Interviews of customers at direct produce markets were conducted to determine why expenditure patterns vary. Frequency of shopping at outlets, income, uses of produce, household composition, and distance to the outlet are important determinants of expenditures at direct product outlets.

Consumer behavior with respect to purchase regularity, satisfaction, origin, and willingness to pay for selected local versus non-Tennessee grown fresh produce is examined. Except for origin, consumer behavior with respect to the above is affected by income, household size and age distribution, race, age of respondent, college education, and occupation. The pattern of significant variables changed by commodity. Tomatoes, followed by peaches, had the greatest local market potential. Local promotion of other products may be more difficult. Results suggested consumers have no strong preferences for or against locally grown fresh produce. The prices of locally grown commodities in Knoxville should be less than or equal to those of comparable quality non-Tennessee commodities.

Protecting the safety of the U.S. food supply is a shared responsibility.Accomplishing that task requires the efforts of multiple government agenciescombined with private sector participation. Despite the best efforts of thepublic-private partnership, the presence of microbial contaminationincidents continues to raise questions regarding the safety of the U.S. foodsupply. As a result, there have been increased efforts to take measures toenhance food safety by the government and industry groups. The passage ofthe Food Safety Modernization Act establishes an increasing role forgovernment in establishing and enforcing food safety standards. This newinitiative is designed to address food from domestic and foreign origins.These U.S. government initiatives combined with the labyrinth of food safetystandards promoted by international organizations, foreign governments,private-sector retail food sales, food processors, and producers have acommon foundation. All of these standards generally apply to four basicbiohazards areas: soil, water, animals, and people. However, they all havean effect on the costs that producers and other members of the industry faceas they attempt to implement and/or document the multitude of activitiesrequired for compliance. This article provides an overview of the evolutionof food safety standards related to the fresh produce industry. An exampleof their potential consequences on the profitability of southern regionvegetable producers is provided and the potential impact on import suppliersis discussed.

This study used aggregated data for fresh vegetables and fresh fruits toanalyze how trade flows in the fresh produce industry have changed undertrade agreements and to assess the potential implications to nutritionpolicies in the United States. The first part of the analysis uses aBai-Perron test to endogenously determine any structural break points invegetable and fruit trade movements and prices. Directed acyclic graphs andhistorical decompositions are used to establish causal patterns oninnovations from vector autoregression models fitted to annual observationsof trade flows, prices, and income. The results showed that trade agreementshave had significant impacts to the produce industry. Income was a majordeterminant of domestic fruit production and imports.

This study investigates the potential impacts of food safety outbreaks on domestic shipments, imports, and prices of the produce industry. Three case studies were analyzed to assess these potential impacts: the cantaloupe outbreak of March–April 2008, the spinach outbreak of September 2006, and the tomato outbreak of June–July 2008. Data-determined historical decompositions were conducted to provide a weekly picture of domestic shipment, import, and price fluctuation transmissions. The empirical analysis based on a vector autoregression (VAR) model showed differences in the results depending on the source of the outbreak (domestic vs. imported).