Acceptance of sustainability standards by farmers - empirical evidence from Germany

Abstract

We use a discrete choice experiment to investigate the willingness-to-accept a sustainability standard by German farmers. We also evaluate how attributes in standard design increase acceptance. The estimation of a latent class logit model results in two groups of farmers differentiated with respect to attitude, risk perception, age, education and previous participation in agri-environmental schemes (AES). However, all respondents prefer to use the EU's Integrated Administration and Control System based data and a standard linked to AES. These findings suggest valuable insights for the design or revision of sustainability standards as part of the implementation of the European CAP in line with the European Union's CAP proposal for 2021-2027.

Keywords: Database access; Farm sustainability standard; Innovation adoption; Standard design; Sustainability management; Willingness-to-accept.