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In the spring of 2008, the Center for Rural Studies (CRS) included several local foods-related questions on its annual Vermonter Poll. CRS administered this poll by phone to a randomly selected sample of Vermonters. Final sample size was 619. Details about the Vermonter Poll and its methodology are online at http://crs.uvm.edu.
The Vermonter Poll asked respondents to name the place where they most frequently find out about new food products (“local” was not specified). Surveyors chose the answer that most closely matched respondents’ answers from a pre-set list. The top answer by a significant margin was Print Ads (24% of respondents) followed by in-store promotions, TV ads, and word of mouth.
Primary Source of New Food Information
The second question specified local foods and asked respondents to list their greatest obstacle to buying local foods. This question was open ended – surveyors wrote down the answer they heard and later coded these answers by similarity (see below). Respondents expressed several strong themes. While 13% did not find any barriers to local foods, the remainder expressed the following obstacles (in decreasing frequency):
- Cost (approx 1/3 of respondents)
- Access and Availability (approx 1/3 of respondents)
Most respondents did not specify beyond Access or Availability, but those who did mentioned:
- Inconvenience of changing shopping habits to find local
- Driving further to outlets that sell local foods
- Limited supply
- Seasonality
- Poor selection (including poor quality) / lack of variety
- Missing information on what is local
- Don’t know / other
While missing information was a low ranked barrier, some of the responses in other categories could be categorized as reflecting a lack of knowledge – for example “there are no local products in winter” (grouped as Seasonality) or “I don’t shop in Co-ops” (grouped as Availability). This crossover implies that education campaigns could remove barriers across the response categories.
There was not any significant correlation between income level and choosing cost as the primary barrier. However, 30 respondents refused to answer whether their income was less than $25,000 so the sample number changed slightly for the income question.
Income and Cost as the Primary Barrier to Buying Local Foods
|
<$25,-000 |
$25,000 - $50,000 |
$50,000 - $75,000 |
$75,000 - $100,000 |
> $100,000 |
Total |
Cost Not 1st Barrier |
45
62.5% |
76
56.7% |
89
65.4% |
57
67.1% |
77
71.3% |
344
64.3% |
Cost Is 1st Barrier |
27
37.5% |
58
43.3% |
47
34.6% |
28
32.9% |
31
28.7% |
191
35.7% |
Total (100%) |
72 |
134 |
136 |
85 |
108 |
535 |
Finally, the Vermonter Poll asked respondents to name their solution for the barrier to local foods. The following summary of themes represents 395 respondents. The number was reduced by removing those who answered don’t know, not applicable, refused to answer, simply repeated their barrier, or where there were fewer than 5 of the same answer (improved storage facilities and changes to the distribution system had the highest of these with 3 responses respectively). Answers appear below in descending order:
- Expand availability in conventional markets (primarily listed as supermarkets or grocery stores). This category also includes respondents who indicated expanding the type of store that offers local, which was assumed to mean conventional outlets. 16%
- Expand alternative markets (primarily listed as farmers markets or cooperatives – some respondents indicated a need for a new type of market that focuses on local items) 15%
- Barriers are impossible to resolve. 14%
- Reduce the price of the food. 12%
- Change other costs to make local foods more affordable. These respondents also reacted to the price of food, but felt that reducing other expenses or raising wages to match costs of living would free up money for local foods at their current price 7%
- Better advertising, including at point of sale. 7%
- Increase amount of local food produced. 7%
- More greenhouses. 6%
- Grow your own. 5%
- Government intervention, either through subsidies, changes in regulation, or simply “government leadership”. 5%
- Changes in personal habits and preferences. 4%
- Assistance in transportation to where local foods are sold. 2%
Other information on Vermonters’ attitudes towards food, including the newly released Ag IQ poll, is available from the Center for Rural Studies: http://crs.uvm.edu
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