Who Buys Local? Self-Identity and Local, Farm-Grown Food Consumption in New England

• In Event: Open Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 16: Culture, Meaning, and Everyday Life

Abstract

Small farms face threats to their long-term viability due to limited market access, development pressures, and cost-price squeeze. New England small farms are particularly at risk. In recent decades, farmers and food-system practitioners have developed Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) to broaden their customer bases, enhance year-round profit, and generate cultural support. To do this most effectively, farmers require an understanding of their untapped markets, but existing research has focused on the attitudes and values of people who are already AFN consumers. Further, how we understand food, and who may choose to access food sources like AFNs, are influenced by our positionality. It is vital to understand how different groups of people internalize their perceptions of whether they belong in AFN spaces. Using survey data, this research examines a representative sample of adults in New England (n = 1,737). We explore relationships between a variety of sociodemographic characteristics, the likelihood of buying local farm foods regularly through AFNs, and self-identifying as the "type of person" who shops there. The combination of the belief in the existence in a certain “type of person” who shops at AFNs and self-identifying as that type of person has implications for perceived access to and engagement with local food systems. New England adults aged 18 to 34 were much more likely to believe that there is a certain type but not to identify with that type when compared to all other age groups. Men had the same outcome when compared to women and gender diverse adults. Hispanic adults and adults grouped as “Other Race” were much more likely than others to believe a certain type of AFN consumer exists, but they do not self-identify with that type. Together, these are groups that may feel the most excluded from AFN spaces.

Authors

• Evan Thomas England, University of New Hampshire

• Jess Carson, University of New Hampshire

• Isaac Sohn Leslie, University of Vermont

• Hannah Stokes-Ramos

• Olivia Burton

• Luyue Zheng

• Analena Bruce