Food
Consumption Attitudes and
Behaviors in Four Washington Counties
(Click here to see the Producer Survey)
Chelan
County (N
= 230 )
Grant
County (N
= 245 )
King
County (N
= 238)
Skagit
County (N
= 233)
The purpose of this survey, which was conducted from October 15 through December 19 of 2002, was to determine the real extent to which consumers in various parts of Washington State actually purchase food from local farmers. A related objective was to estimate the potential for further expansion of local marketing of food in Washington.
Survey Methods: The data presented on this web site were collected during a telephone survey of consumers in four Washington counties. These counties were selected because they were considered to be representative of the range of population bases in the state. King County (including Seattle) was selected because it is the state’s most urban county. Skagit County is a rapidly growing, semi-urban farming county in western Washington. Chelan County is an agricultural county on the east side of the Cascade mountain range known for tree-fruit production. Finally, Grant County is a large-scale irrigated agricultural county in the Columbia Basin.
The population for the survey was households with telephones located within each of the four counties. As there is no universal list of all households in a particular region from which a random sample can be obtained, a random digit dialing approach was used to obtain the sample. A random sample of 5,200 telephone numbers, with 1,300 in each target county, was selected. Of these 5,200 telephone numbers, 1,043 numbers were purged as they were determined to be business and/or non-working numbers. This made the corrected sample 4,157 numbers. Telephone calling began on October 15, 2002 and continued through December 19. Interviewers asked to speak with the person living in this household, 18 years or older, who was most involved with food buying for the household. A minimum of 12 call attempts was made to each number. Ultimately, 950 respondents, with a minimum of 230 in each county, agreed to participate in the survey. The overall response rate was 23 percent, with 21 percent in King County, 22 percent in Skagit County, 24 percent in Chelan County, and 25 percent in Grant county.*This survey is part of a project conducted by researchers from Washington State University (WSU), led by Raymond Jussaume and Marcia Ostrom; and the University of Washington, led by Lucy Jarosz. The project was supported by research grants from the USDA-NRI and the Kellogg Food and Society Program's Farming and the Environment Project at WSU.