By Hannah Van Vlack
Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP) has released a survey to learn more about Western North Carolina’s food shopping habits. It may be completed by any WNC resident over the age of 18 and asks where and how they shop, what they value most when purchasing food and what motivates or discourages them from shopping locally. “By completing this survey, you are helping local farmers understand and connect with consumers,” says ASAP associate director and lead researcher Amy Marion. The survey takes 8 to 12 minutes to complete and may be taken online at SurveyMonkey.com/r/WNCFoodASAP or by calling ASAP at 828.236.1282.
This survey, which closes October 31, is part of a three-year research project by ASAP’s Local Food Research Center, “Connections in Direct Markets: Assessing the feedback loop between consumer values and farmers’ marketing strategies.”
“The purpose of this project is to research and improve the feedback loop between farmers and consumers,” says Marion. “It will assess current consumer values, how they engage with educational and promotional resources, how farmers communicate their own values and offerings, and how agricultural support agencies can provide resources to both audiences to reduce barriers and improve direct connections between them.”
Survey questions include how much your household spends on groceries per month, where you typically purchase food from, how often you shop for food and and how often you purchase “local food,” or food grown within the Southern Appalachians. Additionally, your top three considerations when purchasing local versus nonlocal food, what percent of your monthly food bill is local, your three biggest challenges when buying local food and what would allow you to purchase more local food are recorded as well. Demographic questions, including ethnicity, county of residence, gender identity and if you are a part of the LGBTQIA+ community, are also present.
ASAP’s project has three main objectives, and the survey is a part of the first: “to assess drivers of consumer demand for local food.” Through data regarding consumers’ priorities, barriers and willingness to pay for local food, the researchers will examine the values that drive purchasing decisions.
The second objective, “to assess and test farmers’ direct marketing strategies,” involves gathering information from farmers on how they present and promote themselves to the consumer. ASAP has partnered with a cohort of five WNC farms, including Tendwell Farm, Colfax Creek Farm, Tumbling Shoals Farm, Against the Grain Farm and Moreno Family Farm, to inform this objective. The researchers are particularly interested in how farmers communicate their story, values, climate-resilient production practices, cultural products and impacts of various disruptions to consumers. These strategies will be examined for their effectiveness in setting prices and recruiting and retaining consumers. The findings will be shared with the farmers along with implementation support.
To meet the final objective, “to assess and adapt consumer education materials and create resources to share best practices,” the researchers will examine the existing consumer resources regarding farmers and food shopping locally. They will evaluate which materials are most effective at driving demand and connecting people with farmers. How different communities receive the resources and how strategies such as highlighting climate-resilient practices impact the consumer’s willingness to pay will be identified as well.
“We are in the beginning phases of this research,” Marion says. “We released the consumer survey in late April and it will remain open until the end of October. We hope to collect responses from across WNC, representative of all communities, so we are currently focusing our efforts on dissemination. Everyone is invited to take and share the survey with their networks.” The researchers also hope to conduct focus groups to gather information that surveys cannot; those interested can share their information at the end of the survey.
“This work ultimately supports ASAP’s Theory of Change,” Marion says. “We believe that although the current food system is harmful, we all have the power to transform it to support the health and wellbeing of our community and environment. Changing the food system requires broad and active participation from all members of the community.”
ASAP provides opportunities for community members to connect with local farms through farm tours, farmers markets and farm-to-school programming, in hopes of creating positive farm experiences that educate and encourage community members to incite positive change within their local food systems.
“By reaching and connecting more people to local food and farms,” says Marion, “we are building momentum within the local food movement to create a local food system that is equitable, environmentally sustainable, economically viable and health promoting.”
ASAP is located at 306 West Haywood Street in Asheville. The office is open to the public Wednesday and Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and can be called Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 828.236.1282. More information and specific staff contacts can be found at ASAPConnections.org. Hannah Van Vlack is a senior at Western Carolina University studying Writing and Editing in Professional Environments and Music.