You Are What You Eat: The Relationship between Values and Organic Food Consumption

Manuela Vega-Zamora, Manuel Parras-Rosa and Francisco José Torres-Ruiz
Additional contact information
Manuela Vega-Zamora: Campus Las Lagunillas s/n, University of Jaén, 23071 Jaén, Spain
Manuel Parras-Rosa: Campus Las Lagunillas s/n, University of Jaén, 23071 Jaén, Spain
Francisco José Torres-Ruiz: Campus Las Lagunillas s/n, University of Jaén, 23071 Jaén, Spain

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 9, 1-13

Abstract: In current times, the man-made problems affecting our planet (climate change, loss of biodiversity, etc.) are making an urgent case for shifting towards a more sustainable kind of consumption. One of the ways these problems can be addressed is to promote organic agriculture, which means boosting levels of organic food consumption. This study examines the relationship between the number of organic foods consumed and the specific values that consumers look for in foods, in order to deepen the current knowledge regarding the behaviour of the organic food consumer. To this end, data was analysed from a face-to-face survey of 776 people in Spain through bivariate analysis techniques. Results show that organic food consumers have a different pattern of values from non-consumers and a greater level of involvement with food in general. Moreover, within the group of organic consumers, the effect of values on the quantity or variety of foods consumed is not as marked, although there are differences in favour of those that consume more frequently. Lastly, the main implication of the results obtained is that, in order to increase consumption, selfish values should be connected with altruistic ones. For this reason, instilling a specific value based on the term or concept “life” is proposed.

Keywords: organic foods; consumer behaviour; values; level of consumption; sustainable consumption (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/9/3900/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/9/3900/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:9:p:3900-:d:356245

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().