Consumers’ perspectives on local food in rural Scotland: Not only origin and sustainability, but also fairness

Scotland, particularly its island and remote areas, faces significant challenges in the production and consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables. These are reflected in health and sustainability concerns, recognised in the national food strategy. Resilient local food systems can help address these challenges, but since value chains are demand-driven, this requires a good understanding of consumers’ perspectives. Using mixed methods – a choice experiment and focus groups – we assess Scotland’s rural dwellers’ attitudes towards local food, and their preferences for vegetables. We find localness to be primarily associated with being “locally grown”, and rural food security to be linked to self-sufficiency. Local origin, organic production, accessibility, and whether a producer benefits the local community are all related to higher preferences net of trade-offs. While localness and environmental sustainability are important for resilient food systems, consumers also value a fair distribution of revenues.