Eating ‘Green’: Motivations behind organic food consumption in Australia

By S. Lockie, Kristen Lyons, G. Lawrence, K. Mummery. 2002

633 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Central to the development of green lifestyles is the consumption of foods that by dint of their status as chemical-free, locally produced and/or free of genetically modified ingredients, reduce the environmental impact of food provision. Yet there are many other factors, such as health concerns, that may also encourage the consumption of 'green' foods. This paper explores the ways in which Australian consumers construct organic food-a sector of the food industry that is currently growing at between 20 and 50 percent per annum but is struggling to keep up with rising consumer demand. In order to examine the significance of 'green' signifiers in the consumption practices of Australian consumers a series of focus group interviews and a national consumer survey were conducted. These examined both those characteristics of food that were valued in general, and those meanings that were associated with organic food in particular. In very general terms, analysis reveals that while consumers believed organic foods to be healthy and environmentally sound-both of which were considered desirable-these characteristics were subsumed by an overarching concern with convenience. This does not mean that consumers did not hold genuinely positive environmental attitudes. Rather, it reflects a range of contradictory beliefs and practices that appeared to derive from the discursive conflict between conventional and organic food industries over environmental, health and safety claims. The paper concludes by identifying the barriers and opportunities for expanding the organic industry in Australia in the context of the ways organics is constructed by consumers.

Subfields: Ecology, Nature and Landscape Conservation, Plant Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/fe1122bc6fabbbc87f0cb154b69750a26056ae3d

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Citations in the corpus

Tasting green: An experimental design for investigating consumer perception of organic wine (2014, background): “Organic food production: definition and trends The organic food market is a rapidly growing sector in developed agricultural economies around the world (Lockie et al., 2002; Chen, 2007).”
Organic food products in China: determinants of consumers’ purchase intentions (2012, background): “According to Lockie et al. (2002), the stereotypical lifestyle of organic food consumers is considered ‘greenies’, ‘health nuts’ or ‘yuppies’, who are more interested in fashion than anything else.”
Conventionalisation of organic farming practices: from structural criteria towards an assessment based on organic principles. A review (2011, positive): “We also fully acknowledge the importance of consumer motivations (Lockie et al., 2002; Bähr et al., 2004; Padel and Foster, 2005; Holt, 2006) and the role supermarkets can play (Burch and Lawrence, 2005; Konefal et al., 2005) in the development of organic farming.”
Exploring the gap between attitudes and behaviour: understanding why consumers buy or do not buy organic food (2005, background): “Those who consume organic food on a regular basis face the same “barriers” of price, convenience etc. as others, but more often opt in favour of organics as opposed to their non- or occasionalbuying counterparts (Torjusen et al., 2001; Lockie et al., 2002).”
The city in the country: Growing alternative food networks in Metropolitan areas (2008, background): “Locally grown organic foods are primarily purchased by well educated and well-paid urban consumers, although a wide diversity of people buy food through these networks (Weatherell et al., 2003; Govindasamy et al., 2002; Guthman, 2003; Lockie et al., 2002).”
Food Waste and the ‘Green’ Consumer (2017, background): “The adoption of organic and locally grown food, including the values, motivations and demographic characteristics of food consumers, has been studied extensively (Baker et al., 2004; Berlin et al., 2009; Chambers et al., 2007; Lockie et al., 2002; Zepeda and Deal, 2009).”
The role of health consciousness, food safety concern and ethical identity on attitudes and intentions towards organic food (2008, background): “Previous research has identified interest in health as a primary motive for the purchase of organic food (Lockie et al. 2002; Grankvist & Biel 2001 ).”
Personal determinants of organic food consumption: a review (2009, background): “Magnusson et al. (2001) found that good taste is the most important purchase criterion among Swedish consumers (n=1154) when buying food (milk, meat, potatoes and bread). Stobbelaar et al. (2007) found that for Dutch adults’ taste is the most important motive for buying organic products. The Taylor ”
Consumer Perceptions Towards Organic Food (2012, background): “Lockie et al (2002) also found strong correlation between increasing consumption of organic food and levels of formal education.”