Sustainable Agriculture and No-Food Production: An Empirical Investigation on Organic Cosmetics

Journal title RIVISTA DI STUDI SULLA SOSTENIBILITA'
Author/s Francesco Marangon, Tiziano Tempesta, Stefania Troiano, Daniel Vecchiato
Publishing Year 2015 Issue 2015/1
Language English Pages 15 P. 63-77 File size 220 KB
DOI 10.3280/RISS2015-001005
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Organic cosmetics represent an interesting case study of the links between sustainability and the agricultural system beyond food production. Organic agriculture is rapidly growing not only as a segment of the food industry but also as a producer of ecosystem services, and row materials for, among the others, the cosmetic industry. This growth is mainly due to the development of an important trend of environmental consciousness among costumers. This study presents an application of choice experiments to analyze the preferences of costumers between organic and conventional cosmetic products. Our results pointed out that environmental consciousness, especially among young people, was one of the main drivers in determining their purchase behavior toward organic cosmetics. Moreover, the results shown respondents were willing to pay a premium price also for cosmetic products that respect animal welfare.

Keywords: Organic cosmetics, sustainable agriculture, choice experiment, consumers’ behavior, willingness to pay, random parameter model.

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Francesco Marangon, Tiziano Tempesta, Stefania Troiano, Daniel Vecchiato, Sustainable Agriculture and No-Food Production: An Empirical Investigation on Organic Cosmetics in "RIVISTA DI STUDI SULLA SOSTENIBILITA'" 1/2015, pp 63-77, DOI: 10.3280/RISS2015-001005