Bradley J. Rickard

Product Differentiation and Market Segmentation in Applesauce: Using a Choice Experiment to Assess the Value of Organic, Local and Nutrition Attributes

Recently, there has been much interest among horticultural producers concerning the marketing of organic and locally produced food. A consumer survey was administered that asked respondents to choose an applesauce product from a list of products differentiated by price, and by labels that described fat content, nutrition content, and whether the product was grown organically and/or locally. Our analysis indicates that consumers were willing to pay more for locally grown applesauce compared to applesauce that was labeled USDA Organic, Low Fat, or No Sugar Added. Furthermore, we find evidence that increased knowledge of agriculture decreases the willingness to pay for organic and locally grown applesauce.

HOW HAVE AGRICULTURAL POLICIES INFLUENCED CALORIC CONSUMPTION IN THE UNITED STATES

Many commentators have speculated that agricultural policies have contributed to increased obesity rates in the United States, yet such claims are often made without any analysis of the complex links between real-world farm commodity support programs, prices and consumption of foods, and caloric intake. This article carefully studies the effects of US agricultural policies on prices and quantities of 10 agricultural commodities and nine food categories in the United States over time. Using a detailed multimarket model, we simulate the counterfactual removal of measures of support applied to US agricultural commodities in 1992, 1997, and 2002 and quantify the effects on US food consumption and caloric intake. To parameterize the simulations, we calculate three alternative measures of consumer support (the implicit consumer subsidy from policies that support producers) for the 10 agricultural commodities using information about government expenditures on agricultural commodities from various sources. Our results indicate that-holding all other policies constant-removing US subsidies on grains and oilseeds in the three periods would have caused caloric consumption to decrease minimally whereas removal of all US agricultural policies (including barriers against imports of sugar and dairy products) would have caused total caloric intake to increase. Our results also indicate that the influence of agricultural policies on caloric intake has diminished over time.

Consumer valuation of environmentally friendly production practices in wines considering asymmetric information and sensory effects

Agricultural producers and food marketers are increasingly responding to environmentally friendly cues from consumers, even though privately appropriated values associated with a range of food products commonly rank above their public-good counterparts. Wine can be considered an ideal product to examine these issues given consumers’ highly subjective sensory preferences towards wine, and a winegrape production process that is relatively intensive in the use of chemical inputs for the control of disease and infection. Semi-dry Riesling wines made from field research trials following environmentally friendly canopy management practices were utilised in a lab experiment to better understand preferences for environmental attributes in wine. A combined sensory and monetary evaluation framework explicitly considered asymmetric order effects. Empirical results revealed that sensory effects dominate extrinsic environmental attributes. Once consumer willingness to pay (WTP) was conditioned on a wine’s sensory attributes, the addition of environmentally friendly information did not affect their WTP; however, adding sensory information significantly influenced WTP initially based only on environmental attributes. The results confirm the idea that promoting environmentally friendly winegrape production practices would increase demand and lead to higher premiums for the products, but are only sustainable if consumers’ sensory expectations are met on quality.

Which biotech foods are most acceptable to the public

New discoveries are prompting questions about which types of genetically engineered foods and applications are likely to be most accepted by the public. Results of a survey of over 1000 US consumers reveals that people prefer eating beef to eating corn or apples if the foods are not genetically engineered, but exactly the opposite is true if the foods are genetically engineered. Eating fresh food is preferred to processed, but much less so if both food types are genetically engineered. Desirability of genetic engineering depends on the reason for the biotechnology application.

Factors Influencing Adoption of Integrated Pest Management in Northeast Greenhouse and Nursery Production

We collected surveys from 94 greenhouse and nursery growers in three northeastern states to examine factors influencing integrated pest management (IPM] adoption. We constructed three alternative dependent variables describing the extent of IPM adoption and employed discrete choice models to identify factors that affect adoption. We find that operations with more full-time workers are more likely to adopt IPM. Additionally, greenhouse/nursery growers that rank pests as a serious problem are likely to use a wider array of IPM practices. The reliability of IPM practices is critical for adoption. Our analysis highlights differences between self-reported and objective IPM adoption measures.

The Economics of Introducing Wine into Grocery Stores

The repeal of the Prohibition Act in 1933 introduced many state‐specific regulations in wine markets. For example, 15 states currently have laws that restrict wine sales in grocery stores. Several of these states have proposed changes that would expand the distribution of wine; however, the proposals have met significant resistance from key stakeholders and none have resulted in legislation. It is widely expected that additional proposals will be initiated, but with more attention given to mechanisms that would address some of the transitional issues. A simulation model is developed here to assess the likely economic effects of introducing wine into grocery stores in New York State. Results indicate that tax revenue would increase by

Looking for Locapours: Using Zagat Survey Data to Examine Restaurant Demand for Local Wine

22 million annually, revenue for in‐state wineries would increase by approximately 13%, and revenue for liquor store owners is calculated to fall by 28%. Simulation results are subsequently used to develop a framework for evaluating the transitional costs of policy reform in this highly regulated industry.

Alternative Strategies to Manage Weather Risk in Perennial Fruit Crop Production

There is increasing interest in local foods among consumers in the United States and a rise in offerings of local products in restaurants. We use Zagat survey data and restaurant-specific menu information to estimate factors that influence the availability of New York State (NYS) wine in 1,401 NYS restaurants. We focus on wine because its production region is clearly labeled on menus and there is a burgeoning industry in NYS. Our econometric results indicate that decor ratings, cuisine styles, certain wine list characteristics, and distance to wine regions have statistically significant impacts on the likelihood of NYS restaurants serving local wine.

Commercialization Mechanisms for New Plant Varieties

Fruit producers in the Eastern United States face a wide range of weather-related risks that have the capacity to largely impact yields and profitability. This research examines the economic implications associated with responding to these risks for sweet cherry production in three different systems: high tunnels, revenue insurance, and weather insurance. The analysis considers a distribution of revenue flows and costs using detailed price, yield, and weather data between 1984 and 2013. Our results show that the high tunnel system generates the largest net return if significant price premiums exist for earlier and larger fruit.

Trade liberalization in the presence of domestic regulations: public policies applied to EU and U.S. wine markets

Developing and marketing new varieties is essential for the long-term profitability of US crop producers. The ultimate goal of university breeding programs is to release improved plant varieties, either with superior quality or more efficient production management. For certain horticultural products, notably apples, plant breeders have developed several new differentiated varieties that have the capacity to be marketed with premium prices and that can compete on world markets. If these innovations are not commercialized or are commercialized in a suboptimal way, then the benefits of the research are greatly reduced. In this chapter, we use game theoretic analysis and an experimental auction to investigate the effects of contract exclusivity and payment structure on innovator and producer profits from a hypothetical new apple variety.