U.S. Consumer Food Insights During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Hailey Edmondson, Mackenzie Gill, Becca B.R. Jablonski, Jessica Ladd, Jairus Rossi, Samantha Schaffstall, Dawn Thilmany and Tim Woods

Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues, 2021, vol. 36, issue 4

Abstract: Social distancing mandates and the subsequent economic disruptions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic caused unprecedented changes in where, how, and what food U.S. consumers purchased and acquired in 2020. To better understand these changes, a team of researchers—focused on the implications for local and regional food systems—conducted a national survey of over 5,000 households from mid-October to mid-November 2020. The survey was conducted using a Qualtrics panel. We set quotas to ensure a demographically balanced sample, with the exception of gender (as we asked the primary food shopper in the household to respond and women were more likely to play that role). A variety of demographic and COVID-related questions were asked to capture food behavior trends, including: 1) purchases of food through a variety of market channels, 2) use of online platforms, and 3) food security status. Questions gaged consumer behavior over three time periods: September 2019 (the before times), April 2020 (the pandemic begins), and September 2020 (the new normal). Food Purchasing Practices During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Online Food Shopping Trends During the COVID-19 Pandemic, and The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Food Insecurity are infographics designed to provide valuable but brief explanations of our research findings.

Keywords: Consumer/Household Economics; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/316069/files/cmsarticle_803.pdf (application/pdf)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/316069/files/cmsarticle_805.pdf (application/pdf)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/316069/files/cmsarticle_806.pdf (application/pdf)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/316069/files/MarketTypes.png (image/png)

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:ags:aaeach:316069

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.316069

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues from Agricultural and Applied Economics Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().