The physical environment matters: room effects on online purchase decisions.

Introduction: People as individual consumers are regularly targeted in sustainability campaigns or communications with the hope of enhancing sustainable behavior at an individual level, with subsequent sustainability transformation at a larger societal scale. However, psychological motivation is complex and campaigns need to be based on an understanding for what individual, and contextual, factors support or hinder sustainable behavioral choices. Methods: In a discrete choice experiment, participants made hypothetical online purchases in each of three rooms designed to evoke associations to hedonic, gain, and normative goal frames. Participants were shown a campaign message intended to prime sustainable textile consumption prior to the purchase. For each product (t-shirt or bananas) hedonic (comfort/look), gain (price), and normative (organic/ fairtrade) attributes were varied in an online choice experiment. Results: Preferences for the normative attribute of t-shirts increased in the normative room compared to the room with gain associations. No effect of the rooms with hedonic or gain priming was observed on the choice. Discussion: The study supports the hypothesis that the physical room can enhance goal frame activation and behavioral choice but concludes that such priming effect is sensitive to specificity of the prime.

Dietary changes based on food purchase patterns following a type 2 diabetes diagnosis.

OBJECTIVE: The study explores whether type 2 diabetes (T2D) diagnosis affects food consumption patterns in line with the dietary recommendations provided to individuals in relation to a diagnosis. DESIGN: Based on detailed food purchase data, we explore which dietary changes are most common following a T2D diagnosis. Changes are investigated for several energy-adjusted nutrients and food groups and overall adherence to dietary guidelines. SETTING: We use data on diagnosis of T2D and hospitalisation in relation to T2D for a sample of adult Danes registered in the official patient register. This is combined with detailed scanner data on food purchases, which are used as a proxy for dietary intake. PARTICIPANTS: We included 274 individuals in Denmark who are diagnosed during their participation in a consumer panel where they report their food purchases and 16 395 individuals who are not diagnosed. RESULTS: Results suggest some changes in dietary composition following diagnosis, as measured by a Healthy Eating Index and for specific food groups and nutrients, although the long-term effects are limited. Socio-economic characteristics are poor predictors of dietary changes following diagnosis. Change in diet following diagnosis vary with the pre-diagnosis consumption patterns, where individuals with relatively unhealthy overall diets prior to diagnosis improve overall healthiness more compared to individuals with relatively healthy diets prior to diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS: Adherence to dietary advice is low, on average, but there is large variation in behavioural change between the diagnosed individuals. Our results stress the difficulty for diagnosed individuals to shift dietary habits, particularly in the long term.

Genetically modified food and consumer risk responsibility: The effect of regulatory design and risk type on cognitive information processing.

The use of agro-biotechnology has raised consumer concerns about environmental, health, socio-economic and ethical risks. This study examines how regulatory policies regarding genetically modified (GM) food production affect consumers' cognitive information processing, in terms of perceived risk, self-control, and risk responsibility. There is further analysis of whether the effect of policy design is moderated by risk type. Data was generated in a field experiment (n = 547), including four different policy scenario treatments (banned, research and development, import, and full commercialization). The results reveal that policy scenarios where GM food is available on the market are associated with higher levels of perceived risk and lower levels of self-control compared with policies where GM food is banned. There was no evidence of policy scenarios affecting consumer willingness to assign personal risk responsibility. However, among participants who indicated health risks as their main concern, there was an effect from the policy scenario on self-risk responsibility as mediated through perceived risk and self-control. The results suggest that health-conscious consumers tend to attribute less responsibility to themselves in situations where a genetically modified product was commercialized. These findings indicate a need to clarify guideline recommendations for health-related risks associated with foods derived from biotechnology.

The effects of voluntary front-of-pack nutrition labels on volume shares of products: the case of the Dutch Choices.

OBJECTIVE: The study examines the impact of a front-of-pack label (Dutch Choices) on household purchase patterns. DESIGN: Change in households' volume share of products eligible for the label (treatment group) is estimated as a function of changes in the market share of products displaying the label (treatment), while controlling for other relevant factors. SETTING: Home-scan data for five food categories, subdivided into eighteen food groups, for households participating in a Dutch consumer panel. The data are from the period 2005 to 2009, which includes the date of the introduction of the Choices label. PARTICIPANTS: Between 831 and 7216 households from all over the Netherlands. RESULTS: An increase in the market share of products displaying the label led to an increase in the volume share purchased of products eligible for the label for dairy products, yoghurts and for sauces. For some of the products, the partial effect is considerable (e.g. a 10 percentage point (pp) increase in the share of products displaying the label is associated with a 11·5 and 14·0 pp increase in the volume share of eligible products for chocolate milk and quark, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest a positive effect from the presence of the Choices label on the volume share of eligible products purchased. Provided that eligible products are healthier than non-eligible products, the Choices label is a good guide for consumers in order to help them make healthier food choices. The positive effect is found mainly in food groups with a mix of both healthy and unhealthy food products.

Accelerating the Domestication of New Crops: Feasibility and Approaches.

The domestication of new crops would promote agricultural diversity and could provide a solution to many of the problems associated with intensive agriculture. We suggest here that genome editing can be used as a new tool by breeders to accelerate the domestication of semi-domesticated or even wild plants, building a more varied foundation for the sustainable provision of food and fodder in the future. We examine the feasibility of such plants from biological, social, ethical, economic, and legal perspectives.

Feasibility of new breeding techniques for organic farming.

Organic farming is based on the concept of working 'with nature' instead of against it; however, compared with conventional farming, organic farming reportedly has lower productivity. Ideally, the goal should be to narrow this yield gap. In this review, we specifically discuss the feasibility of new breeding techniques (NBTs) for rewilding, a process involving the reintroduction of properties from the wild relatives of crops, as a method to close the productivity gap. The most efficient methods of rewilding are based on modern biotechnology techniques, which have yet to be embraced by the organic farming movement. Thus, the question arises of whether the adoption of such methods is feasible, not only from a technological perspective, but also from conceptual, socioeconomic, ethical, and regulatory perspectives.

Are we ready for back-to-nature crop breeding?

Sustainable agriculture in response to increasing demands for food depends on development of high-yielding crops with high nutritional value that require minimal intervention during growth. To date, the focus has been on changing plants by introducing genes that impart new properties, which the plants and their ancestors never possessed. By contrast, we suggest another potentially beneficial and perhaps less controversial strategy that modern plant biotechnology may adopt. This approach, which broadens earlier approaches to reverse breeding, aims to furnish crops with lost properties that their ancestors once possessed in order to tolerate adverse environmental conditions. What molecular techniques are available for implementing such rewilding? Are the strategies legally, socially, economically, and ethically feasible? These are the questions addressed in this review.