Research Findings

 
 

Project Overview 

Direct-to-consumer food sales in New England are insufficient for ensuring market access for new and small farms to thrive. To help expand the local food market, we focused on potential customers who don’t typically buy local. Between 2022 and 2023, we conducted a population-based survey on food shopping habits and attitudes, using a random sample to ensure broad representation. Over 2,000 people completed the survey. We also conducted 35 in-depth interviews with adults from New Hampshire for more detailed insights.

Read about our preliminary research here.

 

Research Briefs

This series of research briefs explores our findings.

 

Research Process 

This project integrated survey and interview methodologies. 

The survey was conducted in three distinct phases.  

  • The first phase utilized text messages, sending a link of the online survey to randomly selected cell phone numbers in New England. 

  • The second phase followed this initial phase with a round of address-based sampling, ensuring representation of Black, Hispanic, and Asian respondents. 

  • The third and final phase selected phone numbers from the Advanced Cellular Frame; this time, however, the frame only included prepaid cell phone numbers. This aimed to sample lower-income respondents by using text messages. 

    In the survey, we designed four primary question blocks: 

    • Farm food purchasing behavior and perceived availability of farm foods 

    • The perceived importance of 17 food-related attributes in their food-purchasing behavior 

    • Food practices as identity markers 

    • Sociodemographic information 

    Participants took a median of 7.5 minutes to complete the survey. 

    Qualitative interviews followed the survey and focused on adults living in New Hampshire, one of the states in the New England region. We conducted 35 1-2 hour interviews among New Hampshire adult residents between June and November 2023. By prescreening demographic information (e.g., number of people in the household, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, political ideology, number of generations in the US) and shopping pattern (i.e., the top 2-3 groceries shopping places), we ensured a diverse sample of interview participants. 

     



Frequent Questions & Answers (FAQ) 

Below we answer frequently asked questions from our readers. They come from various fields, such as farming, food retail, and nutrition education communities. You might find some of their questions informative. 

 

  • One goal of the project was to test how potential marketing terms resonate and how consumers interpret them. Based on our follow-up interviews with consumers, we learned that: 

    • “Affordable” appeals to most people while a “good deal” is close but not completely overlapping. 

    • There are bargain shoppers who are motivated by the idea of a good deal, which is different from affordability. For example, using a buy 2 for $20 kind of marketing strategy, even if it’s not necessarily a lower price, will get people’s attention who like “a good deal.”

    • Notably, “inexpensive” is often interpreted as being of lower quality, indicating a less effective term to communicate with customers. 

  • See weighted percentages from here. We collected age, gender, race, education, income, presence of children in house, political party, sexual orientation. 

  • We randomly selected New England residents by using phone numbers located there and applied survey weights reflective of the New England population to all analyses. 

 

Funded by USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Agriculture & Food Research Initiative (AFRI), Award #110394.