An Analysis of Consumers’ Preferences between Locally Grown/Processed Food and Organic Food
Journal Title: Current Investigations in Agriculture and Current Research - Year 2018, Vol 4, Issue 1
Abstract
Consumer selectivity when buying food, due to concerns for food safety, personal health, and environment sustainability, has led to the growing popularity for “organic” and “local” product labels. Little research has examined consumer preferences and tradeoffs between organic and local when both choices are available. This paper investigates the structure of consumers’ preferences for three separate food groups and measures the relative importance of local versus organic in the context of other desired category-specific product attributes. For all three product groups, local was more important that organic, but other category-specific attributes were more important in a purchase decisionWith apparent concerns for food safety, personal health, and environment sustainability, research has shown that consumers are selective when they purchase and consume food [1]. This selectivity has led to the growing popularity for “organic” and “local” (including “locally grown” and “locally produced”) labels among consumers. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) counted 19,474 organic farms, ranches and processing facilities in 2015, up more than 5% from the previous year and 250% from 2002 [2]. Indeed, organic food sales have increased 13.1% from July 2015 to July 2016 [3]. The rise in ‘local’ or ‘locally grown’ is mirrored in the growth of the numbers of farmers’ markets in the United States. Since 2002, the number of farmers’ markets has increased fourfold to over 8,400 farmers’ markets, almost four times more than in 1994 [4]. Organic food is well defined by the USDA, which in effect requires no chemicals be used in the farming process. The USDA guidelines include [5]: Produced without excluded methods, (e.g., genetic engineering, ionizing radiation, or sewage sludge). Produced using allowed substances such as non-synthetic pesticides and herbicides. Overseen by a USDA National Organic Program-authorized certifying agent, following all USDA organic
Authors and Affiliations
John Stanton, Ferdinand F Wirth, Yingdao Dao
Keywords
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- EP ID EP572230
- DOI 10.32474/CIACR.2018.04.000180
- Views 99
- Downloads 0
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