Presidential Address, Dr. Ellen Goddard, Cooperative Chair in Agricultural Marketing and Business, University of Alberta

CAES 2021 Virtual Annual Meeting, June 21 – 25, 2021

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Presidential Address: Dr. Ellen Goddard
Date: June 21; Time: 12 noon – 1 pm EDT
Title: The Critical Role of Beliefs, Values and Attitudes in the Adoption and Acceptance of New Technology

Short bio of Dr. Goddard

Ellen Goddard is Cooperative Chair in Agricultural Marketing and Business, University of Alberta, since December 2000. She has a BSc, an MSc and a Phd in Agricultural Economics. Her current research includes consumer research, behavioural research with farmers, outfitters, veterinarians and others in food supply chains. She is also a social science researcher  (GE³LS lead) in six livestock genomics projects (Genome Canada) –on animal disease resilience, on feed efficiency and on surveillance for animal disease, eg. Chronic Wasting Disease. Her research is focused on understanding what policies or management techniques might be best for reducing the further spread of CWD.

Abstract
Technology is dramatically changing agriculture and food with large potential benefits if we get it right – and policies are in place that encourage the use of beneficial technologies. However, with change, sometimes disruptive change, there is need to understand the barriers and enablers  of adoption/acceptance. And the reality is that the individuals involved across the supply chain do not always make rational simple economic decisions. Therefore, there is a need to understand more about the decision making of producers, consumers and policy makers to be able to understand the possible evolution of the agriculture and food sector given the myriad of new technologies facing the sector. At a simple level although weather and climate related risks are not likely to disappear it is entirely possible that support for such risks needs to be completely reconstructed given the availability of different and more detailed farm/farmer and natural resource data already accessible. I will explore the importance of individual decision criteria in affecting both technology adoption and enabling policies, with specific examples from livestock genomic technologies.