IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/aaea25/360835.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Effects of Information and Naming Restriction on South African Consumer Preferences for Farm-raised Meat and Meat Alternatives

Author

Listed:
  • Tobias-Mamina, Rejoice
  • Jordaan, Yolanda
  • Lin, Lin
  • Ortega, David L.

Abstract

High meat consumption in South Africa is driven by population growth, increased income, and urbanization. However, high meat production raises environmental and societal concerns, highlighting the need to shift toward more sustainable protein sources to reduce these impacts. This study examines consumer preferences for plant-based, insect-based, and cultured meat as alternatives, alongside the effects of environmental and health information and naming restrictions on these preferences. A food choice experiment was administered on 1,013 urban South African food shoppers to assess preferences for three alternative burger patties relative to farm-raised beef patties. Respondents were randomly assigned to treatments varying by health, environmental, and product naming information. Results indicate that farm-raised beef captures approximately 96% of the market share within our sample of urban food shoppers. Naming restrictions do not significantly affect beef demand but increase the market share for plant-based and cultured alternatives. Health information leads to slightly higher preferences for plant-based options than environmental information. Preference for insect-based alternatives remains low, likely due to an aversion to insects. These findings enhance understanding of consumer preferences for alternative meat products and naming restrictions, informing policies aimed at reducing the environmental and societal impacts of livestock production in South Africa.

