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Recent scandals in the media have questioned the legitimacy of and public trust in international NGOs (INGOs). Yet, little research has explored the complex relationships that influence public trus...

What is COVID-19's impact on development? What lessons can be drawn from development studies regarding the effects of and recovery from COVID-19? The unprecedented scale and scope of government interventions carry implications at all levels: global, national, and local. In this introduction, our team of Editors underline the importance of systematic substantive study to further knowledge acquisition, and rigorous global-, national-, or context-specific evaluation to inform evidence-based policymaking. The 12 articles summarised here capture these values and sense of "high quality". In particular, despite early considerations in the first year of the pandemic, they illuminate the need for diverse responses beyond business-as-usual, attention to the multiplicity of impact of policies formulated, and progressive strategies to counteract the impacts of this disaster around the world. The path of future research is clear: studies need to consider and give voice to marginalised groups to counteract the short- and long-term impacts of the pandemic.Quel est l’impact de la COVID-19 sur le développement international ? Quelles leçons pouvons-nous tirer des études de développement concernant les effets de la COVID-19, et du redressement après son passage ? L’ampleur et la portée sans precedent des interventions gouvernementales comportent des conséquences à tous niveaux: mondial, national, et local. Dans cette introduction, notre équipe éditoriale souligne l’importance des études à la fois systématiques et substantielles, afin d’élargir l’acquisition de connaissances; ainsi que des évaluations rigoureuses au niveau mondial, national, ou spécifiques au contexte, ayant pour but d’informer une politique des décisions basée sur l’évidence. Les 12 articles résumés ici présentent ces valeurs et ce sentiment de « haute qualité». En particulier, malgré des considérations précoces pendant la première année de cette pandémie, les articles soulèvent la nécessité de réponses diversifiées, bien au-delà des démarches jusqu’ ici habituelles (en anglais, « business as usual»), l’importance de prêter attention à la multiplicité d’impacts des politiques formulées, et le besoin de stratégies progressistes, pour faire face aux impacts de cette catastrophe partout dans le monde. Le chemin à prendre pour les recherches futures est clair: les études doivent considérer et donner une voix aux groupes marginalisés, pour faire face aux impacts à court et longue terme de la pandémie.

The United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) is an important moment to garner political and financial attention to the challenges that food systems face. It is a difficult moment with many competing national and global priorities including massive inequities, rapid climate change and a global pandemic. It will be important for the UNFSS to build in robust accountability mechanisms to ensure that commitments to address food systems challenges are upheld, and that these mechanisms align to already existing frameworks towards sustainable development. While the UNFSS may be impressive in its planning, without accountability of what, who, and by when, it could fall short in its execution. We, as the Editors of the Global Food Security Journal articulate the importance of accountability to ensure the UNFSS is not just ‘all hat and no cattle.’

This article offers insights into assessing the effectiveness of post farm-gate agri-food value chains at improving the nutrition intake of vulnerable groups. It develops a conceptual framework integrating the value chain concepts with agriculture and nutrition, and identifies key outcomes and requirements for value chains to be successful at delivering substantive and sustained consumption of nutrient-dense foods by poor households. Other frameworks linking value chains with nutrition have been published, but this article provides the analytical lens to assess post-farm-gate value chains. To achieve improvements in the intake of nutritious foods by the target populations food must be: safe to eat on a sustained basis; nutrient dense at the point of consumption; and consumed in adequate amounts on a sustained basis. This shifts the focus to the role of public actions and policy in terms of shaping the functioning of food value chains. By assessing the limits of what business can and cannot contribute in a given market context, policy-makers and other relevant stakeholders will be more capable of creating an appropriate institutional environment that shapes how value chains operate for the benefit of vulnerable target groups, designing and implementing effective policies and strategies with respect to the role and use of market-based interventions.

