Статті в журналах з теми "Pro-poor agricultural research"

The growing research interest in the pro-poorness of growth is the main issue today. Reducing economic poverty and inequality through pro-poor growth is the aim of policies in many countries. Pro-poor growth is good for poverty eradication if it can be achieved. Ethiopia is a good example of a country where growth was pro-poor between 1990 and 2018 but the pro-poor growth was reversed in 2016. The paper examined what led to pro-poor growth between 1990 and 2018 and what may have been responsible for the reversal in 2016. Unit root test reveals that all the series are nonstationary at level and stationary at first difference and have one cointegration relation between the variables. The dynamic ordinary least squares method was used to analyze the Ethiopian time series data from World Bank Development Indicators between 1990 and 2018 for the determinant of pro-poor growth. Regression analysis shows that job creation was responsible for the pro-poor growth between 1990 and 2018. The results of the analysis showed that human capital, industrial, and services growth have negative impacts on poorest people, whereas employment and agriculture growth have positive impacts on poorest people. In the richest income group, human capital, and industrial and service growths have positive impacts while agricultural growth and employment have negative impacts.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, economic growth is essential for poverty reduction, and pro-poor growth is the renewed focus of today’s political debate. The present paper adds to the literature on the growth–inequality relationship. It provides an in-depth analysis of the potential role of agriculture in promoting pro-poor growth in rural and urban areas compared with that of other activities. This aspect still lacks rigorous empirical support. Using the Nexus project SAMs by the International Food Policy Research Institute, this study identifies the level of ‘keyness’ of 36 activities (12 are agricultural) in nine Eastern, Western, and Central African countries using the inter-industry linkages analysis. Afterwards, it investigates the income distribution multipliers effects of activities growth across households classified in quantiles in rural and urban areas. Therefore, the paper adds to the literature, mainly focused on rural poverty and information on the growth effect on urban poverty, which is important in the context of rapid urbanization and the growing number of poor people in African cities. Apart from country-specific factors, the results confirm the strong integration of agriculture with the economy. The growth of key agricultural activities presents the most pronounced multiplicative effect on the income of rural households in the lowest quantiles. Poor urban households also benefit from their growth, but not to the same extent as rural households with an increase in the rural–urban income gap.

SUMMARYScores of assessments of the impacts of agricultural research have been carried out over the years. However, few appear to have been used to improve decision making and the effectiveness of research programmes. The Institutional Learning and Change (ILAC) Initiative emerged within the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), with the goal of strengthening learning from experience and using lessons to improve pro-poor innovation. It is testing approaches for expanding the contributions of impact assessment and evaluation to learning, decision making and improvement.

Does agricultural activity affect human mortality? This research paper provides an empirical analysis on this important question by separately regressing agricultural outputs and its components on human mortality rate in Nigeria over the period 1981–2019. Employing the autoregressive distributed lag estimator, a long run relationship exist between agricultural outputs and human mortality rate in Nigeria. Regarding the parameter estimates, findings showed that the indirect relationship between agriculture outputs and mortality is statistically insignificant in the long run. More so, in the short run, the current level of agriculture outputs reported a significant positive coefficient whereas the first lag has a significant negative parameter. Concerning the agriculture components, in the long run, fishing activity negatively and significantly influenced human mortality whereas forestry activity directly impacted on human mortality rates. The influence of both crop and livestock productions on mortality rate is not statistically established in the long run. The study therefore suggests the need for government to adopt pro-poor policies that is capable of improving investments in agricultural activities by both public and private sectors so as to curtail human mortality rate in the country.

Extreme natural hazards, particularly the hydro-meteorological disasters, are emerging as a cause of major concern in the coastal regions of India and a few other developing countries. These have become more frequent in the recent past, and are taking a heavy toll of life and livelihoods. Low level of technology development in the rural areas together with social, economic and gender inequities enhance the vulnerability of the largely illiterate, unskilled, and resource-poor fishing, farming and landless labour communities. Their resilience to bounce back to pre-disaster level of normality is highly limited. For the planet Earth at crossroads, the imminent threat, however, is from a vicious spiral among environmental degradation, poverty and climate change-related natural disasters interacting in a mutually reinforcing manner. These, in turn, retard sustainable development, and also wipe out any small gains made thereof. To counter this unacceptable trend, the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation has developed a biovillage paradigm and rural knowledge centres for ecotechnological and knowledge empowerment of the coastal communities at risk. Frontier science and technologies blended with traditional knowledge and ecological prudence result in ecotechnologies with pro-nature , pro-poor and pro-women orientation. The rural communities are given training and helped to develop capacity to adopt ecotechnologies for market-driven eco-enterprises. The modern information and communication-based rural knowledge centres largely operated by trained semi-literate young women provide time - and locale - specific information on weather, crop and animal husbandry, market trends and prices for local communities, healthcare, transport, education, etc. to the local communities. The ecotechnologies and time- and locale-specific information content development are need-based and chosen in a ‘bottom-up’ manner. The use of recombinant DNA technology for genetic shielding of agricultural crops for coastal regions against abiotic stress (induced by the water- and weather-related natural disasters), strengthens the foundations of sustainable agriculture undertaken by the resource-poor small farm families.

In the context of the 2014 Village Law, village government intervention in agricultural development is very important in improving the welfare of village communities. This study aims to determine the intervention of the village government on agricultural development programs and to find out the opportunities and limitations of the village government in agricultural development in the village. This research uses a qualitative method with a literature study approach. This study uses Henry Bernstein's theory of agrarian political economy. Data collection was carried out through secondary data sourced from books, journals, the internet, official documents related to village government and agricultural development. Data analysis used the interactive model Miles, Huberman and Saldana. The scope of this research is limited to village government intervention in the planning and implementation of agricultural development. The findings in this study are that the change in the system from centralization to decentralization has also changed the planning of agricultural development programs in villages that are more decentralized, participatory between the community and the village government. The recommendations/implications of these findings are expected to be able to contribute findings/ideas to studies of rural development in Indonesia, particularly the role of village governments in agricultural development and a political economy perspective in agricultural development to alleviate poverty, food security, and increase the income of people in rural areas. In addition, recommendations for village government intervention in development that are more pro-poor in rural areas.

This book covers a wide range of issues relating to food security (in order of hierarchy) including the globalisation and liberalisation of trade, the WTO Agreement on Agriculture and Intellectual Property Rights, market reforms, technological options, diversification and research needs, water security, and household food security. Further, recommendations are made to cope with challenges of food insecurity. The authors emphasise the need of continuity of the current trend of reforms and devising new policies for the agricultural, food, and natural resources sectors. The issues of poverty, food insecurity, and malnutrition are being faced across South Asia. These are important not only on economic grounds but also on ethical grounds. The volume’s twenty one chapters, divided into seven parts, have been contributed by twenty-nine experts. Part I discusses economic reforms, trade, technology, and food security. The authors analyse food security situation in the region in the longrun perspective and discuss policy imperatives to cope with this challenge. Among the recommendations, are the need for investment in human resources, improvement in rural infrastructure, development of pro-poor technologies, and promotion of regional cooperation.

Purpose – This paper aims to draw lessons from China's development experiences, particularly in the areas of agricultural and rural development, to increase growth and reduce poverty in Africa South of the Sahara. It also examines China's rising economic involvement in Africa and makes recommendations for how the win-win outcomes from this engagement can be strengthened. Design/methodology/approach – In this paper, the authors compare the trends in economic and agricultural growth, as well as poverty and hunger reduction, in China and Africa South of the Sahara. The authors then examine strategies for development – in particular agricultural and rural development – and poverty reduction. Next, the authors review China's economic engagement in Africa in the areas of trade, investment, aid, and technical cooperation. Findings – Having conducted a comparative review of China and Africa's distinct development paths and current policy contexts, the authors discuss China's development lessons for Africa South of the Sahara and policy recommendations for China-Africa engagement related to agricultural and rural development, openness and liberalization, evidence-based policymaking, pro-poor policies, institutions and capacity, rising inequality, and environmental degradation. Originality/value – This paper rigorously integrates China's positive and negative development lessons for Africa in light of the most recent research on emerging domestic and international development strategies.

