Benjamin Miller

LBST 2301-336

Professor Katsanos

Challenges of Sustainable Eating

Growing up as an athlete, being physically active and trying to eat right have always been

two things that are important to me. I chose to compare two grocery stores, Earth Fare as the sus-

tainable and Harris Teeter as the conventional for my fieldwork. My primary research question

that I had in the back of my mind was “how difficult is it for the average college student to clean,

sustainable foods in the majority of their diet?” I took on the role as a passive participant

observer at the grocery stores (I didn’t involve myself with anyone, I just made my observations

and kept to myself) and then conducted interviews on campus. I focused on things such as how

the food looked in each grocery store, namely in the meat and the produce sections. Another

thing I looked at was what type of people were shopping in each store, looking mainly at age,

ethnicity, and socioeconomic class. I chose this topic because even though eating cleaner doesn’t

make your eating habits sustainable, it’s a step in the right direction for sustainability. Person-

ally, I wouldn’t consider going vegetarian or vegan, but I would consider and actually prefer to

do my shopping at a clean, environmentally concerned grocery store chain such as Earth Fare.

And I feel like there are many people who would do the same.

As far as interviews go, I interviewed multiple college students since my primary re-

search question surrounded college students. I interviewed two female students and one male stu-

dent. In each of the three interviews, I asked questions pertaining to their diet (vegan, vegetar-

ian?), whether or not they had a job, whether or not they cooked for themselves, and the main
question: how hard do you think it is to eat environmentally friendly food? Luckily, diet is some-

thing that college students are open about and out of my three interviews, all were very open

about their eating habits and their thoughts towards clean eating. Surprisingly, all three inter-

viewees felt that it was not that eating clean and sustainable food was difficult. Their responses

talked about the expenses of eating clean, because they can go to Cookout and get a tray of food

for less than $7 and be satisfied. They also mentioned that eating sustainably is much more time

consuming because you have to be much pickier when you shop, and then you end up having to

cook because eating out all the times is too expensive.

This leads me to discussing the demographics that I observed at each of the restaurants. I

visited Harris Teeter on University City Blvd on November 15th at approximately 7 p.m. I ob-

served that there was a wider range of ages shopping there than at Earth Fare. These ages went

anywhere from younger, college-aged consumers to consumers that were over age 60. I noticed

that there wasn’t an age or an ethnicity that was present more often, the demographic was pretty

well spread out. I made the assumption that the people shopping here were not very wealthy in

terms of class due to the vehicles parked outside, what they were wearing (some had on uniforms

that made me believe they were construction workers) and I think that the majority of people

shopping here were lower to middle class. I did however see some people that could have been

closer to upper class based on the items they were buying (I noticed some people buying seafood

such as lobster). In their meat and produce section, I didn’t see nearly as many labels such as “or-

ganic”, “free-range”, or “hormone free”. The produce section didn’t look nearly as organized and

the employees weren’t nearly as welcoming or friendly as at Earth Fare.

I visited Earth Fare on November 17th at approximately 7 p.m. as well. I wanted to visit

the two grocery stores at around the same time so that the comparison could be more accurate in
terms of demographics. The demographic at Earth Fare was much different and less diverse than

at Harris Teeter. The demographic at Earth Fare was a narrower range of age, class, and ethnic-

ity. The consumers at Earth Fare were predominantly white with an estimated age range of 25-

45. The people at Earth Fare looked to be higher in socioeconomic class. The cars outside were

nicer and newer, there were more people in business attire which told me that many of them held

secure office jobs. Overall, I just got a healthier vibe from Earth Fare. The produce section

looked much more organized, the produce looked fresher and more lush, it just made you want to

buy produce here. The same goes with the meat section, the cuts were very clean, the meat

looked fresher and there were labels everywhere you looked with “organic” or “non-GMO” or

“free range” written on meat packaging. There were signs all in Earth Fare talking about their

Food Philosophy which is: “We pledge our food is free of added hormones, artificial fats and

trans-fats, artificial sweeteners, bleached or bromate flour, antibiotics, high fructose corn syrup,

artificial preservatives, and artificial colors or flavors.”

Overall, Earth Fare was more expensive than Harris Teeter. I looked at prices of meats

and produce and Earth Fare was more expensive, but it wasn’t by much usually. For example, I

compared the price of ribeye steak from Harris Teeter and Earth Fare, Harris Teeter was charg-

ing around 10.99/lb for ribeye whereas Earth Fare was charging around 12.99/lb. In my opinion

for what you are getting from each place, it is worth it. I think this is due to the overall higher

quality of food found in Earth Fare.

Another thing I considered was the accessibility of Earth Fare vs Harris Teeter. Earth

Fare is in Concord and isn’t very accessible for someone who doesn’t have a car. Harris Teeter

on the other hand is accessible by walking from campus and the bus which makes it easier for
college students and lower class people who may not have cars to get to. I think this played a big

factor in the demographics that I observed.

My research methods were overall fairly strong in my opinion, but I feel like more visits

to the grocery stores could have helped to solidify my observations and strengthen my position. I

also think that the fact that the grocery stores weren’t in the same area impacted the demo-

graphic. If they had been closer to one another then I think my observations might have been a

little different. This factor was out of my control, but I do think it made a difference.

In conclusion, based on the observations I made and the factors I observed, I think the

reason the demographics were so different between the two markets come down simply to socio-

economic class. I think the reason the demographics were the way they were because of the

higher prices of healthier food, the accessibility of the healthier options, and the fact that most

people who are health aware have higher education than lower class people. So to answer my

primary research question, it is much more difficult to eat healthy food for college students be-

cause healthier food is more expensive, harder to get, and much less convenient than unhealthy

foods such as fast food or even what you buy at a conventional grocery store. Speaking from the

interviews of the three college students, as well as from my own perspective, running through a

drive thru is much easier when you have been in class all day and have homework to do. While

healthy eating is difficult, it isn’t impossible and I think there should either be classes in high

school or early in college to inform college aged students the importance of where their food

comes from. Overall, healthy eating doesn’t necessarily going vegetarian or vegan, and it’s im-

portant that people know that they can eat much healthier food and not even have to change their

diets.