“A Definition at Last, But What Does it All Mean?”1 Newspaper Coverage of Organic Food Production and its Effects on Milk Purchases

This paper estimates the effects of media coverage of organic food production on food purchases. Information from several data sources links national and local newspaper coverage to fluid milk purchases. An analysis of weekly store-level scanner data in a differences-in-differences approach results in a 5% increase in organic milk sales relative to conventional milk sales. Increases in intensity of news coverage increase this relative difference in sales. Differentiating effects by media context further suggests that product category specific coverage increases sales more than general coverage. Critical coverage does not result in significant effects on organic milk sales.