The production and consumption of food has far reaching impacts that affect all facets of society, including the environmental, individual and public health (Reisch et al., 2013) and social justice (Raynolds, 2012). The way in which food is produced and distributed directly contributes to a range of environmental problems including climate change (Smith and Gregory, 2013), water pollution, water scarcity (UN-Water, 2007), loss of soil fertility and erosion (Pimentel and Burgess, 2013) and reduction in biodiversity (Brussaard et al., 2010). Food consumption is also intrinsically linked to health, and currently, 795 million people globally suffer from hunger or an under consumption of food (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, International Fund for Agricultural Development and World Food Programme, 2015). Concurrently, in most industrialised countries, 1 to 1.5 billion people are overweight and diet- and lifestyle-related diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases are on the rise, even appearing in young age groups (Commission of the European Communities, 2007), which significantly increases the burden on the health system (Colagiuri et al., 2010). In addition, social injustice in the global food system is a major issue with exploitation occurring throughout the agri-food system (Allen, 2008). In response to this issue, the fair trade movement arose to contribute to sustainable development by ensuring better trading conditions and working to secure the rights of marginalised producers and workers (World Fair Trade Organization, 2014). Increasingly, more and more people are starting to consider such impacts when purchasing food. For example, consumers are becoming more and more health conscious, with the global sales of health and wellness products predicted to reach a record high of US $1tn by 2017 (Hudson, 2012), and the demand for fair trade goods is also increasing (Raynolds, 2012). Consumers have also become more concerned about the environmental credentials of their food in recent decades, illustrated by the sharp rise in the availability of food produced from alternative agricultural practices and local distribution practices such as farmers markets (Pelletier et al., 2013). The increase in farmers markets in recent times across industrialised countries certainly demonstrates the growing interest in supporting a sustainable food system. As an example, in Australia, the number of farmers markets more than doubled between 2004 and 2011 (Er et al., 2012). Consumer research has shown that young people may be more willing than older individuals to pay extra for sustainable goods (The Nielson Company, 2015). However, as more than two thirds of Australian university students are worried about their finances (Bexley et al., 2013), the willingness of this cohort to spend extra on products with greater environmental credentials may be questionable.