{"id":393,"date":"2020-10-26T15:26:17","date_gmt":"2020-10-26T14:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/foodsystemimpactscv19\/?p=393"},"modified":"2020-10-26T15:26:17","modified_gmt":"2020-10-26T14:26:17","slug":"meat-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/foodsystemsimpactscv19\/2020\/10\/26\/meat-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Meat Again!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Four<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

By Prof. Michael Winter<\/strong><\/p>\n

I found myself in Grimsby recently talking about meat! Well not literally on the east coast, for it was yet another virtual encounter.\u00a0 The National Food Strategy invited me to be an \u2018expert\u2019 for one of their public dialogue events and a fascinating evening it proved to be. I have had a number of experiences of public engagement events over the years and this one was no exception in proving to be stimulating and fun with a touch of the unexpected thrown in. I can\u2019t breach confidentiality by revealing the views of the Grimsby people I \u2018met\u2019. But I can say how impressed I was by their willingness to engage with the excellent material prepared by the NFS team and contribute to some stimulating debate on the issue of meat consumption. The debate was wide ranging and certainly not confined only to health and\/or methane and climate change. I look forward to seeing what use the NFS makes of insights drawn from the public dialogues.<\/p>\n

I drew particular satisfaction from the Grimsby conversations for two reasons: first the non- confrontational nature of the exchanges in contrast to other discussions on the topic I have on occasion been party to; and secondly, the novelty of some of the thinking.\u00a0 There has not been a great deal new said on the meat debate in recent research publications that I have seen – the climate change and dietary arguments now follow a rather well-worn path. But I sat up when I saw the title of a new publication from the Global Food Security Programme, mainly because I didn\u2019t initially understand it: \u2018Low-agency population interventions to reduce meat consumption\u2019 (Reynolds et al 2020<\/a>).\u00a0 It transpires that agency in this context refers to people\u2019s ability or inclination to act, and therefore low-agency population interventions are those that require little or no engagement from the individuals affected.\u00a0 Does this mark a shift from the behaviour change agenda that has been rather dominant for quite a while in debates about shifting people towards more sustainable and healthy lifestyles?\u00a0 Well a single academic paper does not amount to a policy shift, so only time will tell whether the low-agency approach has traction.\u00a0 But what exactly does it mean in practice?\u00a0 The authors propose low-agency population interventions as a response to the intention-behaviour gap citing studies that have shown that a willingness amongst some consumers to reduce meat consumption may not lead to a change in levels of consumption.\u00a0 This is usually put down to the widespread availability of meat, large portion sizes, marketing, and the low cost of less healthy foods. In this context it is \u2018unlikely that the sole provision of information about the health and environmental risks associated with meat consumption will reduce its consumption\u2019. The alternative low agency approach is where:<\/p>\n

\u2026 food environments are designed to encourage individuals to make healthier and more sustainable food choices without limiting their freedom of choice. In these environments, extreme levels of self-control would not be required to avoid the overconsumption of meat. Instead, changes to the environment would guide individuals toward consuming less meat with minimal conscious engagement and may therefore be more effective and equitable than other strategies. This approach can also change norms; being provided with smaller portion sizes can lead to individuals choosing smaller portions in other settings.\u00a0 Low-agency population interventions include taxes on less healthy foods or nudging strategies like changing the availability and placement of food products, reformulating food products and changing portion sizes. These approaches have been demonstrated to reduce individuals\u2019 excess consumption of many types of food (e.g. chocolate, hot meals, crisps) and therefore have potential for reducing meat consumption.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The authors have systematically reviewed a wide range of literature to explore the various low agency options and are careful to point out how robust the evidence and data are for each option. Except that this careful objectivity slips in the conclusions where they say that \u2018stakeholders working to produce and sell meat products throughout the food system are likely to oppose such interventions\u2019. For this bold claim they cite a single reference which is a study of fast food vendors near secondary schools in disadvantaged Scottish neighbourhoods and is based on interviews with ten fast food shop managers. I would suggest that this rather specific source hardly provides sufficient evidence to make a claim about what might happen throughout the food system, a system which is highly complex and diverse and which our research is seeking to uncover and explain.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reynolds J.P. Scalco A. Ejebu O. Toumpakari Z. Smith A. Lu F. Clark B. and Penney T.L. (2020) Low-agency population interventions to reduce meat consumption, Report produced for the Global Food Security Programme. September 2020.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  By Prof. Michael Winter I found myself in Grimsby recently talking about meat! Well not literally on the east coast, for it was yet another virtual encounter.\u00a0 The National Food Strategy invited me to be an \u2018expert\u2019 for one of their public dialogue events and a fascinating evening it proved to be. I have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1361,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMeat Again! - Food systems impacts of COVID 19<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/foodsystemsimpactscv19\/2020\/10\/26\/meat-again\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meat Again! - Food systems impacts of COVID 19\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"  By Prof. Michael Winter I found myself in Grimsby recently talking about meat! 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