Consumer perceptions and preferences | TableDebates

Jars of dry goods in a pantry. Photo by Luisa Brimble via Unsplash.

New commentary on Tom et al paper: Energy use, GHG and blue water impacts of scenarios where US diet aligns with new USDA dietary recommendations

In this piece, FCRN member Professor Michael W. Hamm provides a short commentary on a paper featured and discussed previously by the FCRN. Full citation for the paper is as follows: (Tom, M, Fischbeck, P.S., and Hendrickson, C.T. (2015) “Energy use, blue water footprint, and greenhouse gas emissions for current food consumption patterns and dietary recommendations in the US” Environ Syst Decis, DOI 10.1007/s10669-015-9577-y).Mike is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Regional Food Systems at Michigan State University.For other blogs Mike has written for the FCRN, see: Feeding cities - with indoor vertical farms?, the 3 part blog-series on City region food systems and lastly, his post about the inclusion of sustainability considerations in the US dietary guidelines report.

“Figuring Out the Food Consumer” Food research Collaboration blog-post

In this blog-post, various archetypes or tropes of consumers are portrayed and scrutinized. General claims about consumer behaviour that pervade the discourse of food politics are discussed and three archetypes are identified. The author, Dr Ben Richardson from the Department of Politics and International Studies at University of Warwick, describes and questions both the figures of the food consumer being presented to us and the ideological projects with which they are associated.

Effects of an environmental tax on meat and dairy consumption in Sweden

Meat and dairy consumption have increased globally over the past fifty years. As livestock account for 80% of agriculture’s total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, this article argues that to achieve climate targets, humans need to change their dietary habits.

Defining a nutritionally healthy, environmentally friendly, and culturally acceptable Low Lands Diet

This paper by FCRN member Corné van Dooren and colleague Harry Aiking has been published in the International Journal of LCA. The study quantifies the historical Dutch diet of 80 years ago, based on cultural history research. The researchers calculate the greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) and land use (LU) of this diet, using actual LCA data for the 206 most consumed products, and the health score, based on ten nutritional characteristics.

Eating like there's no tomorrow: Public awareness of the environmental impact of food and reluctance to eat less meat as part of a sustainable diet

This paper looks at public awareness of the environmental impacts of meat and attitudes to reducing meat consumption. The study, carried out in Scotland, was based on focus group discussions and individual interviews and tried to understand the cultural and social values associated with eating meat. It found a lack of awareness of the association between meat consumption and climate change, and suggested that individual dietary change will be difficult to achieve without addressing these values and beliefs.

The Case for Protein Diversity - Accelerating the adoption of more sustainable eating patterns in the UK

This white paper, produced by the independent sustainability company The Carbon Trust and sponsored by Quorn Foods, argues that greater diversity of main ingredients would be better for Britain both from a health and climate perspective. Increasing the diversity of UK protein choices is described as a practical way to promote more sustainable diets with lower impacts on health and environment.

Reducing Food Loss And Waste While Improving The Public’s Health

This paper presents an overview of policies and interventions aimed at addressing food loss and waste. It argues that to curtail food waste in higher income countries, measures such as clarifying food date labels could go a long way. Consumers are often confused by "use by," "best by" and "sell by" dates on food packaging and throw out perfectly edible food. Improving date labelling policy can also improve food safety.

Wellcome Trust’s Food and Drink Initiative

The Wellcome Trust has launched its public engagement initiative called The Crunch. This consists of a website and a range of activities, experiences and discussions will be rolled out in 2016 which focus on food, our health and the planet.

Meat and dairy production largest contributor to the expansion of global agricultural land

A new paper published in Global Environmental Change analyses 50 years of data from FAO (from 1961 to 2011) to try to understand the drivers for global agricultural land use change. Pasture forms the largest component of agricultural land globally, but previous research on agricultural land use has focused disproportionately on the role of arable crops.