Abstract
The sustainability of agrifood systems is one of the major contemporary challenges. In this context, the role of the primary sector is crucial in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and ensuring sufficient and affordable quality food for the population.
The sustainability of the agricultural sector can be promoted through the development of environmental policies that adopt different types of instruments to encourage agricultural producers to adopt production practices that are sustainable in environmental, social and economic terms. Among these tools, interventions that adopt a behavioral approach, particularly those based on nudging, play an increasingly important role in promoting sustainable behaviors (Blumenthal-Barby and Burroughs, 2012; Ferrari et al, 2019).
Nudging is defined as an intervention based on a choice architecture design that predictably modifies an individual's behavior without limiting his or her ability to make alternative choices and without providing special economic incentives (Thaler, Sunstein, 2008).
The concept behind nudging is to exploit the inner irrationality of human beings, which leads them to make choices that are often not completely rational due to the influence of cognitive biases (Tversky, Kahneman, 1974; Thaler, Sunstein, 2008). Building on this concept, it is possible to influence choices by adopting interventions that rely, for example, on the role of properly directed information and the influence of social norms (injunctive norms and subjective norms) on individuals' decisions (Akerlof, 2002; Della Vigna 2009).
The purpose of the research is to assess the impact of an information nudging intervention on the adoption of higher animal welfare standards and fodder-related environmental standards in conventional pig husbandry systems by a representative sample of large corporate and medium family farms farms operating in Germanyor their intention to adopt the practice.
The hypothesis at the base of this study is that specific and properly targeted information, combined with the role of social norms, can either influence the adoption by farmers of of higher animal welfare standards and fodder-related environmental standards in conventional pig husbandry systems, which can increase the environmental, economic and social sustainability of their activities, or their intention to adopt this practice, which can be considered as a predictor of actual adoption.