Food PolicyPub Date : 2025-02-01DOI: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102821
Jared Hutchins , Marin Skidmore , Derek Nolan
{"title":"Vulnerability of US dairy farms to extreme heat","authors":"Jared Hutchins , Marin Skidmore , Derek Nolan","doi":"10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102821","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102821","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Livestock agriculture, and dairy more specifically, is threatened by climate change as extreme weather conditions become more frequent. When temperature and humidity increase above critical levels, dairy cows become heat-stressed and experience a drop in milk production. We quantify the impact of heat stress on the dairy industry throughout the Midwestern and Eastern United States in the years 2012–2016 using animal-level production data. We estimate that 1% of total annual yield is lost to heat stress, and losses are predicted to increase about 30% by 2050 on average under various climate scenarios. We provide three new insights compared to previous estimates with aggregated data. (1) Heat stress disproportionately affects milk quality, having larger impacts on farm income and nutritional value than previously estimated. (2) Small farms experience the largest losses to heat stress, suggesting they face barriers to adaptation. (3) Cows in the highest-yield production stage are the most vulnerable to heat stress in both relative and absolute terms. Our results have global implications given the prevalence of dairy as a source of income and nutrition in high- and low-income contexts. We outline ways that funds for climate-smart agriculture could be used to increase climate resilience in the dairy industry.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":321,"journal":{"name":"Food Policy","volume":"131 ","pages":"Article 102821"},"PeriodicalIF":6.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143377721","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Food PolicyPub Date : 2025-02-01DOI: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102797
Qian Yang, Yueji Zhu
{"title":"The emerging short-form video platforms improve household dietary diversity of rural residents: Evidence from China","authors":"Qian Yang, Yueji Zhu","doi":"10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102797","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102797","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Hidden hunger and malnutrition threaten rural households in developing countries. Therefore, an effective and low-cost strategy is urgently required to improve the dietary diversity of rural households. Short-form video platforms (SVPs) are emerging media that can deliver diet-related information, and their potential impact on the dietary diversity of rural households cannot be neglected. Based on primary data collected from rural households in China, this study employs the IV-Poisson model to explore whether SVPs improve the dietary diversity of rural households, uses the IV-Probit model to examine whether SVPs encourage rural residents to consume food groups that are not self-produced, and applies the endogenous-treatment Poisson regression (ETPR) model to identify the heterogeneous effects of SVP participation on the dietary diversity of rural households with different distances from the county center. The results reveal that household cooks’ participation in SVPs significantly increases the dietary diversity of rural households. Specifically, households in which cooks participate in SVPs have 29.5% higher household dietary diversity scores than those in which cooks do not. The results indicate that household cooks’ participation in SVPs encourages rural residents to consume food groups that are not self-produced, thus improving their dietary diversity. In addition, the results indicate that household cooks’ participation in SVPs has a greater positive effect on the dietary diversity of rural households closer to the county center compared to those farther from the center.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":321,"journal":{"name":"Food Policy","volume":"131 ","pages":"Article 102797"},"PeriodicalIF":6.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143138885","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Consumer support of policy measures to increase sustainability in food consumption","authors":"Jeanine Ammann , Andreia Arbenz , Gabriele Mack , Michael Siegrist","doi":"10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102822","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102822","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The modern global food system is an important driver of climate change. Policy measures are one potential lever for shifting consumption towards more sustainability. Public acceptance can be a major barrier for the implementation of such measures. Thus, a profound understanding of consumers is needed to facilitate policy support. In the present study, we therefore invited 453 participants from German-speaking parts of Switzerland to participate in an online survey in which we tested 15 policy measures for their consumer acceptance. Furthermore, we explored individual predictors that contribute to policy support. Our results show that there is a difference in the support of policy measures depending on the level of intrusiveness, making less intrusive measures more accepted than more intrusive measures. Support also varied depending on the targeted product category. Measures targeting dairy and meat products tended to be less accepted than measures targeting vegetables. Using a regression analysis, we identified behaviour (i.e. meat and dairy consumption) and food sustainability knowledge as an important predictor of policy support. The findings have important implications for policymakers, as they illustrate that personal involvement is a crucial factor in policy support. Taken together, our findings can help inform future food policies to increase consumer support and thereby facilitate sustainable behaviour change.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":321,"journal":{"name":"Food Policy","volume":"131 ","pages":"Article 102822"},"PeriodicalIF":6.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143138888","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Food PolicyPub Date : 2025-02-01DOI: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102801
