•  43
    Ethological farm programs and the “market” for animal welfare
    Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 18 (4): 369-382. 2005.
    Ethological farm programs as they exist in Switzerland are compared with environmental farm programs in respect of demand and supply. Because animal welfare is not a public good but rather a relation that causes psychological externalities, the demand for animal welfare has a different standing in economic theory than the demand for a clean environment. The supply of animal welfare by farmers, however, largely follows the patterns known from the delivery of environmental goods. Farm size, age an…Read more
  •  27
    “Loyals” and “Optimizers”: Shedding Light on the Decision for or Against Organic Agriculture Among Swiss Farmers (review)
    with Miriam Gairing
    Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 25 (3): 365-376. 2012.
    The choice between organic and conventional agriculture for farmers is modeled as an ethical decision. Farmers are either loyal to one of the systems or they optimize between systems. This model is empirically validated through a survey among Swiss farmers. A cluster analysis separates farmers into loyal organic, loyal conventional, and optimizing farmers. However, the three resulting clusters bore some, but not all the necessary characteristics of optimizers and loyals. A probit analysis shows …Read more
  •  17
    Hot cognition in agricultural policy preferences in Norway?
    with Klaus Mittenzwei, Karen Refsgaard, and Valborg Kvakkestad
    Agriculture and Human Values 33 (1): 61-71. 2016.
    The paper tests the hypothesis that cultural and social background is far more influential to form preferences about policy than the level of fact-based knowledge a person possesses. The data for the case study stem from a web-based survey among a representative sample of the adult population in Norway. The degree of knowledge of agriculture in this paper is operationalized through questions on five key characteristics of Norwegian agriculture that frequently arise in the public discussion. The …Read more
  •  16
    Grabbing or investment? On judging large-scale land acquisitions
    with Elisabeth Bürgi Bonanomi
    Agriculture and Human Values 34 (1): 41-51. 2017.
    Although analyses of large-scale land acquisitions often contain an explicit or implicit normative judgment about such projects, they rarely deduce such judgment from a nuanced balancing of pros and cons. This paper uses assessments about a well-researched LSLA in Sierra Leone to show that a utilitarian approach tends to lead to the conclusion that positive effects prevail, whereas deontological approaches lead to an emphasis on negative aspects. LSLA are probably the most radical land-use chang…Read more
  •  14
    Living on the threshold between cultures and within a multilayered society
    with Silviu G. Totelecan
    International Journal on Humanistic Ideology 5 (1): 15-36. 2012.
  •  14
    Tracing the process of becoming a farm successor on Swiss family farms
    Agriculture and Human Values 24 (4): 435-443. 2007.
    A theoretical model for farm succession is developed in which identity-related variables such as preferences for working autonomously or with animals influence occupational choice at the outset of the process, while environmental factors such as farm size and income prospects gain in importance during the latter stages of succession. A survey of 14-to-34-year-old potential farm successors in Switzerland is carried out to test the model. While female respondents focus on identity-related factors …Read more
  •  11
    Different Perspectives on Cross-Compliance
    Environmental Values 14 (4). 2005.
    Cross-compliance has proven its effectiveness, as can be shown by looking at the Swiss experience with cross-compliance since 1999. Besides describing the existing cross-compliance practices in Switzerland, the paper shows different perspectives on the efficiency and fairness of cross-compliance. It concludes that transaction cost advantages justify cross-compliance only in few cases. Usually, it will be more efficient to decouple social and environmental policy. The strong support for cross-com…Read more
  •  8
    Objective Hermeneutics is a qualitative method that focuses on few sequences of texts, which helps understand single cases. It is used to explore how consumers cope with the contradiction between their enjoyment for meat and their empathy for animals without using frameworks drafted by social scientists. Five cases are analysed, which range from strong references towards the societal norm of meat eating to a feeling of uncertainty in the face of the animals’ death. None of the cases, however, se…Read more
  •  7
    A Mesoeconomic Approach to a Basic Income
    Basic Income Studies 13 (1). 2018.
    Given the increasing potential of automation in the primary and industrial sectors of the economy, it is helpful to take a mesoeconomic, i. e. sectoral, look at the concept of a basic income. We present a thought experiment centred on societies in which labour takes place only in the service sector. We identify service sectors like prostitution in which it may be advantageous to shift away from the market and sectors like health services where public involvement is indispensable. Introducing a b…Read more
  •  4
    Hedonic hybridization: suburbanized ruralities in Romania and Switzerland
    with Silviu G. Totelecan
    International Journal on Humanistic Ideology 5 (2): 13-42. 2012.
  •  3
    In assessing the welfare of dairy cows and laying hens, longevity has recently been introduced as an indicator. This paper presents recent attempts to transfer the normative power of longevity to non-human animals and evaluates this choice systematically. It first shows that the normative power of longevity can be justified by utilitarianism but not by rights-based approaches. The case of the ban to kill day-old chicks in Germany is then used to show that public opinion leans neither to the util…Read more