IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jfpoli/v35y2010i6p504-513.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Food miles: Do UK consumers actually care?

Author

Listed:
  • Kemp, Katherine
  • Insch, Andrea
  • Holdsworth, David K.
  • Knight, John G.

Abstract

The food miles concept, originating in the UK and given much prominence in the news media, has been used to imply that importing food from distant countries is inherently more wasteful than growing and consuming local produce. What impact is this potential non-tariff barrier having on consumer buying behaviour in UK supermarkets? Revealed preference surveys in four supermarkets show only 5.6% of 251 consumers nominated country-of-origin as one of the reasons for choosing a fresh food item they had just purchased. Furthermore, only 3.6% indicated that they had consciously chosen British products for the reason that such produce was "less harmful for the environment." In contrast, stated preference surveys in the street found that 21.5% indicated that "food miles" or "the long distance it travels" would stop them buying New Zealand products. What people say may differ substantially from what they actually do in regard to "food miles."

Suggested Citation

  • Kemp, Katherine & Insch, Andrea & Holdsworth, David K. & Knight, John G., 2010. "Food miles: Do UK consumers actually care?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 504-513, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jfpoli:v:35:y:2010:i:6:p:504-513
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306-9192(10)00072-2
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bagozzi, Richard P. & Baumgartner, Johann & Yi, Youjae, 1989. "An investigation into the role of intentions as mediators of the attitude-behavior relationship," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 35-62, March.
    2. Roberts, James A., 1996. "Will the real socially responsible consumer please step forward?," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 79-83.
    3. Pretty, J.N. & Ball, A.S. & Lang, T. & Morison, J.I.L., 2005. "Farm costs and food miles: An assessment of the full cost of the UK weekly food basket," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 1-19, February.
    4. Fisher, Robert J, 1993. "Social Desirability Bias and the Validity of Indirect Questioning," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 20(2), pages 303-315, September.
    5. Ballingall, John & Winchester, Niven, 2009. "Distance isn’t dead : An empirical evaluation of food miles-based preference changes," NZIER Working Paper 2009/1, New Zealand Institute of Economic Research.
    6. Rook, Dennis W, 1987. "The Buying Impulse," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 14(2), pages 189-199, September.
    7. Coley, David & Howard, Mark & Winter, Michael, 2009. "Local food, food miles and carbon emissions: A comparison of farm shop and mass distribution approaches," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 150-155, April.
    8. Mittal, Banwari & Lee, Myung-Soo, 1989. "A causal model of consumer involvement," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 363-389, November.
    9. John G Knight & David K Holdsworth & Damien W Mather, 2007. "Country-of-origin and choice of food imports: an in-depth study of European distribution channel gatekeepers," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 38(1), pages 107-125, January.
    10. Carlsson-Kanyama, Annika & Ekstrom, Marianne Pipping & Shanahan, Helena, 2003. "Food and life cycle energy inputs: consequences of diet and ways to increase efficiency," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(2-3), pages 293-307, March.
    11. John Ballingall & Niven Winchester, 2009. "Distance isn’t dead : An empirical evaluation of food miles-based preference changes," Trade Working Papers 22999, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    12. Martin R. Young & Wayne S. DeSarbo & Vicki G. Morwitz, 1998. "The Stochastic Modeling of Purchase Intentions and Behavior," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(2), pages 188-202, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Patrick Mundler & Sophie Laughrea, 2015. "Circuits alimentaires de proximité - Quels bénéfices pour le développement des territoires? Étude de cas dans trois territoires québécois," CIRANO Project Reports 2015rp-21, CIRANO.
