TY - JOUR A1 - Lauterbach, Josephine A1 - Bantle, Christina T1 - “For More Diversity, Better Taste and My Own Health” Exploring Organic Consumers’ Purchasing Motives for Heirloom Vegetable Varieties JF - Sustainability N2 - Agrobiodiversity is the foundation of our ecosystems and food supply. However, agrobiodiversity is declining rapidly. A prominent strategy to safeguard endangered varieties, an important component of agrobiodiversity, is their cultivation and preservation in their natural environments. In order to make the cultivation of these varieties attractive to farmers, a functioning value chain and communication concepts for these goods have to be developed. Using heirloom vegetable varieties as an example, we examine existing communication approaches for endangered varieties and evaluate their suitability to transport their added value to organic consumers. We furthermore examine organic consumers’ purchasing motives to buy heirloom vegetable varieties. We collected data in three focus group discussions in Berlin (Germany) in 2018. This exploratory study shows that existing communication approaches for heirloom vegetable varieties strongly appeal to altruistic and biospheric purchasing motives. However, our results suggest that egoistic and hedonic purchasing motives are just as important to organic consumers. Hence, existing communication approaches for heirloom vegetable varieties, including the “Red List of Endangered Local Crops”, are not entirely suitable to communicate the added value of biodiversity-enhancing products to consumers. Based on these results, we will develop a holistic communication scheme for heirloom vegetable varieties for organic supermarkets and further distribution channels in Germany. KW - communication KW - agrobiodiversity KW - heirloom vegetable varieties KW - red list KW - focus groups Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:eb1-opus-2992 SN - 2071-1050 IS - 14(7) PB - MDPI ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lauterbach, Josephine A1 - Bruns, Antonia Johanna A1 - Häring, Anna Maria T1 - Exploring Consumer Preference towards the On-Farm Slaughtering of Beef in Germany: A Discrete Choice Experiment JF - Foods N2 - Current production standards and communication campaigns about animal welfare in relation to beef strongly emphasise the “humane” rearing of cattle. Aspects such as transport and slaughtering conditions are often overlooked in both production standards and communications with consumers. Long transport routes and conventional slaughtering can cause significant stress to animals and have negative impacts on their welfare and on meat quality. On-farm slaughter can address these criticisms. Communicating the value of low-stress slaughtering conditions like on-farm slaughtering may offer significant sales potential for a premium market segment. In this study, we explore consumers’ preferences and willingness to pay for beef that is slaughtered on-farm rather than in conventional abattoirs. We conducted an online survey (n = 400) in 2022, with a sample that is representative of the German population with respect to gender, age, income and education. Our survey included a discrete choice experiment for the purchase of minced beef, incorporating product attributes that influence purchase decisions. These included: price, information on the social, economic and environmental benefits of regional production, different production standards (conventional/organic) and information on on-farm slaughtering. Our findings indicate that consumers derive the highest utility from a low price, followed by information about on-farm slaughtering. Participants indicated a preference for information on high animal welfare over high beef quality. We conclude that highlighting on-farm slaughtering could be a significant benefit in marketing premium beef products. KW - consumer preferences; animal welfare; on-farm slaughter; slaughter conditions; premium beef marketing Y1 - 2023 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:eb1-opus-7753 SN - 2304-8158 IS - 12 PB - MDPI ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lauterbach, Josephine A1 - Haack, Michaela A1 - Häring, Anna Maria T1 - Co-production of Business Models for Pasture-Based Beef in North-East Germany – Integrating Consumers Preferences JF - Proceedings in system dynamics and innovation in food networks 2022 N2 - Pasture-based cattle rearing systems provide numerous ecosystem services and meet current consumer demands for animal welfare. However, the development of regional value chains from pasture-based beef are inhibited in economically less developed regions, such as North East Germany, as they lack regional slaughtering and processing capacities and show weak cooperation between stakeholders. The real world lab "WertWeideVerbund" aims to co-produce new beef value chains and business models, addressing consumer demands and value chain actors’ interests at the same time. Target group specific and regionally adapted communication approaches are part of these business models and aimed at unlocking market potentials. We conducted an online survey to define consumer groups for pasture-based beef, evaluate their preferences for communication approaches and define their willingness to pay for those products. The questionnaire was partly based on previously collected qualitative data from focus groups and on an extended literature review of existing quality standards for pasture-based beef. The survey revealed different consumer segments based on demographics, frequency of beef purchase, general shopping behaviour and willingness to pay for pasture-raised beef. Respondents preferred communication approaches with a focus on animal welfare and were not particularly interested in regional origin and ranked it equal to other aspects such as information on producers, quality and taste, and biodiversity and climate protection, indicating that there is a demand for further explanation on the advantages of regional production. KW - pasture-raised beef; communication; marketing; animal welfare; regional origin Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:eb1-opus-6839 SN - 2194-511X SP - 167 EP - 177 ER -