Is Buying Local Food a Sustainable Practice? A Scoping Review of Consumers’ Preference for Local Food

: Access to healthy food and the introduction of sustainable nutrition practices are two important issues today. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought new challenges to food security but it has also provided opportunities for local food production. The discussion on local food has been gaining attention in recent years, but there is still a lack of clear understanding of the term ‘local food’ in the literature. The relationship between local food and sustainability issues is still unclear and has various connotations. This discordance leads to further discussions on whether buying local food should be considered a sustainable behavior and whether consumer preference for local food can be perceived as a sustainable practice. A scoping literature review was conducted in order to ﬁll this gap and to shed light on the main tendencies of the scientiﬁc literature regarding this topic. The outcomes of the research revealed three dimensions of ‘local food’ deﬁnitions in the literature: geographical, geopolitical, and organic; while the problem of a uniﬁed local food deﬁnition remains open. The studied literature did not show any sound evidence for sustainability attributes in the deﬁnition of local food and consumer perception of local food.


Introduction
Improving the quality of life of the population and introducing sustainable practices into people's daily life has appeared on the agenda of global society [1]. Access to healthy food and the introduction of sustainable nutrition practices are two important challenges today. The growing interest in sustainable practices and high-quality and healthy products is reflected in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): goal 2, 'end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture' [2]. Support of short food supply chains (SFSC) may be one of the solutions to achieve this goal. SFSCs are considered as drivers of sustainable development, as they increase sustainability in all its dimensions; they reduce economic uncertainties, ensure fairness and trust between consumers and producers, and minimize pollution [3]. SFSCs are often associated with the concept of 'local food' and 'local food systems' but the connection between these concepts remains unclear [3][4][5]. Furthermore, the factors influencing consumer preference towards local food have obtained limited attention among scholars [6].
The application of sustainable practices is important and beneficial for SFSC stakeholders: producers, buying organizations, local governments, and consumers. Indeed, local food has been promoted by governmental and civil society organizations for decades [7]. Raising awareness of local food consumption as a sustainable practice among stakeholders could contribute to the further promotion of local food production and distribution.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought new challenges for food security and social and economic systems, but at the same time, it has provided opportunities for local food production. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has conducted a survey among different cities in order to monitor local food system status during the 1.
What are the main characteristics and tendencies in the scientific literature regarding consumers' preference for local food? 2.
Is there evidence about local food sustainability and is the consumers' preference for local food considered as sustainable in the studied literature?
The choice of the research questions was conditioned by the expected theoretical relevance of the research. The research was aimed at providing a space for a discussion on the topics of local food definition, the interplay between local and organic food attributes, and the role of sustainability attributes in consumers' preference for local food. In order to answer the research questions, the authors of the study chose a scoping literature review as a research method. The scoping review helped to assess the state of affairs of the abovementioned topics, as well as to determine the main directions for further studies.The paper is organized as follows. The methodology applied in the study is explained in Section 2, which provides details of the steps of the review process, inclusion criteria, and literature selection. Section 3 provides results and discussion on the topic. This section presents an explanation and analysis of the main research trends revealed in the studied literature and evidence about the sustainability issues of local food found in the studied literature. Conclusions are presented in Section 4.