Suggested Citation

  • Tobias-Mamina, Rejoice & Jordaan, Yolanda & Lin, Lin & Ortega, David L., 2025. "The Effects of Information and Naming Restriction on South African Consumer Preferences for Farm-raised Meat and Meat Alternatives," 2025 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2025, Denver, CO 360835, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:aaea25:360835
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.360835
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/360835/files/75217_94874_105300_AAEA_2025_lightning_session_full_paper.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.360835?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lukas Kornher & Martin Schellhorn & Saskia Vetter, 2019. "Disgusting or Innovative-Consumer Willingness to Pay for Insect Based Burger Patties in Germany," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-20, March.
    2. Krinsky, Itzhak & Robb, A Leslie, 1990. "On Approximating the Statistical Properties of Elasticities: A Correction," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 72(1), pages 189-190, February.
    3. Arne Risa Hole, 2007. "A comparison of approaches to estimating confidence intervals for willingness to pay measures," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(8), pages 827-840, August.
    4. Bhat, Chandra R., 2003. "Simulation estimation of mixed discrete choice models using randomized and scrambled Halton sequences," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 37(9), pages 837-855, November.
    5. Anabela Botelho & Ligia Costa Pinto, 2002. "Hypothetical, real, and predicted real willingness to pay in open-ended surveys: experimental results," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(15), pages 993-996.
    6. Chantal Le Mouël & Anna Birgit Milford & Benjamin L. Bodirsky & Susanne Rolinski, 2019. "Drivers of meat consumption," Post-Print hal-02175593, HAL.
    7. Kelvin J. Lancaster, 1966. "A New Approach to Consumer Theory," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 74(2), pages 132-132.
    8. Tsvakirai, Chiedza & Nalley, Lawton & Rider, Shelby & Van Loo, Ellen & Tshehla, Makgopa, 2023. "The Alternative Livestock Revolution: Prospects for Consumer Acceptance of Plant-based and Cultured Meat in South Africa," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 55(4), pages 710-729, November.
    9. Christopher J. Bryant, 2019. "We Can’t Keep Meating Like This: Attitudes towards Vegetarian and Vegan Diets in the United Kingdom," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-17, December.
    10. Martin C. Parlasca & Matin Qaim, 2022. "Meat Consumption and Sustainability," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 14(1), pages 17-41, October.
    11. repec:plo:pone00:0171904 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Roy Brouwer & Frank Spaninks, 1999. "The Validity of Environmental Benefits Transfer: Further Empirical Testing," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 14(1), pages 95-117, July.
    13. Delport, Marion & Louw, Marlene & Davids, Tracy & Vermeulen, Hester & Meyer, Ferdi, 2017. "Evaluating the demand for meat in South Africa: an econometric estimation of short term demand elasticities," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 56(01), March.
    14. Matthews, Yvonne & Scarpa, Riccardo & Marsh, Dan, 2017. "Stability of Willingness-to-Pay for Coastal Management: A Choice Experiment Across Three Time Periods," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 64-73.
    15. Natalie R. Rubio & Ning Xiang & David L. Kaplan, 2020. "Plant-based and cell-based approaches to meat production," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-11, December.
    16. Marion Delport & Marlene Louw & Tracy Davids & Hester Vermeulen & Ferdi Meyer, 2017. "Evaluating the demand for meat in South Africa: an econometric estimation of short term demand elasticities," Agrekon, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(1), pages 13-27, January.
    17. Benjamin DeMuth & Trey Malone & Brandon R. McFadden & Christopher A. Wolf, 2023. "Choice effects associated with banning the word “meat” on alternative protein labels," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 45(1), pages 128-144, March.
    18. Ortega, David L. & Sun, Jiayu & Lin, Wen, 2022. "Identity labels as an instrument to reduce meat demand and encourage consumption of plant based and cultured meat alternatives in China," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    19. Laura O. Taylor & Ronald G. Cummings, 1999. "Unbiased Value Estimates for Environmental Goods: A Cheap Talk Design for the Contingent Valuation Method," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(3), pages 649-665, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lin Lin & David L. Ortega & Jiayu Sun, 2025. "The effectiveness of misinformation corrective strategies and implications for consumers' food preferences and policy attitudes," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 47(1), pages 217-240, March.
    2. Rao Yuan & Shaosheng Jin & Lin Zhou & Hsiaoping Chien & Wenchao Wu, 2025. "Promoting eco‐labeled food consumption in China: The role of information," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(2), pages 401-423, April.
    3. Marianne Lefebvre & Masha Maslianskaia-Pautrel & Pauline Laille, 2022. "Alternative adaptation scenarios towards pesticide-free urban green spaces: Welfare implication for French citizens," Post-Print hal-03694169, HAL.
    4. Jianhua Wang & Jiaye Ge & Yuting Ma, 2018. "Urban Chinese Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Pork with Certified Labels: A Discrete Choice Experiment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-14, February.
    5. West, Grant H. & Snell, Heather & Kovacs, Kent & Nayga, Rodolfo M., 2020. "Estimation of the preferences for the intertemporal services from groundwater," 2020 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, Kansas City, Missouri 304220, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    6. Oyakhilomen Oyinbo & Jordan Chamberlin & Miet Maertens, 2020. "Design of Digital Agricultural Extension Tools: Perspectives from Extension Agents in Nigeria," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(3), pages 798-815, September.
    7. Joachim Marti, 2012. "Assessing preferences for improved smoking cessation medications: a discrete choice experiment," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 13(5), pages 533-548, October.
    8. Tavárez, Héctor & Álamo, Carmen & Cortés,Mildred, . "Differentiated coffees and their potential markets in Puerto Rico: An economic valuation approach," Economia Agraria y Recursos Naturales, Spanish Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 20(02).
    9. Liu, Ruifeng & ,, 2021. "What We Can Learn from the Interactions of Food Traceable Attributes? a Case Study of Fuji Apple in China," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315916, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    10. Craig E. Landry & Paul Hindsley & Okmyung Bin & Jamie B. Kruse & John C. Whitehead & Ken Wilson, 2011. "Weathering the Storm: Measuring Household Willingness‐to‐Pay for Risk‐Reduction in Post‐Katrina New Orleans," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 77(4), pages 991-1013, April.
    11. Vassalos, Michael & Lim, Kar Ho, . "Farmers’ Willingness to Pay for Various Features of Electronic Food Marketing Platforms," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 19(2), pages 1-19.
    12. Ortega, David L. & Wang, H. Holly & Wu, Laping & Olynk, Nicole J., 2011. "Modeling heterogeneity in consumer preferences for select food safety attributes in China," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 318-324, April.
    13. Sardaro, Ruggiero & La Sala, Piermichele & De Pascale, Gianluigi & Faccilongo, Nicola, 2021. "The conservation of cultural heritage in rural areas: Stakeholder preferences regarding historical rural buildings in Apulia, southern Italy," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    14. Bazzani, Claudia & Scarpa, Riccardo & Begalli, Diego & Capitello, Roberta, 2025. "Reporting nutritional information on wine packaging: Does it affect consumers’ choices? Evidence from a choice experiment in Italy," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    15. Sardaro, Ruggiero & Faccilongo, Nicola & Roselli, Luigi, 2019. "Wind farms, farmland occupation and compensation: Evidences from landowners’ preferences through a stated choice survey in Italy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    16. H. Holly Wang & Yu Jiang & Shaosheng Jin & Qiujie Zheng, 2022. "New online market connecting Chinese consumers and small farms to improve food safety and environment," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 70(4), pages 305-324, December.
    17. Pierre Dupraz & Abdoul Nasser Seyni Abdou & Thomas Coisnon & Bertille Thareau, 2019. "Towards the establishment of a voluntary carbon compensation market: the contributions of a choice experiment method," Post-Print hal-02503308, HAL.
    18. Van Wezemael, Lynn & Caputo, Vincenzina & Nayga, Rodolfo M. & Chryssochoidis, George & Verbeke, Wim, 2014. "European consumer preferences for beef with nutrition and health claims: A multi-country investigation using discrete choice experiments," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 167-176.
    19. Bénédicte Rulleau, 2024. "Household preferences for cyber-attack resilient water distribution networks: A latent class analysis of a discrete choice experiment in France," Post-Print hal-04157111, HAL.
    20. Kerstin K Zander & Stephen T Garnett, 2011. "The Economic Value of Environmental Services on Indigenous-Held Lands in Australia," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(8), pages 1-6, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:aaea25:360835. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaeaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.