Attitudes and Perceptions of New 

 England Consumers and the Food 

 Industry Toward a Certification Program 

 for Integrated Pest Management 



M.J. Paschall 



School of Public Health, University of North Carolina 



Craig S. Hollingsworth and William M. Coli 

 Department of Entomology, University of Massachusetts 



Nancy L. Cohen 



Department of Nutrition, University of Massachusetts 



The Massachusetts Department of Food and 

 Agriculture in cooperation with the University 

 of Massachusetts Integrated Pest Management 

 (IPM) Program has been investigating the fea- 

 sibility of labelling produce grown under speci- 

 fied IPM practices. In an earlier issue of Fruit 

 Notes [55(1):17-18], we reported on the initia- 

 tion of this project, listing as the primary rea- 

 sons for developing the program recent con- 

 sumer concern over pesticide issues and the 

 desire of growers to be recognized as environ- 

 mentally responsible. 



In 1990, we conducted a New England-wide 

 survey of consumers, farmstand owners, and 

 representatives of the New England food indus- 

 try to determine their perceptions and attitudes 

 toward integrated pest management (IPM) and 

 a proposed state program for "IPM-Grown" cer- 

 tification and labelling. It was also our intention 

 to use these survey results to help the Coopera- 

 tive Extension System to design and modify 

 IPM, food, and nutrition educational programs. 



In 1990, 480 consumers were selected ran- 

 domly from Cooperative Extension mailing lists 

 from the six New England states. In addition, 

 102 farmstand owners and 36 wholesalers of 

 produce were selected randomly from lists pro- 



vided by Departments of Agriculture in each 

 state, and 96 supermarket chain-store produce 

 managers and 36 fresh food processors were 

 selected randomly from the Grocery Index Direc- 

 tory of New England (1989-90). 



A total of 750 surveys were mailed according 

 to guidelines described in Mail and Telephone 

 Surveys: the Total Design Method (Dillman, 

 1978). Postcards were sent to all prospective 

 respondents one week after the first mailing and 

 follow-up letters and surveys were sent to all 

 those who had not responded three weeks after 

 the first mailing. Responses to questions regard- 

 ing knowledge of IPM, perceptions of current 

 pesticide use and IPM, and attitudes toward 

 IPM certification are the focus of this report. 



Overall response rate was 73%. Consumers 

 (74% response rate) represented the largest 

 proportion of respondents, followed by 

 farmstand owners (86% response rate), retailers 

 (61% response rate), wholesalers (83% response 

 rate), and food processors (47% response rate). 



We first asked survey participants if they 

 had heard of integrated pest management be- 

 fore receiving the questionnaire. General 

 knowledge of IPM among consumers and food 

 industry representatives in New England was 



Fruit Notes, Fall, 1992 