Research Methodology
A scoping review was chosen as research method to conduct the study. This method was introduced by Arksey and O'Malley in 2005 [16]. Unlike a systematic review, which usually focuses on a well-defined question and provides answers from a relatively narrow range of quality assessed literature, a scoping review addresses broader topics and does not attempt to address very specific research questions or to assess the quality of the included studies. A scoping review usually performs a qualitative synthesis of the studied literature [16][17][18]. Scoping reviews help to identify the gaps in the evidence base, as well as summarizing and disseminating research findings [16]. The subject areas where this research method is used most are medicine and nursing, but it has been gaining popularity in social science research in recent years. According to the methodological framework In the first stage (identifying the research question) of the review, the research questions were formulated after rigorous examination of the context of the investigated domain. The research questions are presented in the introduction section of this study and highlight its purpose. Since a scoping review is aimed at performing a qualitative summary of trends in a topic, the research questions of this study were designed to identify the main characteristics and tendencies in the scientific literature regarding consumers' preference for local food and to reveal sustainability issues presented in the retrieved sample.
The identification of relevant studies stage included the formulation of inclusion criteria, presented in Table 1, and keyword combinations. The combination of keywords used in the research was 'consumer preferenc*' and 'local food'. The limited number of keywords was chosen to purposely concentrate on a certain, very limited literature sample, as the main purpose of the research was to unravel the existence of sustainability attributes of consumer preferences for local food. No keywords including 'sustainability' and its derivatives were used, for the same purpose. The research was based on the analysis of journals that are peer-reviewed. In order to assure the academic quality of the studied literature, databases that guarantee peer-reviewing of the articles were chosen (Scopus and Web of Science). Despite the fact that the first studies on consumers' preference for local food appeared more than 20 years ago, the authors agreed to explore papers published between 2011 and 2021, in order to study the state-of-art in the literature on the topic in a 10-year period. Interest in local food issues surged in the scientific literature in 2013, when we observed a significant increase of the number of papers on the topic, compared with the previous years. However, the year 2011 was marked by a food crisis, when The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization food-price index rose to a record high [19]. The social and economic impacts of this crisis could possibly have drawn more attention to local food issues. Taking these points into consideration, the authors found it interesting to study the development of the topic starting from the year 2011. The study selection stage of the scoping review included two rounds of paper screening and exclusion. In the first screening, the abstracts of the papers were thoroughly read. At this stage, 66 papers were chosen. In the second screening the authors focused on the full text, and all the articles were read twice, to ensure that the remaining articles met the researcher's requirements. After the second round of the selection process, 54 articles remained, these articles formed the basis of the research.
In the fourth stage of the research, data charting was conducted using content analysis. The categories chosen for the content analysis aimed to reflect the research questions posed in the first stage of the research. The categories included author name(s) and location, year of publication, study location, type of food studied, purposes of study, methodology, and results. When the above-mentioned categories were identified, each article was read again, in order to elicit data for each category of the content analysis.
In the fifth stage, collating, summarizing, and reporting of the results was conducted; in order to do so, the data extracted by means of content analysis was analyzed. In Section 3 of this paper, the outcomes of the study are presented.

Results and Discussion
The study of the scientific literature on the consumers' preference for local food has revealed some tendencies that will be discussed in the following paragraph.

Study Characteristics
The literature retrieved shows a steady growing trend of the research in the field of consumers' preference for local food starting from 2016 ( Figure 1). Although we observe a slight decrease in the studies in the year 2020, the decrease can be explained by the COVID-19 pandemic. Given that almost all the studies were conducted using surveys the lockdowns made it impossible to conduct the research properly. The literature sample comprises 2 quarters of the year 2021 and as we can see the number of literature publications in 6 month of 2021, we may expect that the total number of the studies in 2021 will approach the pre-COVID period.
ology, and results. When the above-mentioned categories were identified, each article wa read again, in order to elicit data for each category of the content analysis.
In the fifth stage, collating, summarizing, and reporting of the results was conducted in order to do so, the data extracted by means of content analysis was analyzed. In sectio 3 of this paper, the outcomes of the study are presented.

Results and Discussion
The study of the scientific literature on the consumers' preference for local food ha revealed some tendencies that will be discussed in the following paragraph.

Study Characteristics
The literature retrieved shows a steady growing trend of the research in the field o consumers' preference for local food starting from 2016 ( Figure 1). Although we observ a slight decrease in the studies in the year 2020, the decrease can be explained by th COVID-19 pandemic. Given that almost all the studies were conducted using surveys th lockdowns made it impossible to conduct the research properly. The literature sampl comprises 2 quarters of the year 2021 and as we can see the number of literature publica tions in 6 month of 2021, we may expect that the total number of the studies in 2021 wil approach the pre-COVID period.  Figure 2 shows the distribution of the literature works by the countries which th researchers whose papers we examined in this study belong. The leader of research o consumer preference for local food is the USA, with 24 papers on the topic. Italy and Ger many have seven papers each, which make them European leaders in research in the field of consumer preference for local food. We also observed the presence of research from Canada (5 papers), and Czech Republic and Spain (4 papers).  Figure 2 shows the distribution of the literature works by the countries which the researchers whose papers we examined in this study belong. The leader of research on consumer preference for local food is the USA, with 24 papers on the topic. Italy and Germany have seven papers each, which make them European leaders in research in the field of consumer preference for local food. We also observed the presence of research from Canada (5 papers), and Czech Republic and Spain (4 papers). The authors of this research found it interesting to track the distribution of food types by country. In order to do so, we collected the food types discussed in the literature and matched them with the countries where the research was conducted. As can be observed from Table 2, there is no dependence of the food type on geography, except for Guade- The authors of this research found it interesting to track the distribution of food types by country. In order to do so, we collected the food types discussed in the literature and matched them with the countries where the research was conducted. As can be observed from Table 2, there is no dependence of the food type on geography, except for Guadeloupe (yams) and India (mung bean), who considered these products as indigenous. The USA and Germany had the widest range of studied products. This evidence is apt, as the USA and Germany are the leaders in research on this topic.   Table 3 represents the distribution of the keywords used in the studied papers by frequency, in a numerical expression and in percentage. A significant finding of this analysis was that the only keywords that included the word 'sustainable' or its derivatives were 'sustainable food', which was mentioned twice [20,21] in the studied literature, which amounts to 'sustainable food' only being included in 3.92% of all the keywords used; and with 'sustainability' being mentioned three times, 5.88% [22,23]. This outcome underlines that sustainable issues were not widely studied in the literature sample.   Figure 3 represents a word cloud of the keywords of the studied papers. As in Table 4, we see the common presence of the keyword combinations 'local food', 'consumer preferences', and 'willingness to pay', which is obvious for this research, since these keywords were used to retrieve the sample. Other noticeable keywords are related to the research and analysis methods applied in the studies: 'choice experiment', 'principal component analysis', and 'logistic regression'. Another interesting finding was the frequent presence of the keyword 'organic', which stresses the link between local and organic food concepts, and which we will discuss later in the paper.
x FOR PEER REVIEW 8 of 18  Table 4 shows the methodologies applied in the studied literature. Since, all the articles studied consumer preferences for local food, in most of the cases, quantitative methods of analysis were applied: offline and online consumer surveys with open-end and

