Meat traceability: Are U.S. consumers willing to pay for it?

This article reports the results from a series of laboratory auction markets in which consumers bid on meat characteristics. The characteristics examined include meat traceability (i.e., the ability to trace the retail meat back to the farm or animal of origin), transparency (e.g., knowing the meat was produced without added growth hormones, or knowing the animal was humanely treated), and extra assurances (e.g., extra meat safety assurances). This laboratory study provides non-hypothetical bid data on consumer preferences for a sample of consumers in Logan, Utah, for traceability, transparency, and assurances (TTA) in red meat at a time when the United States currently lags other countries in development of TTA meat systems. Results suggest these consumers would be willing to pay for such TTA meat characteristics, and the magnitude of the consumer bids reveals that a profitable market for development of TTA systems in the United States might exist.