Sustainability and Purchase Decisions

Sustainability has become an expectation from consumers, but how willing are they to pay more for it and how much does it really affect their purchase decisions? Robin de Rooij and Sourabh Sharma are answering that question in the March edition of the Asia Pacific Food Industry magazine.

The Unsustainability of Sustainability

“Consumerism sustains the food industry, yet consumption, by its very nature, is unsustainable.
However pure the intentions, the information overload surrounding sustainability in food threatens to become its undoing.

Ask the average grocery shopper if they understand the terminology being hurled at them. You will hear that ‘sustainable’ is a mission, not an indication of quality or taste; ‘natural’ has become a dubious phrase; ‘organic’ is purity sans taste; and ‘green’ is simply jargon.

With so much skepticism, how does one market to consumers, who by all counts are genuinely seeking more authentic food products?…”