<strong>Indonesian</strong><br />Penelitian-penelitian yang menganalisis hubungan antara liberalisasi perdagangan, kemiskinan, dan pemerataan berujung pada perdebatan. Dampak dari pasar terbuka dan pengurangan kemiskinan menghasilkan pandangan yang pro (Anderson, Jha et al., dan Bhattasali et al.). dan kontra (Coller and Dollar, Twyford, Medeley, and Abbotts) secara tajam. Di sisi lain, dampak pasar terbuka terhadap distribusi pendapat bersifat lebih konklusif. Kesimpulan ini berlaku juga untuk kasus Indonesia. Dua kelompok kebijakan disintesa dari studi ini yang mencoba mensinergikan liberalisasi perdagangan dan pertumbuhan dengan kemiskinan dan pemerataan untuk wilayah Asia dan Pacific. Kelompok kebijakan pertama adalah liberalisasi perdagangan yang berpihak pada pengurangan kemiskinan yaitu 1) mengoreksi ketidak-seimbangan; 2) meninjau ulang tentang timbal-balik kebijakan; 3) perlakuan yang spesial dan berbeda serta fleksibelitas; dan 4) isu-isu perdagangan yang menjadi kepentingan khusus negara berkembang. Kelompok kebijakan kedua berkaitan dengan kebijakan domestik yang berpihak kepada orang miskin yaitu 1) memperbaiki ketidak-seimbangan penguasaan asset/lahan; 2) perbaikan infrastruktur di pedesaan; 3) menciptakan iklim investasi yang kondusif; 4) mendorong penciptaan lapangan kerja yang berpihak pada orang miskin; dan v) meningkatkan penelitian dan pengembangan bidang pertanian. <br /><br /><br /><strong>English</strong><br />Studies assessing the link between trade liberalization, poverty and equity come up with debatable results. The effect of open markets on poverty alleviation is usually divisive between pros (Anderson, Jha, et. al., dan Bhattasali et al.) and cons (Coller and Dollar, Twyford, Medeley, and Abbotts), while effect on equity is more conclusive. These conclusions are also true for Indonesia case. Two policy insights are derived from studies review to reconcile the benefits of trade liberalization and growth with poverty alleviation and equity improvement in Asia and the Pacific. The first one relates to pro-poor trade liberalization through 1) rectifying imbalances; 2) rethinking reciprocity; 3) special and differential treatment and flexibility; and 4) trade issues of special interest to developing countries. The second is related to pro-poor domestic policies that include 1) reducing assets/land inequity, 2) promoting rural infrastructure, 3) creating conducive investment climate, 4) promoting pro-poor employment, and v) promoting agricultural research and development.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to apply a poverty level decomposition approach to decompose the poverty by income sources and investigate the impact of government transfers on income inequality and rural poverty. Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses the decomposition method of inequality and the decomposition method of poverty level by resource endowments to decompose the overall inequality and the overall poverty by income sources. Findings – It is found that unequal income distribution rather than income endowments is mainly responsible for the existence of poverty. Government transfers and relief income, aiming at the poor, help alleviate inequality and poverty, but are not targeting the poorest. Unequal distribution of production subsidies actually lead to higher poverty incidence. Research limitations/implications – This paper has revealed that the poverty issue cannot be resolved with economic development alone if the issues including the inequality in income distribution are not solved. It is important to make government transfers/subsidies pro-poor. Originality/value – A poverty level decomposition approach is first used to decompose the poverty by income sources in China.

Sociality permeates each of the fundamental motives of human existence and plays a critical role in evolutionary fitness across the lifespan. Evidence for this thesis draws from research linking deficits in social relationship—as indexed by perceived social isolation (i.e. loneliness)—with adverse health and fitness consequences at each developmental stage of life. Outcomes include depression, poor sleep quality, impaired executive function, accelerated cognitive decline, unfavourable cardiovascular function, impaired immunity, altered hypothalamic pituitary–adrenocortical activity, a pro-inflammatory gene expression profile and earlier mortality. Gaps in this research are summarized with suggestions for future research. In addition, we argue that a better understanding of naturally occurring variation in loneliness, and its physiological and psychological underpinnings, in non-human species may be a valuable direction to better understand the persistence of a ‘lonely’ phenotype in social species, and its consequences for health and fitness.

Neural stem cell (NSC) transplantation creates new hope for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders by direct differentiation into neurons. However, this technique is limited by poor survival and functional neuron deficiency. In this research study, we generated pro-survival murine NSCs (mNSCs) via the ectopic expression of Bcl-xL. A doxycycline (Dox)-inducible Ngn2-Isl1-Lhx3 system was also integrated into the mNSC genome. The four gene-modified mNSCs can rapidly and effectively differentiate into motor neurons after Dox treatments. Ectopic Bcl-xL could resist replating-induced stress, glutamate toxicity, neuronal apoptosis and remarkably promote the survival of motor neurons. Taken together, we established genetically modified mNSCs with improved survival, which may be useful for motor neuron degenerative diseases.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of coffee production on poverty among smallholder farmers. Design/methodology/approach National Household Survey data for Uganda were triangulated with qualitative field data. A mix of propensity score matching (PSM) and quantile treatment effect techniques was employed. Findings The results reveal a significant effect of coffee production on poverty reduction, through incremental household consumption expenditure. Households engaged in coffee production are associated with a lower incidence of poverty. The interesting evidence suggests that coffee production is a pro-poor intervention. These findings are confirmed by qualitative assessment that reveals farmers’ welfare improved to greater extent to satisfactory levels from coffee income. Research limitations/implications Econometrically robust strategies were employed to ensure minimal estimation bias; however, the authors are mindful of PSM limitation of selection on observables. Originality/value This paper is part of a limited body of literature that combines quantitative and qualitative assessment, a growing issue in contemporary research. In addition to employing one of the conventional impact evaluation techniques, the paper accounts for heterogeneity in the effects of coffee production.

Abstract The current study is designed to see the effects of water access on the well-being of the farming community in rural areas of Pakistan. The data were collected from 300 households of ten villages in rural Faisalabad, Pakistan where the population is facing serious water quality and access issues due to industrial pollution, lack of clean water supply system and limited access to fresh water for agricultural use. We employed ordinary least square and ordered probit methods to measure the association between water access variables and households’ well-being. We found that source and quality of drinking water, access to irrigation water, and percentage of crop water requirement fulfilled, and water expenses were statistically significant influencing the households’ well-being. The study concluded that water access conditions strongly influence the life satisfaction and water access conditions must be considered in future research. Acknowledging the contribution of village-level economic activities to economic growth, a strong policy is proposed to re-evaluate the existing rural water supply strategy to enhance the households’ well-being and enhance livelihood generation among neglected pro-poor farmers in rural areas of Pakistan.

<abstract> <p>The refined sorghum flour (SF) used is limited in fiber and micronutrients because of bran removal during milling, and protein digestibility is poor due to kafrin crosslinking. In this research, the effects of Bambara groundnut (BG) (15%, 25%, 35%) and butternut (BU) powder (23%) blending on SF were investigated, using 100% SF as a control. The proximate, mineral, beta-carotene and folic acid compositions of the flour mix were determined. As the BG levels increased, the protein, fat, fiber, and ash contents increased significantly (p &lt; 0.05), ranging between 8.62–14.19%, 2.36–3.38%, 1.37–3.04% and 0.87–2.19%, respectively. The iron, zinc, calcium and phosphorus contents in mg/100 g were 3.43–5.08, 2.96–3.74, 80.00–106.67 and 150.63–594.53, respectively. The beta-carotene (mg/100 g) and folic acid (μg/100 g) contents were &lt; 0.01–0.63 and 0.75–1.42, respectively. The mineral, beta-carotene and folic acid contents of the flour mix varied significantly (p &lt; 0.05) from the control. The pro-vitamin A beta-carotene content was improved in the blend flours with the addition of BU powder, whereas, in the control sample, it was not detected (&lt;0.01 mg/100 g). With the 35% BG blend, increases of 37% protein, 45% crude fiber, 48% iron, 26% zinc, 133% calcium and 154% folic acid contents from the control were observed. The study showed food-to-food fortification of SF with BG flour and BU powder has the potential to combat malnutrition, and the public health challenges associated with deficiencies in bioactive fibers, proteins and micronutrients (pro-vitamin A carotenoids, folic acid and minerals).</p> </abstract>

By 2030 the U.S. will lose around $520 billion annually from its gross domestic product due to flooding. New risks resulting from climate change arise not only from swelling rivers and lakes, but also from stormwater runoff. According to the World Bank, coastal cities risk flooding more from their poor management of surface water than they do from rising sea levels. Surface water liability governs when a landowner is responsible for diverting the flow of water to a neighboring parcel of land. Steep increases in urban flooding will make surface water an enormous source of litigation in the coming decades. But surface water jurisprudence is ill equipped for this influx. The law of surface waters remains cumbersome, antiquated, and confusing. Furthermore, the doctrine itself has exacerbated the problem by privileging land development over maintaining natural landscapes, thereby eliminating what would have been carbon sequestration devices, as well as natural buffers against storm surges, sea level rise, and flooding. This Article critiques surface water liability rules through original research into the agricultural science that supported these legal doctrines. By establishing how the current legal doctrines emerged from science now known to be highly flawed, this Article demonstrates the need to break with past doctrines and engage in a genuine rethinking of how to manage surface water liability in the twentyfirst century. Finally, this Article proposes a new liability rule that would manage landowner expectations while avoiding the pro-development bias currently entrenched in the jurisprudence.

