Abstract
In alternative as in conventional market channels, environmental sustainability has become increasingly relevant in guiding and orienting consumers’ purchasing behaviour. In the case of fruit and vegetables, where most of the green attributes cannot be verified even after the consumption experience, green consumption takes different context-dependent forms or nuances. This chapter contributes to identifying, analysing, and understanding how green attributes and habits change in farmers’ markets, solidarity purchasing groups, and supermarkets. Our purpose is to discuss the different mechanisms for gathering information about the environmental impact of products and how they can affect consumers’ behaviour in purchasing fruit and vegetables.
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Notes
- 1.
Coldiretti is one of the largest farmers’ unions in Italy.
- 2.
The Campagna Amica initiative sponsored by Coldiretti promotes direct sales by creating farmers’ markets. These markets are governed by an internal regulation that establishes the conditions and types of products that can be sold; the companies participating in them undertake to comply with market regulations, subjecting themselves to internal control and external control by a third party.
- 3.
As the evaluation of the environmental impact of different fruit and vegetable products sold through the various distribution channels presented in Chap. 9 indicates, packaging (together with production) is one of the most significant variables in determining differences between channels.
- 4.
Factor identified by the explanatory variables “Provenance from Piedmont” and “Knowledge of the product’s place of origin”.
- 5.
Factor identified by the explanatory variables “Use of environmentally friendly production methods”, “Possession of organic product certification/organic farming”, “Use of organic production method”.
- 6.
In the sense of both explanation and performance.
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Tecco, N., Peano, C. (2018). The Environmental Quality Factors Sought by Consumers in Alternative and Conventional Market Channels. In: Corsi, A., Barbera, F., Dansero, E., Peano, C. (eds) Alternative Food Networks. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90409-2_6
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