Consumers’ Perception of Food and Agriculture Education in Farmers’ Markets in Taiwan

Abstract

Following the trend of green product consumption, farmers’ markets sell green products and have gradually developed the promotion of environmentally friendly knowledge of food and agricultural education. However, past research on farmers’ markets has rarely been combined with the function of food and agricultural education. Therefore, this study explores the relationship between product knowledge, green perceived value, and purchase intention from the perspective of farmers’ market food and agricultural education. Furthermore, research and investigation were conducted with trust and local attachment as multiplicative adjustment variables. This study adopted structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the structural relationship among local attachment, product knowledge, green perceived value, purchase intention, and model fit. We distributed 396 surveys at three large farmers’ markets in Taiwan, of which 88.6% were used in this study. The research results showed that product knowledge and green perceived value had a significant positive impact on purchase intention; trust positively affected product knowledge and purchase intention; the multiplication of local attachment and trust also positively impacted product knowledge and purchase intention. Based on the research results of this study, it is suggested that while transferring knowledge, the farmers’ markets can incorporate trust and emotional relationships, which will serve as stimulating factors that can increase consumers’ purchase intentions. Although the findings are local to Taiwan, its characteristics are typical of food and agricultural education, as well as farmers’ markets worldwide, especially in Asia.

Profiling the consumers of farmers' markets: a systematic review of survey-based empirical evidence

“…In addition, according to Schneider and Francis (2005), women and men were almost equally (49 vs. 51%) likely to visit FMs (the consumer survey was conducted in 2003 in the USA). A markedly high female participation rate of more than 75% was observed only in a few cases (Elepu and Mazzocco, 2010; Fehrenbach and Wharton, 2012; Ma and Chang, 2022; Pitts et al, 2017; Ruelas et al, 2012), the study by Fehrenbach and Wharton (2012) being an outlier, finding that 86% of respondents were women.…”

“…The younger (18–30) age group is more strongly represented (Ashtab and Campbell, 2021; Glover, Waliczek and Gandonou, 2014; Mack and Tong, 2015; Renko and Petljak, 2018; Shakeel Ul and Selvaraj, 2013; A8) in some research, with a quarter of respondents in Ma and Chang's (2022) study being under 30 years old, while the average age of respondents in Singleton et al's (2017) study was around 27.6 years old. The reasons for this may be twofold.…”

“…The reasons for this may be twofold. On the one hand, it may be that a young society was studied (e.g., an analysis of the shopping habits of members of young Taiwanese society [Ma and Chang, 2022]) or that research was specifically conducted on young age groups (e.g., an analysis of the shopping habits of young women and mothers participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program [SNAP] (Singleton et al, 2017), a program implemented by the US government to supplement the food budgets of needy families by providing vouchers redeemable for healthy food at FMs).…”

“…In general, the amount spent in developed countries is between 20 and 30 dollars per occasion (Abelló et al, 2013;Chen, Yu and Fu, 2021;Conner et al, 2009;Elepu and Mazzocco, 2010;Farmer et al, 2019;A17). However, some studies (Berg and (González, 2009;Ma and Chang, 2022). In conclusion, market visitors do not seem to spend only small amounts of money per visit (Table 4).…”

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