Dynamics of Household Preferences, Sustainable Food and Public Policies
Responsible for the project: Céline BONNET
Coordinating institution: INRAE
Sustainable food consumption; Consumer preferences; Public policy; Food supply; Econometric modeling; Sociological approaches
- Total cost: 3,94M€
- Starting date: 01/03/2025
- Duration: 5 years
- Reference : ANR-24-PESA-0009
• Overall objective:
The transition toward sustainable food systems is a crucial public policy issue, due to external costs and the impacts of food consumption on health and the environment. Although sustainable diets have been identified, they are far from consumers’ dietary preferences. This mismatch results in particular from deeply rooted and persistent eating habits and sociocultural norms, constraints emanating from the characteristics of supply (accessibility, price, and product quality), and competition between time uses in daily life (work, transportation, leisure, etc.). The DynAPol-3P project aims to understand the dynamics of French household food preferences and consumption in interaction with changes in population structure, supply, and public policies.
• Scientific and societal issues:
To date, quantitative work on public policy analysis has paid little attention to the potential role of food preferences in transitions. With this in mind, the DynAPol-3P project aims to shed light on food system transition strategies through two innovative contributions: 1) the development of economic evaluations of public policy by integrating the possibility of preference changes, and 2) the combination of sociological and economic approaches, allowing for a better understanding of the interactions between preference dynamics, market actors and supply regulation policies.
• Project focuses:
The DynAPol-3P project has four major focuses:
1) Describe the dynamics of household food consumption and its environmental and nutritional quality using longitudinal purchasing data.
2) Examine the specific contributions of three types of factors to these consumption and preference dynamics: the socio-demographic structure of the population, time and budget constraints, and supply characteristics.
3) Analyze public policies, in particular: i) understand the interactions between public and private actors and their roles in formulating and disseminating sustainable food standards, and ii) measure the impact of policies when preferences and supply evolve simultaneously.
4) Identify supply-side regulation policies that can guide consumers toward sustainable food and reduce social inequalities.
