STUDY: Climate impact labels could help people eat less meat
More participants selected a sustainable menu item when menus displayed high–climate impact labels than when menus displayed low–climate impact labels.
HELENA HORTON: Climate impact labels on foods such as red meat are an effective way to get people to stop choosing options that negatively affect the planet, a study has found. Policymakers have been debating how to get people to make less carbon-heavy food choices. In April, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report urged world leaders, especially those in developed countries, to support a transition to sustainable, healthy, low-emissions diets…
Participants in the study, which used a nationally representative sample of adults in the US, were shown a fast food menu and prompted to select one item they would like to order for dinner. Participants were randomised to view menus with one of three labels: a quick response code label on all items (control group); green low–climate impact label on chicken, fish or vegetarian items (positive framing); or red high–climate impact label on red meat items (negative framing).
The low–climate impact condition menu stated: “This item is environmentally sustainable. It has low greenhouse gas emissions and a low contribution to climate change.” The high–climate impact condition menu said: “This item is not environmentally sustainable. It has high greenhouse gas emissions and a high contribution to climate change.”
Compared with participants in the control group, 23.5% more participants selected a sustainable menu item when menus displayed high–climate impact labels and 9.9% more participants selected a sustainable menu item when menus displayed low–climate impact labels. Across experimental conditions, participants who selected a sustainable item rated their order as healthier than those who selected an unsustainable item, according to a mean perceived healthfulness score.
Some may disagree with this labelling; intensively produced chicken has been found to be damaging for the environment, as has some farmed and trawled fish. The study authors, from Johns Hopkins and Harvard universities, said: “Animal-based food production, primarily driven by beef production, is responsible for 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions and is an important modifiable contributor to climate change”. SOURCE…
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