Modeling the implications of policy reforms on pesticide risk for Switzerland.

Growing public awareness of the negative effects of pesticides on the environment, ecosystems, and human health has led governments to set targets for reducing pesticide risk. Switzerland introduced in 2023 two new policy measures to reduce pesticide risk by 50 % by 2027: (1) voluntary direct payment programs supporting pesticide-reduced and pesticide-free but non-organic cropping systems for most crops on arable land, and (2) restrictions of harmful pesticides for farmers managing under Swiss cross-compliance standards. This study aims to (1) develop a method to assess pesticide risk on a national scale and (2) carry out an ex-ante impact assessment to predict whether these policies can effectively reduce pesticide risks in Switzerland. Therefore, we introduced crop-specific pesticide quantities and pesticide risk scores into a sample of 1907 bio-economic farm optimization models. The models were used to predict farmers' adoption decisions regarding voluntary direct payment programs from 2019 to 2030. By combining the bio-economic farm optimization models with an agent-based modeling approach, we assessed the evolution of pesticide-related risks at the national level. Simulations for pesticide risk from 2019 to 2022 reflected the observed pesticide risk monitored by the Swiss government. In surface waters and semi-natural habitats, achieving the target depends on reducing pyrethroids, a class of insecticides with high-risk potential. Further, we highlight significant uncertainty in projecting the risk potential for surface waters and semi-natural habitats due to uncertainty about the amounts of pyrethroid used for different crops. The results underline the need for comprehensive datasets on pesticide use in Switzerland.

Data on Swiss citizens' preferences and perceptions of agricultural policy.

We present representative survey data from 1,542 Swiss citizens. Data were collected across the three largest Swiss language regions (German, French and Italian) in autumn 2022. In the main part of the survey, we collected qualitative and quantitative data on their perception of agricultural policy goals and potential trade-offs. For this, participants were first asked to name the three most important agricultural policy goals. Next, they rated eight pre-defined agricultural policy goals for importance and how much budget they would allocate to the pursuit of each goal if they were to decide about the governmental budget or subsidies. For the goal conflicts, the eight goals were combined into 16 conflicting pairs, where participants were to decide which of the conflicting goals they preferred. Further, we collected information regarding who citizens considered as responsible for achieving agricultural policy goals. The survey was also used to collect personal information about the participating citizens including information such as gender, age, education level, place of residence or whether participant had (previous) work experience in agriculture and how they placed themselves regarding their political orientation on a left-right scale. We further collected behavioural data including diet, that is, meat consumption frequency and shopping behaviour, where we asked participants what attributes were important for them when buying food. At the end of the survey, we used existing and new scales to measure participants' perception of farmers, meat commitment and their perception regarding animal welfare and environmental protection using the Ecological Welfare Scale. For this study, ethical approval was obtained from ETH Zurich ethical commission (application EK-2022-N-174).

Perceived feasibility of sward management options in permanent grassland of Alpine regions and expected effects on delivery of ecosystem services.

Agriculture in Alpine regions plays an important role for multiple ecosystem services (ES) supplied from permanent grassland (PG). This paper investigates the feasibility of sward renewal, overseeding, and rising plate meters on PG for the Swiss Alpine region and analyses their expected effects on ES supply. Sward renewal and overseeding are management options implemented in response to a decline of grassland yields and nutritive value or sward damage. Rising plate meters focus on increased grass utilisation for improving profitability of grassland farms in a sustainable manner. The aim was to improve the understanding which of these three PG management practices could be promoted to deliver a wide range of agricultural and non-agricultural ESs in the Swiss Alpine region. Through interviews with 75 farmers (including organic and intensive/extensive non-organic farmers) and a Delphi-methodology on a panel of experts (N = 10 experts with different expertise), we found that sward renewal is perceived to have negative effects on biodiversity, carbon storage, flood control, prevention of soil erosion, and prevention of loss of organic matter in Alpine regions. Therefore, sward renewal should not be promoted, although about half of the farmers interviewed had already carried out the practice on plots following severe sward damage in Alpine regions. Overseeding is perceived to have positive effects on biodiversity, prevention of soil erosion, and grass production. Thus, the high level of overseeding that is currently practiced in the Swiss Alpine region is probably sustainable. Rising plate meters do not play a significant role in PG management in the Alpine region because calibration in PG with diverse grassland botanical composition in the Alpine region is too difficult.

Determinants of the decision to build up excessive food stocks in the COVID-19 crisis.

