Preference for local food as a matter of helping behaviour: Insights from Norway

Kåre Skallerud,Anders H Wien

doi:10.1016/j.jrurstud.2019.02.020

Abstract

Consumption of local food is a fast-growing trend supported by local food advocates and governments. This trend has also captured the interest of researchers. The present study draws from the foundational principles of the theoretical perspective of helping behaviour with a view to enhancing the understanding of why people buy local food. This article tests a conceptual framework with proposed relationships between helping behaviour constructs and local food-buying behaviour within a Norwegian context. Local food consumers in Troms County are surveyed, and the results indicate that empathic concern and social concern influence their attitude towards, and preference for, local food. Local patriotism influences the preference for local food even if such consumers evaluate it as being of lower quality and less desirable than other food products. This study is among the first to examine local food-buying behaviour through the lens of prosocial helping behaviour theory. The recommendations for local food producers and local food advocates regarding appealing to consumers’ prosocial helping behaviour propose communication strategies emphasizing the difficulties that local food producers face, portraying local food producers as people deserving of help against national competition and imports, and depicting them as being as loyal to the local community as the local food consumers are.

Highlights

Local food is an important part of the local culture and is held in high regard by local communities
We suggest that the concepts of instrumentalism and collective motivations of local food consumers are useful for analysing the behaviour of local food consumers
Two items were deleted from the social concern scale (‘If I can help local food producers in some way, I feel I should try’ and ‘I should make an effort to help local producers in the competition with national producers and imports’), and one item was removed from local patriotism (i.e. ‘Buying local food is always best’)

Summary

Introduction

Local food is an important part of the local culture and is held in high regard by local communities. The consumption of local food is one of the fastest-growing trends, especially in developed countries (Aprile et al, 2016; Bianchi and Mortimer, 2015; Penney and Prior, 2014). There is growing recognition among researchers that local food consumption has become a phenomenon that needs to be better understood (Farmer and Betz, 2016; Tregear, 2011). The literature on local food systems has expanded rapidly in recent years, in the fields of rural sociology and rural geography. This is a multifaceted phenomenon, and much of the research has focused on local food systems as a part of rural development strategies This is a multifaceted phenomenon, and much of the research has focused on local food systems as a part of rural development strategies (e.g. Cleveland et al, 2014; Mundler and Laughrea, 2016; O'Neill, 2014; Smithers et al, 2008), food security (e.g. Alkon, 2008; Allen, 2010; Hinrichs, 2003), and distribution (e.g. Feagan et al, 2004; Onyango et al, 2007), primarily viewed from a producer or third-party perspective (e.g. government, market organizers, local food advocates) (Brunori and Rossi, 2000; Morris and Buller, 2003)

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