How young consumers perceive vertical farming in the nordics. Is the market ready for the coming boom?

TY - JOUR

T1 - How young consumers perceive vertical farming in the nordics. Is the market ready for the coming boom?

AU - Perambalam, Linthujan

AU - Avgoustaki, Dafni D.

AU - Efthimiadou, Aspasia

AU - Liu, Yongming

AU - Wang, Ying

AU - Ren, Maozhi

AU - Petridis, Antonios

AU - Xydis, George

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

PY - 2021/11

Y1 - 2021/11

N2 - Producing food via vertical farming (VF) is an efficient method since it requires less space with increased yield per unit area. Such a system can assist in solving major food-shortage problems since it presents a higher crop yield per unit area compared to conventional farming. Thus, VF can be seen as a production method that can cope with the challenge of the constantly growing population, making it also possible to cultivate crops in regions with adverse climate conditions. However, the public might be concerned about the sustainability of VF systems since plants are produced in an unconventional setting. Therefore, there is a need to consider and evaluate the consumers’ acceptance of VF. The particular study attempts to both analyse consumer acceptance of VF in the Nordic areas and offer insights into VF acceptance among young customers in a comparative analysis. The results indicated that VF is not widely accepted by young Nordic consumers. The concept of sustainability is one of the principles driving forces behind consumer acceptance of vertical farms. The more cases of vertical farms in European cities, the better seems to be the level of acceptance among young customers and their willingness to purchase their products.

AB - Producing food via vertical farming (VF) is an efficient method since it requires less space with increased yield per unit area. Such a system can assist in solving major food-shortage problems since it presents a higher crop yield per unit area compared to conventional farming. Thus, VF can be seen as a production method that can cope with the challenge of the constantly growing population, making it also possible to cultivate crops in regions with adverse climate conditions. However, the public might be concerned about the sustainability of VF systems since plants are produced in an unconventional setting. Therefore, there is a need to consider and evaluate the consumers’ acceptance of VF. The particular study attempts to both analyse consumer acceptance of VF in the Nordic areas and offer insights into VF acceptance among young customers in a comparative analysis. The results indicated that VF is not widely accepted by young Nordic consumers. The concept of sustainability is one of the principles driving forces behind consumer acceptance of vertical farms. The more cases of vertical farms in European cities, the better seems to be the level of acceptance among young customers and their willingness to purchase their products.

KW - Consumer acceptance

KW - Crops

KW - Vertical farming

KW - Yield

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85118176695&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/agronomy11112128

DO - 10.3390/agronomy11112128

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85118176695

SN - 2073-4395

VL - 11

JO - Agronomy

JF - Agronomy

IS - 11

M1 - 2128

ER -