Governments and development partners looking to accelerate progress in addressing malnutrition have been examining how to use interventions in value-chains to improve diets. However, the links between interventions in value chains and diets involve a range of direct and indirect effects that are not yet well understood. We apply a mixed-method multisectoral diagnostic to examine potential interventions in food systems to improve diets of smallholder farmers in Malawi. We examine entry points for interventions involving public and private-sectors, and explore the methodological requirements for undertaking this type of multisectoral analysis. We find that although food consumption is dominated by maize, a range of nutritious foods are also being consumed; including leafy greens, fruits, chicken, dried fish, dried beans and peas, and groundnuts. Yet important deficits in nutrient intake remain prevalent in low-income households due to inadequate quantity of consumption. While increasing consumption through own-production is one potentially important channel to increase quantity of nutritious foods available (particularly fruits and leafy green vegetables), markets also play a potentially important role. Nutritious foods are available on markets year-round, although strong seasonality impacts the availability and price of perishable products. For beans, peas and groundnuts, supply appears to be available throughout the year, with price fluctuations relatively controlled due to storage capacity and imports. The capacity of markets to supply safe and nutritious food is limited by a number of issues, including poor hygiene; lack of infrastructure for storage and selling; limited information on nutrition, and weak coordination among sellers and producers. Other bottlenecks include: on-farm constraints for expanded production, consumers with limited purchasing capacity, intense competition among sellers and few services for sellers to increase volume of product sold during peak demand. The diagnostics identify the role of information-related interventions to optimize decisions related to food choices, involving a range of different foods and value-chains, that could potentially lead to short- and medium-term improvements in diets. Longer-term and more resource-intensive interventions are also identified, such as improving capacity for product differentiation, processing, storage, and market infrastructure across a different range of food chains, so as to maximise coherence between short- and long-term planning. The findings highlight the benefits of applying a strategic, food systems-based approach of identifying specific and complementary actions for both the public and private sectors that can improve the diets of low-income populations.

Highlights • Research and science should not only inform food and environmental policy but should be adopted and mainstreamed into actions at all levels. • Food systems are faced with grander and interconnected challenges and constraints that bring about new research questions. • Research has a vital role in charting a positive and sustainable direction for global food security, nutrition, and health. • The status quo must be challenged to shape food systems transformation to deliver sustainable, healthier diets. • Global Food Security provides a platform where evidence is shared in an accessible manner for those who need to act on it.

Food safety is vital for achieving many of the Sustainable Development Goals, including ending poverty and hunger and promoting health and well-being. Unsafe food can cause illness and death, and it keeps people from working and thriving. It undermines food and nutritional security, imposes costs on the food economy and public health system, and disrupts international trade. The global burden of foodborne disease falls disproportionately on children under age five and on the populations of low- and middle-income countries in Asia and Africa. Low- and middle-income countries are estimated, in aggregate, to experience a productivity loss of some US$95 billion per year as a result of unsafe food. The Safe Food Imperative argues that much of the health and economic burden of unsafe food can be avoided through preventive measures, investments, and behavioral changes adopted from farm to fork. It draws attention to policies and approaches that governments can use to invest wisely in food safety, to better leverage private initiatives, and to engage effectively with consumers. Both its analysis of food safety challenges and its recommendations for priority public and other stakeholder actions are differentiated for countries at different levels of economic development. The Safe Food Imperative will be of interest to food safety and development practitioners, as well as to policy makers and policy analysts in low- and middle-income countries---those associated with technical ministries (especially agriculture, health, and trade) and those involved with economic and development planning and budgetary and fiscal management.

There is increasing interest in the role that businesses can play in promoting the consumption of nutrient-dense foods as part of strategies to reduce the prevalence of micronutrient deficiencies in developing countries. To date, however, there has been little in-depth analysis of the extent to which viable business opportunities exist for nutrient-dense foods in the context of markets catering to communities. Furthermore, whether businesses can deliver sustainable improvements in the nutrition of poor populations at scale is not yet evident. This article examines the case of Grameen Danone Foods Ltd, a social enterprise that specifically aims to bring about improvements in the micronutrient status of poor children in Bangladesh through the sale of fortified yogurt. The article examines the degree to which this business has been successful at establishing a viable market for fortified yogurt amongst poor communities, and the challenges it has faced in trying to achieve this.