The Government of India` s call for demonetization on 8th November 2016 banning Rs500/-and Rs1000/- notes was originally accepted as a positive step to discourage the black marketers and the rackets in hoarding to rule over the society. Unfortunately the long term effect of such a hurried decision became a boom to the agri-business based on soft cash. The agribusiness chain became the worst effected group. The chain included non-formal agricultural sector small earners in the agricultural field the farmers as the fragmented land holder and the producers thriving on the instant sale of their products and also those depending on middleman for the disbursement of funds and purchase of products for storage and dispersal of the same to the consumers` market for constant supply. Demonetization discouraged the middleman to put cash in the producing and disbursement. Thereby demonetization dismantled the overall economic chain of production and distribution resulting havoc in agro business market. The small farmers became the main victims of the circumstances. The banning of money economy on the one hand created scarcity in the families based on ancillary agro-production and it also hampered the family income of the rural farmers. Considering the boom in the village economy as an outcome of demonetization the present article makes an effort to gather firsthand information on the position of rural farmers and other non-formal rural occupation group as an outcome of demonetization announced by the Prime Minister of India. The focused area of the study include the selected villages in the northern part of West Bengal. They are rich in agro-based products run by the self-contended but marginal women farmers group thriving on export of their products to the Nepal Market. Their family males are involved in other ancillary employment like pendal making for marriages and other social gatherings running grocery shops and hawkers selling garments and cloths. The women in their families are involved in the varieties of occupation like working as Anganwari preparing mid-day mill working in the road side motels run by the Government (Pother Sathi ) and also working as a liaison of the Government Agriculture Department of the District through their Farmers` Club. The region marked as the second best agro-production area in West Bengal but their business thrives on cash transaction. Keeping in mind the PM`s speech on November 8th 2016 as a pro-poor program the present study focuses on the effect of demonetization on the poor women farmers by reaching out to the farmers families.The survey was done on December 2017 to observe the post demonetization effect in the reality scenario. Interestingly a similar survey was carried out by the researcher in 2015- 2016 and the field survey report was presented in the form of a research paper entitled ` the Role of Women in Agriculture ` in University of Vienna Austria under the International Sociological Forum in July 2016.This has enabled the researcher to gather knowledge on the economy of women community in the rural areas of North Bengal and a part of the West Bengal State. The life and living of these enthusiastic women community gave an impetus to the researcher to visit them and to learn the effect of demonetization in their life.2 The present paper is the outcome of the survey made by the researcher for the second phase in December 2017 during the post demonetization period.

<p>Cowpea features prominently in the farming systems of the semi-arid tropics where they are grown for fodder used as feed for livestock. Traditional farm varieties are the indeterminate, spreading type which grow fast; cover the soil surface and produce large quantities of biomass. Studies have focused on the use of such green crop materials for soil fertility improvement. But, it’s been highlighted that a green manure crop should also be a cover crop of economic value. Such crops should raise the farmers’ income not only indirectly by improving soil fertility but also directly by yielding products of economic importance such as food and fodder. In addition, trading in these residues (fodder/ haulms) can be highly remunerating. It is against this background that this study was carried out at the Institute for Agricultural Research, Ahmadu Bello University, Samaru, Zaria, Nigeria; During the 2002-2005 wet seasons; to determining the influence of intra-row spacing, clipping height and time on the productivity and income growth potential of the dual purpose cowpea (<em>Vigna unguiculata</em> (L.) Walp). The experimental lay out was a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD); replicated three times. The data was analyzed statistically using the analysis of variance test (ANOVA); and the means compared using the Duncan Multiple Range Test (DMRT). Results showed that, clipping management, facilitated the production of large (15 t ha^-1) amounts of green plant biomass on-farm. This could be put to various uses by the resource poor farmer who usually is cash strapped at the peak of the farming (dry) season. The farmer could choose to keep and use the fodder to feed animals, and/ or trade it off and use the proceeds (<s>N</s> 41, 000.00 - <s>N</s> 46, 000.00 - Nigerian Naira equivalent) to subsidize on fertilizer requirement and/ or meet up with immediate socio-economic family demands. Additionally, considering the high amount (187 kg^-1) of N-added to the soil (i.e. about 4 bags of Urea fertilizer), a cost saving of about <s>N</s> 24, 000.00 was made by the resource poor farmer; which could have otherwise been invested into the procurement of N-fertilizer input. It is concluded that such pro-poor income growths originating from the adoption of such innovative clipping management technological farming practices as this, needs to be encouraged and supported; as this hold immense potential of increasing the income of resource poor, low income, and low technology farmers. Indeed, it is a veritable tool for the reduction of food insecurity and poverty viz. economic empowerment in the region.</p><p> </p>

The aim of this study is to examine different approaches to measuring pro-poor growth rate in the context of Pakistan’s sub-sectors, that is, agriculture, manufacturing, commodity producing and services sectors. This research is extended within the phenomenon of Pro-Poor Growth Index (PPGI) and Poverty Equivalent Growth Rates (PEGR) which is anticipated by Kakwani and Pernia (2000) and Kakwani and Son (2004) in the literature. The present article examines as to what extent the poor have benefited from growth while taking into account the magnitude of growth and the benefits of growth achieved by the poor between 1999 and 2006. The research concludes that growth is classified anti-poor in the overall Pakistan’s sub-sectors due to pro-rich federal policies.

The paper aims at determining the impact of pro-poor growth on poverty in developing countries. The abundant literature regarding the issue of beneficial effects of the raise of national wealth on poor classes provided conflicted findings. In the addition of the theoretical review regarding the surveys attempting to find out the role of growth on poverty, the present paper relies on providing a new framework of analysis to find out the real impact of economic growth on the living conditions of the poor. The empirical analysis stands for the conduct of an empirical research made up of an econometric model applied on a panel of some developing countries.The empirical research revealed that growth could have a harmful impact on poverty in developing countries. The last finding remains limited because the coefficient is not statistically significant. The illustration of the outcome focuses on the lack of data about ineffective income redistribution, or regarding the contribution of some specific economic field as agriculture.

Remote farms in Africa are cultivated lands planned for 100% sustainable energy and organic agriculture in the future. This paper presents the load frequency control of a two-area power system feeding those farms. The power system is supplied by renewable technologies and storage facilities only which are photovoltaics, biogas, biodiesel, solar thermal, battery storage and flywheel storage systems. Each of those facilities has 150-kW capacity. This paper presents a model for each renewable energy technology and energy storage facility. The frequency is controlled by using a novel non-linear fractional order proportional integral derivative control scheme (NFOPID). The novel scheme is compared to a non-linear PID controller (NPID), fractional order PID controller (FOPID), and conventional PID. The effect of the different degradation factors related to the communication infrastructure, such as the time delay and packet loss, are modeled and simulated to assess the controlled system performance. A new cost function is presented in this research. The four controllers are tuned by novel poor and rich optimization (PRO) algorithm at different operating conditions. PRO controller design is compared to other state of the art techniques in this paper. The results show that the PRO design for a novel NFOPID controller has a promising future in load frequency control considering communication delays and packet loss. The simulation and optimization are applied on MATLAB/SIMULINK 2017a environment.

This article analyzes the effects of household-level activity choices on farm household welfare in a developing country affected by mass violent armed conflict. The study uses household survey data from postwar Nampula and Cabo Delgado provinces in Northern Mozambique capturing many activity choices, including market participation, risk and activity diversification, cotton adoption, and social exchange, as well as income-and consumption-based measures of welfare. The study advances the literature on postwar coping and rural poverty at the micro level by estimating potentially endogenous activity choices and welfare outcomes using instrumental variables. The study finds that increasing the cultivated area and on-farm activities enhances postwar welfare of smallholders exploiting wartime survival techniques. Subsistence farming reduces income but does not affect consumption, while market participation has positive welfare effects. This suggests that postwar reconstruction policies should encourage the wartime crop mix but offer enhanced marketing opportunities for such crops. Cotton adoption, which was promoted by aid agencies in the postwar period, reduces household welfare per capita by between 16% and 31%, controlling for market access. This contradicts previous studies of postwar rural development that did not control for the war-related endogeneity. Hence, addressing the potential endogeneity of activity choices is important because the standard regression approach may lead to biased estimates of the impact of activity choice on welfare, which in turn may lead to biased policy advice. The article discusses and contextualizes these findings, concluding with a discussion of suitable pro-poor reconstruction policies for national governments and donors.

The relationship between environmental change, local knowledge systems and livelihood sustainability has received increased scholarly attention over the past few decades. However, the inter-linkages and emerging dynamics of knowledge systems in response to environmental change is still a grey area. This paper explores the dynamics of local knowledge systems for adapting crop farming to environmental change in the Wa Municipality, northern Ghana. The study employed a mixed methods research approach to collect data from four farming communities. Qualitative data was collected through in-depth interviews of Key Informants and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with women, men and youth groups involved in farming. This was complemented by a household survey that targeted 200 farmers. The results show that farmers have resorted to integration of indigenous and new external knowledge systems for diversifying crop varieties and soil and water conservation strategies for adapting crop farming to environmental change, particularly, climate change and soil degradation. Drawing on the results, the paper advocates that Development Planning (DP) should emphasize an Endogenous Development (ED) approach and promote pro-poor approaches to crop diversification and integrated soil and water conservation for achieving inclusive environmental and livelihood sustainability in smallholder agriculture in the Wa Municipality and country at large.

The rural transport infrastructure sector is a critical force for sustainable development that is interwoven with many other sectors. Rural transportation is an underlying driver of many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and a crucial contributor to many socioeconomic benefits for rural people around the world. This review paper expands upon, enhances, and cross-references the perspectives outlined in previous rural infrastructure-focused review papers. Firstly, this work gives a thorough look into the progress of the rural transportation sector in recent years by focusing on the thematic relationships between infrastructure and other components of sustainable development, namely, economics and agriculture, policy and governance, health, gender, education, and climate change and the environment. Secondly, several strategies, approaches, and tools employed by governments and practitioners within the rural transport sector are analyzed and discussed for their contributions to the wellbeing of rural dwellers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). These include rural roads, bridges, maintenance, and non-infrastructural approaches that include concepts such as advanced technological innovations, intermediate modes of transport (IMTs), and transport services. This paper concludes that enhancement, improvement, and extension of rural transportation infrastructure brings significant benefits to rural dwellers. However, this paper also calls for additional integration of the sector and increased usage of systems approaches that view rural transport as an active part of many other sectors and a key leverage point within rural development as a whole. Further, this paper notes areas for future research and investigation, including increased investigation of the relationship between rural transportation infrastructure and education, improved data collection and management in support of improved policymaking, improved prioritization of interventions and institutionalization of maintenance, and expansion of pro-poor transportation strategies and interventions.

