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Consumer Perceptions of Sustainable Farming Practices: A Best-Worst Scenario

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2016

Hillary M. Sackett ,
Robert Shupp  and
Glynn Tonsor
Hillary M. Sackett*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics and Business Management at Westfield State University
Robert Shupp
Affiliation:
Department of Agriculture, Food, and Resource Economics at Michigan State University
Glynn Tonsor
Affiliation:
Department of Agricultural Economics at Kansas State University
*
Corresponding Author: Department of Economics and Business Management, Westfield State University, 577 Western Avenue, Westfield, MA 01086, Phone 413.572.5253, Email hsackett@westfield.ma.edu.
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Abstract

Building on existing work evaluating food-attribute labels, we use data collected in 2010 from a national web-based survey of 1,002 households to examine consumer inferences and valuations of food products promoted as “sustainably produced.” A best-worst scale framework was implemented to identify how consumers define “sustainably produced” and their preferences for each of the sustainable farming practices considered. The results suggest that consumers perceive farm size and local production as important elements of sustainable agriculture while economic attributes exhibit a significant amount of heterogeneity, indicating segmentation in the sample and the potential for targeted marketing.

Keywords

best-worstconsumer perceptionssustainably produced food
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Agricultural and Resource Economics Review , Volume 42 , Issue 2 , August 2013 , pp. 275 - 290
Copyright
Copyright © 2013 Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association 

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