Type 2 diabetes has more than doubled in the past decade among Black Americans. Researchers have suggested that Black Seventh-day Adventists, who follow a plant-based diet, are concerned about preventing the complications from this disease. The purpose of this qualitative ethnographic study was to explore the chance and perceptions of complications from type 2 diabetes among 10 purposefully sampled Black Seventh-day Adventists. The health belief model (HBM) served as the conceptual framework. Two constructs, education and income, were chosen for this study. Education was chosen to increase understanding about the chronic nature of the disease, and income was chosen because it is not inexpensive to maintain a plant-based diet as someone with type 2 diabetes. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews which were inductively coded and then categorized around emerging themes. The key finding of this study revealed that these 10 participants relied on the Adventist lifestyle as an antidote to the complications of type 2 diabetes. The implications for positive social change include increased awareness and education of complications, and decreased risk for chances of complications among informants in this study.

The purpose of this qualitative research paper was to explore how companies who offer plant-based meat and dairy substitutes in the Swedish market, can influence flexitarians towards a more plant-based diet. This was based on the conflict between the need to substitute animal products with more plant-based alternatives and the current resistance among consumers to change from traditional eating patterns. A qualitative research approach was adopted, where seven semi-structured interviews were conducted in the empirical data collection process. The sample included six leading brands in the Swedish market, namely Oatly, Oumph!, Sproud, Violife, Fry and ICA, and one industry expert named Mattias from Vegomagasinet. The research identified seven themes where two of them were most significant; the need to direct the communication to flexitarians and the importance of creating a taste and texture that is similar to meat and dairy. The five remaining influential factors concerned collaborations with stakeholders, challenging packaging design, transformative marketing, earned media and premium prices.

The demand and consumption of food products created by the livestock- and fishing industries, have a major environmental impact, affecting climate change, biodiversity, and ecosystems. Yet, there seems to be a lack of public awareness of the direct impact one’s choice of food has on the environment, which suggests that more effective efforts are needed in order to introduce the concept to consumers. By the influence of a post-humanist perspective, this thesis investigates how the environmental impact of consuming animal-based food is communicated by Swedish environmental non-governmental organizations, and how the organizations are actively working to change consumers’ dietary habits by selecting more sustainable options. The research has focused on the external communication channels of the organizations, where verbiage and imagery have been analyzed in context, by using an analytical perspective of a constructionist view of communication, of where I acknowledge that communication has changed in our digital society. The findings indicated that the organizations are showing clear efforts and willingness of communicating the environmental impact of consuming animal-based food, although these efforts remain quite limited. The promotion of a plant-based diet as a way to help mitigate climate change was also communicated to a fair extent, but the organizations seemed to be privileging the preferences of consumers for animal-based food products over the actual need for them. Given that scientific evidence has shown that human consumption of animal-based food products has a major environmental impact, the overall produced knowledge by the organizations’ communication of consuming such products is still lacking. This suggests that more effective communication efforts are still needed, given the severity of the issue, which requires a drastic social change in eating habits as currently practiced in developed nations, in order to effectively mitigate climate change.

