Previous research links organic purchasing motivations to personal and family health. We conduct a national survey to explore whether this preference intensifies when preparing family meals, especially during Thanksgiving. We find that approximately 83% of consumers change their consumption habits for Thanksgiving, with a notable preference for organic products. Results from the choice experiment indicate willingness to pay premiums for Thanksgiving-themed items, especially those with USDA-certified organic or certified naturally grown labels. These findings underscore policy initiatives that strengthen consumer understanding of organic certifications and support producers in securing them, capitalizing on the seasonal demand surge.

Expert and peer reviews and popularity are freely available both on the Internet and in printed materials for a variety of food products. Using two experimental studies with non-hypothetical tastings and auctions, we explore the impact of peer tasting popularity, actual peer ratings, and expert ratings on demand for wines consumers can or have tasted. We find that higher own wine ratings are associated with higher willingness to pay (WTP). Morevoer, higher peer and expert rating scores increase consumer WTP for wine even after controlling for the impact of consumers’ own ratings. Observed peer popularity also increases WTP for preferred wines.

In recent years, consumer demand studies have been used to objectively quantify the value that captive animals place on environmental resources. Considerable progress has been made in the development of effective methodologies to assess what resources are valued under controlled experimental conditions, but few of the findings from these studies have been implemented in commercial husbandry systems. A major obstacle has been the need to maintain internal validity in experimental studies at the possible expense of external validity. Experimental subjects may be poor representatives of commercially kept animals, especially where there is no replication of the animal's experience of commercial physical and social environments. This paper will discuss means of increasing the external validity of consumer demand studies. Firstly, experimental animals should be of representative genotypes, reared under commercial conditions and housed in test apparatus with free access to all of the resources that are normally available under commercial husbandry conditions. As well as providing a long-term closed economy, this allows manipulation of potentially important environmental factors such as prior experience. Secondly, naturalistic tasks should, where possible, be used in preference to abstract operant tasks since they appear to be easier to train animals to associate with rewarding resources, therefore many individuals can be investigated efficiently. Furthermore, naturalistic tasks appear to be less prone to operant bias than artificial tasks and can provide robust measures of value in terms of the maximum price paid for access to resources. Finally, for group-housed species, social costs such as enduring higher stocking densities and/or competition for resources may be an effective means of investigating cost-benefit trade-offs under commercial conditions. For example, if animals work to evenly distribute themselves over available space, this social spacing priority can be used to investigate whether they will endure higher stocking densities in order to exploit particular resources.

In recent years, there has been significant growth in the sales of plant-based alternatives to meat and dairy products. However, it remains unclear whether these alternatives are actually reducing sales of livestock-derived products. This paper examines the relationship between the sales of one particular livestock-derived product – unflavored dairy milk – and its plant-based alternative – nondairy milk. Using data from a panel of US consumers between 2004 and 2018, I find that a 1-gallon increase in nondairy milk sales is associated with a 0.43–0.60 gallon reduction in dairy milk sales. The inverse relationship between dairy and nondairy milk purchases is strongest among households with high initial expenditure on dairy milk. Despite the inverse relationship between dairy and nondairy milk purchases, the rapid increase in nondairy milk sales between 2009 and 2018 explains little of the concomitant decline in dairy milk sales.

This paper briefly reviews the development of monitoring procedures used for the assessment of husbandry and welfare within Farm Quality Assurance (QA) schemes. Most current protocols are based on measures of the resources, records and management provisions necessary to promote good husbandry. However, it is now generally accepted that monitoring protocols should be largely or wholly made up of direct, animal-based measurements of animal welfare. Whether based on provisions or outcomes, many current schemes lack impact, partly because they do not necessarily lead to effective action on-farm and partly through lack of public awareness or trust in the claimed benefits of the scheme. This paper proposes the concept of the ‘Virtuous Bicycle’ as a delivery vehicle for improvements in farm animal welfare through simultaneous operation of two virtuous cycles, one on-farm, involving assessment, action and review, the other at the retailer level, involving assurance and promotion, based on proof of compliance.

Most of the previous research examined the demand for alcohol consumed at the off-trade (consumed at home). However, some consumers might prefer to consume alcohol on-trade (away from home) or switch between on-trade and off-trade consumption as a reaction to price or income change. We estimate the Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System consisting of three broad alcohol categories, consumed on-trade and off-trade, to derive own-price, cross-price, and income elasticities. Selectivity due to the high censoring is treated, and special attention is paid to quality-adjusted price. Beer consumption is the most responsive to income as well as own price changes, while spirits are the least responsive. The own-price elasticity of wine is –0.66 and –1.00 at on-trade and off-trade, respectively. Beer is more price responsive, spirits are less price responsive, and consumption reacts weaker in the off-trade market. Own-price elasticities of demand range between –1.20 and –0.41 at the off-trade and between –1.51 and –0.63 at the on-trade alcohol market. Increasing the price of wine in one market decreases wine consumption in another one. Between the two markets, wine and spirits are complementary, and wine and beer are substitutes in both markets.

