Does Internet use help to achieve sustainable food consumption? Evidence from rural China
Internet use is widely studied as an important socio-economic factor influencing agricultural productivity, income, the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices, and farmer welfare, but scant attention is given to its influence on sustainable food consumption. Using longitudinal data from the...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2025-06-01
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| Series: | Sustainable Futures |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266618882500036X |
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| author | Jian Liu Yanjun Ren Yu Hong Thomas Glauben Qiang Li |
| author_facet | Jian Liu Yanjun Ren Yu Hong Thomas Glauben Qiang Li |
| author_sort | Jian Liu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Internet use is widely studied as an important socio-economic factor influencing agricultural productivity, income, the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices, and farmer welfare, but scant attention is given to its influence on sustainable food consumption. Using longitudinal data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS), this study seeks to better understand the causal effect of Internet use on sustainable food consumption measured by food carbon and food water footprints and shed light on its underlying channels. The instrumental variable estimation is used to solve the endogeneity problem of Internet use and the propensity score matching (PSM) method is used for robustness check. The results show that Internet use significantly decreases food carbon and food water footprints by 18.1 % and 10.6 %, respectively. Internet use promotes the development of sustainable food consumption mainly by reducing the consumption of animal-based food such as pork and eggs. Further heterogeneity analysis results indicate that Internet use mainly affects the sustainable food consumption of young and high-income individuals. Policy implications for reducing food carbon and food water footprints and achieving a win-win situation for consumption and the environment are also discussed. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-189436acf48f4bbeac41024d58700ad7 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2666-1888 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-06-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Sustainable Futures |
| spelling | doaj-art-189436acf48f4bbeac41024d58700ad72025-01-31T05:12:25ZengElsevierSustainable Futures2666-18882025-06-019100466Does Internet use help to achieve sustainable food consumption? Evidence from rural ChinaJian Liu0Yanjun Ren1Yu Hong2Thomas Glauben3Qiang Li4Department of Agricultural Markets, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), 06120 Halle (Saale), GermanyDepartment of Agricultural Markets, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), 06120 Halle (Saale), Germany; College of Economics and Management, Northwest A&F University, 712100 Yangling, China; Corresponding authors.Institute of Agricultural Economics and Development, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 100081 Beijing, ChinaDepartment of Agricultural Markets, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), 06120 Halle (Saale), GermanySchool of Economics & Management, Shaanxi Xueqian Normal University, 710100 Xi'an, China; Corresponding authors.Internet use is widely studied as an important socio-economic factor influencing agricultural productivity, income, the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices, and farmer welfare, but scant attention is given to its influence on sustainable food consumption. Using longitudinal data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS), this study seeks to better understand the causal effect of Internet use on sustainable food consumption measured by food carbon and food water footprints and shed light on its underlying channels. The instrumental variable estimation is used to solve the endogeneity problem of Internet use and the propensity score matching (PSM) method is used for robustness check. The results show that Internet use significantly decreases food carbon and food water footprints by 18.1 % and 10.6 %, respectively. Internet use promotes the development of sustainable food consumption mainly by reducing the consumption of animal-based food such as pork and eggs. Further heterogeneity analysis results indicate that Internet use mainly affects the sustainable food consumption of young and high-income individuals. Policy implications for reducing food carbon and food water footprints and achieving a win-win situation for consumption and the environment are also discussed.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266618882500036XInternet useSustainable food consumptionFood carbon footprintsFood water footprintsChina |
| spellingShingle | Jian Liu Yanjun Ren Yu Hong Thomas Glauben Qiang Li Does Internet use help to achieve sustainable food consumption? Evidence from rural China Sustainable Futures Internet use Sustainable food consumption Food carbon footprints Food water footprints China |
| title | Does Internet use help to achieve sustainable food consumption? Evidence from rural China |
| title_full | Does Internet use help to achieve sustainable food consumption? Evidence from rural China |
| title_fullStr | Does Internet use help to achieve sustainable food consumption? Evidence from rural China |
| title_full_unstemmed | Does Internet use help to achieve sustainable food consumption? Evidence from rural China |
| title_short | Does Internet use help to achieve sustainable food consumption? Evidence from rural China |
| title_sort | does internet use help to achieve sustainable food consumption evidence from rural china |
| topic | Internet use Sustainable food consumption Food carbon footprints Food water footprints China |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266618882500036X |
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