Overweight and obesity are rapidly growing threats in China. Improvement in dietary knowledge can potentially prevent overweight and obesity, conditions which are receiving substantial attention from ...international organizations and governments. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of changes in dietary knowledge on adult overweight and obesity, using a balanced panel data consisting of 10,401 samples from the 2006, 2009, and 2011 iterations of the China Health and Nutrition Survey. Results indicate that overweight and obesity are becoming increasingly problematic in China, and the level of dietary knowledge among Chinese adults needs improvement. Moreover, the empirical results indicate that changes in dietary knowledge among adults has no significant influence on adult overweight and obesity, a likely result of lacking systematic dietary knowledge and having inadequate guidance on overweight/obesity-related behaviors.
The annual globally averaged atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration is expected to reach 550 ppm around 2050 unless measures are taken to mitigate its increase. Field experiments suggest that the ...nutrient contents of food crops are decreased substantially under elevated carbon dioxide conditions, which will lead to additional nutritional consequences on top of those related to the expected reductions of crop yield. Global modeling studies have suggested that such impacts would lead to a marked increase in the prevalence of nutrient deficiency. By using individual-level dietary survey data for Chinese adults, we conducted a comprehensive analysis on the nutritional consequence under the 550-ppm carbon dioxide scenario, with paying special attention to the distributional impact of nutrition degradation on different income groups. Our results suggest that the Chinese adult population would ingest around 2.17–4.75% less protein, iron, and zinc, and consequently, the prevalence of nutrient deficiency would increase by 1.35–4.42%. We also found a significant disparity in the nutrient loss rate and risk of deficiency among income groups: nutrient loss rates for the lowest-income group were 1.37–1.54 times greater than those for the highest-income group. Thus, the lowest-income group would experience a more considerable increase of nutrient deficiency risk under the 550-ppm carbon dioxide scenario. Moreover, we found that in the lower-income group nutrient intake for all three nutrients would be reduced simultaneously, which would leave this population more vulnerable to nutritional health risks. Our study revealed a marked inequality in the impact of the elevation of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration. Nutrition intervention policies explicitly targeting affected populations must be explored to achieve social equality under elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations.
The implicit value to Chinese consumers of the country-of-origin (COO) characteristic of dairy products is of great importance to estimate. This study adopted the hedonic price model to evaluate the ...shadow price of the COO attribute of both UHT fluid milk and infant formula collected from the five leading e-commerce platforms (Alibaba’s Tmall Supermarket, Jingdong, Suning Purchase, COFCO I buy nets, and Yihaodian) in China. The target countries were Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Spain from the EU, and Australia and New Zealand from Oceania. The results show that the implicit values of the COO of UHT fluid milk and infant formula are reversed. Having a COO of Spain and Germany decreased the price of UHT fluid milk compared with China, while Germany, New Zealand, France, the Netherlands, and Spain all earned a price premium on infant formula. The B2C platforms Yihaodian, Jingdong, Alibaba’s Tmall Supermarket and Suning Purchase all earned a price premium above COFCO I buy nets. These findings have important implications for dairy industry of EU countries, Australia, New Zealand, and China in terms of the promotion of domestic dairy products. Moreover, this study contributes to the existing body of literature by innovating in employing sales data from e-commerce scanners to study the implicit value of food attributes.
Plant-based meat could contribute substantially to nutritional security and environmental sustainability. Nevertheless, its diffusion is highly dependent on consumers’ perception and acceptance. ...Plant-based meat products have various attributes through which nutritional, environmental, and ingredient information are delivered to consumers. To elucidate consumers’ preferences for these attributes, we conducted a large-scale consumer survey in five major cities of the largest national meat consumption market, China, with a total of about 2500 respondents. Best-worst count analysis indicated that “zero cholesterol” is the most preferred and “vegan formula” is the least preferred attribute. Mixed logit model analysis showed that “rich in dietary fiber”, “zero hormones”, and “zero cholesterol” are the three most preferred attributes. Latent class model analysis revealed that respondents with better socioeconomic conditions tended to focus more on the positive nutritional aspects of plant-based meat, whereas respondents with worse conditions tended to place a higher value on avoiding negative health impacts of traditional meat when choosing plant-based meat. This study suggests that Chinese consumers pay more attention to nutritional attributes as compared to other attributes. In addition, apparent market segments exist among different consumers. The findings of this study could contribute to the transformation of sustainable food system.
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The Sierra Leonean government has implemented the improved rice varieties directed at enhancing more rice production to reduce food insecurity. This paper evaluates the food security effect of ...improved rice variety adoption using cross-sectional data collected in 2017 from a randomly selected sample of 624 rice farmers in Sierra Leone. The analysis uses the endogenous switching regression and propensity score matching (PSM) approach. The results revealed that the adoption of improved rice varieties has a significant positive effect on food security. That confirms the crucial role of improved rice variety adoption in increasing food production and food security. Therefore, the study recommended the intensification of policies that promote improved rice variety adoption, if more food production and food security are to be realized. Further, the government should continue the lead in rice variety promotion and dissemination and in enhancing an enabling environment for the effective adoption of farmers. Given the preponderant evidence of the different factors of food security, appropriate policies that seek to promote formal education, more income generation for farmers, and easy and credible access to farmland for landless farmers would enhance food security.