Research Trends
As was previously mentioned, local food is a relatively new concept, and the criteria for local food are still not clear [7,12]. Despite this fact, a number of studies have analyzed consumer preferences for local food products in the last decade. Some scholars studied the motives of consumers regarding local food preference; examining general and subjective attributes of local food that influence consumer choices [36,44,70]. Furthermore, with the growing consumer interest towards local food, the issues of introducing local food to market and local food producer positioning have emerged and represent a motive for further studies of local food and consumer attitudes towards it.
The studies in the field were conducted in various directions, and were mostly focused on (1) consumers and their motives and attitudes towards local food (possible research questions: Who choses local food? Why choose local food?); and (2) local food and its attributes (possible research questions: What is local food? What food characteristics strengthen the intention to buy local food?). Apart from the generic investigation of consumer preferences for local food, usually for a certain product type, the main research directions in the studied literature could be divided into five categories: Comparison of consumer preferences for local and organic food: 1.
Understanding the motives underlying consumer behavior when buying local food.

2.
Consumer segmentation and characteristics, according to their preference for local food or initial division of consumers into groups, in order to reveal differences in consumer behavior.

3.
Study of food attributes influencing consumer attitudes towards local food (e.g., marketing channels, quality attributes, labelling strategies, certification status, etc.).

4.
Consumer perception and definition of local food.
A further analysis of research objectives of the corpus of the studied literature may shed light on the main research trends in the domain of consumer attitude towards local food.

Local vs. Organic
Local vs organic food preferences were compared in several papers. A group of scholars claimed that consumers prefer products with both local and organic attributes; those consumers who prefer conventional products to local or organic appear to be price and 'habit' driven [24]. Another research work [31] revealed that the positive perception of organic products affects the preference for locally produced products positively. In [34], the researchers studied consumer preferences for yam and found that the consumers were supportive of both local and organic yam. Scholars in [35] found similar motives for organic and local food choices. The results of another study [36] confirmed a positive willingness to pay (WTP) for both organic and local attributes; the study also found strong substitution effects between organic and local production. The results of [38,39] revealed that consumers prefer locally produced food to organic food. It was stated in [50] that consumers are predisposed to pay more for local production than for organic certification. Households with children and those with a higher degree of adherence to the Mediterranean diet had higher probabilities of buying both organic and local products, while increasing household size reduced the likelihood of buying local products, in [20]. Another research work [21] showed that locally produced fresh produce receives the highest preference ranking, while organic products receive the highest price premium.
Some evidence of the role of natural attributes was found in the literature. Consumers pay increasing attention to natural production practices, as well as to organic ones [36].
The majority of respondents (60.4%) in [37] agreed that local food is more natural, in terms of being grown without pesticides. The participants of the surveys in [59,60] who were concerned about food quality preferred to buy natural food of local origin. In [21], 'naturally grown' was seen as one of the value-added characteristics of a product, together with organic and locally produced. This topic is of interest for future studies.

