Getting past the gatekeeper: Key motivations of dairy farmer intent to adopt animal health and welfare-improving biotechnology

Danielle J. Ufer, David Ortega, Christopher A. Wolf, Melissa McKendree and Janice Swanson

Food Policy, 2022, vol. 112, issue C

Abstract: The complexities of the decision to adopt gene-editing technology at the farm gate are likely to be greater than a simple matter of profitability. We investigate ex ante technology adoption intentions to address how non-pecuniary motivations influence a dairy producer’s decision to adopt gene-editing (GE) technology with animal health and welfare-improving benefits. Experimental vignette methodology and a correlated random parameters ordered logit modeling approach are employed to investigate U.S. dairy farmer intent to adopt GE genetics that confer resistance to Johne’s disease (M. avium ssp. paratuberculosis), a disease that costs the U.S. dairy industry close to $200 million per year. Findings point to a general resistance among dairy farmers towards GE genetics, even with an animal health and welfare-improving application. We find that profitability is a necessary, but not sufficient condition for adoption. Farmers can, however, become more amenable to the prospect of adopting GE genetics through situational influences. Our results indicate that the successful uptake of GE technologies may be influenced by policies which protect adopters from adverse market impacts but also consider the complexities of the producer’s decision-making process.

Keywords: Dairy; Gene-editing; Johne’s disease; Non-pecuniary; Technology adoption; Vignette methodology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306919222001270
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jfpoli:v:112:y:2022:i:c:s0306919222001270

DOI: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2022.102358

Access Statistics for this article

Food Policy is currently edited by J. Kydd

More articles in Food Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().