Choosing sustainable meat? Understanding and fostering consumer adoption of alternative meat

减少肉类消费对于向更可持续的粮食系统过渡至关重要，但由于两个关键限制，当代饮食干预措施相对无效。首先，迄今为止的行为干预研究未能考虑更广泛的背景因素，例如个人（例如，生活方式改变的时刻），社会文化（例如，食物传统）和地理（例如，食物的可获得性）因素。其次，缺乏对植物性和细胞培养肉类等新型食品的研究。事实上，鼓励消费者采用这些替代肉类的努力进一步受到了对这些新型食品安全性的担忧，以及对不自然的看法和对合成生产方法的厌恶。总的来说，这些限制提供了一个新的机会，保证跨学科的方法，以更好地了解我们的食物行为周围的替代肉类。根据食物地理学文献，“食物景观”的概念考察了物理环境（例如，食物的可得性和可及性）和社会文化环境（例如，食物的传统和做法）如何影响我们获取、准备和消费食物的过程，并受其影响。当应用于替代肉类时，这表明替代肉类的采用在很大程度上取决于食品领域中替代肉类的可用性、可及性、可负担性、便利性和可接受性。因此，我们如何概念化和体验这种新颖的食品，固有地嵌入在我们的（个性化的）食品景观中（Clary等人，2017），这可能会随着时间的推移而随着地理、文化和经济背景的变化而变化，但这种变化几乎没有被探索过。通过应用食物景观的视角，本提案旨在(a)研究地理、社会学和心理因素影响消费者对替代肉类（包括植物性和细胞培养肉类）的接受和消费，以及(b)设计和测试行为改变干预措施，以促进替代肉类的采用。方法第一阶段将采用定性焦点小组方法来了解(a)对肉类和肉类替代品的可获得性、吸引力和可负担性的看法，(b)接受的社会、地理和心理驱动因素和障碍，以及(c)消费者对肉类替代品的期望。然后，第二和第三阶段测试“上游”和“下游”（即上下文和个人）干预措施，以促进替代肉类消费。第二阶段将操纵(a)肉类和肉类替代品的价格和特征，(b)食品信息的框架，以及(c)使用生态标签来测试消费者的支付意愿，作为量化接受程度的方法，同时检查心理价值和障碍、地理、文化和经济因素对所使用的干预措施的影响。第三阶段将通过在线和实地实验来调查食物菜单上的默认选项。总体而言，在必要时，将通过社交媒体、看门人组织和多产组织从英国公众中招募具有代表性的参与者样本。影响考虑到新型食品的监管环境即将发生变化，该提案将及时而关键地为消费者行为提供基于证据的研究，为未来的政策和工业需求提供信息。食品标准局和布莱恩特研究公司将通过共同监督提供见解和经验，以确保这项研究具有影响力并适用于政策。3DBT和Aleph农场将共同设计研究，为替代肉类的生产和营销提供信息。Bryant Research还提供了一个为期6个月的实习机会，以获得与工业客户的工作经验。

Reducing meat consumption is crucial to transition to a more sustainable food system, but contemporary dietary interventions have been relatively ineffective due to two key limitations. Firstly, behavioural intervention research to date has failed to consider wider contextual factors, such as personal (e.g., moments of change in lifestyle), socio-cultural (e.g., food tradition) and geographical (e.g., availability of food) factors. Secondly, studies on novel food products such as plant-based and cell-cultured meat are lacking. In fact, efforts to encourage consumer adoption of these alternative meats is further limited by concerns over the safety of these novel food products, and perceptions of unnaturalness and disgust towards the synthetic production methods. Overall, these limitations present a novel opportunity to warrant an interdisciplinary approach to better understand our food behaviour surrounding alternative meat. Drawing on the food geography literature, the concept of "foodscapes" examines how physical (e.g., food availability and accessibility) and socio-cultural (e.g., food tradition and practices) environments influence, and are influenced by, the process in which we acquire, prepare and consume food. When applied to alternative meat, this suggests that the adoption of alternative meat is largely determined by the availability, accessibility, affordability, convenience and acceptance of alternative meat in the foodscape. How we conceptualise and experience such novel food products is thus inherently embedded within our (individualised) foodscape (Clary et al., 2017), which may vary according to changes in geographical, cultural and economic contexts over time, but such variations have hardly been explored.By applying a foodscape perspective, this proposal aims to (a) examine what geographical, sociological and psychological factors shape consumer acceptance and consumption of alternative meat (including plant-based and cell-cultured meat), and (b) design and test behavioural change interventions for fostering the adoption of alternative meat. MethodPhase 1 will apply a qualitative focus group method to understand (a) the perception of availability, attractiveness and affordability of meat and meat alternatives, (b) social, geographical, and psychological drivers of and barriers to acceptance, and (c) consumer expectations of meat alternatives. Phases 2 and 3 then test 'upstream' and 'downstream' (i.e., contextual and individual) interventions for promoting alternative meat consumption. Phase 2 will manipulate (a) price and characteristics of meat and meat alternatives, (b) framing of food product information, and (c) use of eco-labels to test consumers' willingness to pay as a method to quantify acceptance, alongside examining the impacts of psychological values and barriers, geographical, cultural and economic factors on the interventions used. Phase 3 will investigate default options on food menus using online and field experiments. Overall, representative samples of participants from the UK public will be recruited via social media, gatekeeper organisations and Prolific where necessary. ImpactGiven imminent changes to the regulatory landscape of novel food items, this proposal will be timely and crucial in providing evidence-based research on consumer behaviour to inform future policy and industrial needs. The Food Standards Agency and Bryant Research will collaborate to provide insights and experience through co-supervision to ensure this research is impactful and applicable to policy. 3DBT and Aleph Farm will co-design studies to inform the production and marketing of alternative meat. Bryant Research has also offered a 6-month placement opportunity to gain working experience with industrial clients.