The USA is the largest consumer of legally, internationally-traded wildlife. A proportion of this trade consists of species listed in the Appendices of CITES, and recorded in the CITES Trade Database. Using this resource, we quantified wildlife entering the USA for 82 of the most frequently recorded wildlife products and a range of taxonomic groups during 1979–2014. We examined trends in legal trade and seizures of illegally traded items over time, and relationships between trade and four national measures of biodiversity. We found that: (1) there is an overall positive relationship between legal imports and seizures; (2) Asia was the main region exporting CITES-listed wildlife products to the USA; (3) bears, crocodilians and other mammals (i.e. other than Ursidae, Felidae, Cetacea, Proboscidea, Primates or Rhinocerotidae) increased in both reported legal trade and seizures over time; (4) legal trade in live specimens was reported to be primarily from captive-produced, artificially-propagated or ranched sources, whereas traded meat was primarily wild sourced; (5) both seizures and legally traded items of felids and elephants decreased over time; and (6) volumes of both legally traded and seized species were correlated with four attributes of exporting countries: species endemism, species richness, number of IUCN threatened species, and country size. The goal of our analysis was to inform CITES decision-making and species conservation efforts.

Consumer preferences are likely to become more important in policy and market initiatives in developing countries. This study explores current and potential demand for high-quality beef in Ecuador. A survey of 547 households (including two choice experiments) was carried out in order to gather knowledge, quality perceptions, and experiences regarding Ecuadorian beef and preferences for specific beef attributes. Consumers have positive and economically significant willingness-to-pay values for all credence attributes considered in the study: sanitary control, meat maturation, animal welfare, and traceability. The results provide evidence that there is a potential market for increased-quality beef in Ecuador.

This study connects Mexico’s imports of U.S. broiler meat with its imports of feed products. Two demand systems for Mexico are estimated: a two-stage Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) model for broiler meat and a demand for feed derived from a translog cost function representing the production of Mexican chickens. The models are estimated using data from 1997 to 2016. Given a change in policy where Mexico completely replaces U.S. broiler meat imports, the imports of U.S. feed products will increase. If Mexico does not completely replace U.S. imports with domestic broiler production, our model suggests that Mexican imports of U.S. feed fall.

Oyster aquaculture has experienced tremendous growth in the United States over the past decade, but little is known about consumer preferences for oysters. This study analyzed preferences for oysters with varied combinations of brands, production locations, and production methods (aquaculture vs. wild-caught) using dichotomous choice, revealed preference economic field experiments. Results suggest significant and distinct differences in behavior between first-time and regular oyster consumers. While infrequent oyster consumers were drawn to oysters labeled as wild-caught, experienced oyster consumers preferred oysters raised via aquaculture. These findings will be valuable for growers and policymakers who invest in aquaculture to improve surrounding ecosystems.

Consumer preferences for four livestock products were investigated to determine consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for livestock production process attributes. We use an inferred method of attribute nonattendance (ANA) using the coefficient of variation on individual specific parameter estimates to assess the variability of preference intensity for various product characteristics. We find that accounting for ANA did not significantly impact mean estimates of WT P. Implications of our findings on the reliability of existing work in the area of consumer preferences for animal welfare attributes are discussed.

The effect of negative publicity on consumer demand for brands is examined in the context of recall of a peanut butter brand as a result of pathogen contamination. The recall was associated with negative impacts for the implicated brand and positive effects on the leading competitor brand. Consumers responded to the foodborne illness outbreak within three weeks. The case demonstrates that consumer response is an incentive for companies to prevent safety lapses and that the problems of one brand do not necessarily harm rivals within the category.

Recently, there has been much interest among horticultural producers concerning the marketing of organic and locally produced food. A consumer survey was administered that asked respondents to choose an applesauce product from a list of products differentiated by price, and by labels that described fat content, nutrition content, and whether the product was grown organically and/or locally. Our analysis indicates that consumers were willing to pay more for locally grown applesauce compared to applesauce that was labeled USDA Organic, Low Fat, or No Sugar Added. Furthermore, we find evidence that increased knowledge of agriculture decreases the willingness to pay for organic and locally grown applesauce.

The impact of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) on the national economy is examined using a general equilibrium model and comparing measures of the economy from 2010 to a simulation of that economy without SNAP. Without the SNAP program, the overall size of the economy hardly differs—demand for labor increases slightly. However, households that would be eligible for SNAP experience a net loss. They have 5.5 percent less disposable income while ineligible households have approximately 1 percent more income without SNAP, and output of products eligible for purchase with SNAP funds declines approximately one billion dollars.

We consider private provision of an environmental public good and the link between voluntary pollution-abatement markets and the optimal level of mandatory environmental regulation. We show that voluntary abatement markets react to the level of mandatory abatement imposed and that an optimal regulatory policy must account for that reaction. We consider several assumptions about consumer behavior and find that the voluntary market's reaction to regulation depends on the motivating behavior of consumers. Whether the optimal level of mandatory abatement is higher than the level provided by traditional settings depends on the direction and magnitude of the voluntary market's reaction to changes in mandatory abatement.

Using annual Japanese fresh fruit import data from 1971 to 1997, this study analyzes the import patterns of Japan's seven most popular fresh fruits by implementing and testing a general differential demand system that nests four alternative import demand specifications. When tested against the general system using the five-good case (bananas, grapefruits, oranges, and lemons and aggregating pineapples, berries, and grapes), the analysis rejects the Almost Ideal Demand System and National Bureau of Research specifications but does not reject Rotterdam and Central Bureau of Statistics models. When estimated using the six-good case (bananas, grapefruits, oranges, lemons, and pineapples and aggregating berries and grapes), the analysis rejects all specifications except the Rotterdam model.

This paper examines Chinese consumer preference for major animal products and assesses the potential impacts of a reduction in China's import tariff on its pork and poultry demand and net import. Our analysis suggests that China's demand for animal products will continue to grow as income increases. Using a trade model, results of our scenario analysis indicate that a reduction in China's import tariffs will significantly increase its net pork and poultry imports and the U.S. will capture most of the increases. Nevertheless, the impact on the market price in China and the U.S. is likely to be very small.