Farmers Weekly magazine, whose Farmlife Editor Tim Relf is on the Best Rural Retailer competition's national judging panel, carried out a survey in 2006 to launch its "Local food is miles better" campaign. Below are some of the findings about attitudes towards, and knowledge of, local food:

● 47% of people don’t know where the food they buy is produced

● 37% said they bought locally produced food more than once a week

● 88% thought locally-produced food caused less transport pollution than the alternatives

● 82% thought that it was more trusted by consumers generally

● 77% thought locally-produced food was fresher

● 67% thought it was better for their health

● 64% thought it was produced to higher welfare standards

● 58% thought it was produced to higher hygiene standards

Though initially, they didn’t seem worried about foreign food as such…

● 49% were concerned that more than a third of UK food comes from abroad

● 49% weren’t worried

● 2% didn't know

......they’d still prefer to buy local food if it was clearly labelled

● 83% said they would, 16% said they wouldn’t But they reckon it’s more expensive

● 61% thought it was typically more expensive than food bought in a supermarket

● 21% thought it was the same price

● 14% thought it was cheaper

The survey, carried out by NOP, found that 59% of consumers would consider shopping elsewhere in their area if their usual supermarket was not committed to sourcing local produce.

85% of the 1000 people questioned said they wanted their usual supermarkets to do more about sourcing from local suppliers.

Visit the Farmers Weekly "Local food is miles better" website here