State labeling's impact on geographic boundaries of local

Abstract

Local labeling is an important issue within the horticultural industry as many producers have devoted considerable resources to advertising their products as local. Further, all states have implemented some form of local labeling program to increase local purchasing. As states expand the reach of these programs, the programs begin to compete as awareness and perception move across state lines. Using an online survey to study consumers in the Southeastern United States, we look to identify how state labeling programs are viewed in nearby states. Notably, we assess awareness, perception, and its impact on the local definition of these programs in their “home” state as well as nearby states. Specifically, we evaluate the impact of nine Southeastern state-level branding programs. Our results indicate that consumers are more aware of their home state's local label, but awareness does exist for other states' labels. We also find that a home state label moves some consumers to a more state-level local boundary, while seeing another state's label increases the boundary for what is perceived as local [EconLit Citation: Q13].