Association

• It’s quietly infiltrating our shopping trolleys in subtle ways, shaping our decisions about what we buy and who we trust, as my research shows.
• What if our choices as consumers are shaped not only by deliberate misinformation campaigns but also by subtle, indirect false information?
• I have found that one of the major consequences of these types of misinformation is the erosion of trust.

Direct and indirect misinformation

• Misinformation comes in direct and indirect forms.
• Examples of direct misinformation include fabricated customer reviews or fake news campaigns targeting brands.
• The consequences of direct misinformation can be far reaching, leading to a breakdown in brand trust.
• And my research, which reviewed the academic marketing literature on direct and indirect misinformation, argues that this constant barrage has the potential to impact consumer choices.
• Simultaneously, at the consumer level, the impact of indirect misinformation is profound.

What can brands do?

• It not only opens new avenues for researchers but also serves as a warning to brands.
• Tailoring specific marketing communications to instil trust in brands, products and offers becomes paramount in a world where trust is continually under siege.
• Researchers, brands and consumers alike need to decode the hidden messages of misinformation.

Giandomenico Di Domenico is affiliated with the International Panel on the Information Environment.

• Six of our nine planetary boundaries have now been crossed – and industrial agriculture are the main culprit.
• This notion of overstepping boundaries is clear in regard to the best-known limit of them all: that of climate change.

• Yet in the case of the planetary boundary for nitrogen, exceeding the threshold is different, as it is the industrialisation of agriculture that is largely, and more complexly, responsible for breaking the limit.
• But how can agriculture affect the nitrogen cycle?

The natural nitrogen cycle

• First, we need to understand the natural cycle of carbon and nitrogen – two of the main elements that form living matter.
• So, the boundaries of the nitrogen cycle have to remain local: any loss of nitrogen brings about a risk of soil depletion, which jeopardises continued plant growth.

• The amount of nitrogen that is lost in the atmosphere and in groundwater is therefore considerable, and this loss makes nitrogen the main limiting factor in plant growth.
• They do so through a symbiotic association with bacteria that have enzymes needed to convert molecular nitrogen into proteins.
• It is this symbiotic fixation that offsets the natural environmental loss of nitrogen and ensures that terrestrial ecosystems function perennially.

Farming and fertilisation

• Each time plants are harvested, the nitrogen contained in them is carried far away from the plot of soil where it came from.
• That is the purpose of fertilisation.
• There are many methods of fertilisation.
• Indeed, this method was the basis of traditional systems of polyculture and livestock farming.
• They quickly made traditional polyculture and livestock farming obsolete and paved the way to intensified and specialised agriculture, which was henceforth coupled with the heavy chemical industry.

Environmental nitrogen loss

• In this accelerated flow of nitrogen, what causes trouble is the environmental nitrogen loss that results from it.
• Indeed, the more nitrogenous fertilisers are used to increase crop yields, the less the added nitrogen is effective and the greater the losses through leaching and volatilisation.
• What we call the nitrogen surplus is the excess of nitrogen put into the soil in relation to the quantity actually taken away through harvesting.

Feeding the world without ruining it

• But can we reasonably scale down intensive farming without jeopardising the food security of a world that will have 10 billion mouths to feed by 2050?
• Yet we can only do so if three major structural changes are made to the entire agrifood system at the same time as intensive agriculture is toned down.
• On the contrary, this model of agriculture has now been clearly identified as a factor that disturbs the Earth’s system profoundly.
• AFP and The Conversation France have maintained their editorial independence at every stage of the project.

Gilles Billen ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.

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• The Federal Register notice states that these entities will be entitled to make oral presentations at the informal hearing on January 16, 2024.
• The link to the hearing webcast will be posted shortly before the date of the event on the FTC’s website.
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• After all, the stadium was designed by the Beijing Institute of Architectural Design and built by the Beijing Construction Engineering Group.
• In San Pedro, the Laurent Pokou Stadium was built by the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (again, state owned).
• All of this is part of a long-term policy of “stadium diplomacy” which China has been deploying across the continent.
• For instance, when Gabon co-hosted (with Equatorial Guinea) the Cup of Nations in 2012, China was involved in building both of its stadiums.
• Stadium diplomacy enables the country to extend its sphere of influence in Africa, often creating a political imbalance which leaves African nations at the behest of Beijing.

A new player

• The Gulf powerhouse is charging ahead with its own economic transformation and development, part of which involves investing hundreds of millions of dollars in sport.
• And at the heart of Saudi plans is the intention to position itself as an “Afro-Eurasian” hub of international football.
• As part of the proposed arrangement, Saudi Arabia was reportedly offering to build new stadiums in each of its partner countries.
• Some commentators accuse Saudi Arabia of trying to get Africa hooked on oil as part of a plan to offset decreasing demand elsewhere.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.