Food and nutrition security remain at the top of development priorities in low income countries. This is especially the case for smallholder farmers who derive their livelihood from agriculture yet are often the most deprived. Inclusive agribusinesses have been championed as a key strategy to address local constraints that limit smallholders’ participation in regional and global value chains, thereby enhancing their livelihood, and food and nutrition security, accordingly. In this paper, based on a mixed method research approach, we explore the potential food and security contribution of inclusive agribusiness in Makueni county, Kenya. We focus on the smallholders’ constraints and needs, exploring the extent to which these are addressed by such purported pro-poor approach. First, using independent sample t-tests and a probit regression model, we explore who are able to participate in an ongoing intervention. We compare how participants and non-participants differ in terms of key socio-economic characteristics and establish which of these attributes are associated with successful integration into the business. Second, we again use independent sample t-tests to determine how the participants and non-participants compare in terms of their food and nutrition security. The household food and nutrition security is assessed with the conventional measurement tools: the household food insecurity access scale and the household food dietary diversity score. We find that participation in the inclusive agribusiness favors smallholder households with relatively higher production capacity in terms of better physical capital (land and number of mango trees, financial capital), access to loans, and human capital (age, education, and family size). Following income improvement, the participants’ household food security situation is significantly better than for non-participants. However, participation does not improve household dietary diversity, implying that improvement in income does not necessarily lead to better household nutrition security. To address the limitations of inclusive agribusiness, we propose policymakers and development actors to critically explore the contextual background prior to intervention design and implementation, and accordingly devise a broader approach for more inclusivity of the very poor and marginalized, and better food and nutrition security outcomes as a result. Given that not every smallholder could benefit from inclusive agribusiness for their food needs due to resource scarcity, alternative livelihood supports, including social protection programs and safety net plans, should be considered.

BackgroundCancer immunotherapy has established itself as the fourth pillar of cancer treatment thanks to the clinical success of checkpoint inhibitors. However, durable anti-tumor responses following immunotherapy are still limited to certain cancer types, and only a fraction of patients respond to the treatment, demonstrating the need for additional immunotherapeutic agents. Preclinical and clinical studies have demonstrated the promise of cytokine therapy to increase antitumor immunity. One of these key cytokines, interleukin-2 (IL-2), is approved for clinical use in metastatic melanoma and renal cell carcinoma. Unfortunately, this treatment requires dosing every 8 hours due to its poor pharmacokinetic profile and is linked to serious toxicities which limits its utility.MethodsTo address these limitations, we designed WTX-124, an IL-2 pro-drug (IL-2 INDUKINE™ protein) that takes advantage of dysregulated protease activity in the tumor microenvironment (TME) to selectively deliver active IL-2 to the tumor after systemic administration. Peripheral inactivation is achieved by linking the cytokine to an inactivation domain using a tumor protease-sensitive linker. The INDUKINE™ molecule is also engineered with a half-life extension element to improve the pharmacokinetic profile and maintain longer exposure in the tumor. Once the IL-2 INDUKINE™ protein reaches the tumor, tumor-associated proteases cleave the linker and release the fully active cytokine.ResultsTreatment with WTX-124 resulted in the complete rejection of MC38 tumors in a manner dependent on proteolytic processing of the INDUKINE™ protein, as a non-cleavable version of WTX 124 lacked anti-tumor activity. Furthermore, the INDUKINE™ format greatly enhanced the PK profile of WTX 124 over free IL-2, resulting in greater exposure with less overall dosing, and demonstrating a favorable accumulation of free IL-2 in tumors compared to plasma. Mechanistically, WTX 124 treatment drove the expansion and activation of tumor infiltrating CD8+ T cells and NK cells which increased the production of effector cytokines in the tumor. This resulted in tumor rejection that translated into durable immune memory, as animals that rejected the tumors upon IL-2 INDUKINE™ protein treatment were protected against a subsequent re-challenge with the same tumor cells. WTX 124 also demonstrated favorable pharmacokinetic and tolerability characteristics in cynomolgus monkeys resulting in minimal release of IL-2 in the periphery.ConclusionsThe combination of tumor-selective activation of WTX-124 with reduced peripheral toxicities and its favorable pharmacokinetic profile supports moving this compound into clinical development.Ethics ApprovalAll animal in vivo work was performed in accordance with current regulations and standards of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the NIH.

Drawing on two action-research projects conducted between 2007 and 2011, this paper compares the benefits of pro-poor microtrade arrangements for smallholder litchi growers in northern Thailand and small-scale vanilla growers in northwestern Tanzania. The case studies combine various qualitative and participatory research methods with an in-depth analysis of the underlying social, economic and knowledge networks. Theoretically, our research is grounded in the concept of strategic niche management, which emphasizes networking, experiential learning, and the convergence of expectations among producers, exporters, consumers and supporting agencies. Our findings suggest that community-based microtrade with high-value agricultural products can be particularly beneficial for small producers and marginalized groups, such as women and the elderly. Evidence from the comparative study of the two cases further underscores the importance of external knowledge and innovation intermediaries in the formation of community-based and pro-poor microtrade arrangements. We conclude that long-term knowledge and innovation partnerships need to be established to successfully connect smallholder farmers to international markets and to carefully balance the power differentials among all actors along the supply chain.

Based on the micro-survey data of rural households in China’s Loess Plateau and Qinba Mountains, this paper empirically examines the poverty reduction effect and mechanism of adaptation to climate change. The research conclusions show that the adaptation actions can significantly reduce the poverty vulnerability of farmers, especially the future incidence of poverty in agricultural or poor households to a greater extent, which is characterized by a “pro-poor” effect. Adaptation actions can reduce poverty from two aspects: decreasing the expected income volatility (loss mitigation effect) and increasing the expected income level (opportunity effect), and the former is stronger than the latter. In the post-2020 period, China should enhance policy support in rural areas to adapt to climate change, improve the resilience of farmers’ livelihoods and climate change resilience of rural areas, and promote sustainable poverty reduction.

The study of economic growth and poverty is one of the main research themes of today’s social economics and development. This study analyzes the decomposition of different total and sectoral growth effects on poverty. The study was conducted in Riau Province, covering 12 regions with time-series data between 2017-2020 as panel data. Analysis of the effect of sectoral economic growth on poverty using the models of Ravallion and Datt (1996) and Christiaensen et al. (2011). All regression estimates use fixed effect and random effects estimators. The estimation results revealed that labor productivity and expansion of labor force reduce poverty in Riau by 3.82% and 2.85% in the agricultural sector, respectively, while 0.10% and 1.97% in the non-agricultural sector. Agricultural sector are likely to have higher effect of labor productivity and labor force expansion than the non-agricultural sector. Eventually, based on research findings, this study offers some policy for alleviating poverty: encourage higher growth in the agricultural sector and other sectors that are closely related to the agricultural sector and characterized by high pro-poor potential, in this case the trade sector, agricultural product processing industry and transportation services. In addition, it is necessary to create better job opportunities in order to provide employment opportunities in the formal sector considering that the informal sector is often a transitional sector for unskilled and semi-skilled agricultural sector labor, which in turn increase the living standard of people and reduce poverty

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to reveal the internal mechanism of the deviation of targeted poverty alleviation under the condition of asymmetric information.Design/methodology/approachIntroducing a traditional signaling game theory model with dynamic asymmetric information, this study uses a dataset covering 813 poor households from Southern Xinjiang, China, to theoretically and empirically study the effect of aspiration of the poor households on poverty alleviation.FindingsFirst, there exists asymmetric information between the poor households and village leaders. Second, the “short, arbitrary and fast” poverty alleviation approach may quickly pull people out of poverty, but it may also nurture a dependency culture where poor households lose their aspiration and ability to escape poverty through their own efforts. Third, due to long lasting universal state support, poor households in the national designated poor counties are less able and ambitious to escape poverty by themselves than their counterparts living in the national nondesignated areas.Originality/valueThe research results show that pro-poor development policies should be upheld to improve the residual utility that can benefit all households as a result of the poverty alleviation campaign. Relevant policy recommendations are made for China's continuous effort to fight relative poverty beyond 2020.

The objective of this paper is to analyse the olive oil value chain (OVC) in the Governorate of Medenine (south-east of Tunisia) and the relationships between its main operators for an effective involvement and better performance and resilience of olive sector. Based on semi structured interviews and participatory multi-stakeholders’ workshops, OVC has been analysed and described. MACTOR approach has been applied to establish linkages among chain operators and activities in a partnership approach. Innovative interventions were proposed to strengthen farmers’ organizations to increase profitability of OVC. Empirical findings suggest that public-private-civil society partnerships are essential for the development of pro-poor approaches for uncovering technological and institutional innovations which may involve more inclusive olive oil value chains. The underpinnings of our argument will be of interest and value to both development practitioners and the research community engaged within Tunisia, and the wider region more generally, on initiatives aimed at fostering effective, inclusive and contextually relevant processes for agricultural innovation. ---- , , ,.