Consumer Motives
Consumer motives for buying local food vary, from altruistic, to the most pragmatic. The main consumer motives to buy local food in [24] were support of the local economy and local farmers. Socio-demographic characteristics, perceptions of freshness, taste, and food safety, as well as support of the local economy impact WTP for local foods; at the same time, environmental attitudes do not affect WTP for local food [27]. Food safety, better taste, and altruistic motivation to support the local economy are among the motives of consumers for choosing local products [33]. Among the motives for buying local food, another research study [35] mentioned natural, animal welfare, sensory appeal, health, and price. One of the reasons consumers purchase organic or local products is to support small or family-owned farms [36]. The main motive for buying locally was the solidarity towards local communities, in the research of [41]. Supporting the local and regional economy was reported as an important reason to purchase local food in the study of [46]. A group of researchers [48] suggested a special role for local products in saving traditional food culture. The main motives for purchasing local products in [49] were price, food quality, saving money, money for other things, time for other things, sense of accomplishment, and happiness. The research of [52] revealed that the consumers who choose local products were more altruistically and hedonistically motivated. Moral norms play an important role in the intention to buy local food [55]. In another research work [63], local patriotism influenced the preference for local food. In [64], maintaining local farmland and supporting the local economy were named as the main consumer motives for buying local food. Consumers in the following research, [73], associated local products with their local food identity.

Consumer Segmentation
Consumer segmentation and characteristics help to obtain a more accurate picture of the consumer. The researchers in [25] described the consumers as 'confident in Ontario produce', 'organic buyers relying on visual signals', and 'socially responsible locavores'. A moderate dependence of the respondent's decision-making process on occupation, education, age, and regional differences was revealed in [28]. With regard to the frequency of buying local products, consumers were divided into habitual buyers (45%), occasional buyers (43%), and unusual buyers (7%) in the research of [37]. Consumer's WTP for local food is positively associated with age and income [42]. There are two main segments of local food consumers: value-for-money, and health benefits [49]. The purchase of local products was more significant for consumers from smaller settlements and villages than those from cities [65]. A group of scholars [67] compared the buying behavior of locals and tourists, and found out that both groups were willing to pay more for local oysters than for nonlocal ones.

Local Food Attributes
Local food attributes that influence the positive attitude of consumers towards local food were also studied in the literature. Logos certifying region of origin were among the main attributes that drive the interest and willingness to pay of consumers [25]. The consumers in the following study, [26], were more concerned about the location attributes of the products than production methods. In another research work [29], consumers preferred to buy products directly from farmers or via small distributors rather than from large chainstores. About half of the respondents preferred a certain local milk mode (milk produced on the plain and not on the mountains) in the research in [30]. Consumers positively valued both 'locally grown' and the type of meat attributes in [32]. The researchers in [37] supported this idea, as buying directly from farmers or producers assured the consumers on the source of production. In the research of another group of scholars [44], respondents showed no preference for a specific location and did not exhibit preferences for 'local' product. The local attributes of the products in the following study, [45], were associated with high-quality products. Participants of the survey in [46] especially mentioned the social attributes of local food. The respondents who preferred local food, looked for food from environmental-friendly and socially-responsible producers in [22]. The attributes that drive consumer choice of local food are higher quality, complying with their requirements, and habits, as stated in [53]. According to [54], consumers were not willing to pay premiums for local food that is sold at farmers markets. Information stating that the product was locally grown had a positive effect on both consumer WTP and quality perception of local foods [57]. The scholars in [61] revealed high consumer WTP for animal products produced with local feed. The majority of the consumers in the following research, [62], preferred local seafood if they could easily find it in the market and if they could trust the brand to help identify product choices. Consumers preferred to purchase local honey products directly or indirectly from the beekeepers in [68]. Some consumers in the research of [71] associated local products (strawberries) with improved nutritional quality, safety, and food safety.
In the next section the sustainability attributes of consumer preference for local food will be discussed in detail.

