Survey Reveals Local Food Buying Priorities

Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project’s Local Food Research Center released a report titled Why Buy Local? that presents results of a survey of Western North Carolina residents about how they shop for food and why they choose the food they do. The report is part of a three-year project to examine and improve communication and alignment between farmers and consumers in Western North Carolina. Among the report’s key findings are that 87% of local food shoppers and 74% of typical shoppers expressed a strong desire to purchase more local food. Customers’ top three priorities when buying local food were supporting farmers and farm businesses, health, and taste. Survey participants identified their top three barriers to purchasing local food as inconvenient market/store hours or locations, inability to purchase all of their groceries in one place, and cost. The complete 16-page report is available online in PDF.