Taking a Stand through Food Choices? Characteristics of Political Food Consumption and Consumers in Finland

Abstract

This study looks at food as a realm of political consumption by examining buycotting and boycotting of foods for ethical, political or environmental reasons in Finland. The results of an Internet-based survey (N=1,021) showed that around half of the respondents often or occasionally both buycotted and boycotted foods. Multinomial regression models indicated that women, the highly educated, the political left, those who donated for charity, those whose food choices were motivated by domestic origin and ethical food production, and those who trusted that consumption choices, institutional actors and the media can advance ethical food production and consumption, were most likely to be active in buycotting and boycotting. Buycotters/boycotters were very active in buying local food but less eager, for instance, to buy organic or Fair Trade products or to reduce the use of meat or milk. The article concludes by critically assessing the complex relationship between buycotting/boycotting and sustainable practices and suggesting that consumers may be more willing to transform their eating patterns if other societal actors, too, make an effort to influence ethical food consumption.

Understanding the Political Challenge of Red and Processed Meat Reduction for Healthy and Sustainable Food Systems: A Narrative Review of the Literature

“…114 Norms and narratives around eating meat have been cited as a significant reason behind the policy inertia in this area. 97,[115][116][117][118][119][120][121][122][123][124][125][126][127][128] Policies aimed at reducing RPM consumption -in high-income countries in particular -would require a "profound societal transition" as the value of meat in these contexts is high, and often one of the more popular food products in many countries. 116 Carnism and consumer demand reinforce each other in a causative loop, as demand levels have pushed meat production to intensive levels, allowing meat prices to fall, thereby helping to sustain high levels of consumption.…”

The pro‐environmental consumer discourse: A political perspective on organic food consumption

“…Political consumption can take on two conscious and deliberate forms, based on personal and moral beliefs: boycotts, through negative consumerism; and support buying, through positive consumerism (Llopis‐Goig, 2013). Niva and Jallinoja's (2018) consider that food is in the domain of political consumption. In their paper, they examined buycotting and boycotting of food for ethical, political or environmental reasons in the context of Finland.…”

“…The concept of ‘local’ food resorts to a social and political discourse strongly associated with the location of food systems, sustainability and social justice (DuPuis & Goodman, 2005; Niva & Jallinoja, 2018). The ‘local’ is, then, associated with a social and collective movement of resistance against globalization, while ‘maintaining human and environmental health and security globally’ (Delind, 2006, p. 125), and promoting a sense of community by developing personal and trusting relationships among their citizens (Zepeda & Deal, 2009).…”

Factors Influencing Individual Customers Trust in Internet Banking: Case of Baltic States

“…For an assessment of factors influencing individual customers' trust in internet banking, a logistic (logit) regression was used. Usually, scholars use regression analysis in order to investigate the trust phenomenon [47][48][49]. Actually, one of the regression models that are used is a logistic regression.…”