IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jfpoli/v125y2024ics0306919224000587.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An emerging food policy domain: The effects of autonomous transport technologies on food access and consumption

Author

Listed:
  • Pettigrew, Simone
  • Booth, Leon
  • Farrar, Victoria
  • Brown, Prof Julie
  • Godic, Branislava
  • Thompson, Jason

Abstract

Innovations in food home delivery systems have seen rapid growth in the consumption of food prepared outside the home. Such food is often higher in negative nutrients than home-prepared food. Technological advancements in the transport sector are set to amplify the availability of food delivery services via the introduction of autonomous (driverless) vehicles. Very little is known about how consumers are likely to react to this change, and relevant regulatory frameworks are lacking. To address this evidence gap and inform policy in this emerging domain, the aim of the present study was to provide preliminary insights into how and why consumers may choose to use autonomous food delivery services once they are widely available and the potential impacts on their diets. A sample of 100 adults currently residing in Australia participated in one-to-one interviews. Quotas were applied for the attributes of age, sex, and geographical location to ensure appropriate demographic distribution. Around two-thirds of interviewees reported intending to use autonomous food delivery services for receiving groceries and around one-half for receiving fast food. Perceptions of increased convenience dominated interviewees’ expressed reasons for intending to use autonomous delivery services. Overall, interviewees saw few impediments to the widescale use of autonomous delivery services, and some expected to consume more unhealthy food due to increased access. While autonomous delivery services have the potential to substantially increase access to both healthy and unhealthy food products, effective policy actions are needed to ensure health outcomes are optimized.

