Demand Impacts and Implementation of Eco-labels for Food Products
National Research Initiative Competitive Grants Program, U.S. Department of Agriculture (Amount $460,000. Dates 10/1/04-9/30/07).
Project Directors
- Catherine Durham, Food Innovation Center, Oregon State University
- Jill McCluskey, School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University
- Rob King, Dept. of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota
- Cathy Roheim, Department of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, University of Rhode Island
The overall goal of this research is to determine how eco-labels can efficiently enhance demand for produce. There are four objectives.
- The first objective is to assess the cost of establishing, implementing, and participating in an eco-labeling program. This objective will be met by reviewing the start-up costs and expenditures of eco-labeling programs along with a review of the costs of being certified under various programs and the cost of implementing such a program.
- The second objective is to evaluate both the characteristics of an eco-label that will lead to increased product demand and how consumers can be effectively reached with that information in retail settings. These tasks will be accomplished through focus groups and surveys. The surveys will collect information on willingness-to-pay for eco-label characteristics.
- The third objective is to test eco-labeling promotion through in-store experiments and evaluate their impact on retail demand. This will be accomplished by collecting data from retail grocery stores over an extended period and employing variations in promotional signage at those stores to evaluate the impact of those variations.
- The fourth objective is to assess how well results from the willingness-to-pay analysis compare with those of a demand study. T his will be examined by looking at the demand impact of eco-label signage at the point of purchase, and the implied demand effect of the willingness-to-pay result.
Art depiction of land protected with conservation buffers and other practices. Artist is Scott Patton. from ftp://ftp.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/downloads/pestmgt/newconbuf.pdf