Dive Summary:
- Consumers want to know where their food comes from, and that is contributing to the growth of specialty food markets such as farmers' markets, CSAs (community supported agriculture) and food hubs (local farms deliver products chosen by consumers to a centralized pick-up location) which provide consumers with many locally-sourced and organic foods.
- Jennifer Dennis, an agricultural economist and associate professor of horticulture at Purdue, says the economy has not diminished consumers' desire to know where their food comes from.
- Dennis says, “People are trying to simplify their lives, and one way to do that is to have a little more control over health. Choosing local foods at a farmers market is something people see as a way to make better choices and exert some of that control."
From the article:
In recent years, the popularity of books and documentaries espousing the virtues of organic and locally grown foods has vaulted them to the forefront of consumers’ minds. And the spate of illnesses that have popped up across the country linked to salmonella, E. coli and other bacteria, says Purdue University agricultural economist Maria Marshall, gives people a strong desire to know more about where their food is coming from.
“This kind of started as a push for organic foods, and now we're seeing that people want more than that. They want to know where their food comes from, and buying local is a way to do that,” Marshall says.