Abstract
The purpose of this study is to examine the local farmers' perceptions toward the use of local food for school meals from the suppliers' perspectives. Data was collected from 12 school-meal management centers which provide the name list of local farmers. from the provided list, 167 people were selected, who were asked to answer the self-administerd questionnaires by post. 87 responses were returned, having shown the response rate was 50.1%. The data were analyzed by using SPSS 15.0 for descriptive analysis. The findings from this study are as follows: First, the local farmers has a positive attitude toward certified and supply methods for local food whereas price and selling quantity of local food were dissatisfying; Second, local farmers prefer to use public supplying chains such as school-meal support centers rather than private ones. Furthermore, they like to directly contact with a school in terms of supplying local food. To establish self-selling systems, computer programs like ERP should be adopted to effectively manage the production process of local food. On conclusion, implications and limitations were discussed.
