scholarly journals Understanding the Concept of Sustainable Food Consumption – whether it will Reduce Meat Consumption

Author(s):  
Krystyna Rejman ◽  
◽  
Marzena Jeżewska-Zychowicz ◽  
Grzegorz Ganczewski ◽  
◽  
...  

Despite the evidence-based health and environment benefits of sustainable diets and the urgent need to change consumption patterns in well-developed countries into plant-based diet, people are reluctant to limit meat consumption. The aim of the study was to examine the attachment to meat consumption in a group of Polish consumers and whether it depends on an understanding of the concept of sustainable food consumption (SFC). The study was carried out using the Computer Assisted Web Interview method on a sample of 199 consumers, who met two criteria of inclusion: age (20 - 65 years old) and not excluding meat from the diet. The questionnaire included a tool to measure the attachment to eating meat in 4 dimensions: hedonism, affinity, entitlement, and dependence. The analysis of the results was carried out in the Statistica software. Pearson Chi-squared test and Student’s t-test were performed to investigate the significance of differences between the two variables (p≤0.05). In the surveyed group only 35 % of respondents interpreted the term of sustainable food consumption correctly and among them there were more people with higher education. Interviewees were rather strongly attached to eating meat and this was firstly due to the belief in human right to eat meat, secondly – taste preferences and hedonism, thirdly ‒ dependence on eating meat. The ethical motives (affinity) were rated lowest, but significantly higher by respondents understanding the concept of sustainable diet. Their opinions on all aspects of attachment to eating meat were more pro-environmental than those of respondents who did not understand the idea (although the differences in the opinions were not statistically significant). Our results indicate the need to implement effective educational programs that will show all benefits of a sustainable diet to provide consumers with reliable knowledge and on this basis influence their attitudes and support them in making healthier and more sustainable choices in the food market.

Author(s):  
Amzad Hossain

It is difficult to separate western consumerism from excessive meat consumption and through globalization this culture is spreading through the planet to traditional places, such as Bangladesh and the Indian subcontinent. The chapter argues that the socio-economic and planetary cost of increasing meat consumption is clearly untenable and initiating a process that restores natural resources is imperative. A major objective of this chapter is to raise awareness about the consequences from unsustainable meat production and consumption and the negative implication from a Western type of diet. Drawing on the spiritual messages from the Baul philosophers, it makes the case that preserving traditional flexitarianism, defined here as meat in the absence of any other food options or rare ceremonial meat consumption, is essential for the health of the planet and its inhabitants.


2019 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krystyna Rejman ◽  
Joanna Kaczorowska ◽  
Ewa Halicka ◽  
Wacław Laskowski

AbstractObjectiveTo obtain a better insight into the conceptualization of sustainable consumption among consumers with special focus on food choice determinants. Previous studies show that people present positive attitude towards sustainable diet while their everyday food choices do not follow sustainable diet rules.DesignA structured questionnaire was designed and data were collected via computer-assisted telephone interview among a random group (n 600) of city-dwellers. Quota sampling was used in proportion to the city population. Cluster analysis (k-means method) was applied to identify consumer segments according to the determinants of food choices. Consumer segments were identified using one-way ANOVA with post hoc Duncan comparison of mean scores and cross-tabulation with χ 2. The Friedman test was applied to identify enablers and barriers of sustainable food choices.SettingCities in Mazovia, the best developed, central region of Poland.ParticipantsAdults (21–70 years old).ResultsConsumers are not familiar with the concept of sustainability and are not able to define it adequately. Only 6 % of the studied population indicated that sustainable consumption is connected with nutrition which has possibly less impact on the environment. Three segments of consumers were distinguished regarding their attitude to food choice determinants adequate to sustainable diet: Non-Adopters (17 %), Emergents (32 %), Adopters (51 %). Desire to improve health by decreasing body weight was the main driver for sustainable food choices, while prices were the main limitation.ConclusionsKnowledge dissemination on sustainability issues is needed to empower consumers to make more sustainable food choices and to make public health and food policy measures more effective.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (14) ◽  
pp. 5826 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lelia Voinea ◽  
Dorin Vicențiu Popescu ◽  
Mihaela Bucur ◽  
Teodor Mihai Negrea ◽  
Răzvan Dina ◽  
...  

The Romanian traditional pattern of food consumption as a whole is no longer a reference point in shaping a healthy and sustainable food behavior due to the growing discrepancies between the return to traditions and the constraints of sustainable development, so the aim of this study is to provide solutions for reshaping the food pattern by incorporating the principles of sustainable diet. The research conducted is based on qualitative data and the semi-structured interview was used as method of data collection from a sample of 21 Romanians traditional food consumers. The study led to a typology of respondents that combines two consumption orientations, “healthy” and “convenience”, with two attitudes towards traditional diet, “hedonism” and “conformism”. Although respondents do not completely reject the idea of flexitarianism, they showed the tendency for overconsumption of meat-based traditional foods and a weak concern for environmental sustainability. For these reasons, a set of recommendations for a new model of sustainable diet for Romanian population, focused on the relationship between traditionality, sustainability, and health, was put forward. The research findings show the need for supporting nutritional education programs and extensive information campaigns targeted at Romanian consumers to encourage the adoption of flexitarian style and the switch to a more sustainable diet in the near future.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 436-450
Author(s):  
Anna Wielicka-Regulska

