Investigating barriers to vegetarianism in developed economies, to determine the scope of opportunity for policy intervention in shaping pro-environmental consumption of food

Abstract

The process of industrial agriculture substantially impacts four planetary boundaries: climate change, loss of biosphere integrity, land-use change and biogeochemical cycles. In an effort to mitigate environmental impacts associated with livestock agriculture, a shift to more plant-based diets has been suggested. Despite robust evidence outlining these ecological impacts, there is a general public neglect and policy void of the environmental benefits of vegetarianism or environmentally-conscious consumption. Self-proclaimed rates of vegetarianism remain quite low, at 3 % of the Canadian population. Paying special attention to the role of environmental impacts, in addition to pro-environmental arguments and logic in research, an integrative literature review is used to extract possible reasons for the neglect of vegetarianism. Guided by an inductive coding approach, identification of barriers and bottlenecks to behavioural change are analyzed. Moreover, policy recommendations are suggested for shaping pro-environmental behaviour through adoption of vegetarianism. In doing so, this study demonstrates how the human dimension is crucial in the struggle for earth system balance.