alton fieldwork

hypothesis

people in alton choose to buy local food to reduce food miles

why is the site good for fieldwork

one way traffic, 20mph- safe
people from alton are likely to visit
close to school- can walk there

method

carried out a questionnaire in 2 chosen high street locations (stratified) 6 questions
asked passers RANDOMLY to answer questions
spent approx 1.5 hours in each location

pros of method

easy/simple
not far from school
targeted people food shopping in alton high street
minimal equipment

cons of method

small sample- results dont represent whole population
time/day may effect results
not everyone was from alton
only two locations

risk assessment

parked cars affect visibility- cross roads as a group, keep away from parking areas, use crossing points
traffic- cross at crossing, staff supervision, cross on the one way system

how does the data link to the hypothesis

shows local people have knowledge on food miles, 51% knew what it was
more people stated quality and price as the most important, combined being 76%, whereas food miles was only 5%
many people interviewed weren’t from alton, 32.5%

conclusions

didnt find that the people interviewed chose to buy local due to food miles
did find awareness of food miles
cant agree with hypothesis
as age decreased, the awareness of food miles increased with 92% understanding the 16-24 age range

evaluation

data presentation dont make it easy to make links between age/gender and food miles

how to improve

different time of day/ target age groups / add another location / ask people where their from at the start of the survey

presenting our data

percentages, pie chart

why is it important

beef from argentina travels over 7000 miles, tomatoes from spain 1000 miles and oranges from california 5000 miles