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Animal Rights/Vegan Activists' Strategies



Meat reduction meets family reality

From Rebecca Gregson, PHAIRSociety.org
December 2024

Rebecca Gregson sits down with Julie Hesselberg to discuss her new research on how families manage dietary changes when teenage members adopt more plant-rich diets.

PHAIR Society

Julie, could you briefly introduce yourself?

My name is Julie Hesselberg. I am a PhD Candidate at MAPP Centre, Department of Management, Aarhus University. I have a background in economics and sociology. My research interests cover consumer behaviour and consumer culture.

You have a new paper out, co-authored with Susanne Pedersen and Alice Grønhøj, “Meat reduction meets family reality: Negotiating sustainable diets in households with adolescents”. What inspired this research and what were some of the key findings?

The research is inspired by the basic fact that no consumer lives on an island. And yet, in consumer research, consumers tend to be seen as individual units making decisions for themselves. Consumer research, as I see it, often fails to address the challenge of sustainability and identify real-world, family-oriented solutions. In this research, we focus on family decision making as it relates to meat consumption. By drawing on qualitative approaches we provide some key insights regarding how such decisions play out in everyday life.

In your work, you refer to the “fragile family meal equilibrium”. Can you explain what you mean by this?

“Equilibrium” refers to a way of eating where all family members are somewhat happy with the chosen food and, most importantly, can enjoy a shared meal. So, when individual members have different preferences, as they often do, equilibrium refers to the point where such preferences ‘intersect’. Family members seem to be striving for the point of equilibrium as a way of staying cohesive and maintaining ‘family’. What constitutes this point, in terms of concrete meal choices, will differ among families. However, new food preferences within a family, such as more plant-rich eating, constitute threats to the achieved equilibrium and harmony they have established.

Is it fair to say that the desire to uphold harmony and avoid conflict in families serves both as a driver and a barrier to reducing meat consumption. How does your research show this?

Yes, it is fair to say that the desire to uphold harmony in families serves as both a driver and barrier to reducing meat consumption. In our research, we see that in some families, green food preferences are toned down or even abandoned as a way of maintaining the “equilibrium”. In other families, the new, green preferences can be incorporated in everyday eating, as a way to maintain the equilibrium. This latter outcome is more likely to be the case when family members support the new preferences.

“Conflict is symptomatic of change”. Do you see this statement applying to the way households negotiate sustainable diets? How so?

No, I do not see conflict as an integral part of how households negotiate plant-forward dietary practices. Quit the opposite. No doubt conflicts are found in families, but these conflicts do not appear to be in any way dominant in the families we studied. Instead, we found that both parents and adolescents put considerable effort into avoiding conflict. This can be contrasted with studies of how families negotiate issues such as junk-food consumption and the “pester power” children can exert within these power struggles.

In your work, did you find any evidence of a “contagion effect” (e.g., one family member inspiring the family system to establish new eating practices)? If so, how did this unfold and what do you think were the facilitating factors?

Yes, we did. There were several facilitating factors. One of them, which we provide evidence for, is a desire to uphold harmony. For instance, parents will often be more than happy to eat meat-reduced meals if their children are involved and driving the change – family cohesion is often more important than eating meat. Also, change is facilitated better when more family members support the change. Lastly, our research indicates that time can be an important factor. Suggestions for new meals can sometimes be discarded due to limited time available for learning and cooking new meals in everyday life.

Parents will often be more than happy to eat meat-reduced meals if their children are involved and driving the change.

You highlight that there is some disagreement over the role that children play in family food-decisions. What is the disagreement about, and how does your research add to this commentary?

In the literature, there has been disagreement about how much control parents exert over children’s eating (and vice versa) and whether these decisions are still fundamentally hierarchical or more collaborative. Our research contributes empirical insights to the dynamics of family negotiation by showing that meal choices for dinner is often a product of negotiations and compromises by family members, parents and children alike.

You find evidence that the transition toward more sustainable food consumption practices within the household is likely to be characterised by “gendered work”. What do you mean by this?

In the population we sampled from (families in Denmark), shopping, cooking and cleaning are often shared tasks, done by mothers and fathers alike. But meal planning, and thus the planning of new green meals that will satisfy all members of the household, tend to fall on the shoulders of mothers. This can be a barrier to change since the job is challenging for one person alone to accomplish—it is difficult, time-consuming, and requires the input of others for success.

What would you like actors working on the transition toward a more sustainable food system to take away from your research?

I would like such actors to recognise that the lack of household change can be due to relational family dynamics, and is not solely due to consumer unwillingness, lack of knowledge or cooking competences, or perceptions of financial burden. Moreover, choices regarding meat reduction can be a source of family cohesion, attention, and expressions of love. Therefore, we support the idea that plant-rich eating in families can be a good first step towards society-wide food-systems change.


Interview and blog post by Rebecca Gregson. Editorial assistance by Jared Piazza.


Posted on All-Creatures.org: December 2024
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