Blockchain traceability and labeling effects on beef preferences in the USA

Beef steak requires monitoring through the supply chain to ensure proper food safety. Currently, all parties in the beef supply chain (including farmers, feed lots, meat processors, wholesalers, and retail stores) conduct their own quality control checks and maintain their own records. Government agencies are responsible for certifying the safety and quality of beef by checking physical samples at various points along the supply chain. Typically, there is no end-to-end visibility of how beef travels from farm to fork, which can lead to slower traceability in the event of a food safety issue. New digital ledger (“blockchain”) technologies, however, promise to address these issues by tracing food from farm to fork using one shared system viewable by the public. In a permanent, secure, and public fashion, blockchain technologies verify and record transactions with cryptography and advanced computer algorithms. Digital ledgers allow consumers to know exactly where their beef came from, how the beef was raised, and what the environmental impacts were. However, blockchain technologies cost money to implement, which may result in higher-prices. As such, we designed a choice experiment for a beef product to understand how consumers value the reduction in food safety risks and the ability to access detailed product information through blockchain technology. We are testing consumer preferences and willingness-to-pay for beef steak with attributes for traceability governance (blockchain, digital ledger, USDA certified), environmental impacts (reduced CO2 with Carbon Trust), and production information (grassfed, QR code). We hypothesize that consumers will pay a premium to have beef tracked through the supply chain with blockchain and for a reduced carbon footprint.