Students’ attitudes about fruit and vegetable quality at Slippery Rock, university of Pennsylvania.
Borsari B., Liller L.I.
5th International Postharvest Symposium . Volume of Abstract . Verona, Italy 6-11 June 2004, p.95
2004
บทคัดย่อ
Students’ attitudes about fruit and vegetable quality at Slippery Rock, university of Pennsylvania.
Agriculture in the United States has increasingly moved toward large-scale production, enhanced the use of off-farm inputs, while optimizing distribution efficiency, and centralizing food systems.These farming methods have offered benefits to some aspects of the foods sector but, whether quality of fresh produce can be maintained in the industry, constitutes a challenging field of inquiry.In recent years, SlipperyRockUniversity has been demonstrating support to a growing interest in food quality, in an effort of educating its campus community, while enhancing the economic viability of farming in the region.The purpose of this study was to assess the attitudes of students about food quality, with emphasis to fresh produce.A sample (n=365) representative for the student population at this campus was divided in five sub-samples of 73 students each, in order to study freshmen, sophomore, junior, senior, and graduate students.The subjects were randomly selected and asked to fill out the survey, during meal times, at the campus dining halls.Descriptive statistics of the demographic data (age, sex, major field of study, provenience) served as indicators of possible differences when the subjects were exposed to the ten quality attributes proposed by the survey.
An analysis of the data using a chi-square test for goodness of fit suggested that significant differences exist among students when consuming and purchasing fruit and vegetables (p=0.05).More discussion is presented to illustrate the findings in relation with the demographic characteristics of the respondents.SlipperyRockUniversity has potential to enhance food studies focused toward quality.It interest in the “Pennsylvania foods to school” program demonstrates a tangible support to a vision of sustainability and education in this part of country.