OBJECTIVE: Several provincial and federal bills have recommended various forms of menu labelling that would require information beyond just calories; however, the additional benefit of including sodium information is unknown. The objective of this study was to determine whether sodium information on menus helps consumers make lower-sodium choices and to understand what other factors influence the effect of menu labelling on consumers’ meal choices. METHODS: A total of 3,080 Canadian consumers completed an online survey that included a repeated measures experiment in which consumers were asked to select what they would typically order from four mock-restaurant menus. Subsequently, consumers were randomly allocated to see one of three menu-labelling treatments (calories; calories and sodium; or calories, sodium and serving size) and were given the option to change their order. RESULTS: There was a significant difference in the proportion of consumers who changed their order, varying from 17% to 30%, depending on the restaurant type. After participants had seen menu labelling, sodium levels decreased in all treatments (p

Summary It is now commonplace for development policy makers to refer to the contributions of businesses to the achievement of development goals and the importance of collaborations between businesses and development agencies. Many businesses give greater attention to the development impacts of their activities. There has been relatively little systematic and critical thinking about where and how businesses can contribute most effectively to the achievement of development objectives and, accordingly, how development agents should prioritise and focus their collaborations with businesses. This paper initiates such a systematic and critical approach, starting from the question ‘How can development policy work with and on businesses and the business environment so that the private goals of businesses contribute to most effectively to public development objectives?’ It identifies three basic categories of business and development initiatives: increasing the overall level of business activity, addressing sustainability challenges and promoting business activities that are particular benefit to the poor. The paper considers three major challenges for maximising the contributions businesses to the achievement of development goals. The first is increasing the alignments between business and objectives and development objectives, and the paper considers both the different ways this can be achieved and when such alignments are overly difficult to achieve. The second is to prioritise interventions. When resources are scarce, it is essential to pursue interventions that have the biggest development impact. This implies choosing interventions with goals and approaches that are most likely to be successful; in so doing, examining issues of feasibility, effectiveness and efficiency. So that scarce resources are focused on the areas of greatest benefit. The third is to achieve scaling up and systemic change. There are many examples of business activities that have positive development impacts but which are being pursued at small-scale and/or in quite specific geographical or sectoral contexts. How can such initiatives be up-scaled, translated and/or replicated in order to enhance impacts on the poor in ways that endure beyond the specific interventions applied?

Population-wide sodium reduction strategies encourage consumer participation in lowering dietary sodium. This study aims to measure and rank consumers’ level of engagement in following 23 recommendations to reduce dietary sodium and to compare variation in level of consumers’ engagement by sociodemographic sub-groups. The study included 869 randomly selected participants of an online food panel survey from Ontario during November and December 2010. Rasch modelling was used for the analysis. Consumers were less likely to be engaged in 9 out of the 23 recommendations, in particular those related to avoiding foods higher in sodium and implementing sodium reduction strategies while eating in restaurants. Higher level of consumers’ engagement was observed in relation to food preparation practices, including use of low sodium ingredients. In comparison to the relevant reference group, men, older individuals, with lower educational level, single, and those who do not prepare food from scratch showed an overall lower level of engagement in following recommendations to lowering dietary sodium, particularly related to avoiding processed foods. These data provide novel insights and can inform public education campaigns, and highlight the need for interventions and programs targeted at the food supply that can assist consumers in lowering their sodium intake.

Summary Despite interest in public support for aid to developing countries, there has been limited academic research. This paper reports analysis of survey data for the United Kingdom that explores the factors driving support for cuts in aid spending as a case example. Dominant factors are found to be beliefs in the moral imperative to help reduce poverty in developing countries versus the prioritization of efforts to tackle poverty in the United Kingdom. Most socio-demographic factors are insignificant. The results highlight the need to examine support for aid in the context of government spending more generally.

