What do consumers prioritise when selecting climate-affected produce and what trumps empathy towards farmers?

Abstract

Despite the prevalence of extreme weather events (e.g., droughts), little is known about factors that would prompt consumer to choose climate-affected (suboptimal) produce over climate-unaffected (“normal”) food, and how much they would pay for it. This study has examined if empathy towards farmers: 1) outweighs the importance of the intrinsic attributes typically affected by extreme weather events (aesthetic look, taste, firmness, and size), and 2) enhances the effectiveness of extrinsic attributes controlled by marketers (price, retail setting, resilience marketing message). Two discrete choice experiments were carried out – one with a sample of Australian students (Study 1, N = 358) and another one with a wider Australian population (Study 2, N = 548). Both studies consistently showed under which conditions intrinsic attributes trumped empathy and which extrinsic attributes, combined with empathy, influenced consumers to choose climate-affected food. This work discusses a number of strategies to promote currently discarded, but still edible, climate-affected produce to reduce food waste and minimise farmers' income loss in times of climate change.