    2. Martinez, Steve & Hand, Michael & Da Pra, Michelle & Pollack, Susan & Ralston, Katherine & Smith, Travis & Vogel, Stephen & Clarke, Shellye & Lohr, Luanne & Low, Sarah & Newman, Constance, 2010. "Local food systems: concepts, impacts, and issues," MPRA Paper 24313, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Enthoven, Laura & Van den Broeck, Goedele, 2021. "Local food systems: Reviewing two decades of research," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    4. Risku-Norja, Helmi & Maenpaa, Ilmo, 2007. "MFA model to assess economic and environmental consequences of food production and consumption," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(4), pages 700-711, February.
    5. Martin Eisend, 2019. "Morality Effects and Consumer Responses to Counterfeit and Pirated Products: A Meta-analysis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 154(2), pages 301-323, January.
    6. Carrie Furman & Carla Roncoli & Donald Nelson & Gerrit Hoogenboom, 2014. "Growing food, growing a movement: climate adaptation and civic agriculture in the southeastern United States," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 31(1), pages 69-82, March.
    7. Denis Darpy, 1997. "Une variable médiatrice du report d’achat : la procrastination," Post-Print hal-01518926, HAL.
    8. Vincenzina Caputo & Rodolfo M. Nayga Jr & Riccardo Scarpa, 2013. "Food miles or carbon emissions? Exploring labelling preference for food transport footprint with a stated choice study," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 57(4), pages 465-482, October.
    9. Biancamaria Torquati & Lucio Cecchini & Chiara Paffarini & Massimo Chiorri, 2021. "The economic and environmental sustainability of extra virgin olive oil supply chains: An analysis based on food miles and value chains," Economia agro-alimentare, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 23(1), pages 1-28.
    10. Coley, David & Howard, Mark & Winter, Michael, 2009. "Local food, food miles and carbon emissions: A comparison of farm shop and mass distribution approaches," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 150-155, April.
    11. Panzone, Luca A. & Wossink, Ada & Southerton, Dale, 2013. "The design of an environmental index of sustainable food consumption: A pilot study using supermarket data," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 44-55.
    12. Muhammad Aljukhadar & Sylvain Senecal, 2021. "The Effect of Consumer-Activated Mind-Set and Product Involvement on the Compliance With Recommender System Advice," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(3), pages 21582440211, July.
    13. Misak Avetisyan & Thomas Hertel & Gregory Sampson, 2014. "Is Local Food More Environmentally Friendly? The GHG Emissions Impacts of Consuming Imported versus Domestically Produced Food," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 58(3), pages 415-462, July.
    14. Alexandra Doernberg & Ingo Zasada & Katarzyna Bruszewska & Björn Skoczowski & Annette Piorr, 2016. "Potentials and Limitations of Regional Organic Food Supply: A Qualitative Analysis of Two Food Chain Types in the Berlin Metropolitan Region," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(11), pages 1-20, November.
    15. Andreas Chatzidakis & Sally Hibbert & Andrew Smith, 2007. "Why People Don’t Take their Concerns about Fair Trade to the Supermarket: The Role of Neutralisation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 74(1), pages 89-100, August.
    16. Torquati, Biancamaria & Cecchini, Lucio & Paffarini, Chiara & Chiorri, Massimo, 2021. "The economic and environmental sustainability of extra virgin olive oil supply chains: An analysis based on food miles and value chains," Economia agro-alimentare / Food Economy, Italian Society of Agri-food Economics/Società Italiana di Economia Agro-Alimentare (SIEA), vol. 23(1), May.
    17. Van Loo, Ellen J. & Hoefkens, Christine & Verbeke, Wim, 2017. "Healthy, sustainable and plant-based eating: Perceived (mis)match and involvement-based consumer segments as targets for future policy," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 46-57.
    18. Verena Gruber & Bodo Schlegelmilch, 2014. "How Techniques of Neutralization Legitimize Norm- and Attitude-Inconsistent Consumer Behavior," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 121(1), pages 29-45, April.
    19. Madeleine Granvik & Sofie Joosse & Alan Hunt & Ingela Hallberg, 2017. "Confusion and Misunderstanding—Interpretations and Definitions of Local Food," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-13, October.
    20. Claudia Bazzani & Maurizio Canavari, 2013. "Alternative Agri-Food Networks and Short Food Supply Chains: a review of the literature," Economia agro-alimentare, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 15(2), pages 11-34.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jfpoli:v:35:y:2010:i:6:p:504-513. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/foodpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.