K. Aleks Schaefer , Christopher A. Wolf
{"title":"Trade protection via tariff rate quota administration","authors":"K. Aleks Schaefer , Christopher A. Wolf","doi":"10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102801","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102801","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In January 2022, the first dispute settlement panel convened under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) ruled that administration procedures for Canadian tariff rate quotas (TRQs) on U.S. dairy products violated Canadian trade obligations. Canada subsequently published new dairy quota administration policies to comply with the ruling. Using a dataset with monthly bilateral dairy trade flows at the 6-digit level from January 2014 to October 2023, we empirically assess the economic outcomes associated with this dispute from the perspective of the U.S. dairy industry. We find that — even under Canada’s original quota administration procedures — Canadian dairy TRQ concessions represented meaningful trade liberalization relative to the pre-USMCA status quo. However, in light of Canada’s revised procedures following the panel ruling, U.S. exports to Canada experienced a substantial increase for affected dairy products. This indicates that Canada’s original quota administration procedures represented a “binding” trade restriction beyond the negotiated quota. USMCA dispute settlement procedures effectively worked to remove the barrier.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":321,"journal":{"name":"Food Policy","volume":"131 ","pages":"Article 102801"},"PeriodicalIF":6.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143138889","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Food PolicyPub Date : 2025-02-01DOI: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102814
Lara Tinacci , Sara Rota Nodari , Alessio Vitali , Gaetano Liuzzo , Ivan Corti , Andrea Armani
{"title":"Analysis of the Italian regulatory framework on the welfare of aquatic organisms, with a focus on live crustaceans","authors":"Lara Tinacci , Sara Rota Nodari , Alessio Vitali , Gaetano Liuzzo , Ivan Corti , Andrea Armani","doi":"10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102814","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102814","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The European Union regulatory framework for the welfare of aquatic organisms (AOW), live seafood (LSW) and live crustaceans intended for human consumption (LCW) is still in its nascent stages. Member States have tackled the subject with different regulatory approach, represented in Italy, by municipal regulations. The present study was designed to provide an overview of the municipal regulations pertaining to AOW, LSW, and LCW issued in Italy to date. A search was conducted on Google from December 2023 to March 2024 using specific keywords. The analysis of the regulations entailed the scrutiny of provisions concerning AOW and LSW during transport, maintenance, display and, additionally, LCW during stunning and slaughter. A total of 771 municipal regulations on animal welfare issued from 2001 to 2023 were collected. A total of 542 provisions concerning AOW were identified, while 234 and 181 provisions also addressed LSW and LCW, respectively. As regards LCW, specific regulations included the prohibition of the claws banding (85.1%), slaughter prior to sale (59.1%), and boiling of live crustaceans (33.1%). Conversely, the obligation to slaughter before sale (12.1%), after stunning (10.5%) and out of sight of the consumer (5%) were reported. The divergent and generally not scientifically-based nature of the regulations suggests limitations of the Italian approach in AOW, LSW and LCW management. In anticipation of the risk assessment-based revision of EU legislation on AOW, the results provide an updated basis for the drafting of national technical guidelines, including species-specific control checklists, for the monitoring of LCW along the entire supply chain.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":321,"journal":{"name":"Food Policy","volume":"131 ","pages":"Article 102814"},"PeriodicalIF":6.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143138890","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Food PolicyPub Date : 2025-02-01DOI: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102813
Bin Wu , Cong Cao , Simon Mosey , Tim Daniell , Peter Noy , Yizhe Cui , Min Rose , Jonathan Snape
