Markets and Consumers - Re-Thinking Organic Food and Farming in a Changing World - page 100

Part III
Markets and Consumers

Overview and Observations

The next set of chapters examines organic ethical perspectives through market and
consumer relationships. Two chapters specifically deal with labeling, or how values
are expressed in product labels used in the EU and the US. The final chapter
addresses market and consumer perspectives in the Israeli organic movement and
how globalization affects the movement.
Ginevra Adamoli's 'Who came first? The egg or the carton?' An analysis of
organic packaging for Italian retail chain Esselunga' discusses the implications of
labeling of organic egg cartons, designed by one of the largest Italian supermarket
chains, for the citizen-consumer. The hybrid citizen-consumer (Johnston 2008 )
is a concept implying the social practice of voting with your Euro or Dollar.
It also describes a concept in which citizenship is revived through consumerism
and expressed in 'life-politics'. This concept can interestingly enough, satisfy dual
ideologies of citizenship (collective responsibility) and consumerism (self-interest).
The author describes how the case of egg carton labels appears to respond to both
the individual and the societal/collective view of the consumer.
These competing ideologies about the consumer have led to questions about
consumer agency and specifically consumer power within the organic market. In this
case, the implications for the citizen-consumer shopping organically are based both
on the involvement of the state in regulating packaging as well as green marketing
strategies. Neither action is necessarily that informative for the average consumer.
The wealth of information that is put on the package, and the labels are less than
transparent since they assume that the consumer knows what they mean.
What attracts and motivates consumers to buy organic, and which corresponding
IFOAM Principles apply to consumer values and behavior? Kristin Getter et al.,
in 'Increasing Demand for Pasture-Based Dairy: What Attributes and Images Do
Consumers Want?' studied consumer values. They created and tested promotional
messages with potential consumers to investigate current perceptions and attitudes