Explaining changes in the demand for organic foods at the household level

Objectives

• To investigate relationships between the socio-demographic characteristics of households and dynamic shifts in the frequency with which organic products are purchased across time.
• To explore and identify factors underlying relatively dramatic shifts in household purchasing patterns with particular regard to changes in the social situation of the household and/or changes in their conception of organic products, producers or production methods.
• To explore and identify conceptions of organic products, producers and production methods and other factors underlying the pattern whereby organic foods are purchased with relatively low or varying frequency, but the household is nevertheless willing to pay tax to support organic farming.
• To investigate relationships between socio-demographic changes in the household, conceptions of organic products, producers and production methods, willingness to pay tax that supports organic farming, and other factors identified as influencing changing consumption levels, among a representative sample of Danish households.

Description of work

Based on the results of WP1 and WP2 a screening questionnaire to be administered by telephone interview will be developed and employed for the purpose of recruiting two sub-groups of respondents (consumers and citizens) who will subsequently participate in a personal interview. The aim of these interviews is to explore consumers’ and citizens’ conceptions of organic products, producers and production methods.

Hypotheses yielded by the foregoing qualitative studies, as well as the results yielded by work undertaken in WP1 and WP2, will be tested by means of quantitative data collected from a representative sample of Danish households comprising the GfK panel. Relevant data regard the results of three postal questionnaires (one already carried out in 2001, one undertaken in 2006/7 in conjunction with WP1), only one of which will be administered in 2008/9 as part of this work package (WP3). Using three questionnaires enables us to track dynamic changes in purchasing patterns of households with respect to organic foods, identifying relationships between household types, changes in the socio-demographic characteristics of the household, level of consumption and frequency with which specific product types were purchased, and differences across sales channels (store choice) during the period from 1997 to 2005.