Consumer Perceptions of Food Production

According to the findings, consumers rely on food labels for information about food production; 81% of respondents said labels were "important" or "very important" as a source of information regarding how food is produced. Consumers also cited television (60%) and information found in grocery stores (53%) as important sources of information. Furthermore, consumers said they would like to continue to rely on labels for information on food production methods, but they would like to rely on food manufacturers and farm organizations more in the future as well.

Respondents expressed more positive feelings toward certain terms, including "farmers" (57% positive) and "family farms" (62%), and less positive feelings toward terms such as "ag industry" (28% positive) or "agribusiness" (19%).

Respondents also stated that they would like to know more from farmers about food production in certain areas including "measures used to produce safe food" (76%), "ways they ensure animal care (68%), "measures they take to protect the water" (64%), and "how they make farming sustainable" (61%).

When asked about the "single most important piece of information you would like to have from farmers about how your food is produced," 22% of respondents said they had questions pertaining to chemicals/pesticides used during production, while 10% said they would ask about medications/antibiotics used in production.