Abstract Research background: The great importance of food consumption for the sustainability of food systems means that active public policy in this area can have a lot of positive effects. Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to present the challenges facing the agri-food sector and to study consumer attitudes towards seasonal and organic food, local food, urban agriculture, food waste and meat consumption, carbon footprints and how these attitudes relate to the acceptance of public policy tools (a tax on junk food, a green public procurement, a deposit on plastic bottles, a tax-free donation of food to public benefit organisations, a fee for wasted food for large retailers) that could transform food distribution and consumption. Research methodology: cardinality tables and interdependence analysis using Pearson’s linear correlation coefficient Results: The study revealed that most respondents buy seasonal food when possible and limit meat consumption to some extent. They are rarely influenced by the impact of food on the climate. Most people are in favour of offering dishes based on local food in public institutions with catering (hospitals, schools, prisons, etc.). Most respondents were negative about gardening for food production. Involvement in local food was associated with a higher acceptance for green public procurement and higher VAT on junk food. Novelty: Both the range of considered policy instruments and the analysis of their acceptance in the context of selected behaviours and attitudes have not been previously studied and make up a new area of inquiry essential in the debate on sustainable food consumption.


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 69-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Freidberg

In 2015, controversy over the Dietary Guidelines for Americans reached a new level when the government-appointed Dietary Guidance Advisory Committee (DGAC) recommended that those guidelines promote more sustainable diets, particularly those lower in animal-based foods. Although the committee found ample scientific evidence that such a shift would be a “win-win” for Americans' health as well as the environment, it met with fierce opposition on both counts, and not only from the livestock industry. This suggests how sustainable diet guidance poses a classic wicked problem, meaning one characterized by high levels of complexity, uncertainty, and epistemological conflict. While relationships between food, bodies, and environments are inevitably complex and uncertain, the controversy surrounding DGAC's recommendation offers an opportunity to explore how the scientific evidence on dietary sustainability is actually produced, and how it does or does not speak to other knowledge about eating for bodily and ecological health. To do this I look first at the research behind DGAC's endorsement of diets high in plant-based versus animal-based foods, and then at select responses in the public comments. The contrast not only highlights the incommensurability of modeled versus experiential evidence, but also suggests that efforts to promote more sustainable food consumption cannot credibly ignore questions (however unresolved) about what constitutes more sustainable production.


1999 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark W. Rosegrant ◽  
Nancy Leach ◽  
Roberta V. Gerpacio

Fundamental changes in the global structure of food demand will lead to an extra-ordinary increase in the importance of developing countries in global food markets. Economic growth in developing countries is changing consumption patterns, with slower growth (and in many countries actual declines) in per capita food consumption of grains and rapidly growing per capita and total meat consumption, combined with induced growth in cereal feed consumption. The present paper examines the hypothesis, suggested by some researchers, that high-meat diets in developed countries limit improvement in food security in developing countries. These analysts argue that reduced meat consumption in developed countries would release cereals from livestock feed to food for poorer populations, thus improving food security in developing countries. Using the International Food Policy Research Institute (Washington, DC, USA) global food projections model, the international model for policy analysis of agricultural com-modities and trade (see Rosegrant et al. 1995), we first analyse the implications for future global cereal and meat supply and demand resulting from changes in global income, population growth and other structural changes, then simulate alternative sce-narios to examine the effect of large reductions in meat consumption in developed coun-tries on food consumption and food security in developing countries. The paper shows that while the long-term prospects for food supply, demand and trade indicate a strength-ening of world cereal and livestock markets, the improvement in food security in the developing world will be slow, and changes in the dietary patterns in developed countries are not an effective route to improvement in food security in developing countries.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 368-368
Author(s):  
Ilaisaane Fifita ◽  
◽  
Dayun Hong ◽  
Yuri Seo ◽  
Eunju Ko ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 5513
Author(s):  
Iljana Schubert ◽  
Judith I. M. de Groot ◽  
Adrian C. Newton

This study examines the influence of social network members (versus strangers) on sustainable food consumption choices to investigate how social influence can challenge the status quo in unsustainable consumption practices. We hypothesized that changes to individual consumption practices could be achieved by revealing ‘invisible’ descriptive and injunctive social norms. We further hypothesized that it matters who reveals these norms, meaning that social network members expressing their norms will have a stronger influence on other’s consumption choices than if these norms are expressed by strangers. We tested these hypotheses in a field experiment (N = 134), where participants discussed previous sustainable food consumption (revealing descriptive norms) and its importance (revealing injunctive norms) with either a stranger or social network member. We measured actual sustainable food consumption through the extent to which participants chose organic over non-organic consumables during the debrief. Findings showed that revealed injunctive norms significantly influenced food consumption, more so than revealed descriptive norms. We also found that this influence was stronger for social network members compared to strangers. Implications and further research directions in relation to how social networks can be used to evoke sustainable social change are discussed.


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