Decomposing local: a conjoint analysis of locally produced foods.

Kim Darby is graduate research assistant. Marvin T. Batte is Van Buren Professor, Stan Ernst is Outreach Program Leader, and Brian Roe is professor, Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics, The Ohio State University.

This research was supported in part by the National Research Initiative of the USDA, CSREES, grant number 2005-35618-15646, the Fred N. VanBuren Program in Farm Management, and the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center. Table 1. Demographic Characteristics of Representative Sample

Mean or Percent

Full Variable State Sample Direct Grocery Number of respondents -- 530 267 263 Respondents intercepted at (%): (a)

City centers -- 20.8 12.0 29.7

Suburban or surrounding areas -- 39.6 39.3 39.9 Rural areas -- 39.6 48.7 30.4 HH income ($/year) 55,937 81,891 75,768 87,963 *** HH food expenditure ($/week) -- 101 96 106 *** HH weekly produce ($/week) -- 28 28 28 Age 36.2 49.5 49.2 49.8 Female (%) 51.4 72.0 69.4 74.7 *** HH members 2.5 2.6 2.6 2.7 ** HH with children (%) 31.3 33.4 34.2 32.5 Post high school education (%) 49.6 78.1 78.9 77.3 White (%) 85.1 92.1 89.8 94.5 *** Metropolitan (%)b -- 61.1 55.1 67.1 *** U.S. citizens (%) -- 95.3 94.9 95.7 (a) City center refers to locations in the inner city of the metropolitan area. Suburban refers to a location in bedroom communities surrounding the metropolitan area, or in the urban fringe just beyond these communities but still within commuting distance of the urban center. Rural refers to areas beyond the suburban ring of an urban center. (b) Percentage of respondents who indicated that they lived in a city or suburb of a city. Note: Single asterisk (*), double asterisks (** ), three asterisks (***) denotes that the t-test of a difference of the means for the direct and grocery shopper groups was significant at the 0.10, 0.05, or 0.01 levels. Table 2. Product Attributes Used as Variables in Conjoint Experiment Product Attribute Levels Production location Grown "nearby"

Grown in Ohio

Grown in U.S.

(blank) Freshness guarantee Harvested yesterday

(blank) Farm size/organization Fred's Berry Farm

Berries, Inc. Price ($/package) 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4 Table 3. Regression Variable Definitions Variable Definition Choice = 1 if product displayed on left

is preferred Price Difference in price between

products in dollars Location

Grown in U.S. Difference in whether product

marked "Grown in U.S."

Location not marked Difference in whether product

location not marked

Grown in Ohio Difference in whether product

marked "Grown in Ohio"

Grown nearby Difference in whether product

marked "Grown nearby"

Composite local Difference in whether product

marked "Grown in Ohio" or "Grown

nearby" Farm organization Difference in whether product

marked "Fred's Berry Farm"

rather than "Berries Inc." Harvested yesterday Difference in whether product

marked "Harvested yesterday" or

not Male x composite local Interaction term between male

gender and composite local Location not marked x Fred's Interaction term between "location

Berries not marked" and "Fred's Berry

Farm" Note: Differences computed as the value for the product on the left minus the value of the product on the right. Table 4. Summary Statistics for Model Variables (N = 4,073) Variable Mean SD Min Max Choice 0.52 0.50 0 1 Price 0.02 1.00 -2 2 Grown "Nearby" 0.00 0.64 -1 1 Grown in Ohio 0.01 0.64 -1 1 Composite local 0.00 0.76 -1 1 Location not marked 0.00 0.64 -1 1 "Fred's Berries" not "Berries Inc." 0.01 0.75 -1 1 "Harvested yesterday" 0.01 0.71 -1 1 Male x composite local 0.00 0.40 -1 1 Location not marked x "Fred's Berries" 0.01 0.47 -1 1 Subject from grocery store 0.50 0.50 0 1 Note: Differences in means between the grocery and direct market samples were statistically insignificant. Table 5. Utility Function Parameter Estimates

Grocery Store

Sample Attributes Model l Model 2 Price -0.880 *** -0.880 ***

(0.043) (0.043) Location

Grown in U.S. (base) -- --

Production location not marked -0.309 ** -0.309 **

(0.066) (0.066)

Grown in Ohio 0.585 *** --

(0.072)

Grown "Nearby" 0.590 *** --

(0.073)

Composite local -- 0.588 ***

(0.064) Firm organization

Berries Inc. (base) -- --

Fred's Berry Farm 0.244 *** 0.244 ***

(0.048) (0.048) Harvested yesterday 0.643 *** 0.643 ***

(0.052) (0.052) Male x composite: Ohio or "Nearby" -0.061 -0.061

(0.110) (0.110) Location not marked x Fred's Berry Farm -0.226 *** -0.226 ***

(0.074) (0.074) Random effects parameter ([rho]) 0.071 *** 0.071 ***

(0.031) (0.031) Intercept 0.049 0.049

(0.038) (0.038) N 1,969 1,969 Log (likelihood) -916.22 -916.22 [chi square] (8) 512.21 *** 512.17 ***

Direct Market

Sample Attributes Model l Model 2 Price -0.652 *** -0.649 ***

(0.039) (0.039) Location

Grown in U.S. (base) -- --

Production location not marked 0.037 0.038

(0.060) (0.064)

Grown in Ohio 0.721 *** --

(0.072)

Grown "Nearby" 0.811 *** --

(0.073)

Composite local -- 0.765 ***

(0.065) Firm organization

Berries Inc. (base) -- --

Fred's Berry Farm 0.414 *** 0.413 ***

(0.046) (0.046) Harvested yesterday 0.642 *** 0.641 ***

(0.051) (0.051) Male x composite: Ohio or "Nearby" 0.339 *** 0.340 ***

(0.103) (0.103) Location not marked x Fred's Berry Farm -0.135 * -0.131 *

(0.075) (0.075) Random effects parameter ([rho]) 0.081 *** 0.079 ***

(0.030) (0.030) Intercept 0.054 0.052