From Climate Concerns to Grocery Carts: What Moves India’s Gen Z Toward Organic Food?

The research drew on an adapted version of the theory of planned behaviour, a framework for understanding how people form intentions.

Choosing organic food can feel like a small way to put personal values into practice, especially for young people concerned about the environment and what they eat. That choice becomes more complicated when a higher price, limited availability or someone else's expectations enter the picture, raising a question for food producers and retailers: what actually makes Gen Z interested in buying organic?

A study published in Sustainability, titled "A Hybrid SEM–ANN Approach to Understand Generation Z's Intention to Purchase Organic Food," explores that question among university students in India. Its findings place environmental concern and personal attitudes at the centre of purchase intentions, uncover an unexpected relationship with social pressure, and show why being willing to pay extra does not tell the whole story.

Inside the Study: What 763 Students Shared

The researchers analysed 763 usable responses from students at the University of Hyderabad and Maulana Azad National Urdu University in Hyderabad. Participants were aged 18–26, around 61% were men, and more than half were postgraduate students. A pilot survey involving 100 students helped refine the questionnaire before the main survey. The final version used 20 statements to explore attitudes towards organic food, environmental concern, expectations from other people, willingness to pay a premium and purchase intention.

The research drew on an adapted version of the theory of planned behaviour, a framework for understanding how people form intentions. The team added environmental concern and willingness to pay, leaving out the usual separate measure of perceived behavioural control, which concerns people's sense of their ability to act.

Two analytical methods examined the responses from different angles. Structural equation modelling tested the proposed relationships between the factors. An artificial neural network looked for more complex patterns, including relationships that might change at different levels of a person's attitudes or concerns. The survey captured what students reported about their intentions. It did not track purchases, spending or changes in shopping habits.

Personal Beliefs and Environmental Concern Carry Weight

Students who viewed buying organic food as beneficial, sensible or enjoyable tended to report stronger purchase intentions. Personal attitude had the strongest positive relationship in the structural model, followed by environmental concern. For these respondents, interest in organic food appears connected to how they judge the choice for themselves and how much they worry about environmental damage. The researchers discuss health perceptions as a possible part of this appeal, although the research did not test whether organic food delivers better health outcomes.

The neural network placed environmental concern ahead of personal attitude in its predictor ranking. Its reported importance scores were 68.5% for environmental concern, 30.8% for attitude, 14% for willingness to pay and 3.6% for social expectations. These figures describe the model's assessment of the predictors; they are not percentages of students or shares of actual purchases.

Environmental concern was more strongly connected with purchase intention when favourable attitudes were also high. Someone who worries about environmental damage and already sees value in organic food may approach the decision differently from someone who shares those worries without feeling convinced about the product.

The neural network accounted for about 58% of the variation in purchase intention in validation data. Its performance was reasonably similar across training and validation data, giving the researchers some confidence that it had captured useful patterns within the sample.

Social Pressure and Premium Prices Tell a Messier Story

Expectations from family, friends and other valued people had a negative relationship with purchase intention in the structural model after the other measured factors were considered. Stronger perceived encouragement to buy organic was associated with lower reported intention.

The researchers suggest that young consumers may prefer decisions grounded in their own values and independently gathered information, including online reviews and social media content. Pressure from others could feel unhelpful when it clashes with that sense of independence.

The survey cannot establish that social pressure caused students to lose interest, and the neural network ranked social expectations as the least influential predictor. Willingness to pay extra produced another mixed result. It had no clear direct relationship with purchase intention in the structural model, although it retained some predictive importance in the neural network. The two findings suggest that readiness to pay a premium may operate within more complicated patterns than a single direct relationship can capture.

A statement such as "I would pay more for organic food" does not reveal whether someone can comfortably afford it every week. The researchers discuss limited student budgets, premium pricing, access and trust as possible explanations, but the study did not establish which of these accounted for the result. The findings do not mean that price is irrelevant.

Making Organic Food Fit Everyday Life

For producers and retailers, the findings point towards giving young shoppers clear reasons to value organic food and room to make their own decisions. Messages built around environmental responsibility and credible product information may be more useful than assuming family approval or peer pressure will persuade everyone.

The researchers recommend environmental education and public awareness initiatives, with schools and universities bringing responsible consumption into teaching and outreach. They also call attention to affordability and availability, because interest has limited practical value when products are difficult to find or beyond a shopper's budget. These are recommendations drawn from the findings, not interventions tested by the study.

Participants came from two universities in one city and were recruited through convenience sampling, so their responses cannot represent all Indian Gen Z consumers. Data collected at one point in time cannot show cause and effect or explain how intentions develop.

The researchers propose broader studies across income groups, regions, rural and urban communities, supported by interviews and tracking of actual purchases. Trust, convenience, product quality, knowledge and personal identity deserve closer attention. The question that remains is how interest survives the ordinary demands of shopping: finding the product, trusting what it promises and fitting it into a real budget. This study helps explain the interest; following young consumers' purchases would show what happens at the checkout.