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This research employs a multi-disciplinary approach by developing a model that draws upon psychometric, cultural, and reflexive modernization perspectives of risk perception. Using data from a 1999 national telephone survey, we tested our model on three food riskspesticides, Salmonella, and fat. Results showed that perceptions of risks do vary by the nature of the risk investigated. Consistent with the psychometric perspective, the level of knowledge and control varied by risk, but these differences did not correspond with levels of concern. Worldview variables were correlated with perceptions of pesticides, indicating the relevance of cultural approaches. High levels of concern associated with each food risk, and the robustness of the relationship between trust and the perception of food risks, raise the possibility that trust acts as a coping mechanism, which is consistent with the reflexive modernization approach. Knowledge and trust were significantly related to all three risks.

Purpose -The goals of this study were to study consumer perceptions of food safety at restaurants and to compare these results to those of other food system actors. Design/methodology/approach -The data for this study were gathered from telephone interviews conducted with 1,014 randomly selected US adults. Findings -The main findings were that a substantial number of consumers think about food safety in general and particularly when eating at restaurant establishments; and while a majority of consumers stated that restaurants were doing a good job, were capable, and were committed to food safety, in comparison to other actors, restaurants ranked significantly lower than farmers, food processors and manufacturers, and grocery stores and supermarkets.Research limitations/implications -A limitation of this study was that distinctions were not made between fast food and sit-down restaurants or other types of restaurants, e.g. chains, independent, and ethnic. These results highlight the need for more comprehensive studies on how food safety issues affect consumer perceptions of restaurants and how these perceptions affect consumer behavior. Practical implications -The findings reinforce the importance of food safety behaviors at restaurants, particularly in the areas of personal hygiene and workplace sanitation, food handling, and food preparation. Originality/value -This paper helps restaurant managers to better understand consumer perceptions of food safety and highlights the importance of instituting and monitoring food safety practices.

Compared to their European counterparts, the American public has been characterized as relatively unknowledgeable and indifferent about genetically modified foods. To evaluate these claims, six focus groups were held in three Arkansas cities to: (1) determine the extent of knowledge the public possesses about genetically modified foods; (2) detail perceived benefits and risks associated with agricultural biotechnology applications; and (3) explore lay perceptions about the genetic modification process itself. Participants demonstrated partial knowledge, and tended to overestimate the number of genetically modified foods. However, participants tended to be familiar with debates surrounding benefits, risks and moral issues associated with agricultural biotechnology applications. Findings also showed that while participants were not overly concerned about combining genes between plants, they were concerned about inserting animal genes into plants. If these results are any indication, moral and ethical issues will dominate any discussion of foods derived from a mixture of animal and plant genes.

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With increasing levels of climbing difficulty, there is a rise in both heart rate and [V02]. However, there is a disproportional rise in heart rate compared with [V02], which we attribute to the fact that climbing requires the use of intermittent isometric contractions of the arm musculature and the reliance of both anaerobic and aerobic metabolism.

Two South African populations of Littorina saxatilis were examined by starch-gel electrophoresis at 16 enzyme loci and compared with 13 populations of North Atlantic saxatilis from both American and European coasts, and with six British populations of the closely related species Littorim urcana.The South African animals showed a severely reduced heterozygosity ( R = 0.052) compared with Atlantic populations of saxatills ( H = 0.181), and the mean genetic distance between the two areas was high ( D = 0.203) compared with distances within the North Atlantic suxatilis populations ( B = 0.034). In fact, the suxatilis from South Africa were genetically more distant from the North Atlantic samples of L. saxatilis than were the arcana from British shores. The reduced genetic heterozygosity and genetic divergence of the South African populations is attributed to founder effects following a postulated recent introduction by man.

Data from a regional Southwest telephone survey in the United States (N= 432) were used to examine the intervening effects of knowledge, morality, trust, and benefits on support for animal and plant biotechnology applications. Results showed that perceptions of agricultural biotechnologies varied by the two applications-animals and plants. Respondents reported higher opposition to the genetic modification of animals, which is consistent with prior research. Results also indicated that morality and perceived benefits directly affected support for both animal and plant applications, but trust and knowledge only had indirect effects. Morality and perceived benefits accounted for most of the variance explained among the intervening variables. The effects of trust were mediated through perceived benefits. The effects of knowledge on support were mediated primarily through trust. The influence of sociodemographic and consumer behavior variables varied by application. Results lend support to several theoretical notions. First, the significance of perceived benefits supports that there is an inverse relationship between benefits and risks. Second, moral objections may outweigh perceived benefits for specific applications, and the genetic modification of animals is deemed to be more morally unacceptable than the genetic modification of plants. These findings demonstrate the need to understand more thoroughly the moral and ethical issues surrounding novel technologies. Third, this research supports the claim that trust is not a powerful predictor of perceptions of technological products, which is contrary to most risk perception research.