The Role of Environmental Concern on Organic Food Consumption

While several studies have presented illustrations of consumer response to organic foods, most of them are based on relatively small surveys often in restricted geographic areas and the environmental motivation has not received an exhaustive research attention. This study benefits from a large surveys designed to evaluate environmentally-related household consumption and its main purpose is to fill the gap in the literature concerning the role of environmental attitudes in organic food consumption across ten OECD countries. The application of a double hurdle model provides an estimate of the major determinants of the consumer’s decisions to purchase organic items and how much to purchase for five food categories, fruit and vegetables, dairy products, eggs, meat, bread, pasta and cereals. In line with the literature, socio-demographic variables have a small role in all models: younger consumers appear as more likely to purchase organic food, with a few exceptions; contrary to previous studies, men in multi-adult households report that they purchase more organic food than women. Although perceived personal health attributes rank highest in the sample, they only affect the decision to buy organic eggs. Instead, the environmental motivation is an important factor for all food categories: a frequent green behaviour and a high environmental concern determine a higher propensity to buy organic foods.