Sustainability Attributes of the Consumers' Preference for Local Food Sustainability Attributes of Local Food
In order to analyze the sustainability attributes of consumer preference for local food, it is important to get an understanding of what local food is, what is its definition, as presented in the literature, and whether these definitions embrace sustainability attributes. As was previously mentioned, there is no universal definition of local food in the scientific literature. Past studies and studies that did not meet our selection criteria have previously attempted to define the concept of local food. For example, some scholars define local food from a geographical point of view, basing their definition on distance the local food products were transported to a customer [74][75][76]. Other scholars associate local food with organic, stressing the importance of environmental issues for local production [77,78]. The systemization of the definition of local food presented in the literature in the last decade is important, to formulate the nature of the concept and to obtain evidence about sustainability attributes. Table 5 represents a list of definitions of the term 'local' in chronological order. The timeline of the definitions also helps to trace the development of the term 'local' in the last decade.
According to the evidence we have gathered, we can draw conclusions on the three main attributes of the term 'local' in the literature; we have divided them into three dimensions: (1) Geographical: the term 'local' is described through the geographical proximity of the product to a customer. In this case, localness is measured by the distance (in miles or kilometers) from the customer. (2) Geopolitical: when a 'local' product derives from the state or region of the customer's residence. In this case, 'local' can be defined as the opposite of national or foreign. In some cases, it is associated with the traditions of the region or a protected geographical indication. (3) Organic: in some cases the term 'local' and 'organic' are merged in the literature. Table 6 shows the geopolitical dimension of 'local products' is the most accepted definition in the studied literature. The organic dimension is less diffused, it can be explained by the ongoing discourse on the interconnection between local and organic, and, hence, there is no clear delineation between these two concepts. At the same time, it is worth mentioning that the consumer definitions of 'local' in the studied literature were mostly guided by the researchers who conducted the study, as they proposed their definition of 'local' products in the surveys, or the researchers themselves initially determined which product was considered local, in order to conduct the research. Table 5. Definitions of local food in the literature.

Definition of Local Food
Holmes and Yan 2012 [24] Produced, grown, or raised as close to one's home as possible Lesschaeve et al. 2012 [25] Produced in the province Carroll et al. 2012 [26] New organic Grebitus et al. 2013 [27] With less food miles Kalabova et al. 2013 [28] Produced within the region  [38] Opposed to national Hempel and Hamm 2016b [39] Opposed to food from neighboring countries or non-EU countries Lim and Hu 2016 [40] food is considered a sustainable behavior and whether consumer preference for local food can be perceived as a sustainable practice. In order to achieve these goals, a literature sample compiling papers on consumer preferences for local food was retrieved. The outcomes of the research revealed three dimensions of 'local food' definitions: geographical, geopolitical, and organic; while the problem of a unified local food definition remains open. Furthermore, the studied sample did not show any good evidence of sustainability attributes in the definition of local food and consumer perceptions of local food. Only a few studies have discussed the relationship between sustainable behavior and consumer preference for local food; suggesting that consumers are aware of the link between sustainability and local food products, and that a knowledge of sustainability issues may persuade customers to buy local food.
The results of the research conducted have several scientific implications. First, the methodology applied to the study has proven its efficiency and can be applied in future studies on the topic. Second, since no sound evidence on sustainability issues was found in the study, the main scientific implication of the research lies in the formulation of the dimensions of 'local food' definitions: geographical, geopolitical, and organic. This outcome can be a starting point for the further investigations of the concept of local food, in order to formulate a unified definition of the term 'local food'; it may also provide a platform for a discussion on the topic. Third, the findings may not only contribute to a debate on the interplay between local and organic food attributes, but also on the interconnection between local, organic, and natural food characteristics. Finally, another interesting issue for the scholars was the lack of a strong interconnection between the preference for local food and sustainable behavior of the consumers.
The sustainability attributes of consumer perception of local food also represent a managerial contribution from the research. The stakeholders of the FSCs, policymakers, and related industries may consider the lack of evidence on sustainability issues in consumer behavior towards local food as a possible direction for the application future efforts, in order to promote knowledge on sustainability among the population. The formulation of a unified definition of the local food would also cause significant changes in the managerial field, since it would help to better define policies towards local food popularization and elaborate strategies for local food promotion, on both local, regional, and national levels.
The main limitation of the study is the specificity of the studied literature, as it reflected local food issues in studies aimed at the revelation of consumer preference towards local food, and could not necessarily contribute any evidence on sustainability issues. This choice of literature was made on purpose, in order to understand the soundness of the evidence regarding sustainability, within the literature on the topic. Another limitation of the study lies in its nature as a scoping review, which did not permit the authors to apply further theoretical analyses to it.
Further research should be conducted, in order to supplement the outcomes of the study. The authors see possible future research directions in the application of different literature samples, in order to obtain more evidence on the sustainability issues affecting consumer behavior, as well as in relation to the differences in consumer perception of local food, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, future studies will be aimed at the conduction of round table discussions and interviews with practitioners in the sector, which will provide new evidence for the definition of local food from a practical perspective.