How to reduce the environmental footprint of people's diets
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Cambridge
Department Name: Zoology
Abstract
Livestock has
been described as climate change's forgotten sector, contributing an estimated 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than direct emissions
from the transport sector. Yet none of the 120 national plans to be presented at the COP21 Climate Negotiations in Paris propose reducing meat
consumption. In addition to the implications for climate change this important and overlooked topic also has impacts on land use, food security and public
health. The research project proposes investigating which interventions are effective in reducing people's meat consumption. Reserach will be carried out
with colleges, retailers and public outlets in collaboration with Cambridge University's Living Laboratory for Sustainability. A number of experiments will be
carried out including: 1) Experimental before/after comparisons on meat consumption after the provision of information on the environmental, health and
animal welfare impacts of eating meat. 2) Targeting habitual and automatic behaviours, by changing the prominence, accessibility and opt-in vs op-out of
meat and vegetarian menu options and foodstuffs. 3) Investigating the permanence of inteventions, do consumption patterns persist after experimental
treatments stop? 4) Investigating how the effectiveness of interventions varies with age, gender, political views, etc.
been described as climate change's forgotten sector, contributing an estimated 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than direct emissions
from the transport sector. Yet none of the 120 national plans to be presented at the COP21 Climate Negotiations in Paris propose reducing meat
consumption. In addition to the implications for climate change this important and overlooked topic also has impacts on land use, food security and public
health. The research project proposes investigating which interventions are effective in reducing people's meat consumption. Reserach will be carried out
with colleges, retailers and public outlets in collaboration with Cambridge University's Living Laboratory for Sustainability. A number of experiments will be
carried out including: 1) Experimental before/after comparisons on meat consumption after the provision of information on the environmental, health and
animal welfare impacts of eating meat. 2) Targeting habitual and automatic behaviours, by changing the prominence, accessibility and opt-in vs op-out of
meat and vegetarian menu options and foodstuffs. 3) Investigating the permanence of inteventions, do consumption patterns persist after experimental
treatments stop? 4) Investigating how the effectiveness of interventions varies with age, gender, political views, etc.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Andrew Balmford (Primary Supervisor) | |
| Emma Garnett (Student) |
Studentship Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NE/R009457/1 | 01/10/2017 | 31/05/2023 | |||
| 1796601 | Studentship | NE/R009457/1 | 01/10/2016 | 06/09/2020 | Emma Garnett |
| Description | Increasing the proportion of vegetarian options offered in cafeterias increases their sales (and decreases sales of meat-based options). Placing the vegetarian option first in cafeterias can increase sales but is highly context dependent. Catering managers and cafeterias have a key role to play in bringing about sustainable diets. |
| Exploitation Route | Our findings can be applied by caterers to reduce the environmental footprint of their cafeterias. |
| Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Environment |
| URL | https://solutionsearch.org/entityform/334https://pnas.altmetric.com/details/67495010/news |
| Description | Cafeterias across the University of Cambridge, and other Universities have been using our findings to increase sales of vegetarian meals, reducing meat consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-49637723 |
| First Year Of Impact | 2018 |
| Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink |
| Impact Types | Societal |
| Title | Research data supporting "Impact of increasing vegetarian availability on meal selection and sales in cafeterias" |
| Description | This research data contains data from across 2017 on vegetarian sales, total sales, summaries of individual meal selections and model estimates from cafeterias at University of Cambridge colleges A, B and C. The aim of the study was to test investigate the impact of increasing vegetarian availability (as a proportion of total options) on vegetarian sales and total sales. We collected data from 3 University of Cambridge college cafeterias during weekday term-time lunches and dinners (the university's colleges are broadly equivalent to halls of residence). All colleges already varied the number of total meal options and vegetarian (including vegan) options served at lunch and dinner. Study 1 comprised nonexperimental data of 86,932 hot main meals (salads and sandwiches were not included) from colleges A and B across lunch and dinner during the spring, summer, and autumn terms in the 2017 calendar year. Study 2 consisted of experimental data of 7,712 meals from college C lunches during the autumn term in 2017, when we experimentally altered the number of vegetarian options on offer at lunchtimes, between 1 and 2. We summarized the sales transaction data into 1) aggregate data, summarizing the total vegetarian and meat/fish (hereafter "meat") sales at each lunch and dinner and 2) individual-level data on whether each diner at a meal selected a vegetarian or meat meal. Purchases made with university cards enabled anonymized individual diner-level purchases to be tracked; this is useful in evaluating how diners with different pre-study levels of purchasing vegetarian meals responded to increasing vegetarian availability. We used the total number of vegetarian and meat meals sold at a mealtime to analyse total sales. Measuring rebound effects (i.e., increased meat purchases at another time) is not possible for study 1 as vegetarian availability varied across lunches and dinners. For study 2, although we cannot completely capture rebound effects as we do not have information on what diners ate outside the cafeteria, as a proxy, we measured vegetarian sales at college C during dinnertimes, which were not included in the experimental intervention. We had originally intended dinners to be included, but this posed too much of an operational burden for the cafeteria. This created the opportunity to conduct a post hoc analysis of rebound effects that was not part of the original study design. We estimated the effect of vegetarian availability on vegetarian meal sales and total meal sales, adjusting for other predetermined variables, including day of the week, ambient temperature, and average price difference between vegetarian and meat options using linear models (LMs) and binomial generalized linear models (GLMs) for aggregate data. Binomial generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs) were used for the individual-level data, with individual diner fitted as a random effect, which allows each diner to have a different likelihood of selecting a vegetarian meal. A 95% confidence level was used to calculate confidence intervals (CIs). Models were evaluated using the Akaike information criterion (AIC), interpretability, and model diagnostics. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Description | Coordinating stalls at Earth Optimism event. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I coordinated the stall holders to promote sustainable food and designed a public engagement activity to get members of the public to guess the carbon footprints of different foods. http://www.earthoptimism.cambridgeconservation.org/solutions-fair/ |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/sir-david-attenborough-cambridge-yesterday-1293... |