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Conflicting demands of agricultural production and environmental conservation: consumers’ perception of the quality and safety of food
Publication . Cunha, Luís Miguel; Moura, Ana Pinto de
Consumer studies in industrialised countries document widespread concern about and distrust on food products and on production methods in the agriculture and in the food industry. These attitudes tend to be reinforced by the absence of face to face contact between buyers and sellers during the process of food selection, leaving the burden of assessing product quality entirely in consumers hands. Both sociological and psychological studies indicate that shopping under these circumstances is a stressful activity, while the lack of trust in agricultural and industrial methods of production and food quality gives rise to feelings of uncertainty and insecurity. In this context, consumers perceive organic products as one way to reduce this anxiety. For this reason, consumer’ behaviour related to organic foods will be examined in some detail in this paper. This work draws a direct confrontation between the European policy and legislation regarding agricultural production and environmental protection related to organic products, and the way consumer’s perceive organic product quality and safety.
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