University Student Attitudes Toward Organic Foods - Organic Food and Agriculture: New Trends and Developments in the Social Sciences - page 92

organic foods remain the same; that they are healthy, beneficial for the environment and
taste good or better than conventional foods (Lea & Worsley, 2005; Padel & Foster, 2005;
Zhao et al., 2007) .
Consumers interested in the organic food industry are also worried about pesticides and
growth hormones in food. The organic food sector's main target is individuals aging from 18
to 29 years; however, this group of people does not consist of regular buyers. Tsakiridou et
al. (2008) finds out that most college students do care about the environment and are
interested in organic foods, but at this point in their lives they cannot justify spending
higher prices on organic foods; while most organic food consumers have college degrees
and are interested in the processing and handling of the food they consume. Younger
generations are the original target but research has shown that women in their 30s to 50s
form the majority of individuals buying organic products (Essoussi & Zahaf, 2008).
Many conventional products today have their organic equivalents. Lately natural foods
have begun to appear on grocery shelves alongside conventional and organic products.
However, it may not be clear to the average consumer what differences there are between
these products. If consumers do not understand how these products differ they may be
purchasing a product with attributes that they do not want to pay for. They may be paying a
higher price than necessary (Solano, 2008). This study has been planned focusing on the
assumption that education has certain effects on the individuals' behavior and attitude, and
it was carried out among the university students in Ankara in order to determine their
attitudes towards organic foods.
2. Methodology
2.1 Procedure
The center of the research was Ankara, Turkey's capital, and the research participants
were the students attending Ankara University Faculty of Health Sciences. The reasons
behind choosing this faculty as the site of research are that the researchers is working at
the same faculty, and that the students attending may have more information on organic
foods and answer the statements in the questionnaire more consciously thanks to the
curriculum of their faculty. The faculty consists of six departments, namely the
Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Child Development, Midwifery, Nursery, Health
Services Management and Social Work. The Department of Child Development is
excluded from the research as there are only freshmen students attending the department.
All of the departments in the faculty are four-year schools. In the Faculty of Health
Sciences there are 399 freshmen students, 331 sophomores, 302 juniors and 216 seniors
(Department of Child Development excluded), the total of which amounts to 1248
students. This number consists of 1025 female students to 223 male students. In the
beginning of this research it was planned to include all of the students attending to the
faculty. The questionnaires were handed out to everyone who had come to school that
day and delivered to 879 people. 40 questionnaire forms are excluded from the research
due to being filled incorrectly or incompletely. So, 849 students -145 of which are from
Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, 226 from Department of Midwifery, 207 from
Department of Nursery, 140 from Department of Social Services, 121 from Department of
Health Services Management- have participated in the research.
The research data is collected through a questionnaire along with face to face interviews by
researchers. Previous studies on the topic are utilized in preparing the questionnaire items