Anna Birgitte Milford
Research Scientist
(+47) 990 49 836
anna.birgitte.milford@nibio.no
Place
Bergen
Visiting address
Thormøhlensgate 55, 5006 Bergen
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Antje Gonera Anna Birgitte Milford Katja-Maria Prexl Jonathan Romm Ingunn Berget Paula VarelaAbstract
A more plant-based diet will contribute to food sustainability. Achieving this change requires collaboration across disciplines which is not easy to achieve. This article illustrates how interdisciplinary collaboration in a large research project can be facilitated through a design-led innovation process juxtaposing approaches from design and science. Consumer insights were used in creative workshops to ideate and develop packaging and product concepts for plant-based food focusing on ‘environment’, ‘health’ and ‘Norwegian’ design imperatives. Learning loops of alignment – creation – feedback were applied to design and test six packaging prototypes of two product categories (Pea Porridge, Faba Bean Drink). Qualitative feedback was collected from 147 consumers and a quantitative survey with 1102 Norwegian consumers tested product expected liking and product-concept match. Younger consumers and users of plant-based products exhibited a higher expected liking vs. non-users and older respondents. Packaging design adopted for specific consumer segments can positively contribute to a shift to more plant-based diets. We show how a dynamic interdisciplinary innovation approach can be powerful to creating new product ideas, getting consumers’ input and fostering collaboration and learning among disciplines. We offer other researchers and the food industry actionable opportunity areas and design imperatives for their innovation activities around plant-based food.
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Anna Birgitte MilfordAbstract
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This report presents findings from a qualitative survey among actors involved in the production and sale of local food in Oslo and Bristol, with a focus on sales models and challenges and opportunities for direct sales. The actors in Oslo and Bristol had largely the same motivation for local food sales, including environmental sustainability, transparency in the supply chain, creating community, supporting farmers, sharing knowledge about food and agriculture, as well as being a counterweight to the mainstream food system. Climate crisis and food safety were stronger motivational factors among actors in Bristol than in Oslo, while in Oslo there was more emphasis on the importance of local sales channels for food diversity and quality. Several interviewees pointed to lack of economic profitability as one of the most important challenges for the local food producers. It requires a great deal of work both with production, marketing and sales to be economically successful as a small-scale producer. At the same time, buying local food often requires more time, effort and money from consumers compared to shopping in grocery stores. The report points to several possible solutions to these challenges: increased demand for local food due to changes in attitudes, increased cooperation between producers, sales channels, organizations and public authorities to reduce competition and find common solutions, as well as the development of common digital platforms that can create economies of scale and make marketing and deliveries more efficient. It is also important to look at how the public sector, both through grants, procurement and guidance, can facilitate increased production and sale of local food.
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Short food supply chains (SFSCs) are associated with a range of contested, place-based attributes which contrast with the characteristics of complex, global and corporate chains. This article avoids such oppositional binaries by focusing on SFSCs serving two European cities, namely Oslo (Norway) and Bristol (UK). It reviews cities as a particular kind of market within which to secure custom, by presenting qualitative data from a study of SFSCs in these two cities to examine marketing barriers and opportunities encountered. Distinctive urban contexts, such as the density of consumers and presence of food-related infrastructures, can influence the marketing strategies and sales channels chosen by food enterprises. Difficulties are faced by both food producers and the sales channels through which they come to market, especially in relation to financial viability, price competition and efficiency. Our analysis, as well as highlighting connections and divergences between Oslo and Bristol, emphasises the role of these cities in providing diverse food market niches. Alongside global chains, functioning SFSCs help to reflect the history of Oslo and Bristol as trading cities with diverse populations and reveal enterprise adaptability and innovation as market demand shifts.
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Anna Birgitte MilfordAbstract
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Local food is increasing in popularity. The more local, the better. However, selling local food is much more demanding than many may be aware of. Fortunately, new digital solutions are on the way.
