Public Acceptance of and Willingness to Pay for Nanofood: Case of Canola Oil

Guzhen Zhou, Wuyang Hu, Jack Schieffer and Lynn Robbins

No 149662, 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. from Agricultural and Applied Economics Association

Abstract: Nanotechnology has tremendous potential in food and agriculture. Few economic studies focused on specific products made using nanotechnology, let alone food or food related products. Using a national choice experiment survey, this analysis examines consumers’ valuations for nano-attributes. As implied, consumers were willing to pay less for canola oil if it was produced from nanoscale-modified seed; less if the final products were packed with nanotechnology-enhanced packaging technique; and no significant difference was found for oil that was designed with health enhancing nano-engineered oil drops, which would require interaction with the human digestive system. Additionally, the results revealed unobserved heterogeneities among respondents in their willingness-to-pay for canola oil attributes. Findings from this study will help bridge the gap between scientific innovation and public policy and social-economic concerns. Implications for government policy that can be efficiently used to monitor and regulate these technologies were also investigated.

Keywords: Agribusiness; Agricultural and Food Policy; Consumer/Household Economics; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; Marketing; Research Methods/ Statistical Methods (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24
Date: 2013-08-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-dcm
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:aaea13:149662

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.149662

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