Consumer perceptions and preferences | TableDebates

Effects of climate change would encourage most British adults to change their diet

In a recent public survey commissioned by the Global Food Security (GFS) programme, many British adults say they recognise that the food system is a key contributor to climate change and that they would change their diets to avoid negative future climate impacts.

Photo credit: Quinn Dombrowski, Flickr, Creative Commons License 2.0

Consumer perception and behaviour regarding sustainable protein consumption: A systematic review

This is a systematic review on consumer perception and behaviours in relation to meat, meat substitutes and the environment. It finds that both awareness of the environmental impact of meat consumption and a willingness to reduce meat consumption is low in the studied populations. The authors identify as a key research area the investigation of strategies that might help to motivate more moderate, sustainable meat consumption behaviour.

The Future of Consumer Society: Prospects for Sustainability in the New Economy

This new book by Maurie J. Cohen examines how the system of mass consumption is changing; discusses popular trends such as the sharing economy, the Maker Movement, and economic localization; and describes the role that worker-consumer cooperatives could play in actively changing the current paradigm.

New campaign, launch 10th November: Are you #vegcurious?

The Eating Better Alliance has launched a new campaign about eating less meat. The alliance have worked to create a new way of talking about eating less meat, through fun and positive messages and a set of adverts to inspire a new generation of men to be more daring with their food and give vegetarian options a chance.

Credit: wellunwell, soft drinks, Flickr, Creative Commons Licence 2.0

Trimming the excess: environmental impacts of discretionary food consumption in Australia

This study estimates the environmental impacts of what it terms discretionary foods - foods and drinks that do not provide nutrients that the body particularly needs. It finds that these foods account for 33-39% of food-related footprints in Australia.

Image: the research paper’s appendix

The negative footprint illusion: Perceptual bias in sustainable food consumption

Psychological research has shown that people often don’t make decisions on a rational basis, but rather do so heuristically - based on rules of thumb - that can systematically bias choices. This has important implications when it comes to promoting the sustainable consumption of food.

Photo: Flickr, Anders Eriksson, Creative Commons License 2.0

Fear of climate change consequences and predictors of intentions to alter meat consumption

This study explores how fear of climate change affects affluent Swedish individuals in their intentions to reduce or alter meat consumption. Noting that fear appeals form the dominant communications approach used in raising awareness about environmental issues and motivating behavioural change, the authors set out to explore the processes through which such appeals may or may not motivate consumers to change.

Foodsource

What can be done to shift eating patterns in healthier, more sustainable directions?

Eating patterns (or diets) are an important point of interconnection in food systems between human health and wider environmental impacts. Shifts in how people consume towards sustainable health eating patterns can bring multiple benefits. And when they are undertaken by whole populations, their overall effects can be considerable. Although there is much we still don’t know, the broad trends of what sustainable health eating patterns look like are known well enough to take action today. However, this presents another difficult challenge: how can eating patterns (at the individual and population scale) be shifted towards those that are healthier and more sustainable? Understanding this problem and its potential solutions provides a useful primer on the way in which consumption in food systems takes place through a combination of human choices (whether conscious or not), and is influenced by the wider contextual environment that actively constrains and influences these choices.

Take part in a 10 minute survey to help Cambridge researcher who studies consumption of high-protein foods

Do you have 10 minutes to help Dr Arianna Psichas with a survey exploring people's views on the purchase and consumption of high-protein foods?