Local Farmers and Fairness

Our second to last destination brought us to a small farm near the city of Sorento.  Compared to the nearby city of Naples, the farm was a quieter and more picturesque destination.  While we were there, we stayed in multi-person rooms on the property.  Although we had many issues with cold rooms and the water heaters, the space ended up being great.  Also, the ride up may have made some queazy, but the views were specacular.  

One of the great features of the farm we stayed at, was the fact that it produced local products.  It grew lemons, oranges, grapes and olives.  We always got to have a bit of the local tastes for breakfast or dinner.  Never have I tasted such fresh foods.  The idea of local farmers fits in nicely with the article Zach and I had to read.  Our article was titled Fairness, Farmers Markets, and Local Production.  Basically the article brought up the idea of organic, local, and non-GMO farming.  Fitting in very closely to our stay at the farm.  

With the article, it basically looks into whether people think inequality is considered when shopping for local products either at a farmers market or at a grocery store.  The authors state that people are adverse to advantageous inequality and disadvantageous inequality.  Basically the idea that we like to avoid inequality of wealth positive or negative.  

The study was performed in an Oklahoma town.  Basically the participants had to bid over four tickets.  The tickets represented tickets to local farmers and non-local farmers and also advantageous and disadvantageous inequality.  The experiment facilitators then created a secret price.  The secret price determined whether the participants won the bid.  This encouraged the participants to bid the highest to more accurately determine what they would actually bid.  

The results for this experiment were actually quite interesting.  Most of the people surveyed had shopped at a farmers market.  For those who shopped at farmers markets, they did so mostly for food quality and to support the local community.  one of the more interesting facts dealt with inequality.  From the results, the authors find that "people shopping at farmers markets were no more or less concerned about inequality of local farmers than were people shopping at a traditional grocery store."  That fact was actually quite surprising to me.  I'm guessing that the community that the experiment took place in was agriculturally focused.  With that being said, I bet the participants knew a local farmer or were interested in their sucess.  My guess is if you asked a person in a New York City grocery store about their concern for local farmers, they would have less concern than that of a person shopping at a farmers market.  I think It all depends where the question is asked.  Overall it was a very interesting study.