A means-end chain approach to investigate motives for the choice of bread made from heritage cereals (conference abstract)

Summary

Intensive agricultural production methods are one of the main reasons for the loss of agrobiodiversity. To reduce this loss, one option is the in-situ conservation of genetic resources. For that to be successful, the production using endangered and heritage varieties has to be made more attractive for farmers, e.g., by creating demand for products made from those heritage crops. While there are some studies exploring the perception of heritage cereals, endangered species and heirloom vegetable varieties, there is still a lack of research on consumers’ purchase motives. To close this gap, we chose a combined approach of soft and hard laddering with a focus on bread made from heritage cereal varieties. First, we carried out 42 in-depth laddering interviews with consumers in four German cities, and second, we conducted a German-wide online survey including a hard laddering with 1200 consumers. The findings were summarized into Hierarchical Value Maps. We found that the psychosocial consequences health and naturalness play a relevant role when purchasing bread made from heritage cereals and should be used in future communication strategies to increase consumers’ demand and to support conservation of genetic resources.