incentive‐based approaches have gained policy interest in linking change in agricultural land management with environmental conservation. This article investigates how scheme design influences smallholder farmers' decisions to switch to organic farming to reduce water pollution, drawing on a study at a Ramsar wetland site providing water for the city of Bhopal. Results from a choice experiment suggest that transitional payments are necessary to overcome farmer constraints to adopt organic farming, and that effective land certification has the potential to act as a self‐enforcing mechanism linking farmer incomes with wetland conservation benefits.     

Factors Influencing Farmers' Expectations to Sell Agricultural Land for Non‐Agricultural Uses*

Abstract In this study we identify factors that influence farmers' expectations to sell some or all of their farming operation in areas where the increase in the conversion of agricultural land has been relatively rapid. Findings indicate that the following factors increase farmers' propensity to sell some or all of the agricultural operation for non‐agricultural land use: perceived negative change (particularly difficulty in obtaining and retaining rental land and in purchasing land) increases the likelihood that farmers will expect the operation to become nonviable, which in turn increases the expectation to sell some or all agricultural land; lack of a child who will take over the operation; and declining profits from the operation. Factors that apparently exert little influence on the expectation to sell some or all of the farming operation include level of intrinsic rewards that a farmer experiences from his farming operation, the farmer's satisfaction with his community, and the farmer's closeness to retirement age.     

“A Grain of Salt in a Pepper Shaker”: Interviewing Whites,Blacks, and Latinos about Their Neighborhood Preferences

Several perspectives dominate as explanations for neighborhood preferences: pure race, racial proxy, race‐based neighborhood stereotyping, and race‐associated neighborhood factors. This analysis extends and supports the pure race and race‐associated neighborhood factors arguments by showing that these theories are applied differently depending on respondents' social class, race and ethnicity, and whether they are talking about white, black, or Latino neighborhoods. Race‐associated factors are emphasized for white and black neighborhoods, but pure race serves as a better theoretical framework for understanding people's preferences for Latino neighborhoods. I analyze qualitative interview data, using maps of real neighborhoods and hypothetical neighborhood show cards, to examine the neighborhood preferences of 65 white, black, and Latino residents in Ogden, Utah, and Buffalo, New York.     

ENERGY USE AND TEMPERATURE HABITUATION: EVIDENCE FROM HIGH FREQUENCY THERMOSTAT USAGE DATA

Using micro‐level thermostat data from 27,000 U.S. households, we analyze how home heating/cooling decisions respond to weather. Responses are greater for extreme heat than for extreme cold and persist for at least 30 days after exposure, due in part to transaction costs but also to changes in intrinsic preferences. Failure to understand habit can lead us to overestimate the impact of short‐term policy nudges but underestimate the long‐run impact of small changes. Higher frequency estimates of how behavior responds to weather improve our understanding of climate adaptation as climate change affects not only mean temperatures but also variances. (JEL C55, D03, Q4)     

Infants' Understanding of Preferences When Agents Make Inconsistent Choices

This study showed that 8.5‐month‐old infants seemed to consider the consistency of an agent's choices in attributing preferences to her. When the agent consistently chose one object over another, three or four times consecutively, infants acted as if they had interpreted her actions as evidence for her preference. In contrast, when the agent inconsistently chose between the two objects, at the ratio of 1:3, infants did not seem to interpret her actions as suggesting her preference. Converging evidence was obtained from infants' responses across a looking‐time task and an action task. The results are discussed in terms of how infants might use frequencies of agents' actions directed toward different objects to understand agents' preferences.     

Predicting a Partner's End‐of‐Life Preferences,or Substituting One's Own?

Numerous studies comparing patients' end‐of‐life health care treatment preferences with their surrogates' reports of those preferences indicate that partners do not know one another's treatment preferences: Random guesses are just as likely as surrogate choices to match the patients' preferences. The present study uses the empathic accuracy model and the assumed similarity model to shed further light on accuracy and bias in surrogate reports. The data come from the National Center for Family and Marriage Research/Knowledge Networks Pilot Study 2010, a national sample of 1,075 heterosexual American couples age 18 to 64. Surrogate reports were simultaneously biased (i.e., correlated with the surrogate's own preference) and accurate (i.e., correlated with the partner's actual preference). Higher relationship quality and legal marriage (vs. cohabitation) were associated with increased assumed similarity bias. These findings suggest that practitioners working in end‐of‐life care need to be familiar with their partnered patients' relationship dynamics.     

Factors Influencing the Integration of Alternative Farm Enterprises Into the Agro‐Food System*

Abstract Financial stress and general crisis in European agriculture recently have generated a widespread interest in alternative paths of farm business development and structural adjustment. One of the options suggested by policy makers and adopted by farmers was the development of alternative farm enterprises (AFEs), in which farmers recombine resources on the farm and produce a new mix of products and services in order to supplement their incomes. In the present paper we examine the factors influencing the development of AFEs. According to empirical evidence from Etolia‐Akarnania, a prefecture in western Greece that merits “less favored area” status, AFE adoption is influenced by the amount of family labor, the ratio of hired to family labor, the presence of tobacco as a main enterprise, the proximity of the farm to grade A roads, and the farmers' age. Education, management experience demonstrated by the farm manager, physical size of the farm, enterprise specialization, the use of grants, and farm location are the main factors responsible for the farmers' integration into the agro‐food system.     

