Cruz José Luis, González-Azcárate Mario, Hewitt Richard J, Hernández-Jiménez Verónica, Bardají Isabel
Instituto Madrileño de Investigación y Desarrollo Rural Agrario y Alimentario (IMIDRA). Finca Experimental "El Encín", Autovía del Noreste A-2 Km 38 2, 28800, Alcaláde Henares, Madrid, Spain.
Área de Economía, Sociología y Política Agraria, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, E.T.S. de Ingeniería Agronómica, Alimentaria y de Biosistemas, 280240, Madrid, Spain.
Heliyon. 2024 Nov 20;10(23):e40565. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e40565. eCollection 2024 Dec 15.
Lockdowns, restrictions on people's movements and gatherings, and other COVID-19 containment measures have had economic, social, and environmental effects. The pandemic resulted in major disruption to food systems, highlighting serious weaknesses in the way such systems are currently configured. However, the pandemic also created important opportunities to develop transformative actions enabling the creation of more resilient and sustainable food systems. In this paper, we delve more deeply into the strategies developed by consumers, as key stakeholders in the food system, through an in-depth survey and statistical analysis of changes in consumers' habits during the pandemic lockdowns. We adopt a city-region food system (CRFS) approach to explore ways to enhance food system resilience to future crises. Data were collected through a telephone survey of a representative sample (600 consumers), conducted in the region of Madrid in May 2021. First, descriptive analyses allowed different consumer strategies to be identified. Differences in food preferences and behaviour changes between individuals in the sample were analysed by age, gender, income, and level of education using exponential family Principal Component Analysis (EPCA), logistic regression, and Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA). Lastly, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was applied to classify the consumer strategies into four discrete profiles. The findings show significant differences in consumers' responses according to age, income, and level of education. Additionally, the results highlight increased consumption of local and organic products, and online shopping, as typical strategies employed by consumers to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this context, alternative food networks were shown to play a key role in enhancing food security. Interestingly, no significant differences were found between urban and rural areas. Our discussion addresses this apparent homogeneity in consumers' habits from a resilient CRFS approach.
封锁、对人员流动和集会的限制以及其他新冠疫情防控措施已经产生了经济、社会和环境影响。这场大流行对粮食系统造成了重大破坏，凸显了当前粮食系统配置方式存在的严重弱点。然而，这场大流行也创造了重要机遇，可借此开展变革性行动，建立更具韧性和可持续性的粮食系统。在本文中，我们通过对疫情封锁期间消费者习惯变化进行深入调查和统计分析，更深入地探究了作为粮食系统关键利益相关者的消费者所制定的策略。我们采用城市区域粮食系统（CRFS）方法来探索增强粮食系统应对未来危机能力的途径。数据是通过2021年5月在马德里地区对一个具有代表性的样本（600名消费者）进行电话调查收集的。首先，描述性分析使我们能够识别不同的消费者策略。使用指数族主成分分析（EPCA）、逻辑回归和多重对应分析（MCA），按年龄、性别、收入和教育程度分析了样本中个体之间在食物偏好和行为变化方面的差异。最后，应用主成分分析（PCA）将消费者策略分为四个不同的类别。研究结果表明，消费者的反应在年龄、收入和教育程度方面存在显著差异。此外，结果还突出了当地和有机产品消费的增加以及网购，这些是消费者应对新冠疫情采用的典型策略。在这种背景下，替代粮食网络在加强粮食安全方面发挥了关键作用。有趣的是，城乡之间未发现显著差异。我们的讨论从具有韧性的CRFS方法的角度探讨了消费者习惯中这种明显的同质性。