Research on poverty in relation to public spending has never been as vigorous as it is now. Public spending has along-run effect in reducing the likelihood of being poor. This study estimated the benefit incidence analysis, progressivity of benefit and marginal benefit incidence of public spending on selected social utilities in Tanzania using the household budget surveys of 2000/01 and 2007. Benefit incidence and progressivity of benefit were estimated using the distributive analysis stata package procedure. The result of the analyses shows that public spending on social utilities in Tanzania is not pro-poor. The marginal benefit incidence analysis shows that the poorest quintile can only benefit more than the richest quintile from extra spending on the social utility in which the current accessibility is high. This is mostly the case of primary education as estimated in this study. Finally, from the findings of this study we recommend more efforts by the government to make public spending in Tanzania pro-poor to accelerate the speed at which the poor benefit more from increases in access to social utilities. One of the major ways in which the government can make public spending pro-poor is spending on the sectors that benefit more the poor people such as on social infrastructure (health and education), and on agriculture. JEL Classification: D21

Taste and Lively Matter in the Anthropocene This paper is concerned with the role of taste in relation to food produced in backyard or community gardens. Taste, as outlined by Bourdieu, is constructed by many factors driven primarily by one’s economic position as well as certain cultural influences. Such arguments tend to work against a naïve reading of the “natural” attributes of food and the biological impulses and responses humans have to taste. Instead, within these frameworks, taste is positioned as a product of the machinations of human society. Along these lines, it is generally accepted that the economic and, consequently, the social shaping of tastes today have been significantly impacted on by the rise of international agribusiness throughout the twentieth century. These processes have greatly reduced the varieties of food commercially available due to an emphasis on economies of scale that require the production of food that can be grown in monocultures and which can withstand long transport times (Norberg-Hodge, Thrupp, Shiva). Of course, there are also other factors at play in relation to taste that give rise to distinction between classes. This includes the ways in which we perform our bodies and shape them in the face of our social and economic conditions. Many studies in this area focus on eating disorders and how control of food intake cannot be read simply as examples of disciplined or deviant bodies (Bordo, Probyn, Ferreday). Instead, the links between food and subjectivity are much more complex. However, despite the contradictions and nuance acknowledged in relation to understandings of food, it is primarily conceptualised as an economic and symbolic good that is controlled by humans and human informed processes. In line with the above observations, literature on food provisioning choices in the areas of food sociology and human geography tends to focus on efforts to understand food purchasing decisions and eating habits. There is a strong political-economic dimension to this research even when its cultural-symbolic value is acknowledged. This is highlighted by the work of Julie Guthman which, among other things, explores “the conversion of tastes into commodities (as well as the reverse)” (“Commodified” 296). Guthman’s analysis of alternative food networks, particularly the organic sector and farmers markets, has tended to reaffirm a Bourdieuan understanding of class and distinction whereby certain foods become appropriated by elites, driving up price and removing it from the reach of ordinary consumers (“Commodified”, “Fast Food”). There has also been, however, some recognition of the limits of such approaches and acknowledgement of the fragility and porous nature of boundaries in the food arena. For example, Jordan points out in her study of the heirloom tomato that, even when a food is appropriated by elites, thereby significantly increasing its cost, consumption of the food and its cultural-symbolic meaning can continue unchanged by those who have traditionally produced and consumed the food privately in their gardens. Guthman is quite right to highlight the presence of huge inequities in both mainstream and alternative food systems throughout the world. Food may, however, be able to disrupt the dominance of these economic and social representations through its very own agentic qualities. To explore this idea, this paper draws on the work of political theorist, Jane Bennett, and eco-feminist, Val Plumwood, and applies some of their key insights to data gathered through in-depth interviews with 20 community gardeners and 7 Canberra Show exhibitors carried out from 2009 to 2012. These interviews were approximately 1 to 2 hours long in duration and were carried out in, or following, an extensive tour of the gardens of the participants, during which tastings of the produce were regularly offered to the interviewers. Jane Bennett sets out to develop a theoretical approach which she names “thing-power materialism” which is grounded in the idea that objects, including food, have agency (354). Bennett conceptualises this idea through her notion of “lively matter” and the “thing power” of objects which she defines as “the curious ability of inanimate things to animate, to act, to produce effects dramatic and subtle” (“The force” 351, “Vibrant”). The basic idea here is that if we are willing to read agency into the nonhuman things around us, then we become forced to recognise that humans are simply one more element of a world of things which can act on, with or against others through various assemblages (Deleuze and Guatarri). These assemblages can be made, undone and rebuilt in multiple ways. The power of the elements to act within these may not be equal, but nor are they stable and static. For Bennett, this is not simply a return to previous materialist theories premised on naïve notions of object agency. It is, instead, a theory motivated by attempts to develop understandings and strategies that encourage engaged ecological living practices which seek to avoid ongoing human-inflicted environmental damage caused by the “master rationality” (Plumwood) that has fuelled the era of the anthropocene, the first geological era shaped by human action. Anthropocentric thinking and its assumptions of human superiority and separateness to other elements of our ecological mesh (Morton “Thinking”) has been identified as fuelling wasteful, exploitative, environmentally damaging practices. It acts as a key impediment to the embrace of attitudinal and behavioural changes that could promote more ecologically responsible and sustainable living practices. These ideas are particularly prominent in the fields of ecological humanities, ecological feminism and political theory (Bennett “The force”, “Vibrant”; Morton “Ecological”, “Thinking”, “Ecology”; Plumwood). To redress these issues and reduce further human-inflicted environmental damage, work in these spaces tends to highlight the importance of identifying the interconnections and mutual reliance between humans and nonhumans in order to sustain life. Thus, this work challenges the “master rationality” of the anthropocene by highlighting the agentic (Bennett “The force,” “Vibrant”) or actant (Latour) qualities of nonhumans. In this spirit, Plumwood writes that we need to develop “an environmental culture that values and fully acknowledges the nonhuman sphere and our dependency on it, and is able to make good decisions about how we live and impact on the nonhuman world” (3). Food, as a basic human need, and its very gustatory taste, is animated by nonhuman elements. The role of these nonhumans is particularly visible to those who engage in their own gardening practices. As such, the ways in which gardeners understand and speak of these processes may provide insights into how an environmental culture as envisaged by Plumwood could be supported, harnessed and shared. The brevity of this paper means only a quick skim of the murky ontological waters into which its wades can be provided. The overarching aim is to identify how the recent resurgence of cultural materiality can be linked to the ways in which everyday people conceptualise and articulate their food provisioning practices. In so doing, it demonstrates that gardeners can conceptualise their food, and the biological processes as well as the nonhuman labour which bring it to fruition, as having actant qualities. This is most overtly recognised through the gardeners’ discussions of how their daily habits and routines alter in response to the qualities and “needs” of their food producing gardens. The gardeners do not express this in a strict nature/culture binary. Instead, they indicate an awareness of the interconnectedness and mutual reliance of the human and nonhuman worlds. In this way, understandings of “taste,” as produced by human centred relations predicated on exchange of capital, are being rethought. This rethinking may offer ways of promoting a more sustainable engagement with ecological beliefs and behaviours which work against the very notion of human dominance that produced the era of the anthropocene. Local Food, Taste and Nonhuman Agency Recent years have seen an increase in the purchasing, sale and growing of local food. This has materialised in multiple forms from backyard, verge and community gardens to the significant growth of farmers markets. Such shifts are attributed to increasing resistance to the privileging of globalised and industrial-scale agri-business, practices which highlight the “master rationality” underpinning the anthropocene. This backlash has been linked to environmental motivations (Seyfang “Shopping,” “Ecological,” “Growing”); desires to support local economies (particularly the financial well-being of farmers) (Norberg-Hodge); and health concerns in relation to the use of chemicals in food production (Goodman and Goodman). Despite evidence that people grow or buy food based on gustatory taste, this has received less overt attention as a motivator for food provisioning practices in the literature (Hugner). Where it is examined, taste is generally seen as a social/cultural phenomenon shaped by the ideas related to the environmental, economic and health concerns mentioned above. However, when consumers discuss taste they also refer to notions of freshness, the varieties of food that are available, and nostalgia for the “way food used to be”. Taste in its gustatory sense and pleasure from food consumption is alluded to in all of the interviews carried out for this research. While the reasons for gardening are multiple and varied, there is a common desire to produce food that tastes better and, thus, induces greater pleasure than purchased food. As one backyard gardener and successful Royal Canberra Show exhibitor notes: “[e]verything that you put [grow] in the garden [has a] better taste than from the market or from the shop.” The extent of this difference was often a surprise for the gardeners: “I never knew a home grown potato could taste so different from a shop bought potato until I grew [my own] […] and I couldn’t believe the taste.” The gardeners in this research all agreed that the taste of commercially available fruit and vegetables was inferior to self-produced food. This was attributed to the multiple characteristics of industrialised food systems. Participants referred specifically to issues ranging from reduction in the varieties available to the chemical intensive practices designed to lead to high yields in short periods of time. The resulting poor taste of such foods was exemplified by comments such as shop bought tomatoes “don’t taste like tomatoes” and the belief that “[p]otatoes and strawberries from the shop taste the same as each other”. Even when gardeners raised health concerns about mainstream food, emphasising their delight in growing their own because they “knew what had gone into their food” (Turner, “Embodied”), the issue of taste continued to play