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Last Friday, April 19th, students of the AFECO program had the opportunity to explore the inner workings of Bonn's waste management plant as part of their course on "Extended Methods of Empirical Research - Qualitative Methods".

It may be possible to change the purchasing behavior of consumers noticeably using some simple strategies. At least this is what a study, carried out by the University of Bonn and the Technical University of Munich, indicates. The researchers investigated the effect of nudging on the sale of products produced with high animal welfare standards in a virtual supermarket. Nudges are gentle prods or pushes designed to promote certain behaviors – such as placing some products in more visible positions. In the experiment, the participants in the nudging group selected products produced with high animal welfare standards about twice as frequently as the control group. The extent to which these results can be transferred to real purchasing decisions is still unclear. The study has now been published in the journal “Appetite.”

How can we encourage consumers to pay more attention to animal welfare aspects when they purchase meat? It now appears that this cannot be achieved solely by making the animal husbandry labels more visible. At least this is what the findings of a study carried out by the University of Bonn and TU Munich tend to indicate. In this study, the researchers invited test subjects to go shopping in a virtual supermarket. However, placing banners and labels indicating the type of animal husbandry on the shelves had no effect on their purchasing decisions. The results have now been published in the Journal of Consumer Protection and Food Safety.

Evidence-based policy advice at its best: the Bioeconomy Advisory Board NRW, with two members from the University of Bonn, began its work yesterday.

We had an interesting and fruitful exchange with a broad range of experts - from farm owners and plant engineers to scientific experts and experts from the Ministry for Agriculture and Consumer Affairs of the German State of North Rhine-Westphalia (MLV).

From biodegradable plastic to cement manufactured in a climate-neutral way and leather made sustainably from fungi, biobased business management and biotechnological processes can do much to turbocharge the climate-friendly transformation of industry and a resource-efficient circular economy. The government of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) has now assembled a Bioeconomy Advisory Board to strengthen the state as a center for the bioeconomy and undertake a comprehensive analysis of the opportunities and risks. The independent body of 15 counts not one but two specialists from the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Bonn among its members in the shape of Professor Monika Hartmann and Professor Ralf Pude.

Do primary school children influence the snack purchases of their peers? A study by the University of Bonn reveals that they do indeed. In the presence of friends or classmates, kids are more likely to choose the unhealthier, but also the cheaper option. These findings can support policymaking aimed at motivating primary schoolers to make healthier choices. The study was recently published in the journal Appetite.