Making Agriculture Matter: Toward consumer-centric positioning of resilient and regenerative agriculture
The EIT Food Consumer Observatory’s Making Agriculture Matter report explores how resilient and regenerative agriculture products can be positioned in ways that consumers understand, value and trust.
Resilient and regenerative agriculture can support the transition towards more sustainable and future-ready food systems. But for this transition to succeed, consumers need to choose the products. The report, Making Agriculture Matter: Toward consumer-centric positioning of resilient and regenerative agriculture, identifies and tests how the benefits of resilient and regenerative agriculture can be best communicated to consumers to drive purchasing. A clear consumer preference for these products could help reduce the risk of investing in the transition and enable farmers to adopt new practices.
The research was carried out through the EIT Food Consumer Observatory’s Qualitative Online Community, which brings together around 300 members from 17 European countries. For this study, 70 participants took part in a first stage exploring perceptions of resilient and regenerative agriculture, while three additional groups of 15 participants each evaluated three different product concepts presented using three different narratives positioning resilient agriculture.
The report finds that consumers believe agriculture needs to improve, but that “resilient” and “regenerative” are not always engaging consumer-facing terms on their own. Although regenerative agriculture is seen as natural and traditional, the label itself does not connect strongly with how consumers describe what they look for in food. Resilience in agriculture is seen as important, but as a systemic concern linked to food security and crisis preparedness rather than as a personal food choice.
Across the study, consumers were more likely to value alternative agriculture when it offered tangible personal benefits, particularly health, taste, naturalness, fewer synthetic inputs and credible proof through certification or scientific testing.
The report is designed to support farmers, retailers and food manufacturers in building stronger consumer understanding of resilient and regenerative agriculture, by showing how these practices can be communicated through clearer benefits, credible proof and language that resonates with everyday food choices.
If you would like to find out more about this report, please get in touch via co@eitfood.eu.
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