Hispanics are rapidly becoming the predominant ethnic group in Texas. While many secondary agriculture programs have seen increased participation by Hispanic students, in comparison to the demographics of Texas secondary school enrollment, Hispanics are underrepresented in agricultural education. As a result, agricultural education programs should continue to become more diverse and provide curriculum engaging to a wide variety of students. The purpose of this descriptive, correlational study was to determine the agricultural literacy rates and perceptions of agriculture among Hispanic and non-Hispanic high school agriculture students enrolled in agriculture programs in Texas counties bordering Mexico. Results showed both groups have agricultural literacy rates congruent with previous studies; however, Hispanic students tended to have lower knowledge scores in all areas except agricultural career knowledge, as well as lower perceptions of agriculture. Agricultural career knowledge scores were the lowest area for all respondents. Recommendations include: 1) more research should be conducted to better determine levels of agricultural literacy in minority agricultural education students in Texas and other areas, and 2) more emphasis on agricultural career knowledge should be incorporated into agriscience courses to better inform students about postsecondary education and career options within the agricultural industry.
The purpose of this study was to identify and describe the nature of corporate positions on animal welfare available on the websites of five meat producing companies in the U.S. The results of the content analysis illustrated that there were common topics among the dialogs the companies were willing to open related to their animal welfare positions. The companies typically took a general approach to animal welfare topics, commonly focusing on their corporate policy and their commitment to animal welfare. While each company focused on a unique combination of topics, companies commonly avoided mentioning more specific and possibly controversial topics and instead chose to focus on big-picture topics such as a commitment to sound animal welfarepractices. Each company used a particular set of frames to couch individual animal welfare messages for consumers. The most common frame led was that the company is an industry leader in animal welfare. Eighteen thematic terms related to livestock production and handling emerged through the content analysis. Of those, animal handling and humane were clearly the most commonly used terms. Future research should include matching these content analysis results with the existing communication strategies of each company, conducting more content analyses on animal protein companies' other media outlets, as well as further exploring the presence of frames, topics, and terminology in news coverage in comparison to the online messages of animal protein companies.
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