Toward Achieving Sustainable Food Consumption: Insights from the Life Course Paradigm

Abstract

<jats:p>Trends in world population growth have created an agri-food demand that is unsustainable under the present resource-intensive agricultural systems and expected growth in income levels in many developing countries. As such, research and policy making related to sustainable development have focused on consumption. One major approach to sustainable consumption lies in shaping food demand that would require changes in people’s present food consumption habits that are excessive and unhealthy, leading to overweight and obesity. In order to change food consumption habits, one must understand the factors that lead to their onset and change. This article offers the life course paradigm, which is increasingly used by social and behavioral scientists to study the development and change of various forms of behavior, as a research framework for studying the onset and change in food consumption habits. It shows how the life course approach could help guide future research not only on sustainable consumption, but also on environmental and social sustainability.</jats:p>

The life course paradigm and consumer behavior: Research frontiers and future directions

“…Environmental sustainability focuses on pollution, depletion of nonrenewable resources, and the use of renewable resources (Moschis, Mathur, & Shannon, 2020). Future research in this area could examine the development of “environment‐friendly” consumer habits, such as buying organic products, using car pooling or public trasportation, and recycling.…”

Sustainable Development as a Factor Differentiating Consumer Behavior: The Case of Poland

“…Over the past 30 years, many empirical studies have aimed at describing the typology of consumer attitudes to sustainable development. Typology studies differ in many respects, the consumption context (Maciejewski et al, 2020;Moschis et al, 2020;McGarry and Higgins, 2017), the sustainability focus (e.g., ethical consumption, lifestyle of health, Lin, 2020;Miczyńska-Kowalska, 2020;Matharu, Jain, and Kamboj, 2020), the dimensionality of the sustainable consumption concept (one or multiple dimensions), the focal sustainability facet (e.g., environmentally friendly consumption), the segmentation variables (e.g., attitudes, personal traits, human values), the profiling attributes (socioeconomic variables), the segmentation structure (segments reflecting either different low-to-high levels of general sustainability concern or mirroring a multifaceted consumption phenomenon) and the relationships of the segments to (actual) buying behavior (Balderjahn, et al, 2018;Anjam, et al, 2020). Finally, not at all sharing economy should be treated as a "potential new pathway to sustainability" (Heinrichs, 2013;Wang and Yu, 2021).…”

Mapping the Food Festivals and Sustainable Capitals: Evidence from Poland

“…Therefore, a sustainable food system should ensure and contribute to all elements of environmental, social, and economic sustainability. It is a system that ensures the safety of consumers, producers, and food, as well as does not burden the environment [4,5].…”

“…Practical solutions aimed at changes in the behavior of demand and improvement of commonly present bad eating habits are introduced. Created food systems more and more often use local food and agricultural production [4,5]. This not only affects the local economy, but also shortens supply chains, reduces fuel consumption concerning food transport, and improves the environment.…”

“…The policies of many countries show an increased interest in the sustainable consumption strategy, the aim of which is to shape the demand for food and induce changes in peoples' current nutritional habits [4]. One of the concepts that addresses these problems is a sustainable food system.…”