“We don’t tell people what to do”: An examination of the factors influencing NGO decisions to campaign for reduced meat consumption in light of climate change

Laestadius, Linnea; Neff, Roni A.; Barry, Colleen L.; Frattaroli, Shannon

doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2014.08.001

Cited by 123 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…It requires supportive government policies and practices, new and different business practices and civil society initiatives working in synergy (Dibb and Fitzpatrick 2014;Biesbroek et al 2013;Darnton and Evans 2013;Garnett et al 2015b;Thøgerson 2014;Westhoek et al 2011). While several authors still claim that ''advocating for reduced meat consumption as part of healthy sustainable diets has not yet translated into policies and practices from government to support consumer behaviour change'' (Dibb and Fitzpatrick 2014, p. 5;Dagevos and Voordouw 2013;Laestadius et al 2014;Bailey et al 2014;Westhoek et al 2011), it is evident that a variety of institutions have already started to take action and/or are preparing to do so. This includes governments in countries such as China, where the government is running a major campaign employing well-known U.S. actors such as Arnold Schwarzenegger (The Guardian 2016), and Germany, where reducing meat consumption is now included in the climate goals (BMUB 2016).…”

Section: Political and Economic Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reducing meat consumption in developed and transition countries to counter climate change and biodiversity loss: a review of influence factors

2016

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A dietary shift towards reduced meat consumption is an efficient strategy for countering biodiversity loss and climate change in regions (developed and transition countries) where consumption is already at a very high level or is rapidly expanding (such as China). Biodiversity is being degraded and lost to a considerable extent, with 70 % of the world's deforestation a result of stripping in order to grow animal feed. Furthermore, about 14.5 % of the world's anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) are calculated to be the result of (mainly industrial) livestock farming. The research reviewed here focuses on the feasibility of reducing meat consumption in developed and transition countries, as this would-among other positive effects-reduce the global loss of biodiversity, the need for unsustainable agricultural practices and GHG emissions. This article reviews the barriers, opportunities and steps that need to be taken in order to encourage the consumption of less meat, based on an interdisciplinary and multifactor approach. The evidence is gathered from a systematic metaanalysis of factors (including personal, sociocultural and external factors) that influence individual meat-eating behaviour. The most relevant factors that influence behaviour appear to be emotions and cognitive dissonance (between knowledge, conflicting values and actual behaviour) and sociocultural factors (e.g. social norms or social identity). For different factors and groups of people, different strategies are appropriate. For example, for men and older people deploying the health argument or arguing for flexitarianism (reduced meat consumption) may prove the most promising approaches, while providing emotional messages or promoting new social norms is recommended in order to address barriers such as cognitive dissonance.

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Section: Political and Economic Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reducing meat consumption in developed and transition countries to counter climate change and biodiversity loss: a review of influence factors

2016

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“…It can even be expected that consumers higher in meat attachment will be especially prone to rationalize meat consumption, which in turn is shown to be associated with commitment to eat meat (Piazza et al, 2015). While these hypotheses will require experimental testing in the near future, there are indeed concerns that campaigns seeking to encourage reduced meat consumption may be at risk of being accused of questioning consumers individual right to consume what they want, which is arguably reinforced by the cultural significance of meat consumption in the West (e.g., de Boer, Sch€ osler, & Boersema, 2013;Doyle, 2011;Laestadius, Neff, Barry, & Frattaroli, 2014). Looking forward, empowering practitioners and policy makers on the issue of meat attachment may allow for expanding knowledge on how to work with these dimensions (i.e.…”

Section: Informing Practice and Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

Attached to meat? (Un)Willingness and intentions to adopt a more plant-based diet

