How to make vertical farming more attractive: Effects of vegetable growing conditions on consumer assessment

Vertical farming is emerging as a new agricultural technology. Following this trend, we compare vertical farming with conventional farming and derive various results by examining consumer perceptions. Specifically, Study 1 investigates the difference between product evaluation and purchase intention according to growing conditions and suggests an underlying mechanism in the relationship between the two. Consequently, consumers prefer crops grown on conventional farms over those grown on vertical farms. This is because consumers perceive higher naturalness and healthfulness in conventional farming methods. Studies 2 and 3 suggest human touch to evaluate vertical farming more favorably. In these experiments, we consider whether similar results could be obtained by presenting different conditions under which the human touch was utilized. According to the results of examining the moderating effect of human touch, consumers positively evaluate high human touch conditions, even for vegetables grown on vertical farms.