IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/umr/wpaper/200703.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Consumers and Food Miles

Author

Listed:
  • Sirieix, L.
  • Grolleau, G.
  • Schaer, B.

Abstract

Previous research has extensively studied environmental implications of conventional and globalized food supply chain. Local food supply chains are supposed to reduce the environmental impacts of "food miles", the distance that foodstuff travels between the production location and the consumption marketplace. However, if researchers, environmental decision-makers and activists are convinced of the importance of 'food miles', there is a lack of understanding about whether and how end consumers perceive food miles. This paper therefore fills this gap by investigating the perceptions of food miles by French consumers. The first section explores the different types of distances between food and consumers. The second section presents the results of a qualitative study conducted in France. Two sessions of focus groups were held to better understand consumers' perceptions of food miles. Results show that most consumers are not aware of food miles. Focus groups were followed by individual interviews with the particular group of local organic food consumers, supposed to be more environmentally concerned than others. Again, results show that most consumers buy and consume local food for other reasons than reducing food miles. The third section deals with the reasons why consumers do not seem concerned by food miles, and discusses the concepts of "bliss ignorance", perceived efficiency, and social dilemmas. ...French Abstract : Les études sur les conséquences de la globalisation des filières agro-alimentaires sur l'environnement se multiplient, et les réseaux alternatifs locaux ayant pour but de réduire les intermédiaires entre les producteurs et les consommateurs sont présentés comme permettant un retour à une agriculture et un système de consommation durables. Plus précisément ces réseaux ont, entre autres, pour but de réduire l'impact environnemental des "food miles", ou distance parcourue par les produits alimentaires entre le lieu de production et les lieux de consommation. Ce concept de "food miles" est utilisé comme un indicateur de développement durable et de plus en plus comme un outil de communication à destination des consommateurs. Cependant, si les chercheurs, décideurs ou activistes dans le domaine de l'environnement semblent convaincus de l'importance des "food miles", aucune étude n'a été menée afin de savoir si et comment les consommateurs perçoivent les "food miles" et sont susceptibles d'en tenir compte dans leur processus de choix des produits. C'est donc l'objet de cet article, qui s'attache à mettre en évidence les perceptions des food miles par les consommateurs en France grâce à une étude qualitative. La première partie présente les différents types de distance perçue entre les consommateurs et les produits alimentaires. Cette distance perçue peut favoriser un certain désintérêt de la part des consommateurs vis à vis des produits alimentaires et de la façon dont ils sont produits ; à l'opposé elle peut être à l'origine de préoccupations croissantes -environnementales, sociales ou plus individuelles telles que les préoccupations santé- et expliquer le besoin de re-créer des liens perdus avec les produits et les producteurs.