2015

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In response to calls to expand knowledge on consumer willingness to reduce meat consumption and to adopt a more plant-based diet, this work advances the construct of meat attachment and the Meat Attachment Questionnaire (MAQ). The MAQ is a new measure referring to a positive bond towards meat consumption. It was developed and validated through three sequential studies following from an in-depth approach to consumer representations of meat. The construct and initial pool of items were firstly developed drawing on qualitative data from 410 participants in a previous work on consumers' valuation of meat. Afterwards, 1023 participants completed these items and other measures, providing data to assess item selection, factor structure, reliability, convergent and concurrent validity, and predictive ability. Finally, a sample of 318 participants from a different cultural background completed the final version of the MAQ along with other measures to assess measurement invariance, reliability and predictive ability. Across samples, a four-factor solution (i.e., hedonism, affinity, entitlement, and dependence) with 16 items and a second-order global dimension of meat attachment fully met criteria for good model fit. The MAQ subscales and global scale were associated with attitudes towards meat, subjective norm, human supremacy beliefs, eating habits, and dietary identity. They also provided additional explanatory variance above and beyond the core TPB variables (i.e. attitudes, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control) in willingness and intentions concerning meat substitution. Overall, the findings point towards the relevance of the MAQ for the study of meat consumption and meat substitution, and lend support to the idea that holding a pattern of attachment towards meat may hinder a shift towards a more plant-based diet.

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“…His explanation echoes discoveries in the US, Sweden and Canada of non-governmental environmental organizations' reluctance to take on the cause of reducing meat consumption because they perceive it as an issue with limited social and political appeal and are hesitant to tell people what to do (Laestadius et al, 2014). Adding to the difficulty in Brazil, meat eating is associated with status and social mobility, and Brazilians are led to believe that the agribusiness sector and exports are an inalterable pillar in the country's gross national product, inducing a feeling of post-ecological powerlessness (Blühdorn, 2007) in the face of information about the agribusiness sector's unsustainability, to the extent that they are helped to be aware of it in the first place.…”

Section: Accounting For the Identified Tendenciesmentioning

confidence: 90%

Buffers Against Inconvenient Knowledge: Brazilian Newspaper Representations of the Climate-Meat Link

Lahsen¹

2017

Desenvolv. Meio Ambiente

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Analyzing Brazilian newspapers' climate coverage leading up to 2010, this article shows that climate change was framed as an energy problem although energy is a small part of the country's emissions compared to emissions from land use change and agriculture. Linked to well over half of national emissions, meat production is the single largest cause of national emissions. Yet discussions of meat as a problem in the context of climate change were marginal, at best. During the years 2007-2008, only 0.14% of climate change-mentioning articles -0.02% of the total word count of climate change-mentioning articles -were dedicated to meat as a problem in the context of climate change. Counting also passages in articles not dedicated to the topic, the word count only rose to 0.13% of the total word flow of the articles. To the extent that the topic of meat as a problem appeared, it was underdeveloped and approached in ways that reduced attention, concern, and agency on the part of Brazilians to steer the country towards a new, more sustainable development path. This paper presents these findings and offers a preliminary political economic explanation for its existence.Keywords: media coverage; climate change; energy; meat; solutions. RESUMO:Analisando a cobertura sobre o clima nos jornais brasileiros nos anos 2002 até 2010, este artigo mostra que a mudança climática foi enquadrada como um problema de energia, apesar de ela ser uma pequena parte das emissões do país em comparação com as emissões de mudança no uso da terra e da agricultura. Enquanto a produção de carne é a maior causa das emissões nacionais, discussões sobre a carne como um problema no contexto das alterações climáticas foram marginais, na melhor das hipóteses. Na medida em que apareceu, o tema da carne era subdesenvolvido e abordado de tal forma que reduziu a atenção, a preocupação e o poder dos brasileiros para guiar o país para um novo caminho de desenvolvimento nacional mais sustentável. O artigo apresenta esses resultados e oferece uma explicação econômica e política preliminar.

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“We don’t tell people what to do”: An examination of the factors influencing NGO decisions to campaign for reduced meat consumption in light of climate change

Cited by 123 publications

References 44 publications

Reducing meat consumption in developed and transition countries to counter climate change and biodiversity loss: a review of influence factors

Reducing meat consumption in developed and transition countries to counter climate change and biodiversity loss: a review of influence factors

Attached to meat? (Un)Willingness and intentions to adopt a more plant-based diet

Buffers Against Inconvenient Knowledge: Brazilian Newspaper Representations of the Climate-Meat Link

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