Policy packaging can make food system transformation feasible
A new study examines how potentially effective policy instruments may be designed and combined so as to reduce public backlash and ensure political feasibility of transforming the food system. The article on food system transformation by IR PhD Candidate Lukas Paul Fesenfeld, Postdoctoral Researcher Michael Wicki, Dr. Yixian Sun from the University of Bath, and Prof. Thomas Bernauer was published in Nature Food.
Redesigning food production and consumption is key to limiting global warming, soil erosion and biodiversity loss. Yet, transforming the food system may involve political feasibility problems, as potentially effective policy interventions interfere with citizens’ daily lives. Here, the researchers show that policy packaging—the systematic bundling of different policy measures—can help to mitigate the potential trade-off between political feasibility and problem-solving effectiveness. They use conjoint experiments with citizens from China, Germany and the United States to scrutinize support for different combinations of policies aimed at reducing food systems’ environmental impacts. Their results do not support the widespread claim that costly market-based or push measures per se receive less support than non-market-based or pull measures. Instead, they show that citizens are likely to support even costly policies, but this support varies by country and depends on the specific combination of policy measures, their stringency and revenue earmarking.
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