Stacking Beliefs and Participation in Alternative Food Systems

Abstract

A movement toward relocalizing communities’ sources of food has been sparked in part by an urge to mitigate the adverse social, economic, and health impacts associated with a globalized food system. One example of an approach designed to mitigate these effects is the development of, and consumer participation in, alternative food systems (AFS). Factors that drive participation in AFS are largely unexplored. This article uses consumer interviews in Vermont to deepen our understanding of participation in AFS. We find that stacked beliefs about AFS drive participation, suggesting that barriers such as price and convenience may be overcome when these beliefs are more numerous. Implications focus on strategies for better promoting values and decreasing barriers in order to increase participation in and concomitant benefits of AFS.