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Anna Birgitte MilfordAbstract
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Anna Birgitte MilfordAbstract
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The worldwide decline in bees and other pollinating insects is a threat to biodiversity and food security, and urgent action must be taken to stop and then reverse this decline. An established cause of the insect decline is the use of harmful pesticides in agriculture. This case study focuses on the use of pesticides in Norwegian apple production and considers who among farmers, consumers and public authorities is most responsible for protecting bees against harmful pesticides. The extent to which these three different groups consider themselves responsible and the degree to which they are trusted by each of the other groups are also studied. This empirical study involves both qualitative interviews with Norwegian apple farmers, consumers and public authorities and survey data from consumers and farmers. The results show that consumers consider public authorities and farmers equally responsible for protecting bees, while farmers are inclined to consider themselves more responsible. Farmers, consumers and public authorities do not consider consumers significantly responsible for protecting bees, and consumers have a high level of trust in both farmers and public authorities regarding this matter. This study also finds that a low level of consumer trust in farmers or public authorities increases consumers’ propensity to purchase organic food, suggesting that those who do not trust that enough action is adopted to protect the environment take on more individual responsibility. This paper adds to the existing literature concerning the allocation of responsibility for environmental outcomes, with empirical evidence focusing specifically on pesticides and bees.
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Anna Birgitte MilfordAbstract
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Anna Birgitte MilfordAbstract
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Most food in developed countries, including organic fruits and vegetables, is sold through supply chains run by large wholesalers and supermarket chains. A certain share is sold through local marketing channels such as speciality stores, food box schemes, farmers' markets, and community-supported agriculture (CSA). This study uses qualitative interviews and a quantitative survey to expose the differences between mainstream and local marketing of organic fruits and vegetables in Norway, why and to what extent farmers selling through these two sales channels are different. We find that the supermarket chains' requirements to provide large quantities of uniform product are burdensome for smaller farmers to match. Farmers supplying the mainstream supermarkets tend to be larger and more rurally located. Farmers selling through local marketing are likely to be smaller, closer to urban areas and more diversified in their production. For local marketing farmers, it is more feasible to produce according to organic principles, using local resources and crop rotation. Survey results also show that local marketing farmers are less motivated to produce fruits and vegetables by income and more motivated to produce organically to achieve better quality and sustainability. At the same time, there are also many similarities between the two groups, and we do not find evidence of a general “conventionalisation” of organic agriculture in Norway.
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Due to an EU directive making integrated pest management (IPM) mandatory, European farmers are expected to reduce their use of chemical pesticides, which may potentially increase production costs and risk of harvest loss. Less pesticide use is appreciated by many consumers and may generate a higher willingness to pay (WTP). However, IPM is a wide concept and it is difficult for consumers to distinguish between products with high and low risk of pesticide residues. As a result, consumers might use other characteristics, such as country of origin, for the identification of safer products. In this study, we investigate if a higher WTP for Norwegian strawberries is associated with a belief that they contain less pesticide residues than imported berries. We use regression analysis to estimate to what extent the difference in WTP for Norwegian and imported strawberries is correlated with various perceptions about strawberries. The analyses reveal that the stronger the belief that Norwegian strawberries have less pesticide risk than imported ones, the higher the WTP for Norwegian strawberries. This means that if consumers believe domestic farmers use little pesticides, domestic products might be able to sell at considerably higher prices than imports. Hence, it may be economically beneficial for farmers to keep pesticide use at a minimum. Furthermore, we find that consumers have a higher WTP for strawberries produced with less use of pesticides, although not pesticide-free, indicating that IPM is appreciated.
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Susanna Kugelberg Fabio Bartolini David R. Kanter Anna Birgitte Milford Kajsa Pira Alberto Sanz-Cobena Adrian LeipAbstract
A call to governments to enact a strategy for a sustainable food system is high on the global agenda. A sustainable food system presupposes a need to go beyond a view of the food system as linear and narrow, to comprehend the food system as dynamic and interlinked, which involves understanding social, economic and ecological outcomes and feedbacks of the system. As such, it should be accompanied by strategic, collaborative, transparent, inclusive, and reflexive agenda-setting process. The concepts of, directionality relating to an agreed vision for a future sustainable food system, and, reflexivity which describes the capacity for critical deliberation and responsiveness, are particularly important. Based on those concepts, this paper proposes an evaluative framework to assess tools and instruments applied during the agenda-setting stage. We apply the evaluative framework to recent food policy processes in Finland and Sweden, revealing that their agenda-setting design cannot be assessed as fully addressing both directionality and reflexivity, thus possibly falling short of the policy design needed for enable more transformative policy approaches.
