Consumer behavior changes differently in emergencies. Understanding consumer food stockpiling behavior during COVID-19 pandemic can provide critical information for governments and policymakers to adjust inventory and response strategies. This paper analyzed consumer food stockpiling behavior, including the change of food reserve scale and willingness to pay for fresh food reserves in COVID-19. Our paper shows that the scale of food reserve extends from 3.37 to 7.37 days after the outbreak of COVID-19; if available, consumers on average are willing to pay 18.14 yuan (60.47%) premium for fresh products reserves. The result shows that food stockpiling behavior is fueled by a set of multiple motivations and subjective risk perception. Female, high education level and high-income consumers were more likely to reserve larger scale food reserves, but consumers’ willingness to pay for fresh food reserves is determined by income. This study was conducted when new infection cases continued to rise in the world. The story of food stockpiling during the COVID-19 pandemic in China is similar with the rest of world. Consumer stockpiling behavior in China can also be expanded to other countries to predict the change of food demand and understand more about consumer preferences in emergencies.

A COVID-19 vaccine is the key to beating the virus, and effective vaccines are going to be available in the near future. It is urgent to estimate the acceptability of COVID-19 vaccines and their value to individuals, in order to develop an effective public vaccination strategy. Based on a survey of 1,188 randomly selected respondents in China, we analyzed Chinese consumers’ willingness to get a COVID-19 vaccine and their willingness to pay for it. We find that 79.41% of the respondents are willing to get vaccinated in China, and the average amount that they’re willing to pay for a COVID-19 vaccine shot is 130.45 yuan. However, though the elderly are at higher risk of infection and the disease could be fatal for them, they are less willing to get the vaccine and not willing to pay as much for the shot. Subsidies and health communication concerning COVID-19 vaccines should be provided in order to expand vaccination coverage.

Historically, humans have created many sustainable practices, and among the most famous and successful sustainable practice is the rice–fish system in China. While previous studies have investigated eco-labeling food from various angles, consumer perception and preference of food produced from traditional sustainable practices (traditional sustainable food) remain unexplored. Taking the historical rice–fish system as an example, we examined consumers’ perception and willingness to pay (WTP) for rice produced by a rice–fish system, by using data from 1422 consumers from China. Our paper shows that most Chinese consumers do understand the meaning of the rice–fish system and perceive the traditional sustainable system as environmentally friendly and producing high-quality food. The premium that consumers are willing to pay for rice from a rice–fish system is about 41%. Consumers who perceive the linkage between sustainable production and food quality and safety have a significantly higher WTP for traditional sustainable rice (p-value = 0.000). Interestingly, the perception of environment risk does not directly cause more traditional sustainable food consumption, but those who self-proclaimed as environmentalists are willing to pay a premium for traditional sustainable rice. Females, people with high family income, and people with children are more willing to pay for traditional sustainable rice. Understanding consumer perception and preference of traditional sustainable food provides critical information for Chinese policymakers to develop a cheap and efficient way to keep traditional sustainable practices and promote sustainable food consumption.

Many smallholder farmers in developing countries have used sustainable traditional agricultural techniques to ensure food safety and sustainability over the centuries. However, the value of sustainable traditional agricultural products, especially as an inexpensive substitution for “modern” organic products in developing countries, is rarely studied. Using the contingent valuation method, we compared Chinese consumers’ perceptions of and preferences for sustainable traditional agricultural products and “modern” organic products. Our results show that sustainable traditional agriculture can signal environment-friendly practices and food safety, and consumer willingness to pay for sustainable traditional agricultural products is higher than those of “modern” organic products. Considering the high demand for sustainable traditional agricultural products, revitalizing sustainable traditional agriculture may be a good way to balance sustainability and feasibility in developing countries.