Fishing communities in developing countries are among the poorest communities. However, past studies have generally failed to investigate ways of reducing poverty among these communities. In order to address this research gap, this study proposes and investigates income diversification as a potential way out of poverty. In particular, the study analyzes the determinants of income diversification decisions among the fishing communities, with a focus on those living on the Kenyan shores of Lake Victoria. The results show that education level, access to credit and membership of associations are the key factors that explain income diversification behaviour among fish workers.

This study explores the factors associated with Canadian consumers locally produced food purchase intention. Data from an Internet-based survey of consumers (n = 1,139) was analyzed using a bivariate probit model. The bivariate probit model related attitudinal, behavioral and sociodemographic factors to the intention to purchase fresh and nonfresh locally produced foods. Although sociodemographic characteristics play a limited role in shaping local food purchase intentions, attitudinally based variables have far greater influence. Positive views towards local farmers and agriculture in general, as well as food quality, are positively related to purchase intention. The importance placed on brand-specific quality is inversely related to the intention to buy local food. Consumers with heightened levels of food involvement, either growing food or preparing most meals from scratch, are more likely to purchase local foods. (EconLit Citations: L660; Q130; Q180)

The UK Public Opinion Monitor (UKPOM) provides a unique opportunity to explore changes in attitudes of the UK public over time. This article presents findings from the UKPOM on how people in the UK have experienced the financial crisis and how, if at all, this has caused them to think differently about aid and development. We find that respondents had been affected by the economic crisis and were worried about the impact on their own finances and the UK economy. Although respondents had a feeling of interconnectedness with the world and were broadly supportive of aid in principle, these perspectives were often trumped by local and domestic priorities, particularly during such a period of financial turmoil, with support for aid spending in decline. We see some appetite for changing the way in which the world is governed, but the extent to which this encompasses aid reform is uncertain. Finally, we draw some conclusions for development policymakers and communicators.

This study considers the factors that explain the consumption of food and beverages with functional ingredients to avert or offset health problems. We use an instrumental variables Poisson regression model to deal with the endogeneity of perceived health status in functional ingredient use. The first stage results indicate that perceived health status is associated with attitude towards functional foods, food consumption motives and information seeking and being female. The second stage results suggest that individuals who consume more functional ingredients tend to have a positive attitude towards functional foods, are novelty-seeking, female and older. As expected, consumption of functional ingredients is more likely when consumers’ self-reports indicate that they are aware of functional foods’ nutritional value and the link with their own health. Consistent with previous research, most of the socio-demographics are poor predictors of functional ingredient consumption.

Summary This paper presents analysis of a survey of fresh produce export firms in 10 countries of sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on the determinants of GlobalGAP certification and the returns in terms of expansion of export sales revenue. The results suggest that technical and/or financial assistance and being in an established export country are key discriminating factors for being GlobalGAP certified. Using propensity matching, it is shown that firms that have achieved certification have appreciable higher export revenues, suggesting an appreciable return on the required investments.

This paper concludes the special issue of Agriculture and Human Values devoted to private governance of global agri-food systems. Rather than aiming to summarize the findings of the various papers that make up the issue, it highlights a number of cross-cutting issues relating to the increasing role of private governance. Key issues that are discussed include the legitimacy of private governance of agri-food systems and the scope for trade-off between its various dimensions, private governance in a global context and the motivation for firms to engage in governance. Throughout, the major focus is on unresolved issues and on-going controversies with the intention of stimulating further research in this area.