Farmers' Professional Dialogue Networks and Dynamics of Change: The Case of ICP and No‐Tillage Adoption in Burgundy (France)

In the research reported here, we studied three cereal‐growing areas in the French region of Burgundy, concentrating on the dynamics of change with regard to farmers' use of pesticides and new soil management practices on the one hand and on farmers' professional dialogue networks on the other. Our aim in this article is to show the link between the network types and the dynamics of change in their members' behavior. Three types of coalitional networks appeared. In the “mainly bonding” network, the roles of innovator and early adopter were the most highly shared among farmers. In the “mainly bridging” network, these roles were occupied by a single person holding a central position within the network. In the “bonding and bridging” structure, the roles of innovator and early adopter were held by different individuals. We further observed that the farmers developing integrated crop protection techniques occupied different positions from those implementing complete no‐tillage, which is not promoted by technical advisory services. A rivalry thus appears to emerge between these two orientations in which the farmers are engaged within the network.     

Employment Conditions in the Senegalese Horticultural Export Industry: A Worker Perspective

The rapid transformation of the agri‐food sector in developing countries has created rural off‐farm employment opportunities, especially for women. There is growing concern about worker welfare and employment conditions in agri‐food and export sectors, but empirical evidence on this issue is scant. We analyse contractual preferences of female workers in the horticultural export sector in Senegal. We use a discrete choice experiment to assess women's preferences for a labour contract and employ a latent class model to capture preference heterogeneity. We find that women have a high willingness to accept a labour contract in the horticultural export industry, and that differences in preferences for contract attributes can be explained by women's empowerment status.     

Age‐Specific Preferences for Infant‐Directed Affective Intent

This study examined the developmental course of infants' attentional preferences for 3 types of infant‐directed affective intent, which have been shown to be commonly used at particular ages in the first year of life. Specifically, Kitamura and Burnham (2003) found mothers' tone of voice in infant‐directed speech is most comforting between birth and 3 months, most approving at 6 months, and most directive at 9 months. Thus, the aim of this study was to assess whether there is a relation between the type of affective intent used by mothers at each age point, and infants' affective intent preferences. Each infant group, 3‐, 6‐, and 9‐month‐olds, was played the 3 types of affective intent alternating across a single test session. When analyzed across age, the interactions revealed the predicted developmental trajectory; that is, infant preferences transformed between 3 and 6 months from comforting to approving, and between 6 and 9 months, from approving to directive. However, when analyzed separately by age, it was shown that 3‐month‐olds preferred comforting to other types; 6‐month‐olds preferred approving to directive, but listened equally to approving and comforting; and 9‐month‐olds showed no preference for any type of affective intent. Because it was possible that 9‐month‐olds were more focused on phonetic and phonotactic information, a new group of 9‐month‐olds was tested with intonation‐only versions of the 3 affective intent types. Under these conditions, they were found to prefer directive to comforting, but not directive to approving types. The results of this study have implications for what infants pay attention to in their social and linguistic environment over the course of the first year.     

Becoming a New Farmer: Agrarianism and the Contradictions of Diverse Economies*

A resurgence of agrarianism has motivated new farmers to enter farming, not for profit, but for lifestyle and socio‐ecological values which are frequently associated with diverse economies. Proponents of diverse economies argue for an ontological reframing that accounts for non‐capitalist forms of economic exchange. However, these perspectives have not fully addressed the conditions—often structured by race and class—that facilitate participation in diverse economies. This paper is based on mixed‐methods research on the life cycle of new farmers in Hawai‘i that include participants of farmer training programs. We investigate what drives new farmers into farming, by what mechanisms they are able (or not) to establish a farm, and what limits the duration of their participation. Our analysis reveals three contradictions of diverse economies in agriculture: (1) the inadvertent undervaluation of farmwork that undermines broader efforts to improve the welfare of farm labor; (2) the tension between the value of scaling up and the vulnerability of cooptation; and (3) the ways in which the duration of new farmers' engagement is structured by their ability to mobilize unpaid labor and external resources. These contradictions challenge long‐term and inclusive participation in diverse economies in ways that constrain their emancipatory potential.     

Maternal Depressive Symptoms and 6‐Month‐Old Infants' Sensitivity to Facial Expressions

We examined 6‐month‐old infants' abilities to discriminate smiling and frowning from neutral stimuli. In addition, we assessed the relationship between infants' preferences for varying intensities of smiling and frowning facial expressions and their mothers' history of depressive symptoms. Forty‐six infants were presented pairs of facial expressions, and their preferential looking time was recorded. They also participated in a 3‐min interaction with their mothers for which duration of both mother and infant gazing and smiling were coded. Analyses revealed that the infants reliably discriminated between varying intensities of smiling and frowning facial expressions and a paired neutral expression. In addition, infants' preferences for smiling and frowning expressions were related to self‐reports of maternal depressive symptoms experienced since the birth of the infant. Potential implications for social cognitive development are discussed.