Farmers’ adoption of low-carbon agriculture is conductive to addressing climate change and achieving sustainable development of agriculture. The purpose of this study is to explore farmers’ decision-making processes regarding low-carbon production and to provide a reference for the targeted support policies of low-carbon agriculture. The data was derived from a household survey of 442 rice farmers conducted in Jiangsu Province, China in 2017. Participants were interviewed face-to-face using questionnaires, and local interviewers were used in order to maximize the reliability of the results. The theoretical basis for our analysis was an extended theory of planned behavior (TPB). We applied a structural equation model (SEM) to investigate the correlations among farmers’ decision-making processes regarding low-carbon production and observable characteristics. Furthermore, we explored the differences in adoption decisions regarding low-carbon agriculture among different groups of farmers based on production scale and region, respectively. The results indicate that attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and contract farming participation are significantly positively correlated with farmers’ intention toward low-carbon production, and that farmers’ low-carbon production intention and contract farming participation have significant positive correlations with their behavior regarding low-carbon production. A subsample analysis shows that the subjective norm for farmers with a small production scale is more strongly correlated with their adoption decisions regarding low-carbon agriculture than that it is for farmers with a large production scale. Additionally, in less developed regions, farmers’ attitude is more strongly correlated with their adoption decisions regarding low-carbon agriculture than it is for farmers in developed regions.

In this study, traceability in pork profile information with ex-ante quality assurance and ex-post traceability are constructed. Consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for traceability information is investigated in Wuxi, China, by combining the Multiple Price Lists method and the Becker–DeGroot–Marschak (BDM) experimental auction. The main factors affecting consumers’ WTP are also analyzed using a Tobit model. The results demonstrate that consumers have higher WTP for ex-ante quality assurance than for ex-post traceability. The highest WTP is for the ex-ante quality assurance attribute of pork quality inspection. Consumers’ WTP for traceability information is influenced by their individual characteristics, including age, education and income, as well as their concern and satisfaction about food safety and confidence in food safety labeling. The contribution of this paper is that it improves the meaning of traceable food information attributes and measures the significance of attributes to consumers. Furthermore, this paper introduces a Becker–DeGroot–Marschak experimental auction method which amends the measurement deviation of hypothetical experiments.

It is of great value to study consumer demand for safe foods in promoting the development of a safe food market system and the reduction of food safety risks, as well as foodborne diseases in China. This paper takes traceable pork as an example and constructs food safety information attributes with ex ante quality verification and ex post traceability. Interactions between safety information attributes and the consumer’s response to cost-driven price changes were investigated for 345 consumers in Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province, China, using a menu-based choice (MBC) experiment and multivariate probit (MVP) model as analysis tools. The results suggest that food safety information attributes are important to consumers, as the consumers preferred pork quality inspection attributes to pre-incident quality assurance functions. Therefore, it is beneficial to include pork quality inspection attributes in the traceable pork attribute systems during the initial construction of traceable pork markets in China. Attribute price was an important factor that affected consumers’ choice of information attributes. When customization cannot be achieved, a profile composed of elastic pork quality inspection attribute and supply chain–internal traceability attribute would be the most preferred traceable pork product in the market based on the need of building a fully functional traceable food system and reducing food safety risks. In addition, there was a strong substitution relationship between different information attributes, and there was heterogeneity in consumers’ choice of information attributes. Therefore, the government should support manufacturers in producing multi-level safe food to meet diverse consumer demand.

Frequent food safety problems in recent years have seriously affected China’s public health. The complexity, diversity, and technicality of food safety problems are intertwined, which constantly promotes the Chinese government and the food industry to explore effective food safety governance mechanisms. As the dominant form of vertical coordination in agri-food supply chain, contract farming is conducive to promoting farmers’ safe production behavior, improving food quality and safety, and ensuring public health. However, the low contract performance rate seriously restricts the effect of contract farming on reducing the risk of food safety in China. This paper empirically investigates the role of farmers’ risk attitude and contract arrangements in their enforcement. The data is derived from a household survey and economic field experiment of fruit farmers participating in contract farming in Anhui and Jiangsu provinces of China. We measure farmers’ risk attitude by using an economic field experiment, and examine how risk attitude and contract arrangements affect contract enforcement with a probit model. The results show that contract enforcement is significantly (1% level) influenced by farmers’ risk attitude. Farmers with greater risk aversion and loss aversion and farmers who are more accurate in evaluating probability information are more likely to fulfill the contract. Additionally, most contract arrangements have a significant effect on contract enforcement at the 5% level. Contract arrangements with floor pricing, bonus, and long duration are related to a higher rate of farmers’ contract performance. Furthermore, the factors influencing contract enforcement differ based on the levels of farmer’ risk attitude. The findings of the study may be conducive to formulating relevant agricultural policy to influence farmers’ decision-making and thus improving food safety and ensuring public health.

The development of public environmental awareness has been an essential part of environmental governance in China and a prerequisite for the emergence of conscious environmental behaviors. However, the deeper factors influencing Chinese public environmental awareness are not yet fully understood. In this study, the perception of environmental pollution and the sense of political efficacy were introduced as variables to establish a public environmental awareness model, at the perception level, from the perspective of government information service quality. The correlations between different variables, as well as the working principles, were analyzed based on national environmental survey data. The results demonstrate that both external (the government information service quality) and psychological (the perception of environmental pollution and the sense of political efficacy) factors have significant positive influences on public environmental awareness, with the sense of political efficacy outperforming the perception of environmental pollution and the government information service quality. Analysis of the mediating effect reveals that government information service quality directly influences public environmental awareness; it also indirectly influences public environmental awareness through a chained mediating effect of the perception of environmental pollution and the sense of political efficacy. The results of the multiple-group analysis, with gender and urban–rural attributes as moderator variables, further show that, compared with men and urban residents, the impact of government information service quality and environmental pollution perception on women and rural people’s political efficacy is not significant. Therefore, it is suggested to optimize the government information service, improve the public’s perception of environmental pollution, and then promote the public’s sense of efficacy in the environment governance situation. Furthermore, the government should formulate differentiated strategies for different types of public to guide them to form a proactive awareness of environmental protection.

Exploring the inherent mechanisms by which the digital economy fosters rural environmental governance holds paramount importance for driving the sustainable development of rural regions and elevating the living standards of rural residents. Drawing upon theoretical frameworks and extensive literature reviews, we have devised comprehensive indicator systems for quantifying the development trajectory of the digital economy and the efficacy of rural environmental governance, employing the entropy method for measurement. Leveraging panel data that spans from 2011 to 2022, encompassing 31 provinces across China, we empirically delve into the influence of the digital economy on rural environmental governance, along with its underlying mechanisms, by employing a fixed effects model. The baseline regression results reveal that the development of the digital economy can significantly promote the improvement of rural environmental governance, even after considering potential endogeneity issues. Moreover, the test results of the mediation effect show that the digital economy can enhance the level of rural environmental governance by accelerating industrial structure optimization and improving green technology innovation. Furthermore, the test result of the regulatory effect implies that the urban–rural dual structure may inhibit the positive effect of the digital economy on rural environmental governance. Additionally, there exists regional disparities in which the digital economy influences rural environmental governance, with the eastern region exhibiting a more pronounced effect compared to other regions.