In this article, the authors use conjoint analysis to elicit the views of coffee consumers on the attributes of Fair Trade coffee using data from the Greater Toronto Area and Vancouver collected through face-to-face interviews with consumers. The impact of socioeconomic and demographic factors on respondents’ acceptance of Fair Trade coffee is evaluated using cluster analysis and multinomial logit models. The results suggest that, regardless of location, consumers place a strong premium on price and labeling claims. Three consumer segments are identified in each city; in Toronto, these segments are labeled Fair Trade-Focused, Price Conscious, and Balanced Buyers; for Vancouver these segments are labeled Organic and Fair Trade-Focused, Price Conscious, and Balanced Buyers. Although a broad spectrum of variables influences segment membership, no single variable explains membership in the same segment in each city. Such a result is rather telling; it suggests deeper constructs underlie segment membership, and presumably consumption behavior with respect to Fair Trade coffee. [EconLit citations: D120, Q130]. r 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Summary Aid budgets face immense pressure – despite overseas aid being critical for poverty alleviation in developing countries and the explicit commitments of the world's industrialised countries to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Public support for international development and aid will play a key role. Will the public become unsure about the UK's aid budget when they begin to feel cuts in government expenditure at home? How well equipped are we to ‘sell’ the UK's aid programme to a sceptical public in times of economic austerity? This working paper presents the results of a qualitative enquiry into public perceptions of international development and aid in the UK. Using data from the Mass Observation Project (MOP) at the University of Sussex, the authors investigate the views of 185 members of the general public. The study finds that, while people can conjure up ideas of why poverty exists, they know very little about the confluence of factors that actually drive poverty and/or the daily lives of the poor. Thus, poverty is seen as caused primarily by bad governments and natural disasters, almost as a stereotype. People have major doubts about the effectiveness of aid, perhaps reflecting the fact that they tend to be much better at picturing aid ‘failure’ than aid ‘success’. Nonetheless, there is support for aid in principle; people think that the UK has a responsibility to help the poor in developing countries, primarily on ethical grounds. This research has clear implications for the way in which the UK communicates with the British public about aid and development and the authors suggest a more considered approach that recognises the complexities of aid and is honest about what works and what doesn't. The paper concludes with a call for further research to fill the knowledge gaps that still exist about the drivers of public support for development and how those drivers can be influenced.

This study explores the barriers that impede the adoption of hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) by food processing firms in Ontario, Canada. The study identifies four broad groupings of barriers to HACCP implementation, namely perceptions that HACCP is of “questionable appropriateness” to the firm, the scale of change required to achieve implementation, low priority given to enhancement of food safety controls, and financial constraints. The severity of these identified barriers differs significantly between firms that have implemented HACCP and those that have not. In particular, HACCP implementation is impeded significantly by barriers related to financial constraints. The most important driver promoting implementation is customer requirements for HACCP to be implemented in supplier facilities. [EconLit citations: D210, L600, L660]. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

We develop and implement two models to show what factors affect a firm's decision to seek external financing and the level of financing obtained in the Canadian functional food and nutraceutical sector. Data from a national survey of functional foods and nutraceutical firms in Canada, conducted by Statistics Canada in 2003, is used for this analysis. Firm size, being privately held and engaging in contractual arrangements have negative impacts on the likelihood of a firm seeking external funding, while firms which are intensively involved in the functional food and nutraceutical sector, with greater prospects for business expansion and/or involved in partnerships are more likely to seek external financing. Larger firms and those involved in functional food and nutraceutical research and development receive a greater amount of capital when they decide to raise capital. However, firms focused on functional foods and nutraceuticals, as opposed to more diversified firms, and those involved in product developm...

