Public perceptions of how to reduce carbon footprints of consumer food choices

Abstract

Carbon footprints-the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with consumer food choicessubstantially contribute to climate change. Life cycle analyses from climate and environmental sciences have identified effective rules for reducing these food-related GHG emissions, including eating seasonal produce and replacing dairy and red meat with plant-based products. In a national UK survey, we studied how many and which rules our participants generated for reducing GHG emissions of produce, dairy, and protein-rich products. We also asked participants to estimate GHG emission reductions associated with pre-selected rules, expressed in either grams or percentages. We found that participants generated few and relatively less effective rules, including ambiguous ones like 'Buy local'. Furthermore, participants' numerical estimates of pre-selected rules were less accurate when they assessed GHG emission reductions in grams rather than in percentages. Findings suggest a need for communicating fewer rules in percentages, for informing consumers about reducing food-related GHG emissions.

Piloting Citizen Science Methods to Measure Perceptions of Carbon Footprint and Energy Content of Food

“…Increased consumer knowledge about the environmental impact of foods will support the public's intention to move toward more sustainable diets (Bureau Européen des Unions de Consommateurs, 2020). As the food life cycle contributes 20-30% of global greenhouse gas emissions (Kause et al, 2009;Poore and Nemecek, 2018) guiding consumers toward foods with a lower carbon footprint could reduce the environmental impact of the global food system. In addition, the current research demonstrates the value of the Zooniverse platform functionality as a device for nutrition science research.…”

“…Sustainable food consumption is considered critical for climate change mitigation and adaptation strategy (Hyland et al, 2017;Tirado-Von Der Pahlen, 2017;Clark, 2019). Sustainable food choices are key to reducing environmental impact (CCC, 2020) with the food lifecycle contributing 20-30% of global greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) (Kause et al, 2009;Poore and Nemecek, 2018). Similarly, increasing healthy diet choices are key to improving consumer health by reducing diet-related chronic diseases.…”

“…Evidence based dietary guidelines, advice, and policy encourages people toward sustainable and healthy diets (Kause et al, 2009; Health Council of the Netherlands, 2011; Ministers NC, 2014;Reynolds et al, 2014;Monteiro et al, 2015;Fischer and Garnett, 2016;Freidberg, 2016;van't Veer et al, 2017;Poore and Nemecek, 2018;CCC, 2020). However, recent research suggests there is a food-knowledge disconnect between the food research community, and the general public, with the citizens typically underestimating the carbon footprint, misestimating portion sizes, and energy content of foods (Rolls et al, 2002;Choi and Pak, 2006;Carels et al, 2007;Steenhuis and Vermeer, 2009;Chernev and Chandon, 2010;Miyazaki et al, 2011;Lee et al, 2012;Holmstrup et al, 2013;Cohen and Story, 2014;Liu et al, 2015;Jones et al, 2016;Panzone et al, 2016, in press;Hartmann and Siegrist, 2017;Edelson et al, 2018;Shi et al, 2018;Camilleri et al, 2019;Kemper et al, 2019;Thomas and Kyung, 2019).…”

Is there a win–win scenario with increased beef quality and reduced consumption?

“…In fact, for many consumers, changing personal behaviour is often viewed as more acceptable (Mac Diarmid, Douglas and Campbell, 2016) and a higher priority for climate change mitigation when it comes to non-food-related issues (transportation for instance) or non-meat related issues. Thus, Bouwman et al (2016) show, on the basis of a European survey, that most consumers prioritize seasonal, local and regional food, waste reduction, and free-range and organic products rather than meat reduction to improve the environmental impact of food practices (Kause et al, 2019). This result is confirmed by another European study that shows that packaging and waste reduction, or a small increase in organic and plant-based products in diets, are much more prioritized than drastic changes in diet composition or a strong decrease in meat intake (Dubois et al, 2019).…”

How Does Citizen Science Compare to Online Survey Panels? A Comparison of Food Knowledge and Perceptions Between the Zooniverse, Prolific and Qualtrics UK Panels

“…Food production and agriculture contributes 20-30% of global greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) (Poore and Nemecek, 2018;Kause et al, 2019). By nudging consumers toward a healthy and sustainable diets the environmental impact of the food system (CCC, 2020) and burden of diet-related chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease could be reduced (Rolls et al, 2002;Steenhuis and Vermeer, 2009;Miyazaki et al, 2011).…”