Food consumption practices and sustainable development

Sustainable development has achieved world-wide recognition as an environmental and socio-political model over the last decade. It is within this context that demands are increasingly being made to change consumption patterns in the industrial world towards a more sustainable use of energy and other resources. The field of food consumption has been neglected in this debate, although it is of central importance for every individual and all societies, and of high relevance for sustainable development. This project pursues the goal of examining food consumption within the context of the sustainability debate and strives to reveal opportunities and barriers for sustainable food consumption patterns. How are eating patterns formed and what are the reasons for changes in these patterns? How are eating behaviours influenced by work, spare time, family and public discourses? Which food consumption patterns are sustainable and how common are these patterns? Can links to sustainable eating habits be identified and can obstacles be determined? What type of framework is necessary in order to achieve more sustainable food consumption patterns for the general population? These are central questions that are to be addressed by the project. Theoretically, the concept of sustainable lifestyles and consumption patterns will be combined with social scientific concepts regarding food consumption practices. The study is primarily sociologically oriented and will be innovative in combining social scientific knowledge from environmental, consumption and food studies. Results derived from studies in other social and natural science disciplines will also be tied into this study (e.g. economics, nutritional science, social ecology). In total 100 Austrian households from various sectors in society will be asked about their eating habits, their related determinants, changes and consequences. Working with this data, links and obstacles for sustainable food consumption patterns will be determined. The research design follows the principles of qualitative social science research, it pursues an open, flexible research procedure and the data will primarily be collected through qualitative interviews. Qualitative methods will also be used for the data analysis. A typology of sustainability-related food consumption practices will be developed based on the obtained data and different thematic topics will be singled out (e.g. food consumption and ecology).

Sustainability as a model for societal development is based on the idea that present generations should meet their needs without compromising the needs of future generations. Sustainability is also a matter of the food system and people`s food consumption patterns. The consumption of sustainable food entails that these foods were produced environmentally friendly, that these foods should contribute to people`s health and that foods of qualitatively high standards should be affordable to all members of the society. Moreover, food consumption patterns have to be socially satisfying. The principle aim of the qualitative project was to examine food consumption practices in Austria in order to reveal opportunities as well as barriers for sustainable food consumption. Therefore, we have conducted 70 in-depth-interviews with food consumers from various social milieus. The main results of the qualitative interview analysis can be summarized as follows: Food consumption practices are determined by socio- demographic factors (e.g. level of education, gender) as well as by food orientations and structural factors. As a result we identified 8 different food orientations guiding different food consumption practices and offering more or less pronounced opportunities for sustainable nutrition. Furthermore, structural factors (e.g. work-related demands) do have a certain impact on food consumption practices. Gender turned out to be one of the crucial factors in food consumption: In general, women show more sustainable food consumption practices than men but often with regard to social body norms ("the slim body"). Although we witness a rising female labour market participation, women still have to do the bulk of housework and feeding work. On the one hand this may lead to an extended affinity to sustainability in food consumption, but on the other hand the dual workload is often connected with feelings of being stressed and overburdened. In fact, there is a strong linkage between food consumption and health. As a result of our interview analysis we discovered 7 different health orientations, representing a wide range of different practices. The continuum is reaching from practices which are completely dominated by aspects of health to consumers who do not care about whether the food is good or bad for their health. All in all, health motivations offer a lot of opportunities for sustainable food consumption. With respect to different sustainability aspects of food consumption, we did not find any overall sustainable food consumption style which is practised by a clearly discernable group of consumers. In fact, there are different food consumption practices and food-related motivations of consumers which provide opportunities for sustainability (e.g. ecology, quality, health, sociability, care for others), but also distinct barriers for sustainability do exist (e.g. lack of resources, absence of food-related concerns). The implementation of strategies for sustainable food consumption thus have to take into account that groups differ a lot in socially aspects and with regard to motivations. Furthermore these strategies should not only address consumers. There is a necessity to reduce structural barriers for sustainable consumption. Political measures should aim to combat gender inequalities and to encourage men`s participation in unpaid work and thus feeding work. Last but not least, we need to enhance competences in food matters within the society and strategies to support sustainable health policies.