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Elisabeth H.M. Temme Reina E. Vellinga Henri de Ruiter Susanna Kugelberg Mirjam van de Kamp Anna Birgitte Milford Roberta Alessandrini Fabio Bartolini Alberto Sanz-Cobena Adrian LeipAbstract
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Alberto Sanz-Cobena Roberta Alessandrini Benjamin Leon Bodirsky Marco Springmann Eduardo Aguilera Barbara Amon Fabio Bartolini Markus Geupel Bruna Grizetti Susanna Kugelberg Catharina Latka xia liang Anna Birgitte Milford Ee Ling Ng Helen Suter Adrian LeipAbstract
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Anna Birgitte MilfordAbstract
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The worldwide decline in bees and other pollinating insects is a threat to biodiversity and food security, and it is urgent to take action. One of the causes for insect decline is the use of harmful pesticides in agriculture. In the presented study we use Norwegian apple production as a case-study to investigate which of the three groups: farmers, consumers and public authorities, have the most responsibility for protecting bees against harmful pesticides. The questions are investigated empirically with qualitative data material from Norwegian apple farmers, consumers and public authorities, and survey data from consumers and farmers. Our results indicate that consumers see public authorities and farmers as equally responsible for protecting the bees, while farmers are inclined to see themselves as more responsible. Neither groups consider consumers to have any large responsibility. Among the consumers there is also a high level of trust in both farmers and public authorities.
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Anna Birgitte MilfordAbstract
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Anna Birgitte MilfordAbstract
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Increasing global levels of meat consumption are a threat to the environment and to human health. To identify measures that may change consumption patterns towards more plant-based foods, it is necessary to improve our understanding of the causes behind the demand for meat. In this paper we use data from 137 different countries to identify and assess factors that influence meat consumption at the national level using a cross-country multivariate regression analysis. We specify either total meat or ruminant meat as the dependent variable and we consider a broad range of potential drivers of meat consumption. The combination of explanatory variables we use is new for this type of analysis. In addition, we estimate the relative importance of the different drivers. We find that income per capita followed by rate of urbanisation are the two most important drivers of total meat consumption per capita. Income per capita and natural endowment factors are major drivers of ruminant meat consumption per capita. Other drivers are Western culture, Muslim religion, female labour participation, economic and social globalisation and meat prices. The main identified drivers of meat demand are difficult to influence through direct policy intervention. Thus, acting indirectly on consumers’ preferences and consumption habits (for instance through information, education policy and increased availability of ready-made plant based products) could be of key importance for mitigating the rise of meat consumption per capita all over the world.
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Å bygge veksthus på tak i byer kan ha flere fordeler. Redusert avstand til forbrukere gir ferskere varer og mindre kostnader og forurensing forbundet med transport og lagring. Dette er spesielt viktig for byer som ligger langt fra der maten produseres. Veksthus i byer kan også gi den urbane befolkningen muligheten til å lære mer om hvordan mat dyrkes. Ved å bygge veksthus på tak istedenfor på bakken spares arealer som i stedet kan brukes til jordbruk, grøntområder eller andre typer boliger. Et veksthus på tak som er integrert med den øvrige bygningen, kan også utnytte varmen fra etasjene under, noe som vil være energibesparende.