{"title":"How does global agricultural research and innovation cooperation influence agricultural R&I system transformation in the South? Evidence from UK-China cooperation","authors":"Bin Wu , Cong Cao , Simon Mosey , Tim Daniell , Peter Noy , Yizhe Cui , Min Rose , Jonathan Snape","doi":"10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102813","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102813","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The need for agri-food system transformation has sparked extensive debates on reconfiguring the agricultural research and innovation system (ARIS) to tackle the multidimensional and interwoven challenges present across geographies and scales. This paper highlights the emergence of China, India and Brazil, and their increasing influence on ARIS in the South. We conceptualise global agricultural R&I cooperation (ARIC) to examine how the changing nature of the cooperation between major players from the North and the South influences ARIS transformation in the South. We propose a local–global nexus (LGN) framework to reveal multiple processes involving researchers and non-academic actors for joint knowledge production and social impact across scales. We explore LGN’s feasibility through a case study of UK-China cooperation to illustrate the necessity and key factors influencing the participation of non-academic actors including smallholder farmers in ARIC. Evidence for this paper comes from a combination of primary data collected from 52 British scientists, representatives of funding agencies and entrepreneurs regarding their experiences, opinions and perceptions of ARIC through bilateral cooperation, and second sources. This paper contributes to ARIS transformation debates from three perspectives. First, it sheds new light on transformative innovation debates by adding an ARIC element for ARIS transformation in the South. Second, it enriches a “pathways approach” by delineating four pathways of ARIC, as well as top-down and bottom-up processes across various scales. Third, it offers an LGN framework for ARIC research to address the complexity, diversity and opportunities for ARIS transformation towards sustainable and equitable agri-food systems in the South.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":321,"journal":{"name":"Food Policy","volume":"131 ","pages":"Article 102813"},"PeriodicalIF":6.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143521081","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Food PolicyPub Date : 2025-02-01DOI: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102830
Marta Marson , Donatella Saccone
{"title":"The effect of food price upsurges on income inequality: The richest win and the poorest lose","authors":"Marta Marson , Donatella Saccone","doi":"10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102830","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102830","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>From a theoretical perspective, the ultimate effect that food price shocks may have on inequality is ambiguous. Food price shocks, indeed, generate both winners and losers and their overall impact on income distribution cannot be predicted a priori but depends on the relative magnitude of different effects. From the empirical perspective, however, the link between international food prices and income distribution is largely understudied. The present paper tries to fill the gap by analyzing a large sample of 126 developing and developed countries observed in the period 1990–2020 and studying how food price shocks are associated with changes in income distribution. The heterogeneity of the effect is investigated by means of interaction terms accounting for the food trade balance of countries and the structure of the agricultural sector, coming to three main conclusions. First, upsurging food prices increase inequality by affecting the relative income of the poorest 50 percent of the population to the advantage of richer people, especially of the richest among the rich. Second, this effect is relevant for developing countries while no clear findings emerge for high-income countries. Third, the disequalizing effect of soaring international food prices is not uniform in developing countries but largely depends on their food trade balance and some structural attributes of their agricultural sector. In this regard, food policy must reduce the domestic transmission of price shocks to poor consumers while strengthening farmers’ productive capacity and ability to cope with the shocks through better access to land, capital and productive resources.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":321,"journal":{"name":"Food Policy","volume":"131 ","pages":"Article 102830"},"PeriodicalIF":6.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143510806","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Food PolicyPub Date : 2025-02-01DOI: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2024.102796
Jonathan Brooks , Eugenio Diaz-Bonilla
{"title":"How helpful are the “hidden costs of food systems” numbers?","authors":"Jonathan Brooks , Eugenio Diaz-Bonilla","doi":"10.1016/j.foodpol.2024.102796","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.foodpol.2024.102796","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The “hidden costs of foods systems” calculations reported by the Food and Land Use Coalition, the Food System Economic Commission and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization may not provide helpful policy guidance for the transformation of food systems for both economic and political reasons. Economically, the hidden costs numbers exclude countervailing social benefits which imply unavoidable trade-offs across policy objectives. They also aggregate costs that are fundamentally different in their economic character and require different policy approaches, while including some costs that are not attributable to food systems at all. Politically, the headline numbers risk impeding transformative change because they identify food systems participants – particularly farmers –in terms of the damage they inflict while ignoring critical benefits they confer, and implicate them in social failings for which they are not primarily responsible. However, the hidden costs numbers can be useful if integrated into a more balanced assessment of the performance of food systems. Such an approach could support a positive agenda which engages the actors whose contributions will be indispensable.