In 2020, the first COVID-19 lockdowns resulted in food panic buying and excessive food stockpiling across many countries around the world. Many governments recommend keeping emergency food stocks for three to ten days for times of potential shortages in food supply. Based on data from an online survey conducted among Swiss inhabitants, we investigated the effect of knowledge level and stockpiling behaviour according to governmental stockpiling recommendations in normal times on the decision to build up more food stocks than usual during the first lockdown in 2020. For this purpose, we applied a combination of latent class analysis and logistic regression. Latent classes were constructed based on knowledge level and stockpiling behaviour according to governmental stockpiling recommendations in normal times. Subsequently, the information on class membership was used as predictor of the decision to excessively stockpile food during the first lockdown. The variable "class membership" revealed that respondents with a low knowledge level and food stocks below governmental recommendations in normal times had a 7.6 percentage points lower probability of excessively stockpiling food during the first lockdown than respondents with a high knowledge level and recommended food stocks in normal times. Excessive stockpiling was additionally driven by the worry that certain food products would disappear from the supermarket shelves entirely or would be in short supply. Moreover, regression results revealed that respondents who reduced their shopping frequency during the first lockdown in 2020 showed a higher probability of building up more food stocks than usual. Our findings are crucial for food suppliers and policymakers to understand the drivers of panic buying and to prevent this phenomenon in future crises.

Empirical evidence on factors influencing farmers' administrative burden: A structural equation modeling approach.

Direct payments represent a large share of Swiss farmers' total household income but compliance with related requirements often entails a high administrative burden. This causes individuals to experience policy implementation as onerous. Based on a framework for administrative burden in citizen-state interactions, we test whether farmers' individual knowledge, psychological costs and compliance costs help to explain their perception of administrative burden related to direct payments. We refine this framework by testing different specifications of interrelations between psychological costs and perceived administrative burden based on findings from policy feedback theory and education research. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is applied to data collected from a representative sample of 808 Swiss farmers by postal questionnaire in 2019. We find that compliance costs and psychological costs contribute significantly to the perceived administrative burden. In contrast, farmers' knowledge level contributes to this perception not directly but indirectly, with higher knowledge reducing psychological costs. Our results support policy feedback theory, in that a high level of administrative burden increases psychological costs. Furthermore, well-educated and well-informed farmers show a more positive attitude toward agricultural policy and thus perceive administrative tasks as less onerous. Policy-makers should invest in the reduction of administrative requirements to reduce compliance costs.

Food loss reduction from an environmental, socio-economic and consumer perspective - The case of the Swiss potato market.

Potatoes are one of the commodities with the highest loss shares along the entire supply chain. In the present study, we analyzed six potential loss reduction scenarios concerning their environmental-socio-economic sustainability compared with the current situation by using the "SustainOS" methodology. For this purpose, life cycle assessments, full-cost calculations and an online consumer survey were conducted. Environmental improvements through loss reduction were rather small and did not cross limits of significance, but the socio-economic performance of the entire supply chain can be improved considerably. Pearson correlation coefficients and linear regression analyses were used to predict the influence of specific subjective items like the intention to avoid food loss, knowledge related to food loss and consumers' price sensitivity on the assigned preference. Results show that perceived risks, perceived inconvenience and the general acceptance of loss-reducing instruments influence consumers' preferences. Altogether, only three out of six tested scenarios seem realistic: selling unwashed potatoes in a lightproof box, selling unpacked potatoes, and improved quality sorting at farms. For two of the other scenarios, consumers significantly indicated their refusal even if losses decreased considerably, whereas the sixth scenario was unfavorable from a socio-economic perspective.

Quantity and quality of food losses along the Swiss potato supply chain: Stepwise investigation and the influence of quality standards on losses.

This paper presents the results of a stepwise investigation of the quantity and quality of food losses along the Swiss potato supply chain. Quantitative data were collected from field trials, from structured interviews with wholesalers, processors and retailers, and from consumer surveys in combination with a 30-day diary study. The "Swiss trade customs for potatoes" pose the basis for the qualitative evaluation of losses. The influences of technological, institutional (business and economy; legislation and policy), and social drivers on the generation of fresh potato and processed potato products losses were assessed. Losses due to quality standards driven by food safety and consumer preferences for certain aesthetic standards have been evaluated too. Across the entire potato value chain, approximately 53-55% of the initial fresh potato production and 41-46% of the initial processing potato production are finally lost. Losses between organic and non-organic supply chains differ from 2% to 5%. From the total initial fresh potato production, 15-24% gets lost during agricultural production, a further 12-24% at wholesalers, 1-3% at retailers, and 15% at private households. In comparison, 5-11% of the initial production gets lost at wholesalers, a further 14-15% during processing, 0% at retailers, and 2% at private households. Losses during agricultural production do not vary much (13-25%) between fresh and processing potatoes. Approximately half of total potato losses occur because potatoes do not meet quality standards. 25-34% of these quality-driven losses are caused by food safety reasons, and the remainder are caused by consumer preferences or suitability for storage. In total, social drivers (e.g., consumer preferences, behavior, or socio-demographical factors) are responsible for two-thirds to three-fourths of all fresh potato losses and 40-45% of all processing potato losses. Technological drivers cause circa one-third of the total processing potato losses. The majority of the rejected potatoes are used as animal feed (67-90%) in Switzerland. Approximately 30% of all fresh potato losses are disposed while just 4-5% of all processing potato losses are thrown away. The interviewed experts stated that lower quality specifications might cause lower loss rates at the first stages of the supply chain but higher ones at the later stages due to worse storage or processing abilities of potatoes with defects, which also might affect proper tubers.