This study uses a stated choice-based conjoint model to explore the marketing preferences of small-scale producers of fresh fruits and vegetables in Honduras. A total of eight attributes, proposed in hypothetical contracts to farmers, are evaluated. About two-thirds of farmers show preferences for traditional marketing systems, whereas one-third prefer new marketing channels associated with supermarkets. A latent segment approach, however, reveals significant levels of preference heterogeneity among small-scale farmers. The results suggest the importance of taking into account preference heterogeneity using latent classes in the development of policies aimed at linking small-scale farmers with new agri-food supply chains. A partir d′un modele de choix conjoint, cette etude examine les preferences de commercialisation des petits producteurs de fruits et legumes frais au Honduras. Un ensemble de huit attributs, proposes dans des contrats hypothetiques offerts aux agriculteurs, sont evalues. Deux tiers environ des agriculteurs affichent des preferences pour les systemes de commercialisation traditionnels, alors qu′un tiers preferent les moyens plus modernes de commercialisation par l′intermediaire des grandes surfaces. Une analyse en termes de segments latents revele cependant une forte heterogeneite des preferences des agriculteurs de petite echelle. Les resultats soulignent l′importance de la prise en compte de l′heterogeneite des preferences par une analyse des classes latentes, dans le developpement de politiques visant a relier les petits producteurs aux nouvelles filieres de distribution agroalimentaire.

There are few studies that consider the localization/relocalization of food systems in low-income countries and how the social, cultural and economic dynamics of these agri-food systems compare to trends observed in high-income countries. We suggest that food systems in Ghana are localized by necessity when compared to relocalized food systems observed in high-income countries that have emerged in response to global agri-food industrialization. Food systems in Ghana are characterized by policies aimed at enhancing food security and poverty alleviation, as well as market imperfections that limit farmers' access to non-local markets. Copyright 2010, Oxford University Press.

We develop a prioritization framework for foodborne risks that considers public health impact as well as three other factors (market impact, consumer risk acceptance and perception, and social sensitivity). Canadian case studies are presented for six pathogen-food combinations: Campylobacter spp. in chicken; Salmonella spp. in chicken and spinach; Escherichia coli O157 in spinach and beef; and Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat meats. Public health impact is measured by disability-adjusted life years and the cost of illness. Market impact is quantified by the economic importance of the domestic market. Likert-type scales are used to capture consumer perception and acceptance of risk and social sensitivity to impacts on vulnerable consumer groups and industries. Risk ranking is facilitated through the development of a knowledge database presented in the format of info cards and the use of multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) to aggregate the four factors. Three scenarios representing different stakeholders illustrate the use of MCDA to arrive at rankings of pathogen-food combinations that reflect different criteria weights. The framework provides a flexible instrument to support policymakers in complex risk prioritization decision making when different stakeholder groups are involved and when multiple pathogen-food combinations are compared.

Consumer purchase intention with respect to foods and non-prescription pills containing phytosterols was investigated through a mall intercept survey (n = 446) in Ontario, Canada. The study took as its starting point the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT), a social cognition model rooted in research on fear appeal in determining health-protective behaviour. Structural equation modelling was used to explore whether an adaptation of PMT explains intention to purchase products containing phytosterols as a means to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The standard form of PMT was adapted to take account of consumer perceptions of the risk of elevated blood cholesterol, reflecting the fact that phytosterols do not directly reduce the risk of CVD but rather help in the management of a single risk factor. Overall, coping appraisal had a positive and significant association with purchase intention, while threat appraisal had no significant effect. Incorporation of cholesterol as a risk factor for CVD significantly improved the measurement strength of the threat appraisal construct. However, the overall predictive power of the model did not change appreciably. The results suggest that the promotion of adaptive behaviours, such as consumption of functional foods and nutraceuticals, needs to focus on perception of response and self-efficacy rather than individual perceptions of risk.

