A substantial source of food waste occurs when consumers and sellers dispose of expired food despite it being safe to eat. We conduct an incentive-compatible, non-hypothetical laboratory choice experiment in which 150 participants choose between food products of varying perishability level at various dates before or after their best-before dates. In one treatment, participants received information about the interpretation of food date labels. In another they received this information plus additional information on food waste due to date label confusion and its environmental impacts. We find that clarifying the meaning of date labels is insufficient to change preferences for food past its best-before date, but when a link between date labels, food waste, and its environmental impacts is made, participants’ willingness-to-pay for expired food increases, particularly for expired frozen or recently expired semi-perishable products. Our findings have implications for food waste reduction efforts because increasing the value of expired food increases the opportunity cost of wasting expired but consumable food.

Applications of blockchain in the food sector are growing and the adoption of farm‐to‐fork traceability systems is at the forefront. We review applications of blockchain across different dimensions while focusing on how broad adoption of the technology might help address major challenges faced by the U.S. fresh produce industry. These challenges include food safety, food fraud, food loss and waste, and the general need for better traceability systems. We discuss whether blockchain technologies might play a role in enhancing the resilience of the produce supply chain and highlight limitations and challenges of the technology stakeholders might consider going forward. JEL CLASSIFICATION L86; O32; Q13

The environmental horticulture industry, also known as the Green Industry, is the second most important sector in the U.S. agricultural economy in terms of economic output and one of the fastest growing segments of agriculture; however, it has shifted from an average annual growth of 13.6% in the 1970s to an annual growth of less than 3% in the 2000s, which suggests the industry is facing a maturing marketplace. As an effort to help the industry stimulate demand, Texas A&M AgriLife developed the Texas Superstar™ and Earth-Kind™ brands. The aims of these plant promotion programs are to increase the demand for selected horticultural products, raise awareness among consumers of Texas-grown plant material, promote environmental responsibility, and increase producers' profitability by providing branding price premiums. Despite the considerable investments on research and marketing done thus far, no research has investigated the effectiveness of these branding efforts in terms of consumer behavior. This article evaluates brand awareness and willingness-to-pay for these two brands in Texas. The discrete choice models used were the Logit and Probit models on brand awareness and the Tobit model on the conditional willingness-to-pay. Results from this study show that consumer awareness of Texas Superstar™ and Earth-Kind™ in Texas is low, but the level of satisfaction among consumers is high. Furthermore, profiles of the consumers' behavioral and demographic characteristics that are more likely to influence brand awareness and willingness-to-pay were identified. The findings suggest that consumers who shop weekly or monthly for ornamental plants are more likely to be aware of programs such as Texas Superstar™ and Earth-Kind™. Also, those who live in South Texas were more likely to exhibit awareness of Earth-Kind™. Consumers who shopped for self-consumption purposes were willing to pay a discounted price for Texas Superstar™ and Earth-Kind™ plants compared with unbranded plants and those who were previously aware of the brands were willing to pay more. The two brands were effective in differentiating their products and thus creating price premiums. It was estimated that the willingness-to-pay for Earth-Kind™ and Texas Superstar™ for the average respondent was 10% higher than the willingness-to-pay for an unbranded plant.

This study evaluates the effectiveness of a point of purchase advertising program conducted for two local horticultural brands in Texas. The results based on surveys gathered before and after the program was launched suggest that the campaign size was not sufficient to significantly increase brand awareness and overall demand, yet it increased willingness to pay by 5.5% for those consumers aware of one of the brands. A major factor found to increase willingness to pay and likelihood of brand awareness was purchase frequency measured in transactions per month, which suggests that other advertising methods aimed to increase buying frequency might affect demand more effectively.

No abstract