A greater share of the stomach?

Abstract

Purpose Provenance and ethical standards reflect foods that traceable and are supportive of the environment, sustainability and justice in the food supply chain. The purpose of this study is to understand higher education consumers’ food choices and to examine the predictors of purchasing intention of food with provenance and ethical standards. Design/methodology/approach An online questionnaire was completed by 296 students and staff members of the University of Central Lancashire. The questionnaire collected information on socio-demographic profiles; food choices, provenance and ethical standards; ethical purchasing and sourcing requirements and purchasing intention of food products with provenance and ethical standards. Descriptive statistics were used to determine the frequency of distribution of all socio-demographic characteristics. Multiple regression was used to examine if attitude, perceived behavioural control and subjective norms of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) significantly predict the consumers’ purchasing intention (Step 1). Exploratory factor analysis was conducted on the behavioural items using principal components estimation and varimax rotation. Multiple regression on the expanded TPB (Step 2) using the obtained factor scores were conducted to determine if the factors were significant predictors of purchasing intention of food with provenance and ethical standards. Findings Multiple regression on the expanded TPB model revealed that only attitude and perceived behavioural control were significant predictors of purchasing intention of food with provenance and ethical standards. The regression model explained about 50 per cent of the variance of the intent to purchase food with provenance and ethical standards where R2 = 0.50 (Adjusted R2 = 0.47). This was significantly different from zero F (5, 89) = 17.77, p < 0.001. The incorporation of “Preference for ethically sourced food” and “Perceived knowledge and status of provenance standards” did not increase the prediction of purchasing behaviour. Originality/value Two broad themes were identified from the factor analysis where the first factor prioritises “Preference for ethically sourced food” and the second factor conceptualises “Perceived knowledge and status of provenance standards”. The TPB was expanded to incorporate both factors but did not increase the prediction of purchasing intention. The authors recommend that other potential predictors, for example, moral concerns or perceived value of food with provenance and/or ethical standards to be tested using an extended TPB framework. The study is of value to higher and further education catering services to encourage more sustainable and local food consumption.

UK Consumers’ Preferences for Ethical Attributes of Floating Rice: Implications for Environmentally Friendly Agriculture in Vietnam

“…Individual consumers often consider sustainable production, including global, local, animal, and human rights issues, to be choice criteria [18][19][20], and broader trade liberalization policies consider these issues in negotiations as well [21][22][23][24][25]. For many agriculturally based countries, moderating the environmental impact of food production and providing an equitable income for the producers are becoming important national goals [26][27][28].…”

Technological innovation in agri-food supply chains

“…Additionally, it would also be possible to certify products' origin and properties, differentiating the products at the retail stage and setting higher prices. It would also be easier for certified products to access markets characterized by stricter standards (Busse and Siebert, 2018; Ruiz-Garcia and Lunadei, 2011; Soon and Wallace, 2018). As for the barriers to the adoption of such technologies, the main obstacle relates to the need of equipping all the players in the supply chain with the necessary technologies.…”

Indigenous Meanings of Provenance in the Context of Alternative Food Movements and Supply-Chain Traceability: A Review

“…This extension morphs into environmental and social well-being that is defined by community appreciation of environment, farmers, production, locavore, social group, and/or indigenous knowledge, and increasingly incorporates a movement away from chemical-based, mass production systems. A glimpse of this can be noticed in the rising popularity of farmers' markets around the world, where the concept of food provenance is emphasized by the face-to-face interactions between producers and customers, which further helps to link locality with quality and ethics with the environment (Soon Jan and Wallace Carol 2018). Paralleling this rise in the popularity and number of local producer markets and interactions, provenance emerges as a tool to learn where and by whom food was grown, gathered, or raised (origin), and how it was produced and transported, forming reassuring feedback that purchase decisions are both wise and just (CCEA 2020).…”

“…While food provenance is often conflated with origin or place (Meah and Watson 2013), it has a broader meaning, especially if we consider it a response to modernity (Reid and Rout 2016). The meaning of provenance from the consumers' perspective has not been confined to the geographical aspect of origin only (Meah and Watson 2013), instead, it includes caring from local to distant farmers ( Meah and Watson 2013;Soon Jan and Wallace Carol 2018); and from human to non-human actors (Jiang et al 2020;Meah and Watson 2013). Provenance has a flexible relationship with the actual conditions of production (Smith Maguire 2013) and it should not be confined to an extrinsic attribute; instead, it is a negotiable, accomplished, integral quality that is socially constructed (Beverland and Farrelly 2010;Grayson and Martinec 2004), and includes spatial, social and cultural dimensions (Morgan et al 2008).…”

“…However, from the vantage of connecting social and cultural dimensions of place to provenance, which is seen as a means of revealing and restoring relationships with the wider world, animism can provide critical contributions by providing a mixture of intrinsic and instrumental motivations (Rout and Reid 2020). The holistic significance that consumers attach to food provenance can impact the economic development of local or corporate production companies, farming systems, transport systems, social relations, and has social welfare consequences on local producers, farmer-owners, and their workers (Soon Jan and Wallace Carol 2018). Nevertheless, the concept of provenance can be considered and delivered in isolation, but the consideration of other beyond spatial spheres would provide a more qualitative understanding of food systems, their involved stakeholders, and perhaps the human-nature relationship.…”