Learning from the past to amplify community vegetable education programs of the future (VG22003)

What was it all about?

This project evaluated the impact of past initiatives to increase demand for vegetables so that a framework could be developed for industry to ensure the design and deliver of effective future programs.

Challenge

The vegetable industry has delivered a range of levy funded initiatives seeking to increase consumer demand, motivated by the large share of the Australian population (>90 per cent) who are not consuming the recommended serves of vegetables per day. This ‘consumption gap’ represents a valuable opportunity for the Australian vegetable industry to realise additional demand and market growth.

Despite the broad range of investment activity seeking to increase vegetable consumption (e.g. product development, education, insights, best practice guidelines), population-level changes in actual consumption has not occurred, suggesting that the initiatives have generated a minimal observable impact.

Response

This project sought to understand the delivery of previous initiatives seeking to increase vegetable consumption within Australia. This was informed by a literature review and stakeholder consultation process, culminating in a framework to guide future investment to increase consumer demand. The project drew on behaviour change theory to guide the evaluation and framework development approach and was delivered in three phases:

1. Literature review and mapping initiatives.
2. Evaluation of levy and non-levy initiatives.
3. Behaviour Change Framework to guide future investment.

Benefit

The literature review identified 100 initiatives that have been delivered (or are currently being delivered) primarily within a domestic setting over the last ten years, covering a range of cohorts and categories. The evaluation process was carried out on a sample of 10 initiatives, representing both levy and non-levy-funded initiatives. The key finding from the evaluation was that while initiatives were generally highly relevant to the target cohort and were supported by an appropriate strategic basis, the effectiveness of achieving sustained behaviour change and industry impact was significantly weaker. This was partly due to the absence of an implementation plan, which was required to engage stakeholders with the tools and resources developed on an ongoing basis.

Building on the literature review and evaluation insights, the project team developed a robust Behaviour Change Framework. This framework holds the potential to guide future vegetable R&D levy investment across five strategic pillars, in the context of the broader response levers and stakeholders that can complement and leverage levy-funded initiatives.

The Behaviour Change Framework provides Hort Innovation and relevant vegetable industry stakeholders with improved knowledge of the requirements to design and deliver levy investments that increase domestic vegetable demand and industry impact.