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Consumer policy must address the unsustainability of consumption which now threatens consumer safety in the form of the climate and ecological crises. Arguably, only strong sustainable consumption governance methods can bring about changes at the scale and speed required. This article discusses one emerging policy tool within strong governance, namely consumption corridors which could bring about absolute reductions in the negative impacts of consumption in a just manner and using deliberative democracy. Consumption corridors are applied in the context of the current meat system, a common driver for the twin crises, and an issue central to achieving the sustainable development, biodiversity, and Paris climate goals. The recently developed planetary health diet offers a useful plan for the transformation of global food systems, and could be combined with sustainable consumption corridors for meat. Systems thinking identifies change in societal paradigms as most effective. To support such change, this article suggests two metaphors as discourse tools, whereby individual and societal transformation in meat consumption occurs as a journey along a continuum of different meatways. The article also suggests specific actions for bringing about meat consumption corridors, and argues that this context could also serve as a bridge for increased societal acceptance of recomposed consumption.

Implementing the European Green Deal requires a consistent food systems’ policy that involves not only targeting the supply side but also conducting extensive changes in diets at the consumer level. Reducing meat consumption is an obvious strategy to put the European food system on track to meet the Green Deal’s goals. This cannot be achieved by focusing solely on consumer choice and individual responsibility. Stronger governance is required to reduce the scale of meat consumption to sustainable levels. Such governance needs to be informed by a holistic definition of “sustainable meat consumption”, designed to ensure that important sustainability priorities are not neglected, and to account for all emissions associated with EU consumption, regardless of where production takes place. This article presents a conceptual framework to define “sustainable meat consumption” based on the concept of consumption corridors (CCs). A CC is the space between a minimum (the floor) and maximum (the ceiling) consumption level, which allows everybody to satisfy their needs without compromising others’ ability to meet their own. Embedded in a powerful set of principles (recognizing universal needs; tackling both over and under-consumption; framing food as a common good; promoting public participation; and addressing environmental justice and planetary sustainability), CCs are attuned to the Green Deal’s ambition to “leave no one behind”, in the EU and beyond. CCs provide a demand-side solution encompassing a more equitable alternative to discuss what is actually a “fair share” of the world’s limited resources when it comes to meat consumption.

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