This paper explores the role of transaction costs and collective action in shaping small-scale farmer participation in the fresh fruit and vegetable (FFV) supply chain to supermarkets (SSC) in Honduras. Transaction costs and collective action are found to be significant in determining farmer participation in the SSC. Contrary to the findings of other studies, human capital and farm characteristic variables are not significant, suggesting that small-scale farmers can be included in new supply chains under certain conditions, especially if incentives to farmers, trust-based relationships between buyers and sellers, risk reduction practices and new forms of collective action are put in place. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Several studies have analyzed the exporting pattern and performance of firms located in a developing country. However, there is limited work on the impact of standards on the performance of developing country exporting firms. This paper uses data from Pakistan to assess the effects of ISO 9000 certification on export sales and share of exports (relative to domestic and export sales) for textiles and the agro-food sector. As certification is not randomly assigned but there is ‘self-selection into treatment’, we use propensity matching methods to estimate the causal effect of certification on the change in the firms' value of export sales between 2000 and 2004. The results show that export performance is positively correlated with ISO 9000 certification.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to assess the financial performance of microenterprises in Ghana by applying the resource‐based theory of the firm. Specifically, it is tested that if firm‐specific resources dominate sector and market‐wide effects in explaining microenterprise performance, as suggested by the resource‐based theory.Design/methodology/approachThe relevant literature for both microenterprise performance and the resource‐based theory is reviewed. Data from the 1998/1999 Ghana Living Standards Survey are analysed using ordinary least squares, followed by robustness checks.FindingsFactors embodied in firm‐specific resources jointly impact enterprise performance. However, sector/market factors also play a role, suggesting that the interaction between microenterprise, sector, and market factors helps explain enterprise performance.Research limitations/implicationsAll the constructs of the resource‐based theory cannot be tested due to data limitations.Originality/valueSmall enterprises play a key role in promoting developing country growth, but no study has evaluated microenterprise performance using this particular data set and the resource‐based theory of the firm. Future research should focus on collecting data to further validate this theory.

Using data from a survey of certified organic or in-transition to organic vegetable and dairy producers in Canada, we seek to understand a farmer’s decision to convert to organic production by exploring the motives, problems and challenges, and benefits of transition to organic. Results suggest that health and safety concerns and environmental issues are the predominant motives for conversion, while economic motives are of lesser importance. In contrast to the extant literature, results suggest that the motives underlying transition have not changed overtime in Canada. Problems experienced during transition relate to lack of governmental and institutional support, negative pressure from other farmers and farm groups, and lack of physical and financial capital. Reduced exposure to chemicals and improved food quality were highly ranked benefits, while economic related benefits were scored among the lowest of the listed benefits. To prosper, the Canadian organic sector must overcome fundamental marketing problems and challenges. Promulgation of the Canada Organic standard may help address some marketing issues by providing more information to consumers.

This article explores the incidence and intensity of certification of Pakistani exporting firms across a range of quality assurance programs. Using firm-level data, the firm's certification status is modelled using Heckman's two-step procedure. The first-stage results using a probit model show that the likelihood of certification is determined by the sector, the firm's awareness of trade standards, the level to which the firm's markets are diversified, external pressure for certification and the firm's primary export market. The intensity of certification is treated as the number of standards a firm has invested in, which can be seen as ordered into distinct categories, such that an ordered probit model can be applied, correcting for sample selection bias. The results show that the number of standards to which a firm is certified is influenced by firm size, a firm's primary export markets, level of awareness of trade standards and level of market diversification. Overall, the results suggest that certific...

This paper applied conjoint analysis to elicit consumer preferences over attributes of functional foods and nutraceuticals using probiotics as the functional compound of interest. Data were gathered through a mall intercept survey in Guelph, Canada. Cluster analysis and chi-square tests were used to examine the relationship between respondents' characteristics and preferences for product variants. On the basis of cluster analysis of the part-worth scores from the conjoint analysis, three clusters were identified. Clusters differed predominantly according to the preferred mode of delivery and source of health claims. The value attached to health claims related to probiotics was also explored. The results suggested that consumers place a strong premium on claims verified by government, but little value on 'non-verified' claims made by product manufacturers.

Summary This paper analyzes the effect of firm and other characteristics on the incidence and intensity of improved financial performance among non-farm microenterprises in Ghana, using data from the 1998/1999 Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS 4). The results indicate that firm characteristics, including urban and regional location, significantly affect the incidence and intensity of improved performance, but entrepreneurial characteristics are unimportant. The firm’s capital stock does not affect the propensity and intensity of better performance, reflecting that the value of assets owned is low and insufficient to have a measurable impact on enterprise productivity and performance.