an important role in influencing their gardening practices. One gardener stated: “I prefer more [food that] is tasty than one that is healthy for me”. The tastiest food for her came from her own community garden plot and this motivated her to travel across town most days to tend the garden. While tasty food was often seen as being more nutritious, this was not the key driver in food production. The superior taste of the fruit and vegetables grown by these gardeners in Canberra calls their bodies and minds into action to avoid poor tasting food. This desire for tasty food was viewed as common to the general population but was strongly identified as only being accessible to people who grow their own. A backyard gardener, speaking of the residents of an aged care facility where he volunteers observes: “[w]hen you…meet these people they've lost that ability to do any gardening and they really express it. They miss the taste, the flavours.” Another backyard gardener and Show exhibitor recounted a story from two years prior when he and his wife invited guests for a New Year’s Day lunch. While eating their meal, a guest asked “did you grow these carrots?” When he confirmed that he had, she declared: “I can taste it.” Others noted that many young people don’t know what they are missing out on because they have never tasted home-grown produce. Through the sense of taste, the tomatoes, potatoes and carrots and myriad of other foodstuffs grown at homes or in community gardens actively encourage resistance to, or questioning of, the industrial agricultural system and its outputs. The gardeners link poor tasting food to a loss of human responsiveness to plants resulting from the spatial characteristics of industrial agriculture. Modern agribusiness requires large-scale, global production and streamlined agricultural processes that aim to limit the need for producers to respond to unique climatic and soil conditions (through genetically modification technology, see Turner, “Reflections”) and removes the need, and capacity, for individual care of plants. This has led to heavy reliance on agricultural chemicals. The gardeners tend to link high-level usage of pesticides and herbicides with poor taste. One highly successful Show exhibitor, states that in his food, “There’s better taste …because they haven’t got the chemicals in them, not much spray, not much fertiliser, for that is better”. However, when chemical use is limited or removed, the gardeners acknowledge that food plants require more intensive and responsive human care. This involves almost daily inspection of individual plants to pick off and squash (or feed to chickens and birds) the harmful bugs. The gardeners need to be vigilant and capable of developing innovative techniques to ensure the survival of their plants and the production of tasty food. They are, of course, not always successful. One organic community gardener lamented the rising populations of slaters and earwigs which could decimate whole beds of newly sprouted seedlings overnight. This was a common issue and, in response, the gardeners research and trial new methods of control (including encouraging the introduction of “good” bugs into the ecosystem through particular plantings). Ultimately, however, the gardeners were resigned to “learn[ing] to live with them [the ‘bad’ bugs]” while exerting regular bodily and mental efforts to reduce their populations and maximise their own food production. The lack of ultimate control over their growing patch, and the food it could produce, was acknowledged by the gardeners. There was an awareness and understanding of the role nonhuman elements play in food production, ranging from weather conditions to soil microbes to bugs. The gardeners talk of how their care-giving is responsive to these elements. As one community gardener asserts: “…we prefer to … garden in a way that naturally strengthens the plant immune system.” This involves regular attention to soil microbes and the practice of what was referred to as “homeopathic” gardening. Through a responsive approach to the “needs” of plants, the soil, and other nonhuman elements, the plants then delivered “vitamins and minerals” to the gardeners, packaged in tasty food. The tastiest foods ensured their survival through seed-saving practices: “[i]f something tastes good, we’ll save the seed from it”. In this way, the plant’s taste encourages gardeners to invest their human labour to secure its future. The production of tasty food was understood to be reliant on collaborative, iterative and ongoing efforts between human and nonhuman elements. While gardening has often been represented as an attempt to bend nature to the will of humans (Power), the gardeners in this study spoke about working with nature in their quest to produce good tasting food. This was particularly evident in the interviews with gardeners who exhibit produce in the Canberra Show (see NMA for further details). However, despite the fact that taste is the key motivator for growing their own food, it is not a factor in Show judging. Instead, fruit and vegetable entries (those not turned into value added goods such as jams or relishes) are judged on appearance. While this focus on appearance tends to perpetuate the myth that the fruits and vegetables we consume should conform to an ideal type that are blemish free and uniform in size (just as is prized in industrialised agriculture), the act of gardening for the Show and the process of selecting produce to enter, contradicted this assumption. Instead, entering the Show seemed to reinforce awareness of the limits of human control over nature and emphasise the very agency of nonhuman elements. This is highlighted by one exhibitor and community gardener who states: I suppose you grow vegetables for the enjoyment of eating them, but there’s also that side of getting enough and perfecting the vegetables and getting… sometimes it’s all down to the day of whether you’ve got three of something, if it’s the right size and colour and so I’ll enter it [in the Show] on the day instead of putting an entry form in before …you just don’t know what you’re going to have, the bugs decide to eat this or the mice get it or something. There’s always something. In this way, where “there’s always something” waiting to disrupt a gardener’s best laid plans, the exhibitors involved in this project seem to be acutely aware of the agency of nonhumans. In these interviews there is evidence that nonhuman elements act on the gardeners, forcing them to alter their behaviours and engage with plants to meet both of their needs. While perfect specimens can sometimes be grown for the Show, the gardeners acknowledge that this can only be done with an element of luck and careful cultivation of the partnership between human and nonhuman elements in the garden. And, even then, you never know what might happen. This lack of ultimate control is part of the challenge and, thus, the appeal, of competing in the Show. Conclusion The era of the anthropocene demonstrates the consequences of human blindness to ecological matters. Myths of human supremacy and a failure to respect nonhuman elements have fuelled a destructive and wasteful mentality that is having serious consequences for our environment. This has prompted efforts to identify new environmental cultures to promote the adoption of more sustainable lifestyles. The resurgence of cultural materialism and the agentic capacity of objects is one key way in which this is being explored as a means of promoting new ethical approaches to how humans live their lives enmeshed with nonhumans. Food, as a basic necessity, provides a key way in which the interconnected relationships between humans and nonhumans can be brought to the fore. Taste, as a biological response and organic attribute of foodstuffs, can induce humans to act. It can cause us to alter our daily habits, behaviours and beliefs. Perhaps a more attentive approach to food, its taste and how it is produced could provide a framework for rethinking human/nature relations by emphasising the very limits of human control. References Bordo, Susan. Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture and the Body. Berkeley, CA: U of California P, 1993. Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Trans. R. Nice. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1984. Bennett, Jane. “The Force of Things: Steps Toward an Ecology of Matter.” Political Theory 32.3 (2004): 347–372. ---. Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology Of Things. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 2010. Deleuze, Gilles, and Felix Guattari. A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1993. Ferreday, Donna. “Unspeakable Bodies: Erasure, Embodiment and the Pro-Ana Community.” International Journal of Cultural Studies 6 (2003): 277–295. Goodman, David, and Michael Goodman. “Alternative Food networks.” International Encyclopedia of Human Geography. Ed. R. Kitchin and N. Thrift. Oxford: Elsevier, 2008. Guthman, Julie. “Commodified Meanings, Meaningful Commodities: Re–thinking Production–Consumption Links through the Organic System of Provision.” Sociologia Ruralis 42.4 (2002): 295–311. ---. “Fast Food/Organic Food: Reflexive Tastes and the Making of ‘Yuppie Chow’.” Social and Cultural Geography 4.1 (2003): 45–58. Hugner, Renee. S., Pierre McDonagh, Andrea Prothero, Clifford J. Scultz, and Julie Stanton. “Who Are Organic Food Consumers?: A Compilation And Review Of Why People Purchase Organic Food.” Journal of Consumer Behaviour 6.2–3 (2007): 94–110. Jordan, Jennifer A. “The Heirloom Tomato as Cultural Object: Investigating Taste and Space.” Sociologia Ruralis 47.1 (2007): 20–41. Latour, Bruno. Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers Through Society. Milton Keynes: Open UP, 1987. Morton, Timothy. The Ecological Thought. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010. ---. “Thinking Ecology, the Mesh, the Strange Stranger and the Beautiful Soul.” Collapse VI (2010): 265–293. ---. Ecology without Nature. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2007. National Museum of Australia Urban Farming and the Agricultural Show. 12 Mar. 2014. ‹http://www.nma.gov.au/online_features/urban_farming_agricultural_show/home›. Norberg-Hodge, Helena. “Beyond the Monoculture: Strengthening Local Culture, Economy and Knowledge.” The Journal of Sustainability Education. 19 Mar. 2012. 13 Mar. 2014 ‹http://www.jsedimensions.org/wordpress/content/beyond-the-monoculture-strengthening-local-culture-economy-and-knowledge_2012_03›. Plumwood, Val. Environmental Culture: The Ecological Crisis of Reason. London and New York: Routledge, 2002. Power, Emma. “Human-Nature Relations in Suburban Gardens.” Australian Geographer 36.1 (2005): 39–53. Probyn, Elspeth. Carnal Appetites: Foodsexidentites. London: Routledge, 2000. Seyfang, Gil. “Shopping for Sustainability: Can Sustainable Consumption Promote Ecological Citizenship?”. Environmental Politics 14.2 (2005): 290–306. -----. “Ecological Citizenship and Sustainable Consumption: Examining Local Organic Food Networks.” Journal of Rural Studies 22 (2006): 383–395. -----. “Growing Sustainable Consumption Communities: The Case Of Local Organic Food Networks.” International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 27.3/4 (2007): 120–134. Shiva, Vandana. Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply. Cambridge, MA: South End P, 2000. Thrupp, Lori Ann. “Linking Agricultural Biodiversity and Food Security.” International Affairs 76.2 (2000): 265–282. Turner, Bethaney. “Embodied Connections: Sustainability, Food Systems And Community Gardens.” Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability 16.6 (2011): 509-522. ---. “Reflections On a New Technology”. National Museum of Australia 2012. 12 Mar. 2014. ‹http://www.nma.gov.au/history/pate/objects/collection_reflections/genetically_modified_food_and_farming›. Acknowledgements Thank you to the gardeners who volunteered to be part of this study. The interviews related to the Royal Canberra Show were carried out as part of a collaborative project between the Faculty of Arts and Design at the University of Canberra (Joanna Henryks and Bethaney Turner) and the People and the Environment team (George Main and Kirsten Wehner) at the National Museum of Australia.

