Texas Alternative Agriculture: A Brief Comparison of the Beliefs of Consumers and Producers

In recent years, consumers have become increasingly concerned about how food is produced that parallels the increase of smaller farms with particular production methods, which is termed alternative production.  There were two surveys which presented questions about aspects of alternative and conventional agricultural production in an attempt to compare producers and consumers.  The objectives of this research were to determine 1) how well consumer and producer beliefs about agricultural product labeling align and 2) what, if anything, should be attempted to align any differences in beliefs between the two groups.  There were two surveys used in this research which were collected through a Google Form based survey which were emailed directly to approximately 250 individuals who have elected to receive such emails and through an email newsletter managed by the Texas Department of Agriculture that is sent to approximately 20,000 Texas residents. Google Forms present the data in aggregate form in a spread sheet without personal identification information. The survey that was directed towards Texas agricultural consumers was open from 15 June 2015 through 31 July 2015; the survey directed toward Texas agricultural producers was open from 5 Nov. 2015 through 8 Feb. 2016.  Consumer survey participants consisted mostly of women whereas the producer survey participants were more evenly split between men and women.  Producer participants tended to be older and more highly educated than consumer participants.  The beliefs about aspects of alternative agriculture were similar between the two groups of survey participants.  However, producer beliefs were more strongly held as evidenced by several survey-parting comments left by producers.  Both producer and consumer beliefs did not necessarily reflect results of existing research into the health, safety, environmental health, and sustainability of organic and local production.  These results suggest there is a knowledge void, in this instance, within producers and consumers of alternative agriculture.