In developed countries, approximately 222 million tons of food is wasted at the consumer level per year (FAO, 2011). These amounts of food waste have large social, economic, and environmental impacts. Studies have shown that one of the main causes of food waste in developed countries is consumers’ elevated expectations for appearances in fresh produce, causing imperfect produce to be wasted. In this study, we estimate consumer willingness to pay for sweet potatoes with five different skinning injury levels using a Vickrey 2nd price non- hypothetical auction. We test if consumer knowledge about (1) the percentage of blemishing, (2) the relationship between blemished produce and food waste, and (3) the environmental impacts of food waste influences willingness-to-pay for blemished produce. We find that consumer bids were affected by knowing the blemishing levels and after gaining knowledge about food waste and its environmental impacts.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:MSSTATE/oai:scholarsjunction.msstate.edu:td-2169 |
| Date | 10 August 2018 |
| Creators | Henson, Chloe' DeRyn |
| Publisher | Scholars Junction |
| Source Sets | Mississippi State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Theses and Dissertations |
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