We need a clear, unified, and consistent voice to effect the complete dismantling, the abolition, of the mechanisms of animal exploitation.And that will only come from what we say and do, no matter who we are.— Gary L. Francione, animal rights theoristThe history of hashtags is relatively short but littered with the remnants of corporate hashtags which may have seemed a good idea at the time within the confines of the boardroom. It is difficult to understand the rationale behind the use of hashtags as an effective communications tactic in 2019 by corporations when a quick stroll through their recent past leaves behind the much-derided #qantasluxury (Glance), #McDstories (Hill), and #myNYPD (Tran).While hashtags have an obvious purpose in bringing together like-minded publics and facilitating conversation (Kwye et al. 1), they have also regularly been the subject of “hashtag takeovers” by activists and other interested parties, and even by trolls, as the Ecological Society of Australia found in 2015 when their seemingly innocuous #ESA15 hashtag was taken over with pornographic images (news.com.au). Hashtag takeovers have also been used as a dubious marketing tactic, where smaller and less well-known brands tag their products with trending hashtags such as #iphone in order to boost their audience (Social Garden). Hashtags are increasingly used as a way for activists or other interested parties to disrupt a message. It is, I argue, predictable that any hashtag related to an even slightly controversial topic will be subject to some form of activist hashtag takeover, with varying degrees of success.That veganism and the dairy industry should attract such conflict is unsurprising given that the two are natural enemies, with vegans in particular seeming to anticipate and actively engage in the battle for the opposing hashtag.Using a comparative analysis of the #Veganuary and #Februdairy hashtags and how they have been used by both pro-vegan and pro-dairy social media users, this article illustrates that the enthusiastic and well-meaning social media efforts of farmers and dairy supporters have so far been unable to counteract those of well-organised and equally passionate vegan activists. This analysis compares tweets in the first week of the respective campaigns, concluding that organisations, industries and their representatives should be extremely wary of engaging said activists who are not only highly-skilled but are also highly-motivated. Grassroots, ideology-driven activism is a formidable opponent in any public space, let alone when it takes place on the outspoken and unstructured landscape of social media which is sometimes described as the “wild West” (Fitch 5) where anything goes and authenticity and plain-speaking is key (Macnamara 12).I Say Hashtag, You Say Bashtag#Februdairy was launched in 2018 to promote the benefits of dairy. The idea was first mooted on Twitter in 2018 by academic Dr Jude Capper, a livestock sustainability consultant, who called for “28 days, 28 positive dairy posts” (@Bovidiva; Howell). It was a response to the popular Veganuary campaign which aimed to “inspire people to try vegan for January and throughout the rest of the year”, a campaign which had gained significant traction both online and in the traditional media since its inception in 2014 (Veganuary). Hopes were high: “#Februdairy will be one month of dairy people posting, liking and retweeting examples of what we do and why we do it” (Yates). However, the #Februdairy hashtag has been effectively disrupted and has now entered the realm of a bashtag, a hashtag appropriated by activists for their own purpose (Austin and Jin 341).The Dairy Industry (Look Out the Vegans Are Coming)It would appear that the dairy industry is experiencing difficulties in public perception. While milk consumption is declining, sales of plant-based milks are increasing (Kaiserman) and a growing body of health research has questioned whether dairy products and milk in particular do in fact “do a body good” (Saccaro; Harvard Milk Study). In the 2019 review of Canada’s food guide, its first revision since 2007, for instance, the focus is now on eating plant-based foods with dairy’s former place significantly downgraded. Dairy products no longer have their own distinct section and are instead placed alongside other proteins including lentils (Pippus).Nevertheless, the industry has persevered with its traditional marketing and public relations activities, choosing to largely avoid addressing animal welfare concerns brought to light by activists. They have instead focused their message towards countering concerns about the health benefits of milk. In the US, the Milk Processing Education Program’s long-running celebrity-driven Got Milk campaign has been updated with Milk Life, a health focused campaign, featuring images of children and young people living an active lifestyle and taking part in activities such as skateboarding, running, and playing basketball (Milk Life). Interestingly, and somewhat inexplicably, Milk Life’s home page features the prominent headline, “How Milk Can Bring You Closer to Your Loved Ones”.It is somewhat reflective of the current trend towards veganism that tennis aces Serena and Venus Williams, both former Got Milk ambassadors, are now proponents for the plant-based lifestyle, with Venus crediting her newly-adopted vegan diet as instrumental in her recovery from an auto-immune disease (Mango).The dairy industry’s health focus continues in Australia, as well as the use of the word love, with former AFL footballer Shane Crawford—the face of the 2017 campaign Milk Loves You Back, from Lion Dairy and Drinks—focusing on reminding Australians of the reputed nutritional benefits of milk (Dawson).Dairy Australia meanwhile launched their Legendairy campaign with a somewhat different focus, promoting and lauding Australia’s dairy families, and with a message that stated, in a nod to the current issues, that “Australia’s dairy farmers and farming communities are proud, resilient and innovative” (Dairy Australia). This campaign could be perceived as a morale-boosting exercise, featuring a nation-wide search to find Australia’s most legendairy farming community (Dairy Australia). That this was also an attempt to humanise the industry seems obvious, drawing on established goodwill felt towards farmers (University of Cambridge). Again, however, this strategy did not address activists’ messages of suffering animals, factory farms, and newborn calves being isolated from their grieving mothers, and it can be argued that consumers are being forced to make the choice between who (or what) they care about more: animals or the people making their livelihoods from them.Large-scale campaigns like Legendairy which use traditional channels are of course still vitally important in shaping public opinion, with statistics from 2016 showing 85.1% of Australians continue to watch free-to-air television (Roy Morgan, “1 in 7”). However, a focus and, arguably, an over-reliance on traditional platforms means vegans and animal activists are often unchallenged when spreading their message via social media. Indeed, when we consider the breakdown in age groups inherent in these statistics, with 18.8% of 14-24 year-olds not watching any commercial television at all, an increase from 7% in 2008 (Roy Morgan, “1 in 7”), it is a brave and arguably short-sighted organisation or industry that relies primarily on traditional channels to spread their message in 2019. That these large-scale campaigns do little to address the issues raised by vegans concerning animal welfare leaves these claims largely unanswered and momentum to grow.This growth in momentum is fuelled by activist groups such as the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) who are well-known in this space, with 5,494,545 Facebook followers, 1.06 million Twitter followers, 973,000 Instagram followers, and 453,729 You Tube subscribers (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). They are also active on Pinterest, a visual-based platform suited to the kinds of images and memes particularly detrimental to the dairy industry. Although widely derided, PETA’s reach is large. A graphic video posted to Facebook on February 13 2019 and showing a suffering cow, captioned “your cheese is not worth this” was shared 1,244 times, and had 4.6 million views in just over 24 hours (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). With 95% of 12-24 year olds in Australia now using social networking sites (Statista), it is little wonder veganism is rapidly growing within this demographic (Bradbury), with The Guardian labelling the rise of veganism unstoppable (Hancox).Activist organisations are joined by prominent and charismatic vegan activists such as James Aspey (182,000 Facebook followers) and Earthling Ed (205,000 Facebook followers) in distributing information and images that are influential and often highly graphic or disturbing. Meanwhile Instagram influencers and You Tube lifestyle vloggers such as Ellen Fisher and FreeLee share information promoting vegan food and the vegan lifestyle (with 650,320 and 785,903 subscribers respectively). YouTube video Dairy Is Scary has over 5 million views (Janus) and What the Health, a follow-up documentary to Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret, promoting veganism, is now available on Netflix, which itself has 9.8 million Australian subscribers (Roy Morgan, “Netflix”). BOSH’s plant-based vegan cookbook was the fastest selling cookbook of 2018 (Chiorando).Additionally, the considerable influence of celebrities such as Miley Cyrus, Beyonce, Alicia Silverstone, Zac Efron, and Jessica Chastain, to name just a few, speaking publicly about their vegan lifestyle, encourages veganism to become mainstream and increases its widespread acceptance.However not all the dairy industry’s ills can be blamed on vegans. Rising costs, cheap imports, and other pressures (Lockhart, Donaghy and Gow) have all placed pressure on the industry. Nonetheless, in the battle for hearts and minds on social media, the vegans are leading the way.Qualitative research interviewing new vegans found converting to veganism was relatively easy, yet some respondents reported having to consult multiple resources and required additional support and education on how to be vegan (McDonald 17).Enter VeganuaryUsing a month, week or day to promote an idea or campaign, is a common public relations and marketing strategy, particularly in health communications. Dry July and Ocsober both promote alcohol abstinence, Frocktober raises funds for ovarian cancer, and Movember is an annual campaign raising awareness and funds for men’s health (Parnell). Vegans Matthew Glover and Jane Land were discussing the success of Movember when they raised the idea of creating a vegan version. Their initiative, Veganuary, urging people to try vegan for the month of January, launched in 2014 and since then 500,000 people have taken the Veganuary pledge (Veganuary).The Veganuary website is the largest of its kind on the internet. With vegan recipes, expert advice and information, it provides all the answers to Why go vegan, but it is the support offered to answer How to go vegan that truly sets Veganuary apart. (Veganuary)That Veganuary participants would use social media to discuss and share their experiences was a foregone conclusion. