Local Sourcing as a Differentiation and Recruitment Strategy for Food Consumer Cooperatives

The proposed research will build a database of food consumer cooperatives, conduct 3 case studies of food co-ops concerning opportunities and challenges of local sourcing, survey U.S. food co-op managers on the role local foods will play in their co-ops, survey U.S. food co-op members concenring knowledge and awareness of lcoally produced products and their price senstivity and willingness to pay for locally produced products, and integrate 3 case studies, and the 2 surveys with food co-op managers and members to evaluate the role that the food consumer co-ops play in local food markets.