"Local is the New Organic": Do Consumers Agree?

There have been numerous studies and growing interests to identify consumer preferences and compare willingness-to-pay for different value-added food labels or attributes. This paper uses stated preference data from choice experiments in a mail survey in Kentucky and Ohio to analyze consumer preferences for a host of value-added attributes of processed blackberry jam. Results from the study confirm positive willingness-to-pay for both organic and local attributes as well as other label claims. However, consumers were found to be willing to pay less for organic blackberry jam than jam identified as being produced in smaller state regions. Furthermore, the study found some evidence of substitution between these two attributes, an issue receiving minimal attention in the existing literature