Consumer perceptions and preferences | TableDebates

Journal articles

What’s cooking? The normalization of meat in YouTube recipe videos consumed by South Asian British Muslims

The 'meat paradox' is defined as enjoying meat whilst disapproving of animals suffering or being killed. This study looked into how social media videos and TV cookery programmes can influence viewers to overcome the meat paradox. The authors chose to look specifically at British Muslims because studies suggest they are a group whose eating habits are significantly influenced by such media types and also consume more meat per capita than the national average.

Charcuterie plate with mustards, cheeses, fruits, relishes, bacon, and breads. Tim Toomey via Unsplash.

Meat, metrics and mindsets: Exploring debates on the role of livestock and alternatives in diets and farming

Should we eat meat, eggs, dairy and other animal-sourced foods? If so, how should we produce them and how much should we eat? If not, what should we eat instead? These are just some of the more contentious debates about the future of food systems.This Explainer summarises some of the key debates about livestock and its alternatives and describes both the arguments and the evidence underpinning different points of view. We look both at foodstuffs (meat, fish, plants and new foods based on cells grown in bioreactors) and farming methods (both intensive and extensive) with regards to discussions about their environmental, health and social impacts. In so doing, we explore the assumptions and values that often lead stakeholders to differing conclusions about what a sustainable food system looks like.https://doi.org/10.56661/2caf9b92

Big Livestock's Big Greenwash

News and resources

Big Livestock's Big Greenwash

NGO Feedback has published a website, Big Livestock's Big Greenwash, outlining the marketing strategies used by large livestock companies, including: reporting emissions and climate targets in ways that appear to show more progress than has happened; focusing on technological options (e.g. feed additives) to increase efficiency without reducing meat and dairy production; downplaying the climate impact of livestock; and building narratives that argue livestock production is good for farmer wellbeing, food security and traditional meat-based diets. Feedback argues that these strategies amount to greenwash.

Live, Die, Buy, Eat: A Cultural History of Animals and Meat

Live, Die, Buy, Eat: A Cultural History of Animals and Meat

Focusing on Norway, this book outlines how social attitudes to meat and animal farming have changed over the past 150 years. It argues that consumers have become increasingly disconnected from knowledge of how the meat they eat has been produced

Rewilding Food and the Self

Rewilding Food and the Self across Europe

This book explores the conversations around rewilding, food, eating and identities that are currently happening across Europe. It has sections on hunting, “natural” products (such as wine) on the market, and rewilding in the context of cities and the self.

Blog post Government, stay away from our meatball: How populism stops us from eating less meat

Government, stay away from our meatball: How populism stops us from eating less meat

About the author: Yolie Michielsen is a PhD candidate at Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands. She has a background in cultural anthropology (BSc), consumption sociology (MSc), and philosophy of culture (MA). Her PhD focuses on resistance in the societal transition towards reduced meat consumption. The first part of the thesis, written with co-promotor Dr. Hilje van der Horst (sociologist and human geographer), studies backlash against meat curtailment policies in online discourse.

Image: yilmazfatih, Pulses lentils beans, Pixabay, Pixabay Licence

Journal articles

Three sustainable protein meta-narratives

This paper reviews the literature on different protein sources and their implications for food security, health, ethics, environmental sustainability and socio-economic wellbeing. It classes the many contentious debates about the future of sustainable protein into three main categories or meta-narratives - “modernising protein”, “reconstituting protein” and “regenerating protein” - and analyses how stakeholders in each of these camps are seeking to reshape food systems.

Image: PublicDomainPictures, Concept document focus, Pixabay, Pixabay Licence

Journal articles

What do consumers read about meat?

This paper analyses the narratives linking meat and the environment that were found in 116 articles from eight online news outlets in the UK during 2019. It found that anti-meat narratives are most common: 54% of articles had anti-meat-consumption sentiments, while only 5% were mostly in favour of meat consumption or against a shift to plant-based diets; the remaining articles were neutral or contained mixed arguments. Sentiment varied by farming type: less than 10% of articles were against meat in general; 28% were against industrial farming but favoured more sustainable methods; and the remainder were neutral or balanced, with no articles being generally in favour of the meat industry. The eight news outlets studied were the BBC, the Guardian, MailOnline, Sky News, the Sun, the Mirror, LAD Bible and BuzzFeed.

Critical Approaches to Superfoods

Critical Approaches to Superfoods

This book examines the politics and narratives around so-called “superfoods” such as quinoa, kale and rooibos tea, discussing their links to intellectual property, marketing, venture capital and more.