Demand for local food in the US has significantly increased over the past decade. In an attempt to understand the drivers of this demand and how they have changed over time, we investigate the literature on organic and local foods over the past few decades. We focus our review on studies that allow comparison of characteristics now associated with both local and organic food. We summarize the major findings of these studies and their implications for understanding drivers of local food demand. Prior to the late 1990s, most studies failed to consider factors now associated with local food, and the few that included these factors found very little support for them. In many cases, the lines between local and organic were blurred. Coincident with the development of federal organic food standards, studies began to find comparatively more support for local food as distinct and separate from organic food. Our review uncovers a distinct turn in the demand for local and organic food. Before the federal organic standards, organic food was linked to small farms, animal welfare, deep sustainability, community support and many other factors that are not associated with most organic foods today. Based on our review, we argue that demand for local food arose largely in response to corporate co-optation of the organic food market and the arrival of ‘organic lite’. This important shift in consumer preferences away from organic and toward local food has broad implications for the environment and society. If these patterns of consumer preferences prove to be sustainable, producers, activists and others should be aware of the implications that these trends have for the food system at large.
LGIs) developing regional and multistate, integrated research and extension projects to address the water resource educational needs of their clientele on a larger scale than state-by-state.The development of large-scale AREERA-funded programs called for a new paradigm for identifying urgent water resource issues and designing and managing multi-state water resource programs. Traditionally, many scientists, policy makers, and educators at LGIs have used a standard approach of identifying critical water resource issues through their day-to-day contact with state agencies and clientele. However, some programs developed in this way have been found not to be effective, producing little to show in the way of behavioral change (Mahler et al., 2005). Largescale AREERA-funded programs required new methods for examining similarities and differences in public concerns and informational needs among the states and regions.Consequently, early in the national AREERA-funded water program (section 406), state extension water program coordinators recognized the need to develop a needs assessment tool to identify the public's understanding, attitudes, and behaviors regarding various water resource issues on a state-by-state and regional basis. The needs assessment project originally focused on the states in the Pacific Northwest Region, then extended it, region by region, to states across the United States.The objectives of this national needs assessment survey project were (1) to develop a survey tool that could be used to collect baseline information about public attitudes, aptitudes, and actions taken toward water resource issues on a state-by-state or regional basis; (2) to use the survey to collect the baseline information andThe National Water Survey Needs Assessment Program Robert L. Mahler,* Michael D. Smolen, Tatiana Borisova, Diane E. Boellstorff, Damian C. Adams, and Nicola W. Sochacka ABSTRACT Water quality and availability are identified as priority areas for outreach and educational programs in many U.S. regions. This project offers a needs assessment tool (survey) that could be used on a state-by-state, regional, or national basis to analyze public attitudes, opinions, and behaviors as related to water resource issues. The information collected through the needs assessment can be used to identify objectives, strategies, and delivery modes for extension programs, and to evaluate the programs. The goal was to implement the needs assessment survey at 5-year intervals to: (1) measure changes in public priorities; (2) evaluate the effectiveness of educational programs; and (3) reprioritize, as necessary, the educational goals. A needs assessment survey template was developed and piloted in the Pacific Northwest. During 2001-2010, surveys were conducted in 41 states and six Pacific Island entities. Almost 11,000 surveys were returned completed for a response rate of 44.5%. Five-year follow-up surveys have been completed in five states to date. The results of these surveys have been used to prioritize extension water prog...
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