Understanding consumer demand for sustainable beef production in rural communities

Abstract

In the past two decades, due to the series of crises within the agro-food system, such as BSE, dioxin, and foot and mouth disease, consumer demand for sustainable production has considerably grown in European society. Consumers seem to frame food quality in terms of social and environmental aspects of productions, which may be recognized through a certification labelling or through a system of food quality criteria that give rise to conventions of quality. The aim of our study was to understand how food quality and labelling are assessed by rural population in Southern Italy. Local beef production with sustainable voluntary certification was the focus of our empirical strategy. Our decision to survey local beef production arises from our need to measure the effect of credence/conventions quality attributes and labelling in rural communities. Through this study we try to understand which quality attributes or quality conventions influence consumer decision-making to purchase local beef.