Does willingness to pay for local food vary with personal definitions of local?

Although local food is widely promoted, consumers differ substantially in how they define what local means. Little is known about how this definitional heterogeneity relates to variation in estimated willingness-to-pay (WTP) premiums for local. This study examines heterogeneity in consumers’ WTP for local produce and meat, elicited under a common, prescribed 50-mile definition, and evaluates how these valuations vary across individuals’ personal definitions of local food, ranging from farm- and county-level scales to broader state and national scales. Using online survey data from 509 participants, primarily from the Mid-Atlantic region, we find weak evidence that WTP premiums generally decline as personal definitions broaden from farms to counties and states. More precisely, however, respondents selecting broader definitions do not fol` a strictly monotonic pattern: the two highest reported WTP premiums come from the smallest scale (farm-level) and the largest scale (national). Overall, the results demonstrate substantial heterogeneity in WTP for local food associated with personal definitions.