IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/aesc10/91948.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

UK Consumers Priorities for Sustainable Food Purchases

Author

Listed:
  • Clonan, Angie
  • Holdsworth, Michelle
  • Swift, Judy
  • Wilson, Paul

Abstract

Although interest in ‘sustainable food’ has grown substantially in recent years, an official definition for sustainability has yet to be agreed upon. ‘Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming’ provide guidance to consumers wishing to make more sustainable food purchases, in the form of seven guiding principles. Using these principles, this study seeks to assess UK consumer’s priorities towards sustainable food. A detailed structured questionnaire explored shopping habits, attitudes to sustainable food components (organic, fair-trade, local food and animal welfare), stated purchasing behaviour and demographic information. Questionnaires were sent to 2,500 randomly selected Nottinghamshire (UK) residents. A response rate of 35.6% was achieved. The data reveals that consumers prioritise packaging, how food is produced and animal welfare when considering sustainable food components. Stated purchasing behaviour demonstrates that ‘free range’ and ‘local’ products are more likely to take precedence over other sustainability aspects. Future research will seek to compare and contrast stated and actual preferences by comparing the population survey results to actual purchasing behaviour from supermarket data.

Suggested Citation

  • Clonan, Angie & Holdsworth, Michelle & Swift, Judy & Wilson, Paul, 2010. "UK Consumers Priorities for Sustainable Food Purchases," 84th Annual Conference, March 29-31, 2010, Edinburgh, Scotland 91948, Agricultural Economics Society.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:aesc10:91948
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.91948
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/91948/files/112clonan_holdsworth_swift_wilson.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.91948?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sackett, Hillary & Shupp, Robert & Tonsor, Glynn, 2016. "Differentiating “Sustainable” From “Organic” And “Local” Food Choices: Does Information About Certification Criteria Help Consumers?," International Journal of Food and Agricultural Economics (IJFAEC), Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University, Department of Economics and Finance, vol. 4(3), pages 1-15, July.
    2. Sackett, Hillary M. & Shupp, Robert & Tonsor, Glynn, 2013. "Consumer Perceptions of Sustainable Farming Practices: A Best-Worst Scenario," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association, vol. 42(2), pages 1-16, August.
    3. Sackett, Hillary M., 2011. "Consumer Perceptions of Sustainable Farming Practices: A Best-Worst Scenario," Graduate Research Master's Degree Plan B Papers 115966, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    4. Luigi Bollani & Alessandro Bonadonna & Giovanni Peira, 2019. "The Millennials’ Concept of Sustainability in the Food Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-19, May.
    5. Luigi Bollani & Giovanni Peira & Erica Varese & Enrico Nesi & Maria Beatrice Pairotti & Alessandro Bonadonna, 2017. "Labelling and sustainability in the green food economy: Perception among millennials with a good cultural background," RIVISTA DI STUDI SULLA SOSTENIBILITA', FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2017(2), pages 83-101.
    6. Sackett, Hillary M. & Shupp, Robert S. & Tonsor, Glynn T., 2012. "Discrete Choice Modeling of Consumer Preferences for Sustainably Produced Steak and Apples," 2012 AAEA/EAAE Food Environment Symposium 123517, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:ags:aesc10:91948. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aesukea.html .

    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.