The Future of Food: Understanding Public Preferences for the Management of Agricultural Resources.

Erika Allen Wolters,Brent S Steel,Heather Moline,Sydney Anderson

doi:10.3390/ijerph18136707

Erika Allen Wolters, Brent S Steel + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18136707

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Abstract

The current U.S food system has managed to provide abundant food at a relatively low cost, even as the population increases. However, this unfettered growth is reaching maximum yields as demand for greater food production competes with other uses of agricultural lands. Extant ecological factors such as water scarcity are reducing food productivity, and competition for resources to produce food is becoming more apparent. This research examines public policy preferences of U.S. west coast citizens for the management of agricultural resources through the use of random household surveys. Results suggest overall support among respondents for food policies using regulatory, tax incentive, and voluntary outreach approaches. Multivariate analyses revealed that some social-demography, knowledge, environmental values, political ideology, and environmental efficacy variables were significant predictors of public opposition and support for food policies.

Highlights

In order to understand food policy preferences more fully, we examine socialdemography, knowledge, environmental values, state residency, political ideology, and environmental efficacy variables as potential predictors of public opposition and support for food policies
To assess public food policy preferences in the California, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington states, respondents were asked their level of opposition or support for seven different food policies including tax incentive policies, regulatory policies, and voluntary outreach policies
For the three tax incentive policies that would encourage sustainable food production, mean scores in all four states indicate that there is more support than opposition for each of the policies; all three F-tests are statistically significant indicating some variation among the states

Summary

Introduction

The food system includes all processes and infrastructure involved in feeding a population: growing, processing, packaging, distributing, storing, preparing, serving, and disposing of food It is deeply interrelated with land, water, energy, society, markets, and government [4,5]. The U.S food system is dynamic, adapting to changing demographics and consumer preferences—including ideas about health, society, economic conditions, and environmental concerns—and advances in science and technology [6]. It is complex, with markets that function at global, national, regional, and local levels. There appears to be a trend of increased environmental support among younger people [26,27,28,29], females [30,31,32,33,34,35], and people with higher levels of formal education [28,36,37]

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