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Despite the scientific evidence that more plants and less animal-based food is more sustainable, policy interventions to reduce meat consumption are scarce. However, campaigns for meat free days in school and office canteens have spread globally over the last years. In this paper, we look at the Norwegian Armed Forces’ attempt to introduce the Meatless Monday campaign in their camps, and we evaluate the implementation process as well as the effect of the campaign on soldiers. Qualitative interviews with military staff indicate that lack of conviction about benefits of meat reduction, and the fact that kitchen staff did not feel ownership to the project, partly explain why vegetarian measures were not fully implemented in all the camps. A multivariate regression analysis with survey data from soldiers indicate that those who have experienced meat free days in the military kitchen are more prone to claim that joining the military has given them a more positive view on vegetarian food. Furthermore, the survey gives evidence that stated willingness to eat more vegetarian food is higher among soldiers who believe in the environmental and health benefits of meat reduction.
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Anna Birgitte MilfordAbstract
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In a short period of time there has been a rapid increase in the market for Norwegian branded plant protein processed products, among which some are imported, others produced in Norway. Other countries have a much more developed market from both a producer, technology, and product diversity point of view. Norwegian producers are using already available machinery for the production processes, and mainly imported ingredients such as soya or pea extracts. Norwegian produced potatoes and egg whites are also used. In order for plant protein products to succeed in Norway, we identify some key factors: One is increased knowledge, about both production processes and consumer needs and preferences. The industry also needs to be willing to think more disruptively in order to achieve innovations in this market segment. Furthermore, both the industry and policy makers can put a much stronger effort into educating consumers, in order for consumers to familiarize themselves with plant protein products and their benefits concerning health and the environment.
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Martin Köchy Jacob Bishop Heikki Lehtonen Nigel D. Scollan Heidi A. Webber Andrea Zimmermann Gianni Bellocchi André Bannink Anne Biewald Roberto Ferrise Katharina Helming Richard P. Kipling Anna Birgitte Milford Şeyda Özkan Gülzari Margarita Ruiz-Ramos Jantine Curth-van MiddelkoopAbstract
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Anna Birgitte MilfordAbstract
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Anna Birgitte MilfordAbstract
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Food production contributes considerably to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Animal products – particularly meat from ruminants – generally have higher GHG emissions than plant products. Over the last few decades the global per capita consumption of animal products has increased. This has a negative impact on climate change, land and water availability, and human health. We are faced with the two-fold challenge of reducing GHG emissions while still producing enough food for our growing population. Part of the solution could be for consumers to change towards a more sustainable diet. In this paper we take Norway as a case study for estimating optimal taxes and subsidies on different food items which can change consumption patterns in order to reduce the GHG emissions derived from the average Norwegian diet. In the estimate we ensure that the average calorie intake with the new diet remains the same as with the current diet, and factor in other health considerations. Our findings suggest that limited but useful emission reduction targets can be set with only a few changes in diets. The methodology presented in this paper may be used to estimate optimal climate taxes and subsidies under different emission, quantities, taxes, subsidies, and health constraints.
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Anna Birgitte MilfordAbstract
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Markets for cash-crops in developing countries are typically characterized by a concentration of buyer power at different levels of the supply chain. For instance, small-scale coffee farmers sell their produce to a middleman, who in turn sells the coffee onward to an exporter, often a foreign multinational, with monopsony power in the hands of the purchasers at both levels. We analyze pricing behavior and welfare with different assumptions regarding market power. In particular, we show that a more powerful exporter is likely to benefit the producers and may even lead to higher welfare for the producer country as a whole.
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Anna Birgitte MilfordAbstract
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Division of Forest and Forest Resources
Application of traditional knowledge to halt biodiversity loss in woodlands
Division of Food Production and Society
Risk management of imported plants and seeds: possibilities for improved pest detection to prevent the introduction and spread of new pests
Plant pathogens and invertebrates harmful to plants continue to threatenfood security and natural habitats. In Norway, the responsibility of performingplant health inspections on imported plants has gradually shifted to importersof plants who are currently responsible for internal pest control and mustbe registered with the Norwegian Food Safety Authority.
Division of Food Production and Society
Sustainable growth of the Norwegian Horticulture Food System – GreenRoad GS35 (“GrøntStrategi mot 2035)
The main aim of GreenRoad is to deliver knowledge and solutions for increased value creation and sustainability in the horticultural food system in Norway.