Do Farmers Participating in Short Food Supply Chains Use Less Pesticides? Evidence from France

Spraying for the beauty: Pesticide use for visual appearance in apple production

“…Second, using 15 Further details on the distribution of the treatment variable are presented in Appendix B. Apple-producing farms are specialized in their main choice of marketing channel. While most rely heavily on a single main channel, for example, marketing via intermediaries, many also utilize a combination of channels, such as additionally selling a minor share directly to consumers (e.g., Chiaverina et al, 2024). Refer to Appendix H for alternative definitions of treatment classification.…”

“…16 For instance, organic producers are more likely to directly market to consumers (Aubert & Enjolras, 2016). 17 This model has been frequently applied in agricultural contexts, for example, by Chiaverina et al (2024), Park et al (2018), Manda et al (2016) or Khonje et al (2018). latent factors in the treatment selection allows to capture unobserved characteristics that affect both, the choice of a specific marketing channel and the use of cosmetic pesticide applications (e.g., ambition of the farm manager or professional pride).…”

“…First, we add to the existing literature on cosmetic pesticide use in agriculture (e.g., Pimentel et al, 1977Pimentel et al, , 1993Zakowski & Mace, 2021) by econometrically linking its use with farms' supply chain characteristics. 6 Second, this article adds to the existing literature on short supply chains by emphasizing the role of the distance between production and consumption in agri-industrial supply chains and the use of one particular kind of pesticides at the farm-level (e.g., Barnes et al, 2022;Chiaverina et al, 2024;Enthoven & Van den Broeck, 2021;Finger et al, 2023;Marsden, 2000). Last, our results contribute to the literature on sustainability trade-offs in agriculture, highlighting economic benefits of downstream supply chain actors that come with human health risks for farming communities resulting from agricultural products being subject to high visual quality standards set by downstream actors (e.g., Antle & 6 Most existing studies use aggregate data on cosmetic pesticide use without linking its use to farm characteristics (e.g., Zakowski & Mace, 2021).…”

Do Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems Have the Dynamic Capabilities to Guide the Digital Transition of Short Food Supply Chains?

“…However, instead of examining how AKISs function and operate in mainstream production sectors, which receive the lion's share of attention from advisory organizations [23], we shifted our focus to a niche of agrifood systems: short food supply chains (SFSCs). In these types of chains, farmers directly sell their products to households (e.g., through farmers' markets, food boxes, on-farm sales), local restaurants, and food retailers without the intervention of other actors [24][25][26]. So far, despite the realization that SFSCs generate social and environmental value [27] and can help small-scale farmers earn a sufficient income [28], there is little work on how AKISs support the farmers who distribute their products through such alternative networks.…”