Organic cacao chain for development: the case of the Talamanca Small-Farmers Association
Costa Rica and Panama both produce only small volumes of organic cacao. Some cocoa producers started production of organic banana. APPTA has to cope with market instability due to excess supply and with low local production due to biological threats. APPTA has to find a reliable buyer and either to increase the volume of cacao or to pool its production with the production realized by COCABO in Panama. This latter option will lead to a number of associated challenges such as harmonization of quality, organizing logistics, tracking and tracing, elaborating contracts between cooperatives etc. Developing new commercialization channels towards Europe reveals three options: APPTA sells beans directly to a Dutch buyer; APPTA sells beans to a Costa Rican processor who in turn exports semi-manufactured products to Dutch producers; or beans are processed by Costa Rican industry and APPTA commits to selling semimanufactured products to Dutch producers. Each of these three options has different repercussions on labelling, quality, environmental impact and profits. Additional options to improve livelihood of cacao farmers consist of diversification of the production at farm level and developing alternative sources of income, such as eco-tourism. The real challenge facing APPTA is to determine how to bring stakeholders with different interests and competencies together in an effective way to improve chain performance and to enhance farmers’ livelihoods.
The productivist rationality behind a sustainable certification process: evidence from the Rainforest Alliance in the Ivorian cocoa sector
The pattern of sustainable standard diffusion has received much attention from social science researchers. We contribute to existing literature with a case study on the Rainforest Alliance (RA) initiative in the Ivorian cocoa sector. We scrutinise the RA standard, by drawing on seminal contributions on the pervasive effects of information asymmetry in markets (Akerlof, 1970) and on the inherent uncertainty of credence properties (Darby and Karni, 1973). We examine the uncertainty surrounding standard compliance, in particular, the capacity to enforce the standard. We argue that the translation of principles into auditable technical specifications is very rough. Furthermore, our empirical results from producer surveys show that criteria addressing the productivity issue receive more attention than environmental issues. In a context where chocolate companies are extremely interested in ensuring sustainable supplies, we argue that certification, proclaimed to be 'in the name of sustainability', is mainly perceived as a productivity-enhancing tool.
The Alzheimer's Disease Home Hospice Knowledge Scale: development, validity and reliability.
BACKGROUND
Several instruments are available to assess knowledge about hospice care, but none specifically address knowledge about home hospice for persons with Alzheimer's disease (AD).


AIM
To develop and validate the Alzheimer's Disease Home Hospice Knowledge Scale (AD-HHK-S).


METHODS
A total of 107 Israeli family caregivers of persons with dementia (mean age=71.2; 73% female) participated in the study.


RESULTS
The AD-HHK-S included 28 true/false items assessing 3 areas of knowledge: knowledge about hospice, knowledge about home hospice, and knowledge about home hospice for AD. Good internal reliability was found, with Cronbach alpha ranging from 0.72 to 0.85. Good face, construct and predictive validity were found.


CONCLUSIONS
The AD-HHK-S proved to be a valid and reliable tool to assess knowledge about hospice care in the area of AD. It might provide an effective tool for palliative care nurses to communicate with family caregivers of persons with AD at the end of life.