scholarly journals Influencing Factors for Sustainable Dietary Transformation—A Case Study of German Food Consumption

Foods ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 227
Author(s):  
Nadine Seubelt ◽  
Amelie Michalke ◽  
Tobias Gaugler

In a case study of Germany, we examine current food consumption along the three pillars of sustainability to evaluate external factors that influence consumers’ dietary decisions. We investigate to what extent diets meet nutritional requirements (social factor), the diets’ environmental impact (ecological factor), and the food prices’ influence on purchasing behavior (economic factor). For this, we compare two dietary recommendations (plant-based, omnivorous) with the status quo, and we examine different consumption styles (conventional, organic produce). Additionally, we evaluate 1446 prices of food items from three store types (organic store, supermarket, and discounter). With this, we are able to evaluate and compare 30 different food baskets along their health, environmental, and economic impact. Results show that purchasing decisions are only slightly influenced by health-related factors. Furthermore, few consumers align their diet with low environmental impact. In contrast, a large share of consumers opt for cheap foods, regardless of health and environmental consequences. We find that price is, arguably, the main factor in food choices from a sustainability standpoint. Action should be taken by policy makers to financially incentivize consumers in favor of healthy and environmentally friendly diets. Otherwise, the status quo further drives especially underprivileged consumers towards unhealthy and environmentally damaging consumption.

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.


Resources ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicoletta Patrizi ◽  
Valentina Niccolucci ◽  
Riccardo Pulselli ◽  
Elena Neri ◽  
Simone Bastianoni

One of the main goals of any (sustainability) indicator should be the communication of a clear, unambiguous, and simplified message about the status of the analyzed system. The selected indicator is expected to declare explicitly how its numerical value depicts a situation, for example, positive or negative, sustainable or unsustainable, especially when a comparison among similar or competitive systems is performed. This aspect should be a primary and discriminating issue when the selection of a set of opportune indicators is operated. The Ecological Footprint (EF) has become one of the most popular and widely used sustainability indicators. It is a resource accounting method with an area based metric in which the units of measure are global hectares or hectares with world average bio-productivity. Its main goal is to underline the link between the (un)sustainability level of a product, a system, an activity or a population life style, with the land demand for providing goods, energy, and ecological services needed to sustain that product, system, activity, or population. Therefore, the traditional rationale behind the message of EF is: the larger EF value, the larger environmental impact in terms of resources use, the lower position in the sustainability rank. The aim of this paper was to investigate if this rationale is everywhere opportune and unambiguous, or if sometimes its use requires paying a special attention. Then, a three-dimensional modification of the classical EF framework for the sustainability evaluation of a product has been proposed following a previous work by Niccolucci and co-authors (2009). Finally, the potentialities of the model have been tested by using a case study from the agricultural context.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-191
Author(s):  
Hasbi Aswar ◽  
Danial Bin Mohd. Yusof ◽  
Rohana Binti Abdul Hamid

In a social movement study, countermovement emerges when certain movement is considered to bring threat to the status quo or the current political and social condition. Social movement seeks for changing the existing situation while the countermovement pursues to keep it. As a result, the conflict between two becomes inevitable, where both will compete to win over the other. The existence of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Indonesia (HTI) for years is responded by some Islamic groups especially Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and its allies, as threat to the Indonesian life due to the idea brought by HTI. It becomes the root of conflict between HTI and other Islamic groups in Indonesia. This article aims to explain the conflict between HTI and other Islamic groups by elaborating the effort of the Islamic groups to counter the HTI narratives and mobilization by using countermovement approach in social movement studies. This article is a case study research and using mainly secondary data to analyze the issue. This article found that Nahdlatul Ulama as the main countermovement played significant role to counter Hizb ut-Tahrir`s religious and political narratives as well as its political mobilization.


2012 ◽  
Vol 263-266 ◽  
pp. 2746-2750
Author(s):  
Ling Tian ◽  
Wan Xin Xue ◽  
Xiaohong Wang

Shandong Quanxing enterprise, a Chinese traditional coal enterprise to build e-commerce website actively for offering all coal-related information and services, expansion of company, promote the corporate image, optimize the internal structure, reduce operation costs, simplify distribution procedures and so on, was built in Dec 2005. This paper surveys the status quo of e-commerce application in Shandong Quanxing enterprise comprehensively from the perspective of technology, management, website, operation and cooperation. Based on the analysis and current development trend of e-commerce application, this paper puts forward with some suggestions for Shandong Quanxing enterprise.


Author(s):  
Malose Langa ◽  
Steven Rebello ◽  
Linda Harms-Smith

Abstract This article reflects on the Marikana massacre of August 2012, subsequent violent strikes and responses by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as a case study, and provides an analysis about whether these interventions bring transformative change or maintain the status quo in times of crisis. Events associated with Marikana are seen to be embedded in social structures of the time and part of deeper frictions and fractures of social transformation. The role that NGOs might play in this context must be interrogated as to their facilitation or hinderance of such social transformation. Interviews were conducted with representatives of NGOs intervening in Marikana that provided services of humanitarian assistance, and legal and psychosocial interventions and with mine workers and residents of Marikana about their experiences and views of these services. Findings from the study are illustrative of how NGOs were not primarily motivated to bring about lasting, transformative change but rather attempted to address immediate or short-term needs which, while important, did not account for underlying causes of the crises that they set out to address. Both ideological underpinnings of NGOs and structural conditions produced by state and capital impact on outcomes of interventions. Given these limitations, it is argued that there is a need for deep critical interrogation through praxis, for NGOs to intervene differently in times of crisis to bring ‘real’ change and transformation in the lives of those who are marginalized.


2000 ◽  
Vol 18 (No. 4) ◽  
pp. 148-152
Author(s):  
J. Hrubý

Food consumption recording is a social need because the consumption is an indicator of the nutrition status that means the health status, of the population, and an economic factor. Food consumption trends in the nineties are characterized by a steep fall of most kinds of foods, mainly from animal sources. It is not necessary to adjust this fact with respect to recent data of the time series. Four commodities show a positive increase. The trend of food consumption is bound up with more slowly increasing incomes of the population than was the increase in food prices after their liberalization. The consequences of consumption trends do not imply any deterioration of nutrition status because nutrition requirements have been met except calcium and vitamin A supply due to a decrease in milk consumption, and except vitamin C, still a deficient element although its supply has substantially increased. A systematic attention should be focused on the population nutrition through nutrition and food policies.


1985 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert F. Love ◽  
William G. Truscott ◽  
John H. Walker

Modern Italy ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 247-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Haworth

Celebrity scandals are a useful tool to reveal the pervasiveness of expected ways of behaving within a particular culture or society. Italy of the early 1960s was particularly marked by these kinds of scandals, including that of singer Mina’s pregnancy by Corrado Pani in 1963. This article takes this scandal as a case study to explore how star image in this period in Italy was influenced by the established ideologies that governed social convention, morality, and traditional gender roles. It examines in detail the ways in which the popular press reported on this scandal, using the reports that covered the announcement of the pregnancy and then the birth to cast light on the extent to which the mainstream social values and ideas regarding the status quo and expected ways of behaving for women in Italy during the early 1960s were destabilised and/or reasserted through the star persona of Mina.


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