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from the keep-calm-and-carry-local-food dept.
The COVID‐19 pandemic affected American households in countless ways, but according to researchers, some of the most tangible shifts are taking place in the food system.
A combination of supply chain issues, tighter budgets, concern about shopping in public spaces, and increases in at-home preparation has led to a greater interest in sourcing food locally, but the question remains how long that interest will last. A team of researchers from Penn State's Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology and Education conducted a study to find out.
[...] "During the pandemic, food consumption changed and so did the sourcing of that food," said Martina Vecchi, assistant professor of agricultural economics at Penn State and lead author on the study. "A lot of people started exploring different ways of purchasing food and we wanted to understand the determining factors in their decisions."
[...] "We thought of those as the two mechanisms that could influence the willingness to buy this type of product: anxiety and sense of community," Vecchi said. "We assumed that as people got more anxious because of the pandemic, they would buy more local food because they thought it was safer. We also thought it might strengthen their sense of community and would therefore reflect a higher willingness to pay for local food."
The results show a trend in the opposite direction. As anxiety increased, sense of community decreased. Vecchi explains that the rise in local food sales during the pandemic may simply be a byproduct of supply chain issues and fears about supermarkets, not a reflection of permanent changes in consumer behavior.
"It doesn't appear that their actual willingness to invest in local food was higher," Vecchi said. "Sure, they were paying for local food, just because they felt that was the safest option, but it's not that their actual willingness to pay for it was higher."
[...] "My advice to policymakers and farmers is to try and deal with consumers' anxiety and their sense of community first," Vecchi said. "We have to solve for that if we want to sustain a vibrant local food economy."
Good luck trying to manage anxiety in our world of social media news.
Journal Reference:
Martina Vecchi, Edward C. Jaenicke, Claudia Schmidt, Local food in times of crisis: The impact of COVID-19 and two reinforcing primes [open], Agribusiness, 2022. DOI: 10.1002/agr.21754
(Score: 2) by GlennC on Thursday September 15 2022, @06:36PM (4 children)
Sorry, but I don't go clicking on random video links.
Also, I'm just stating what I see.
I wish things were different, but I know that there's nothing I can do to make a difference.
It is what it is.
Sorry folks...the world is bigger and more varied than you want it to be. Deal with it.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Thursday September 15 2022, @07:00PM (2 children)
>I know that there's nothing I can do to make a difference.
That's a problematic attitude, particularly when it's expressed by most of the population.
I wrote this: https://5050by2150.wordpress.com/ [wordpress.com] about 11 years ago. At the time, just about every single person I discussed it with said things ranging from: "nice idea, but it will never ever happen" to "you're f-ing insane, what kind of person would ever even imagine such a thing?" Now, I didn't devote my life to promoting the idea, it wasn't even a "big" thing for me, just a sort of idle concept that I'd e-mail around occasionally to people who I thought _might_ have some kind of interest or influence that could move the needle. Then, in 2016, a respected top tier biologist probably independently had arrived at a very similar concept on his own, probably long before I did, but he decided the time was right to go public, publish a book, a foundation was formed, annual conferences, 8 figure annual fundraising, celebrity endorsements, etc. And, you might say they're _still_ getting nowhere, but the world is moving in our direction now, much much faster than it was 15-20 years ago.
You may not think or feel that you're making a difference, but even if you're just "quietly making noise" it moves the needle and some movement, any movement, in the right direction is an improvement over just letting things continue to slide and implicitly approving through silence.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2, Insightful) by GlennC on Thursday September 15 2022, @07:08PM (1 child)
Good for you.
Sorry folks...the world is bigger and more varied than you want it to be. Deal with it.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday September 16 2022, @12:27PM
The question was posed, "how much does it matter?". Reading the thread on this story, though, struck me because so many of us have independently arrived at the same general conclusion: grow your own. It is possible for many people to do that, even those who live in cities (community gardens, rooftop planters, etc). It is a hedge against food insecurity to a greater or lesser degree, but perhaps even more valuable it's a hedge against psychological insecurity. So many have given up all sense of agency, and being able to grow your own food is an enormous balm.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 15 2022, @09:45PM
But, it's not a random link. RS3 posted the link, and recommends it. I will also recommend it. But, suit yourself.