The effect of attitudinal and socio-demographic factors on the likelihood of buying locally-produced food

Considering the growing importance of the ‘local’ concept in contemporary food systems and the evolution of markets for local foods, which present challenges to mainstream trends in food production and marketing, it is important to understand what consumers perceive by ‘local’ and what motivates them to purchase local foods. [...] Variables in the model To gather information on the propensity to buy local food (the dependent variable in this study), consumers used a numbered seven-point scale (1=very unlikely and 7=very likely) to indicate their likelihood of purchasing a range of locally-produced food products in the coming year if they were conveniently available and at the right price. [...] Using the summated scale of each factor, the scale responses were converted to a dichotomous variable, set equal to one if the value of the average of the summated scale equalled seven (to indicate a strong purchase intention), and zero otherwise. [...] The higher the value of the scale, the greater the importance of the underlying construct in the consumer’s food purchase decisions. [...] The number of children in the home was broken into two categories: a count of the number of Children under 12 in the home and a count of the number of Children 12 to 17 years old in the home.