Meat-heavy diets not only risk our health but that of the planet, as livestock farming on a massive scale destroys habitats and generates greenhouse gases.
Conservationists at the University of Cambridge are investigating ways of “nudging” people towards eating more plants and less meat, to help curb the environmental damage caused by excessive consumption of animal products.
The researchers experimented on customers in the cafeterias of two Cambridge colleges to find out whether the position of vegetarian options influences the uptake of plant-based dining.
They collected and analysed data from 105,143 meal selections over a two-year period, alternating the placement of meat and veg dishes every week, and then changing the pattern to every month.
The size of the study is unprecedented. A previous review of various studies using “choice architecture” to reduce meat intake only reached a combined total of 11,290 observations.
The researchers found that simply placing veggie before meat in the order of meal options as people entered the serving area did little to boost green eating in one of the colleges.
In the other college, however, the sales of plant-based dishes shot up by a quarter (25.2%) in the weekly analysis, and by almost 40% (39.6) in the monthly comparison.
The difference: almost a metre of added distance between the vegetarian and meat options, with an 85cm gap in the first college compared to a 181cm gap in the second. The findings are published in the journal Nature Food.
“Reducing meat and dairy consumption is one of the simplest and most impactful choices we can make to protect the climate, environment and other species,” said study lead author Emma Garnett, a conservationist from Cambridge’s Department of Zoology.
“We’ve got to make better choices easier for people. We hope to see these findings used by catering managers and indeed anyone interested in cafeteria and menu design that promotes more climate friendly diets.”
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge