244. Rethinking livestock future: Behavioural insights from value-focused thinking and MCDA
Invited abstract in session TA-61: Addressing behavioral issues of real-world problems 1, stream Behavioural OR.
Tuesday, 8:30-10:00Room: Maurice Keyworth G.31
Authors (first author is the speaker)
| 1. | Alice H. Aubert
|
| Institute of Natural Resource Sciences, ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences | |
| 2. | Isabel Jaisli
|
| Life Sciences und Facility Management, Zurich University of Applied Sciences |
Abstract
Transforming agri-food systems, e.g. livestock production, is a pressing challenge due to different visions, unavoidable trade-offs between sustainability dimensions, conflicting opinions and multiple uncertainties. To advance the debate on the future of Swiss livestock production, we conducted a multi-criteria decision analysis using value-focused thinking.
We developed four visions (business-as-usual, efficient, consistent and sufficient) and a hierarchy of 14 objectives based on literature and expert feedback. Twenty actors from the Swiss livestock value chain, covering the three policy clusters that make up the Swiss agricultural landscape, participated in a survey. We elicited (1) their a priori preferred vision for livestock production in 2050 and (2) their weighting of the sustainability dimensions.
Our findings revealed key behavioral issues. First, for one cluster, the a priori preferred vision diverged from the MCDA-recommended vision. Second, the weightings of the objectives reflected each cluster’s beliefs, with major disagreements between clusters around self-sufficiency and animal welfare. Third, despite these differences, the consistent and sufficient visions performed best across clusters. These results suggest that one cluster may misunderstand or lack proper information about the system’s predictions. We propose measures to address these gaps, fostering informed decision-making and paving the way toward more sustainable livestock production.
Keywords
- Behavioural OR
- Decision Analysis
- OR in Agriculture
Status: accepted
Back to the list of papers