The PIE Center will receive more than $150,000 to conduct a two-year research project that will help improve the way Florida-grown produce is marketed.

In partnership with the Florida Specialty Crop Foundation and the Food and Resource Economics (FRE) Department, the project was one of 23 proposals selected by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Sciences (FDACS) to receive a Specialty Crop Block Grant from the USDA. Through its grant program, which strives to enhance the competitiveness of states’ specialty crops, the USDA will direct more than $4.3 million to Florida research.

“We are all very excited and feel fortunate to have received this grant,” said Dr. Tracy Irani, development director for the center. “Our previous research has shown that consumer preferences for what they perceive as healthier, locally grown options might represent and opportunity to make the connection for consumers that all Florida agriculture is local.”

Through a message-testing research project conducted last fall, the PIE Center discovered that although more consumers endorse the concept of local produce, they aren’t able to define the concept geographically. Consumers somewhat recognize the “Fresh from Florida” message but were unclear about what it applied to.

These findings gave the center the idea of doing research to possibly take the “Fresh from Florida” message to a new dimension — exploring if consumers might be able to define “local” produce as produce grown in the state, as in “Fresh from Florida.”

As part of the grant, the center will also examine messages that encourage the use of MarketMaker, a nationally-recognized, web-based marketing tool that allows producers and consumers to network in local and regional markets.

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