This is old news, an infographic published just over a year ago; but I only recently stumbled across it and thought it was interesting (you can click on the image for a larger version). It was created by the US Farmers & Ranchers Alliance, and is part of their Food Dialogs series. It’s a great insight into the very conflicted consumer mind.
It shows that consumers find this whole subject very confusing. And it shows a measure of frustration on the part of farmers, in feeling like consumers don’t know much about farming, and also can have very inaccurate perceptions about farming.
But, I like that this organization (with cited funding from the Checkoff programs) is trying to identify common ground- showing that farmers and consumers do worry about a lot of the same things. Surveys like this are a good starting point for identifying what consumers feel is important, so that people marketing to them can try to address those needs.
You can see where most people struggle, though. Consumers are demanding things which increase the immediate cost of agricultural production, but which are good, ethical choices for the environment, animals, and our health:
But the majority still don’t want to compromise on price!
I think this is where we have to work the hardest on education- is in helping people understand the relationship between best practices and at least slightly (if not significantly) higher cost. Sleazy methods always render the cheapest product. So, consumers must fight against the urge to be so frugal that they end up promoting the very practices to which they object, when using their “voting dollars.”
Certainly many people are hip to this reality, and are quick to show willingness to pay more for foods farmed ethically and sustainably (or whatever are the favorite buzzwords of the day). But we’ve got to work on that other 64% of our population. It would be interesting to know how many of them feel they could pay more for “good” food, versus how many feel that any increase in the grocery bill is not feasible, no matter what ramifications there may be.
The Collie Farm Blog 
December 30, 2012 at 3:21 pm
I say to people who say they cannot afford to buy good food, that maybe they should buy a little less food, quality instead of quantity. of course they are appalled at the idea. But i truly believe we all eat way too much and eating less food of good quality must be healthier. Of course a lot of what people eat is not even food per se. well not in my book anyway. i hope all your sheep are well and getting fat!! I know they eat lots of good food! Happy new year, celi
December 30, 2012 at 6:50 pm
haha, Celi, I’m sure that’s blasphemy to a lot of people, to suggest eating less! But I think you are so right; in our culture, it’s so easy to fill up on empty calories. And the conundrum is that people who do fill up on empty calories are always hungry, so they can’t possibly imagine eating less! I think food cost is another one of those household accounting things that goes unfortunately unmeasured. Due to the brilliance of marketing, most people probably perceive that eating the “dollar menu” hamburger at a fast food chain is cheaper than making hamburgers at home. And it is, on some level, but of course they aren’t accounting for the quality of the food, its ability to nourish them or keep them feeling full for more than a half hour (and all of the tricky societal costs of bringing that cheap food to us)… Those things are harder to measure, and I think that’s what’s happening with this 64%, is they can’t see beyond the immediate price tag. Somehow we have to get better at making that metric more transparent.
January 1, 2013 at 1:55 am
Plus people really do not want to make time to make/cook food. Never mind good food. In fact they have been taught that they can’t cook so why try. So there are a few other scary cultural issues that have been developed by that marketing. Fast being another empty calorie. Well, even though our subject matter scares me to death, I hope you have a lovely New Years .. c