Paradoxes of sustainable food and consumer coping strategies: a comparative study in France and Italy

This article aims to study consumer behaviour towards the paradoxes of Sustainable Food (SF). Consumers may perceive various paradoxes today affecting the sustainable marketing offer, e.g. the concept of the sustainable product, its environment and actors offering these products. Consequently, they cope with these perceptions through different strategies. By adapting Mick and Fournier's (1998) model to SF we investigate two main classes of coping mechanism: avoidance strategies and problem-solving strategies. In order to understand what consumers perceive and how they act in everyday life, we conducted semistructured interviews in two specific countries (France and Italy) using two different consumer profiles: 84 non-engaged individuals and 18 consumers who had already engaged in networks supporting local food purchases, such as members of the Association for the Preservation of Local Farming (AMAP) in France and the Solidarity Purchasing Groups (GAS) in Italy. Findings show different combinations of paradoxes and strategies between non-engaged French and Italian consumers. Their discourses highlight the influence of the context and cultural conditions of each country, whereas participants in AMAP and GAS seem to be similar when they evoke paradoxes and the way they act on the basis of a common culture. In conclusion, the article presents contributions to the conceptual framework, the model adaptation and discusses barriers to Sustainable Consumption (SC) in France and Italy.