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":321,"journal":{"name":"Food Policy","volume":"131 ","pages":"Article 102796"},"PeriodicalIF":6.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143138984","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Food PolicyPub Date : 2025-02-01DOI: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102803
Di Marcantonio Federica , Jesus Barreiro-Hurle , Luisa Menapace , Colen Liesbeth , Dessart François J. , Ciaian Pavel
{"title":"Much ado about nothing? An empirical analysis of consumer behaviour in the presence of ‘dual food quality’","authors":"Di Marcantonio Federica , Jesus Barreiro-Hurle , Luisa Menapace , Colen Liesbeth , Dessart François J. , Ciaian Pavel","doi":"10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102803","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102803","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Marketing food products with slightly different compositions as identical across countries is a common practice in the food industry. While food companies argue that different versions reflect taste preferences, some Central and Eastern European consumers allege that multinational companies sell lower quality products using the same brand name and packaging as in Western European countries. The political attention gathered by this practice, exemplified by the dual food quality (DFQ) debate in the European Union (EU), has largely neglected how the presence of DFQ affects consumers’ purchase decisions. This study aims to help fill this gap. Additionally, it examines the impact of a policy intervention consisting of a ‘made for’ claim and the role of the brand name on consumer choices. Through online discrete-choice experiments and laboratory tasting and rating experiments in six EU countries, no systematic support is found for either the industry’s or the consumers’ arguments. Results also indicate that a policy requiring consumers to be informed about the destination market of different versions would increase consumers’ valuation of domestic products, while at the same time improving transparency and avoiding misleading consumers.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":321,"journal":{"name":"Food Policy","volume":"131 ","pages":"Article 102803"},"PeriodicalIF":6.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143138886","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Food PolicyPub Date : 2025-02-01DOI: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102802
Amber Steyaert , Thomas Kuyper , Joost Dessein , Charlotte Prové
{"title":"Urban food policy councils as politicized spaces: The case of Arusha, Tanzania","authors":"Amber Steyaert , Thomas Kuyper , Joost Dessein , Charlotte Prové","doi":"10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102802","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102802","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Informal food vendors constitute a significant portion of the workforce in Arusha, Tanzania, and play a crucial role in the local food system. Despite their importance, these vendors lack political and social agency, resulting in their underrepresentation in decision-making processes. This study explores the potential of urban food policy councils (UFPCs) to support these vendors, focusing on the Arusha Sustainable Food System Platform. Recently, the platform faced a government directive to relocate street vendors without their participation. This case study examines the platform’s response to this directive.</div><div>Using a conceptual framework that positions UFPCs as politicized spaces, centered on social justice, epistemic justice, and empowerment, and an analytical framework based on critical governance, this research employs document analysis, in-depth interviews, focus groups with market vendors, and participative observations of platform meetings and events.</div><div>The findings reveal that the ASFSP refrained from engaging with vendors due to several factors: a focus on food safety concerns overshadowing social justice concerns, a preference for formality that excludes informal actors, and limitations imposed by the city council, with relocation decisions made at the national level beyond the platform’s influence. Nevertheless, the platform shows significant promise in addressing democratic deficits in Arusha’s local food systems, but further steps are necessary for it to function effectively as a politicized space. Its transformative potential is contingent upon being embedded within a broader democratic context.</div><div>The framework of UFPCs as politicized spaces offers a possibility to connect the food democracy debate and UFPC literature. Additionally, the study offers practical insights for the platform and similar councils to improve the inclusion of street vendors in decision-making processes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":321,"journal":{"name":"Food Policy","volume":"131 ","pages":"Article 102802"},"PeriodicalIF":6.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143138985","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}