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are all utilised by participants, with the official Veganuary pages currently followed/liked by 159,000 Instagram followers, receiving 242,038 Facebook likes, and 45,600 Twitter followers (Veganuary). Both the Twitter and Instagram sites make effective use of hashtags to spread their reach, not only using #Veganuary but also other relevant hashtags such as #TryVegan, #VeganRecipes, and the more common #Vegan, #Farm, and #SaveAnimals.Februdairy Follows Veganuary, But Only on the CalendarCalling on farmers and dairy producers to create counter content and their own hashtag may have seemed like an idea that would achieve an overall positive response.Agricultural news sites and bloggers spread the word and even the BBC reported on the industry’s “fight back” against Veganuary (BBC). However the hashtag was quickly overwhelmed with anti-dairy activists mobilising online. Vegans issued a call to arms across social media. The Vegans in Australia Facebook group featured a number of posts urging its 58,949 members to “thunderclap” the Februdairy hashtag while the Project Calf anti-dairy campaign declared that Februdairy offered an “easy” way to spread their information (Sandhu).Februdairy farmers and dairy supporters were encouraged to tell their stories, sharing positive photographs and videos, and they did. However this content was limited. In this tweet (fig. 1) the issue of a lack of diverse content was succinctly addressed by an anti-Februdairy activist.Fig. 1: Content challenges. (#Februdairy, 2 Feb. 2019)MethodUtilising Twitter’s advanced search capability, I was able to search for #Veganuary tweets from 1 to 7 January 2019 and #Februdairy tweets from 1 to 7 February 2019. I analysed the top tweets provided by Twitter in terms of content, assessed whether the tweet was pro or anti Veganuary and Februdairy, and also categorised its content in terms of subject matter.Tweets were analysed to assess whether they were on message and aligned with the values of their associated hashtag. Veganuary tweets were considered to be on message if they promoted veganism or possessed an anti-dairy, anti-meat, or pro-animal sentiment. Februdairy tweets were assessed as on message if they promoted the consumption of dairy products, expressed sympathy or empathy towards the dairy industry, or possessed an anti-vegan sentiment. Tweets were also evaluated according to their clarity, emotional impact and coherence. The overall effectiveness of the hashtag was then evaluated based on the above criteria as well as whether they had been hijacked.Results and FindingsOverwhelmingly, the 213 #Veganuary tweets were on message. That is they were pro-Veganuary, supportive of veganism, and positive. The topics were varied and included humorous memes, environmental facts, information about the health benefits of veganism, as well as a strong focus on animals. The number of non-graphic tweets (12) concerning animals was double that of tweets featuring graphic or shocking imagery (6). Predominantly the tweets were focused on food and the sharing of recipes, with 44% of all pro #Veganuary tweets featuring recipes or images of food. Interestingly, a number of well-known corporations tweeted to promote their vegan food products, including Tesco, Aldi, Iceland, and M&S. The diversity of veganism is reflected in the tweets. Organisations used the hashtag to promote their products, including beauty and shoe products, social media influencers promoted their vegan podcasts and blogs, and, interestingly, the Ethiopian Embassy of the United Kingdom tweeted their support.There were 23 (11%) anti-Veganuary tweets. Of these, one was from Dr. Jude Capper, the founder of Februdairy. The others expressed support for farming and farmers, and a number were photographs of meat products, including sausages and fry-ups. One Australian journalist tweeted in favour of meat, stating it was yummy murder. These tweets could be described as entertaining and may perhaps serve as a means of preaching to the converted, but their ability to influence and persuade is negligible.Twitter’s search tool provided access to 141 top #Februdairy tweets. Of these 82 (52%) were a hijack of the hashtag and overtly anti-Februdairy. Vegan activists used the #Februdairy hashtag to their advantage with most of their tweets (33%) featuring non-graphic images of animals. They also tweeted about other subject matters, including environmental concerns, vegan food and products, and health issues related to dairy consumption.As noted by the activists (see fig. 1 above), most of the pro-Februdairy tweets were images of milk or dairy products (41%). Images of farms and farmers were the next most used (26%), followed by images of cows (17%) (see fig. 2). Fig. 2: An activist makes their anti-Februdairy point with a clear, engaging image and effective use of hashtags. (#Februdairy, 6 Feb. 2019)The juxtaposition between many of the tweets was also often glaring, with one contrasting message following another (see fig. 3). Fig. 3: An example of contrasting #Februdairy tweets with an image used by the activists to good effect, making their point known. (#Februdairy, 2 Feb. 2019)Storytelling is a powerful tool in public relations and marketing efforts. Yet, to be effective, high-quality content is required. That many of the Februdairy proponents had limited social media training was evident; images were blurred, film quality was poor, or they failed to make their meaning clear (see fig. 4). Fig. 4: A blurred photograph, reflective of some of the low-quality content provided by Februdairy supporters. (#Februdairy, 3 Feb. 2019)This image was tweeted in support of Februdairy. However the image and phrasing could also be used to argue against Februdairy. We can surmise that the tweeter was suggesting the cow was well looked after and seemingly content, but overall the message is as unclear as the image.While some pro-Februdairy supporters recognised the need for relevant hashtags, often their images were of a low-quality and not particularly engaging, a requirement for social media success. This requirement seems to be better understood by anti-Februdairy activists who used high-quality images and memes to create interest and gain the audience’s attention (see figs. 5 and 6). Fig. 5: An uninspiring image used to promote Februdairy. (#Februdairy, 6 Feb. 2019) Fig. 6: Anti-Februdairy activists made good use of memes, recognising the need for diverse content. (#Februdairy, 3 Feb. 2019)DiscussionWhat the #Februdairy case makes clear, then, is that in continuing its focus on traditional media, the dairy industry has left the battle online to largely untrained, non-social media savvy supporters.From a purely public relations perspective, one of the first things we ask our students to do in issues and crisis communication is to assess the risk. “What can hurt your organisation?” we ask. “What potential issues are on the horizon and what can you do to prevent them?” This is PR101 and it is difficult to understand why environmental scanning and resulting action has not been on the radar of the dairy industry long before now. It seems they have not fully anticipated or have significantly underestimated the emerging issue that public perception, animal cruelty, health concerns, and, ultimately, veganism has had on their industry and this is to their detriment. In Australia in 2015–16 the dairy industry was responsible for 8 per cent (A$4.3 billion) of the gross value of agricultural production and 7 per cent (A$3 billion) of agricultural export income (Department of Agriculture and Water Resources). When such large figures are involved and with so much at stake, it is hard to rationalise the decision not to engage in a more proactive online strategy, seeking to engage their publics, including, whether they like it or not, activists.Instead there are current attempts to address these issues with a legislative approach, lobbying for the introduction of ag-gag laws (Potter), and the limitation of terms such as milk and cheese (Worthington). However, these measures are undertaken while there is little attempt to engage with activists or to effectively counter their claims with a widespread authentic public relations campaign, and reflects a failure to understand the nature of the current online environment, momentum, and mood.That is not to say that the dairy industry is not operating in the online environment, but it does not appear to be a priority, and this is reflected in their low engagement and numbers of followers. For instance, Dairy Australia, the industry’s national service body, has a following of only 8,281 on Facebook, 6,981 on Twitter, and, crucially, they are not on Instagram. Their Twitter posts do not include hashtags and unsurprisingly they have little engagement on this platform with most tweets attracting no more than two likes. Surprisingly they have 21,013 subscribers on YouTube which featured professional and well-presented videos. This demonstrates some understanding of the importance of effective storytelling but not, as yet, trans-media storytelling.ConclusionSocial media activism is becoming more important and recognised as a legitimate voice in the public sphere. Many organisations, perhaps in recognition of this as well as a growing focus on responsible corporate behaviour, particularly in the treatment of animals, have adjusted their behaviour. From Unilever abandoning animal testing practices to ensure Dove products are certified cruelty free (Nussbaum), to Domino’s introducing vegan options, companies who are aware of emerging trends and values are changing the way they do business and are reaping the benefits of engaging with, and catering to, vegans. Domino’s sold out of vegan cheese within the first week and vegans were asked to phone ahead to their local store, so great was the demand. From their website:We knew the response was going to be big after the demand we saw for the product on social media but we had no idea it was going to be this big. (Domino’s Newsroom)As a public relations professional, I am baffled by the dairy industry’s failure to adopt a crisis-based strategy rather than largely rely on the traditional one-way communication that has served them well in the previous (golden?) pre-social media age. However, as a vegan, persuaded by the unravelling of the happy cow argument, I cannot help but hope this realisation continues to elude them.References@bovidiva. “Let’s Make #Februdairy Happen This Year. 28 Days, 28 Positive #dairy Posts. From Cute Calves and #cheese on Crumpets, to Belligerent Bulls and Juicy #beef #burgers – Who’s In?” Twitter post. 15 Jan. 2018. 1 Feb. 2019 <https://twitter.com/bovidiva/status/952910641840447488?lang=en>.Austin, Lucinda L., and Yan Jin. Social Media and Crisis Communication. 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