Consumers' Views on Local Food

This focus-group study investigated shoppers' beliefs and behaviors regarding local foods. Two of the four focus groups consisted of organic food shoppers. They were more committed to purchasing local foods and identified a much wider array of such foods than did the conventional shoppers. One group of conventional shoppers consisted of African-Americans, who tended to define "local" as a much larger geographic area than did the group of Caucasian conventional shoppers. The African-Americans were also less interested in local-food labels per se, despite being interested in the qualities associated with local foods: freshness, supporting local farmers, and developing personal relationships with food producers.