Evaluation on buying organic food - Essay Example

Evaluation on Buying Organic Food The emergence of new generation diseases has been greatly influence food consumption behaviors all over the world. In fact, many dieticians and health nutritionists are advising their patients to consume organic foods. However, there have been challenges on how to identify a genuine organic product from an inorganic product. To this regard, most federal governments through various agencies have been in the forefront education the public on issues of organic foods. More so, these agencies have been administrating on how suppliers, producers and retailers label organic foods so that they are clear for the consumers to locate. Psychosomatic study has shaped a large number of theories associated with the difficulties encountered in organic food purchase decision making process. These studies have revealed that consumers’ purchase decisions in a definite environment and at a specified time are determined by a combination of mental and relative factors as well as their connections (Klöckner 40-56).This essay will be evaluating on buying of organic food and will be relying on existing researches. Moreover, the following phases will be conferred: In what way do ethics, principles, attitudes and fears for both the health and environment influences the consumption of organic food, does availability, visibility, and prices awareness contribute, the role played by trust, environmental and health psychological simulations contribution towards organic food purchase and lastly, the impact of labels on organic food on decision making influence Consumers are always placed at the bottom of production chain. However, they play a chief role in in the establishment and development of the organic food market. In essence, the ultimate purchase in a supply chain, health food entity or on a grocery market by a consumer creates the demand that eventually sustains organic production sector. In addition, the act of purchasing food is not as easy as it seems since it requires keen attention by the consumer for the ingredients among other nutrients details. Further, the purchasing process can be split into a sequence of linked decisions by the consumer. For instance the consumer will start with allocating time for his/her shopping, then they will choose the place where they will go for their shopping for example, a local supermarket, hypermarket, grocery shop, etc. Accordingly, the consumer will make his/her budget, and the category of products they would like to purchase. This is the most important stage that a consumer of organic food faces. Further, this stage is consequential because within each food classification the consumer must have a specific product they are willing to purchase. The importance of the mentioned stages affects the end product of purchase. For instance, when a decision to shop in a supermarket instead of a grocery store is made, both places will have different varieties of produces. Consequently, the different variety impacts the foodstuffs that are taken into thought. In addition, when the food shopping is done under time constraints, it will clearly have an effect on the purchase choice because the time invested to make decisions is dramatically reduced ( Reed 87-100). It is important to evaluate the explanation of motive in influencing the purchase of organic food. Generally, there must be a motivation that triggers individuals to prefer organic food over conventional food when making a decision. Consequently, there are three main motives to buying organic food namely; Values, Attitudes, and Concerns. These three motives are psychological and the purchaser keenly regards them. The consumer will be purchasing organic food with a motive of enriching their health and on the other hand protect the environment and the animal welfare which is a value that most organic food consumers hold. Consequently as has been mentioned earlier, health concerns are a chief influence to the purchase of organic food. Situational factors such as availability, visibility and the price of organic food with comparison to conventional food, has an influence on purchase decisions. For example, lack of availability of organic food in addition to the untimeliness linked with the purchase practice is a core obstacle to the purchase of organic food. Therefore, only a few customers are ready to go the extra mile to purchase an organic food product. Equally, the placement on the shelf and shelf space of organic produce mainly favors the conventional food than the organic food. As such, it generates consequences equal to those discussed on availability. The high price for organic produce is another deterrent for consumers preferring conventional food over organic food. Another key issue is the importance of trust by the consumers on organic food. The consumers of organic food are well full aware of means to trace back the food all through the production chain. As such, they only depend on their trust on the farmers, producers and retailers. In this regard, it means that the both the governmental and/or independent institutional procedure of control in the food sector need to be employed so that the consumer trust can be sustained. In addition, health food stores earn more trust than conventional supermarkets where trust is put on the food label rather than on the supermarket. Moreover, the legitimacy of organic food can be authenticated from the product’s appearance. For example, organic fruits and vegetables are authentic if they have small holes or bugs and their sizes should be small (Klöckner 40-56). Consumers purchase organic food out of health concern or the concerns of food safety. Health concerns are two sided. One school perceives organic food as harmful, for example a consumer of organic beef may associate it with contamination from cattle diseases. Equally, consumer’s associate conventional food with environmental negative impacts hence they tend to refrain from consuming them as a way of reducing their impacts on the environment. Lastly, a consumer’s perception and use of organic labels had earlier been attributed to building a customer’s trust on an organic food product ( Reed 150-190). In conclusion, the evaluation of buying organic food is greatly attributed to the motives and perceptions of the consumer. In addition, the trust attached on organic food must therefore be boosted through the improvisation of functional agencies that can monitor all the stakeholders in the organic food products. Consequently, organic food products should be made accessible and available, where the consumer cannot make a conclusive judgment on the authenticity of the organic food proper labels should be provided. Works Cited Reed, Matthew. Organic Food and Agriculture - New Trends and Developments in the Social Sciences. Shanghai, China : InTech, 2012. Klöckner, Christian A. Should I Buy Organic Food? A Psychological Perspective on Purchase Decisions . Research. Rijeka, Croatia: InTech, 2010. Read More