Suggested Citation

  • Sirieix, L. & Grolleau, G. & Schaer, B., 2007. "Consumers and Food Miles," Working Papers MoISA 200703, UMR MoISA : Montpellier Interdisciplinary center on Sustainable Agri-food systems (social and nutritional sciences): CIHEAM-IAMM, CIRAD, INRAE, L'Institut Agro, Montpellier SupAgro, IRD - Montpellier, France.
  • Handle: RePEc:umr:wpaper:200703
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www1.montpellier.inra.fr/bartoli/moisa/bartoli/download/moisa2007_pdf/WP_3-2007.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. George A. Akerlof, 1970. "The Market for "Lemons": Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 84(3), pages 488-500.
    2. Julie A. Caswell & Eliza M. Mojduszka, 1996. "Using Informational Labeling to Influence the Market for Quality in Food Products," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 78(5), pages 1248-1253.
    3. D Rigby & S Brown, 2003. "Organic Food and Global Trade: Is the Market Delivering Agricultural Sustainability?," Economics Discussion Paper Series 0326, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    4. Lucie Sirieix & Ariel Meunier & Burkhard Schaer & Emmanuel Cheyns, 2004. "Les consommateurs et le commerce équitable : scepticisme, confiance accordée et disposition à s'engager," Post-Print hal-02671598, HAL.
    5. Lucie Sirieix, 1999. "La consommation alimentaire : Problématiques, approches et voies de recherche," Post-Print hal-02018491, HAL.
    6. Jack Kloppenburg & John Hendrickson & G. Stevenson, 1996. "Coming in to the foodshed," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 13(3), pages 33-42, June.
    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. Latvala, Terhi & Kola, Jukka, 2002. "Demand for and Value of Credence Characteristics: Case Beef," 2002 International Congress, August 28-31, 2002, Zaragoza, Spain 24841, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    2. Grolleau, Gilles & Caswell, Julie A., 2006. "Interaction Between Food Attributes in Markets: The Case of Environmental Labeling," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 31(3), pages 1-14, December.
    3. Etilé, Fabrice & Teyssier, Sabrina, 2013. "Corporate social responsibility and the economics of consumer social responsibility," Review of Agricultural and Environmental Studies - Revue d'Etudes en Agriculture et Environnement (RAEStud), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), vol. 94(2).
    4. Tankam, Chloe & Vollet, Dominique & Aznar, Olivier, 2019. "Entre asymétrie d’information et incertitude partagée. Analyse des systèmes de certification biologique pour le marché domestique kenyan," Économie rurale, French Society of Rural Economics (SFER Société Française d'Economie Rurale), vol. 369(July-Sept).
    5. Andrea Marchini & Chiara Riganelli & Francesco Diotallevi & Bianca Polenzani, 2021. "Label information and consumer behaviour: evidence on drinking milk sector," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 9(1), pages 1-24, December.
    6. Oranuch Wongpiyabovorn & Alejandro Plastina & John M. Crespi, 2021. "US Agriculture as a Carbon Sink: From International Agreements to Farm Incentives," Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) Publications 21-wp627, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University.
    7. Mariah Dolsen Ehmke & Alessandro Bonanno & Kathryn Boys & Trenton G. Smith, 2019. "Food fraud: economic insights into the dark side of incentives," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 63(4), pages 685-700, October.
    8. Gabriele Jahn & Matthias Schramm & Achim Spiller, 2005. "The Reliability of Certification: Quality Labels as a Consumer Policy Tool," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 53-73, December.
    9. Ramona Weinrich & Annabell Franz & Achim Spiller, 2016. "Multi-level labelling: too complex for consumers?," Economia agro-alimentare, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 18(2), pages 155-172.
    10. Teisl, Mario F. & Roe, Brian, 1998. "The Economics of Labeling: An Overview of Issues for Health and Environmental Disclosure," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 27(2), pages 140-150, October.
    11. Latvala, Terhi & Kola, Jukka, 2003. "Impact Of Information On The Demand For Credence Characteristics," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 5(2), pages 1-12.
    12. Stéphan Marette & John Crespi, 2003. "Can Quality Certification Lead to Stable Cartels?," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 23(1), pages 43-64, August.
    13. Breeda Comyns & Frank Figge & Tobias Hahn & Ralf Barkemeyer, 2013. "Sustainability reporting: The role of “Search”, “Experience” and “Credence” information," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(3), pages 231-243, September.
    14. Kola, Jukka & Latvala, Terhi, 2002. "Demand For Credence Characteristics In Beef," 2002 Annual meeting, July 28-31, Long Beach, CA 19703, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    15. Gaucher, Séverine & Soler, Louis-Georges & Tanguy, Hervé, 2002. "Incitation à la qualité dans la relation vignoble-négoce," Cahiers d'Economie et de Sociologie Rurales (CESR), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), vol. 62.
    16. McCluskey, Jill J., 2000. "A Game Theoretic Approach To Organic Foods: An Analysis Of Asymmetric Information And Policy," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association, vol. 29(01), pages 1-9, April.
    17. Martin POLÍVKA & David MARTINČÍK, 2014. "Measures ensuring the food quality on retail markets: experimental perspective," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 60(8), pages 343-352.
    18. Banterle, Alessandro & Cavaliere, Alessia & Ricci, Elena Claire, 2012. "Food labelled Information: An Empirical Analysis of Consumer Preferences," 2012 International European Forum, February 13-17, 2012, Innsbruck-Igls, Austria 144960, International European Forum on System Dynamics and Innovation in Food Networks.
    19. Holland, Steven, 2015. "Lending Credence: Motivation, Trust and Organic Certification," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 205192, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    20. Crespi, John M. & Marette, Stephan, 2003. "Some Economic Implications Of Public Labeling," Journal of Food Distribution Research, Food Distribution Research Society, vol. 34(3), pages 1-12, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    FOOD MILES; ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERN; FOOD CONSUMPTION; QUALITATIVE STUDY;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D1 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior
    • D8 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty
    • M31 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Marketing
    • Q01 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - General - - - Sustainable Development

    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:umr:wpaper:200703. 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: Isabelle Perez (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/moisafr.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.