Suggested Citation

  • Pettigrew, Simone & Booth, Leon & Farrar, Victoria & Brown, Prof Julie & Godic, Branislava & Thompson, Jason, 2024. "An emerging food policy domain: The effects of autonomous transport technologies on food access and consumption," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jfpoli:v:125:y:2024:i:c:s0306919224000587
    DOI: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2024.102647
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306919224000587
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.foodpol.2024.102647?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hobbs, Matthew & Mackenbach, Joreintje Dingena & Wiki, Jesse & Marek, Lukas & McLeod, Geraldine F.H. & Boden, Joseph M., 2021. "Investigating change in the food environment over 10 years in urban New Zealand: A longitudinal and nationwide geospatial study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
    2. Manoj Thomas & Kalpesh Kaushik Desai & Satheeshkumar Seenivasan, 2011. "How Credit Card Payments Increase Unhealthy Food Purchases: Visceral Regulation of Vices," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 38(1), pages 126-139.
    3. Ljubi, Klara & Groznik, Aleš, 2023. "Role played by social factors and privacy concerns in autonomous vehicle adoption," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 1-15.
    4. Kvalsvik, Fifi, 2022. "Understanding the role of situational factors on online grocery shopping among older adults," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    5. Hill, Graeme & Heidrich, Oliver & Creutzig, Felix & Blythe, Phil, 2019. "The role of electric vehicles in near-term mitigation pathways and achieving the UK’s carbon budget," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 251(C), pages 1-1.
    6. Charlene Li & Miranda Mirosa & Phil Bremer, 2020. "Review of Online Food Delivery Platforms and their Impacts on Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-17, July.
    7. Simone Pettigrew & Leon Booth & Victoria Farrar & Branislava Godic & Julie Brown & Charles Karl & Jason Thompson, 2022. "Walking in the Era of Autonomous Vehicles," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-13, August.
    8. Fleetwood, J., 2017. "Public health, ethics, and autonomous vehicles," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 107(4), pages 532-537.
    9. repec:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2016.303628_6 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. United Nations UN, 2015. "Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," Working Papers id:7559, eSocialSciences.
    11. De Schutter, Olivier & Jacobs, Nick & Clément, Chantal, 2020. "A ‘Common Food Policy’ for Europe: How governance reforms can spark a shift to healthy diets and sustainable food systems," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    12. Simone Pettigrew & Lin Fritschi & Richard Norman, 2018. "The Potential Implications of Autonomous Vehicles in and around the Workplace," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-10, August.
    13. Sara Reed & Ann Melissa Campbell & Barrett W. Thomas, 2022. "The Value of Autonomous Vehicles for Last-Mile Deliveries in Urban Environments," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(1), pages 280-299, January.
    14. Acheampong, Ransford A. & Legacy, Crystal & Kingston, Richard & Stone, John, 2023. "Imagining urban mobility futures in the era of autonomous vehicles—insights from participatory visioning and multi-criteria appraisal in the UK and Australia," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 193-208.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pettigrew, Simone & Booth, Leon & Farrar, Victoria & Brown, Julie & Karl, Charles & Godic, Branislava & Vidanaarachchi, Rajith & Thompson, Jason, 2024. "Public support for proposed government policies to optimise the social benefits of autonomous vehicles," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 264-270.
    2. Alina Zaharia & Maria-Claudia Diaconeasa & Natalia Maehle & Gergely Szolnoki & Roberta Capitello, 2021. "Developing Sustainable Food Systems in Europe: National Policies and Stakeholder Perspectives in a Four-Country Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(14), pages 1-40, July.
    3. Giulia Borghesi & Piergiuseppe Morone, 2023. "A review of the effects of COVID-19 on food waste," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 15(1), pages 261-280, February.
    4. Paulina Schiappacasse & Bernhard Müller & Le Thuy Linh, 2019. "Towards Responsible Aggregate Mining in Vietnam," Resources, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-15, August.
    5. Pina Puntillo, 2023. "Circular economy business models: Towards achieving sustainable development goals in the waste management sector—Empirical evidence and theoretical implications," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 941-954, March.
    6. Schlör, Holger & Venghaus, Sandra & Hake, Jürgen-Friedrich, 2018. "The FEW-Nexus city index – Measuring urban resilience," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 382-392.
    7. Jean-Louis Combes & Alexandru Minea & Pegdéwendé Nestor Sawadogo, 2019. "Assessing the effects of combating illicit financial flows on domestic tax revenue mobilization in developing countries," CERDI Working papers halshs-02019073, HAL.
    8. Nelson, Ewan & Warren, Peter, 2020. "UK transport decoupling: On track for clean growth in transport?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 39-51.
    9. Ibrahim Ari & Muammer Koc, 2018. "Sustainable Financing for Sustainable Development: Understanding the Interrelations between Public Investment and Sovereign Debt," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-25, October.
    10. R. Ebrahimi & S. Choobchian & H. Farhadian & I. Goli & E. Farmandeh & H. Azadi, 2022. "Investigating the effect of vocational education and training on rural women’s empowerment," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-11, December.
    11. Benjamin Nölting & Bettina König & Anne B. Zimmermann & Antonietta Di Giulio & Martina Schäfer & Flurina Schneider, 2022. "Dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic: an opportunity to reflect on sustainability research," Sustainability Nexus Forum, Springer, vol. 30(1), pages 11-27, December.
    12. Nakakawa, Frances & Mugisha, Johnny & Kaaya, Archileo N. & Tumwesigye, Nazarius M. & Hennessey, Martina, 2024. "Nutrition education effects on food and nutrition security for women living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    13. Rashmi Jaipal, 2017. "Psychology at the Crossroads," Psychology and Developing Societies, , vol. 29(2), pages 125-159, September.
    14. Bárbara Galleli & Elder Semprebon & Joyce Aparecida Ramos dos Santos & Noah Emanuel Brito Teles & Mateus Santos de Freitas-Martins & Raquel Teodoro da Silva Onevetch, 2021. "Institutional Pressures, Sustainable Development Goals and COVID-19: How Are Organisations Engaging?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-21, November.
    15. Sagarika Dey & Priyanka Devi, 2019. "Impact of TVET on Labour Market Outcomes and Women’s Empowerment in Rural Areas: A Case Study from Cachar District, Assam," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 13(3), pages 357-371, December.
    16. Rostami-Tabar, Bahman & Ali, Mohammad M. & Hong, Tao & Hyndman, Rob J. & Porter, Michael D. & Syntetos, Aris, 2022. "Forecasting for social good," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 1245-1257.
    17. Maria Sassi, 2020. "A SEM Approach to the Direct and Indirect Links between WaSH Services and Access to Food in Countries in Protracted Crises: The Case of Western Bahr-el-Ghazal State, South Sudan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-13, November.
    18. Seebacher, Moritz, 2023. "Pathways to progress: The complementarity of bicycles and road infrastructure for girls’ education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    19. Christina Tsouti & Christina Papadaskalopoulou & Angeliki Konsta & Panagiotis Andrikopoulos & Margarita Panagiotopoulou & Sofia Papadaki & Christos Boukouvalas & Magdalini Krokida & Katerina Valta, 2023. "Investigating the Environmental Benefits of Novel Films for the Packaging of Fresh Tomatoes Enriched with Antimicrobial and Antioxidant Compounds through Life Cycle Assessment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-22, May.
    20. Olga Stepanova & Magdalena Romanov, 2021. "Urban Planning as a Strategy to Implement Social Sustainability Policy Goals? The Case of Temporary Housing for Immigrants in Gothenburg, Sweden," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-17, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jfpoli:v:125:y:2024:i:c:s0306919224000587. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/foodpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.