Suzanne Elizabeth Vedel

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.

Heterogeneity in the WTP for recreational access: distributional aspects

In this study we have addressed appropriate modelling of heterogeneity in willingness to pay (WTP) for environmental goods, and have demonstrated its importance using a case of forest access in Denmark. We compared WTP distributions for four models: (1) a multinomial logit model, (2) a mixed logit model assuming a univariate Normal distribution, (3) or assuming a multivariate Normal distribution allowing for correlation across attributes, and (4) a mixture of two truncated Normal distributions, allowing for correlation among attributes. In the first two models mean WTP for enhanced access was negative. However, models accounting for preference heterogeneity found a positive mean WTP, but a large sub-group with negative WTP. Accounting for preference heterogeneity can alter overall conclusions, which highlights the importance of this for policy recommendations.

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.

Can insects increase food security in developing countries? An analysis of Kenyan consumer preferences and demand for cricket flour buns

Achieving food security in an environmentally sustainable manner is one of the biggest challenges of our time. Using insects as food can serve this purpose because they are nutritionally valuable and environmentally friendly. Embracing insects as food requires information on potential consumer demand as this would determine the success of product development. In this study, we present one of the first thorough assessments of consumer demand for an insect-based food. We assessed the demand in terms of Kenyan consumer preferences and willingness to pay for buns containing varying amounts of cricket flour. We also assessed demand by predicting the market share in a presumed market scenario. The study used an incentivized discrete choice experiment integrated with sensory evaluations. This was intended to reduce any hypothetical bias and to allow participants to acquire experience by tasting the buns. We found significant and positive preferences for the cricket-flour-based buns. The bun products with medium amounts (5%) of cricket flour were preferred to no or high amounts (10%) of cricket flour. Market share predictions showed that cricket-flour-based buns were likely to obtain greater market shares than standard buns. Results also suggested that a market for breads made with cricket flour is likely in Kenya since the demand is present. This signals that insect-based food products may serve as a viable and demand-driven way to increase food security in Kenya in the future.

Creating First-Mover Advantages in Nature-Based Recreational Goods

Most nature-based recreational goods have traditionally been viewed as positive externalities of forestry and other land uses. They have been characterised by low degrees of excludability and rivalry and have therefore mainly been public goods. Due to increased rivalry among various user groups as well as an increasing demand for new recreational experiences, markets for nature-based recreational goods and services are gradually emerging. Despite the slow market development it is argued that nature-based recreational goods can be connected with substantial first-mover advantages. This paper explores the possibilities for using theory on first-mover advantages combined with characteristics of recreational goods to find the main areas of focus and the related strategies by which to gain first-mover advantages. The characteristics of recreational goods are analysed as well as the relevant first-mover advantages from the literature. Four examples of nature-based recreational goods are provided and used to analyse the scope for creating first-mover advantages according to the characteristics of each type of good. The analysis shows that particularly buyer switching costs and targeting the right buyers can create considerable first-mover advantages. Furthermore, non-subtractable goods and goods which can attract organised buyers can be connected with greater first-mover advantages. Combining knowledge on recreational goods and first-mover advantages can support the development of markets for nature-based recreational goods and increase returns on investments in this field.

Accounting for environmental attitude to explain variations in willingness to pay for forest ecosystem services using the new environmental paradigm

ABSTRACT In the environmental psychology literature, the new environmental paradigm (NEP) scale has been used to measure environmental attitude as a multidimensional concept. This study is conducted based on this multidimensionality concept to analyse willingness to pay for forest management targeting non-use value ecosystem services. In most previous studies, the NEP scale has been considered as a unidimensional measure and directly incorporated into the modelling. Here, we outline the relevance of considering such multidimensionality of the NEP scale using a different modelling procedure. This is performed following two modelling approaches (1) a random parameters logit model where the NEP score is incorporated directly and (2) a hybrid choice model in which latent variables identified from the NEP scale are incorporated in simultaneous equations setup. In both models, the environmental attitude influences preferences and willingness to pay estimates, but the first one ignoring the multidimensionality tends to exaggerate its impact. The hybrid choice model shows slightly lower statistical performance. However, in this model, the use of two latent variables reveal a non-uniform effect and thereby clearly shows the relevance of considering a multidimensional NEP scale for a better understanding of variations.