Ames, IA--Farmers looking to market their locally grown products may find that what appears on the outside of the package is as critical as what they put inside. In an Internet survey conducted in November 2003, consumers from eight Midwestern states responded very positively to ecolabels that emphasized freshness and local production.

The Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture and the Iowa State University Business Analysis Laboratory used the Internet to show consumers four versions of ecolabels, a seal or logo indicating that a product has met a certain set of environmental and/or social standards or attributes. On the ecolabels were pictures of strawberries along with several different tag lines related to product freshness and local origins. Survey recipients were asked to choose which ecolabels would encourage them to purchase locally grown items. In addition to responding to the ecolabels, survey recipients were asked questions about how they defined "local" when buying food, which product attributes were most important when buying local, and the connection between "family farm" and other terms such as locally grown, organic, and pesticide-free.

The ecolabel that was most influential in spurring respondents to purchase local foods was "Freshness-dated, so you know when it left the farm." Rich Pirog, Leopold Center program leader in marketing and food systems research, says of the survey findings: "The responses to the tag lines support the premise from an earlier study that the use of freshness dating on locally grown products is a concept with tremendous market potential. However, freshness dating should be extended beyond stating how long a product will retain quality to include how fresh (time from harvest) the product is when it arrives at the store or point of sale."

Consumers clearly were aware of where their food currently comes from--less than 16 percent of the respondents believed that more than half of their food items came from within their state. When asked how closely the terms grown locally, pesticide-free, organic, grown in your state, product of USA, and humanely raised were related to the term "family farm," the majority of respondents (68 percent of those who viewed the ecolabels) cited grown locally as the closest match.

If price and visual appearance were the same, the survey respondents were most likely to select a locally grown or locally grown and pesticide-free meat or produce item compared to a certified organic product, regardless of where the organic item was produced. These findings indicate that the term locally grown commands a great deal of power and influence for consumers when purchasing meat or produce items. It also implies that consumers do not understand the meaning of "certified organic" as well as they do locally grown, nor do they perceive that the same sense of value applies to organic meat and produce items as to locally grown products.

"Understanding how and why consumers value locally grown products may offer a competitive advantage to farmers looking to tap into area markets," says Pirog. "It also sends a message to organic growers that locally or regionally grown organic products may be perceived as being more highly valued than organic products with no further level of differentiation."

In a second, smaller Iowa-based Internet survey, 12 to 18 percent of consumer respondents were willing to pay 30 percent or more for food products (depending on the food item) that combine the attributes of locally grown with environmental and community stewardship. This is encouraging to small and midsize farmers who want to use locally grown as a beneficial way to differentiate their foods in the marketplace. It is clear from the survey, however, that these consumer respondents want the farms making these marketing claims to be inspected and certified.

November's study was the second part of broader look at the positive role that ecolabels could play in promoting locally grown farm products. Pirog noted that consumer respondents were selected randomly from e-mail address lists owned by a survey administrator, but were not a statistically random sample of the general population. Pirog worked with the Business Analysis laboratory at Iowa State University to conduct the research. The Lab involves graduate and undergraduate students from the ISU colleges of business, education, and engineering who work in teams to solve business problems for companies.

The report "Ecolabel Value Assessment Phase 2: Consumer Perceptions of Local Food" is available at the Leopold Center s web site (www.leopold.iastate.edu ), or by contacting the Center at (515)294-3711. Results from the earlier ecolabel research "Ecolabel Value Assessment: Consumer and Food Business Perceptions of Local Foods" are available at: www.leopold.iastate.edu/pubs/staff/ecolabels/index.htm

Through its research and education programs, the Leopold Center supports the development of profitable farming systems that conserve natural resources. Center funding comes from state of Iowa appropriations and from fees.