Farmers’ preferences and needs are crucial in improving the development of rice varieties to increase rice production and improve food security. However, research on farmers’ preferences for crop ...attributes is scarce in Africa. This study contributes to bridging this gap by focusing on farmers’ preferences for rice variety attributes based on a nationwide survey conducted in Sierra Leone. Results from a Best-Worst Scaling analysis revealed that potential yield, maturity, pest and disease resistance, and seed longevity, were the most preferred attributes of a rice variety. The least preferred attributes were ease of threshing, fertiliser response, and shattering. After applying a latent class model, farmers were found to align with six distinct classes: “majority farmers”, “price sensitive”, “conservationists”, “sustainable farmers”, “output maximisers”, and “subsistence”. These classes showed differences in terms of the farmers’ characteristics (e.g. sex, education, income, farm farming experience, and farmland size) and in the importance given to extrinsic factors (e.g. access to market, extension services, and membership in farmers’ organisations). Among these classes, the “majority farmers” were more likely to have relatively more farmland, easier access to other farm resources (e.g., chemical fertilisers and market information) and are more likely to prefer potential yield. The “price sensitive” class placed high importance on seed price and consisted of farmers who were low income, and had better access to extension services and membership to farming organisations. Furthermore, preferences were distinct for “conservationists” who have environmental and sustenance concerns.
Although public interest in sustainable and safer products have steadily risen worldwide, research has shown a difference between consumer’s willingness to purchase, and actual purchasing behavior, ...for which two main explanations exist, including a lack of accessibility and a poor knowledge of related attributes. Fortunately, the emergence of online food markets may improve this situation through convenient accessibility to sustainable food and detailed description about sustainability labels. This research uses a hedonic price analysis to compare the price premiums for the sustainability attribute in Chinese online and offline markets, using edible oil as a case. The specific objective is to test the different values of a sustainable attribute, a green food label, in two types of markets. Results show that the green food attribute could gain a price premium in the online market but not in the offline market, indicating the importance of the online channel for sustainable food sale in China. A big price mechanism difference between online and offline markets is also found, with regard to attributes of production method, variety, place of origin, packaging, and discount. These results provide a guide for firms’ pricing strategies in online and offline markets.
•Japanese consumers’ interest in information provided by food traceability systems is generally low.•The harvest date, production method, and production method certification are the items of most ...interest.•Males with lower education levels are more likely to trace information through traceability systems.•Females with higher education levels have greater interest in specific information.•Segments of consumers have different preferences for specific information.
Food traceability systems are an important means to provide food safety and quality information to consumers. We studied consumers’ interest in the information provided through food traceability systems by examining a national representative sample of 6243 Japanese consumers through a 2006 online survey. The ratio of respondents who have accessed information through traceability systems is low. With respect to the 11 kinds of information we focused on in our study, respondents attached most importance to harvest date, production method, and production method certification. Our results show that more educated females have a stronger desire to access more specific information related to fresh produce, whereas less educated males are more likely to trace information through fresh produce traceability systems. We have outlined the implications of these findings.
There is no consensus about whether the food traceability system planned for construction in China or other countries should record detailed information like the beef traceability system in Japan, or ...simple abbreviated information similar to that provided in the USA. Using apple as a research subject, we adopted random nth price experimental auction to investigate the willingness to pay (WTP) for traceability based on abbreviated and detailed information among consumers in China. Totally 88 participants attended the experimental auction. The results showed that consumers had a positive WTP for both types of food traceability system, but the average premium that consumers were prepared to pay for traceability with detailed information was 10% higher than that with abbreviated information. Males, married subjects, and those with a relatively low educational level placed a higher premium on traceability with detailed information, but consumers with good self-reported health did not want to pay a high premium for traceability with detailed information. The results also showed that consumers were most interested in a food traceability system that provides quality certificates and details of the chemical fertilizers/pesticides used in food production. We discuss the implications of these results for the implementation of a food traceability system.
•Chinese consumers would prefer a food traceability system with detailed information rather than abbreviated information.•The willingness to pay (WTP) for traceability is about 10% higher with detailed information than abbreviated information.•Educational level, self-reported health, risk attitude, and other factors affected WTP by consumers.•The main concerns of Chinese consumers are quality certificates and chemical fertilizer/pesticide details.
A large number of studies have explored the separate roles of information and trust in consumer choices of organic food, but little attention has been paid to exploring the interactive effects of ...information and trust. Here, for the first time to our knowledge, we explored the joint effects of information and consumers' trust in shaping consumer preferences for organic food. A hypothetical choice experiment was employed to elicit consumer preferences for organic food, and a between-subject design approach was used to explore the effects of information. Our results from a sample of 2382 Chinese consumers indicated that consumers are willing to pay extra price for organic rice compared to the conventional rice. Notably, individuals with a high level of trust exhibited a significantly higher willingness to pay for organic rice than those with lower trust levels. Furthermore, the introduction of information leads to a substantial 40% increase in consumers’ willingness to pay for organic rice, with an even more significant 50% increase observed among high-trust consumers. These results highlight the augmenting role of trust in amplifying the effects of information. Consequently, effective strategies should encompass both the provision of information and the cultivation of trust concurrently to promote consumer choices of organic food.
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