Consumer Readiness to Reduce Meat Consumption for the Purpose of Environmental Sustainability: Insights from Norway

Abstract

Food production is associated with various environmental impacts and the production of meat is highlighted as a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. A transition toward plant-based and low-meat diets has thus been emphasised as an important contribution to reducing climate change. By combining results from a consumer survey, focus group interviews and an in-store field experiment, this article investigates whether Norwegian consumers are ready to make food choices based on what is environmentally sustainable. We ask how consumers perceive the environmental impacts of food consumption, whether they are willing and able to change their food consumption in a more climate-friendly direction, and what influences their perceptions and positions. The results show that there is uncertainty among consumers regarding what constitutes climate- or environmentally friendly food choices and that few consumers are motivated to change their food consumption patterns for climate- or environmental reasons. Consumers’ support to initiatives, such as eating less meat and increasing the prices of meat, are partly determined by the consumers’ existing value orientation and their existing consumption practices. Finally, we find that although providing information about the climate benefits of eating less meat has an effect on vegetable purchases, this does not seem to mobilise consumer action any more than the provision of information about the health benefits of eating less meat does. The article concludes that environmental policies aiming to transfer part of the responsibility for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to food consumers is being challenged by the fact that most consumers are still not ready to make food choices based on what is best for the climate or environment.

Ninety Minutes to Reduce One's Intention to Eat Meat: A Preliminary Experimental Investigation on the Effect of Watching the Cowspiracy Documentary on Intention to Reduce Meat Consumption

“…Although previous literature indicates that knowledge is a necessary determinant to perform environmentally responsible behavior [e.g., Austgulen et al (2018)], in the present study the change in knowledge did not predict the change in attitude toward eating less meat. It seems that the effect of the exposure to Cowspiracy is mediated or can be explained by other variables.…”

“…In recent years, the entertainment business and popular documentaries such as Cowspiracy, Forks Over Knives, and What the Health have played a central role in the public awareness of the environmental implications of meat consumption (Harrington et al, 2019). This seems to contradict with past and current research that has shown that using environmental arguments to eat less meat do not make campaigns for meat reduction successful (Cordts et al, 2014;Austgulen et al, 2018). These authors have suggested that using arguments related to one's personal health or the wellbeing of animals are more effective (Cordts et al, 2014).…”

Reducing meat consumption: Identifying group-specific inhibitors using latent profile analysis

“…Unfortunately, many individuals are unaware of the environmental impacts of meat eating (Austgulen, Skuland, Schjøll, & Alfnes, 2018;Tobler, Visschers, & Siegrist, 2011). Instead, meat-reducing behaviours are often motivated by health concerns (e.g., Tobler et al, 2011), although many meat-eaters believe that vegetarian diets are nutritionally unbalanced .…”

Research on Food Behavior in Romania from the Perspective of Supporting Healthy Eating Habits

“…Besides, consumers are allocated with a large share of the responsibility for environmental sustainability, having a major role in making food chains more sustainable [101]. That is why, in the context of food, one of the most important contributions of consumers to the reducing climate change, as Austgulen et al [102] claims, could be the transition towards a plant-based and low-meat diet, what means a flexitarian food style. Although most consumers are still not ready to make food choices based on what is best for the climate or environment, they are expected to be more aware of this responsibility in the near future.…”