When it comes to local food, consumers’ definitions range from within 10 miles to within United States borders, a recent study by the PIE Center shows.
The study showed that Floridians’ flexibility with the concept of local food ranges from a preference for local fruits and vegetables to be grown as close as possible, to considering food grown within 100 miles or within the state to be locally grown.
The PIE Center, in partnership with the Florida Specialty Crop Foundation and the UF/IFAS Food and Resource Economics Department, explored the local food concept with funding from a USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant.
“The focus groups provided us with valuable insight as to what consumers really think about the word local in connection with food,” said Tracy Irani, PIE Center Director and faculty member in the UF/IFAS Agricultural Education and Communications Department. “While each individual defines local differently, we were able to see some underlying themes.”
The PIE Center conducted a series of 10 focus groups throughout the state, to discuss food-purchasing preferences and to discover what local food means to participants. The focus groups, which took place in Gainesville, Orlando, Sarasota, Tallahassee and West Palm Beach and included participants who represented a wide variety of backgrounds and demographics.
While participants described a variety of reasons for buying local food, support of the local economy was the most strongly supported and consistently mentioned theme, according to Joy Goodwin, who worked on the project as a doctoral student and will soon join the PIE Center and AEC Department as an assistant professor.
“It was good for us to see that supporting the community was a reason for buying local,” she said. “It’s exciting to see that consumers connect local food with their local community and recognize that farmers are producing food in their area.”
Although participants showed a strong affiliation with locally produced food, concerns such as quality control and compliance to regulations and standards sometimes influenced their purchases.
Participants mentioned worries of quality control when purchasing food directly from farmers, although many said it wouldn’t prevent them from buying local food in a grocery store.
“Learning about consumer drawbacks was beneficial too,” said Rachel Divine, research coordinator. “It’s good to know that they are paying attention and it gives us an area to work on with our stakeholders.”
On the other hand, the regulation and quality control at larger farming operations led consumers in the study to trust local foods they could purchase at chain retail grocery stores. However, the corporate or business approach expected from large-scale producers was a barrier for participants.
Participants also provided insight about their grocery shopping preferences, such as location, perceived store reputations, cost, quality and food attributes. When selecting where to grocery shop, factors such as price, convenience and selection were all included in their reasoning.
“We were interested in knowing about what kind of priority consumers place on purchasing local food and what they are willing to do to get it,” Divine said.
Convenience was one of the top issues that consumers faced when discussing barriers to buying local food.
“It was interesting to see what consumers had to say about where they purchase their food,” Goodwin said. “They want to be able to purchase local food, but they want to do it in a convenient, inexpensive way.”
As a result of this research, Goodwin and Divine will be traveling around Florida, presenting the results and recommendations to commodity groups and Extension professionals.
“Seeing how consumers define local is helpful to us and our stakeholders,” said Divine. “We have better insight into what the average consumer thinks and what the Florida agricultural industry needs to communicate about local food.”
For more information on this study and other elements of the project, access the Easy as PIE webinar scheduled for March 20 from 2–3 p.m.