Esta dissertação se compõe, primeiro, de uma análise interdisciplinar e de macromarketing sobre o mercado alimentar com enfoque nos problemas da atual configuração centrada em carnes e lácteos. Levantando diversos estudos recentes e relatórios de áreas climática, ambiental, econômica, da saúde, da nutrição, da antropologia e da ética, apresenta-se vantagens de uma reconfiguração na ordem do mercado alimentar devido ao protagonismo dos produtos de origem animal na emissão de gases de efeito estufa, mudança no uso da terra, pressão pelo desmatamento, uso e poluição da água, perda da biodiversidade, ameaça à segurança alimentar global, inerente ineficiência econômica, reforço às desigualdades socioeconômicas, proliferação de novas doenças transmissíveis, impactos à saúde do consumidor, sustentação de altos índices de mortalidade humana e violação dos direitos dos animais. A partir dessa análise de macromarketing, se propõe uma reconfiguração vegana do mercado alimentar como importante alternativa para aliviar, de modo integrado, esse conjunto de problemas enfretandos pela sociedade contemporânea. Nesse sentido, uma reconfiguração sociotécnica para favorecer padrões alimentares veganos mostra-se como alternativa à sustentabilidade, especialmente em relação às mudanças climáticas, dado que essa transformação é indicada como relevante estratégia de mitigação e de adaptação, concomitantemente Diversas dificuldades para tal reconfiguração estão alinhadas à constante reiteração das práticas sociais através do habitus e outros dispositivos para a manutenção da atual estrutura e ordem socioecônomica. Por isso, transformações no mercado alimentar são complexas, dadas as relações de poder, relativas aos interesses dos diversos atores direta e indiretamente beneficiados economicamente, e das bases culturais e históricas que sustentam práticas envolvidas nesse consumo. Assim, compreender as influências sobre o comportamento do consumidor, entendendo-o como um agente inserido em estruturas e dinâmicas sociais, é essencial — embora não suficiente — para estudar a transformação de um mercado. Por isso, propõe-se um estudo, de certa forma amplo, com consumidores para compreender elementos que operam dificultando, e eventualmente facilitando, a transformação vegana de suas práticas de consumo alimentar. Através de uma coleta empírita, exploratória e de multimétodo, com ativa participação de 54 consumidores que mantêm diferentes padrões de consumo alimentar em relação à ingestão de produtos de origem animal, foi possível identificar e compreender elementos que operam como barreiras e como facilitadores à ruptura de hábitos alimentares baseados em carnes e derivados de animais e à manutenção de novos hábitos alimentares à base de plantas Para tanto, utilizou-se entrevistas em profundidade e questionários abertos aplicados online; estratégias de coleta essas em que se pôde obter reconstruções narrativas de memórias, experiências cotidianas e crenças com a participação de consumidores categorizados como reducetarianos, vegetarianos e veganos; e também se obteve percepções, projeções e algumas experiências de consumidores que mantêm suas práticas alimentares conforme o padrão centrado em carnes. Em análises integradas desses diversos dados qualitativos, incluindo também, para ilustração, evidências midiáticas e dados de coleta de campo do contexto em estudo, pôde-se compreender como operam enquanto barreiras e facilitadores alguns elementos. Nessas análises, os comportamentos de consumo alimentar puderam ser compreendidos como práticas sociais inseridas em dinâmicas complexas, envolvendo não apenas aspectos individuais de nível cognitivo e biofísico, mas aspectos materiais e aspectos de ordem sociocultural — sobretudo da ordem de mercado. Intenciona-se contribuir teórica e metodológicamente para estudos sobre transformações nos padrões de consumo em favor de lógicas mais sustentáveis e gerar subsídios a organizações alinhadas a transformações veganas no mercado alimentar. / This master's thesis is composed, firstly, by an interdisciplinary and macromarketing analysis of the food market, focusing on the problems of the current configuration centered on meats and dairy products. Collecting several recent studies and reports of climate, environmental, economic, health, nutrition, anthropology and ethics areas, is presented problems due to the leading role of animal products in the greenhouse gas emissions, land use change, deforestation pressure, water use and pollution, biodiversity loss, threats to global food security, its inherent economic inefficiency, socio-economic inequalities, new communicable diseases, impacts on consumer health, high levels of human mortality and animal rights violations. From this macromarketing analysis, a vegan reconfiguration of the food market is proposed as an important alternative to alleviate, in an integrated way, this set of problems faced by contemporary society. In this sense, a socio-technical reconfiguration, to vegan food standards, is proposed as an alternative to sustainability, especially in relation to climate change, since this transformation is indicated as a relevant mitigation and adaptation strategy, concomitantly Several difficulties for such reconfiguration are supposed considering the constant reiteration of social practices through the habitus and other social and material devices operating for the maintenance of the current socioeconomic structure and order. Therefore, transformations in the food market are complex, given the power relations relative to the interests of the various actors directly and indirectly benefited economically, and the cultural and historical bases that sustain practices involved in food consumption. Thus, understanding the influences on consumer behavior, considering consumers as an agents embedded in social structures and dynamics, is essential — though not sufficient — to study a market transformation. Therefore, it is proposed a, somewhat broad, study with consumers to understand elements that operate by making difficult, and eventually facilitating, a vegan transformation of their food consumption practices. Through an empirical, exploratory and multi-method data collection, with active participation of 54 consumers that maintain different food consumption patterns in relation to the intake of products of animal origin, it was possible to identify and understand elements that act as barriers and as facilitators to the rupture of daily eating practices centered in animal products and the maintenance of new plant-based dietary consumption For that, long interviews and open questionnaires were applied online. These collection strategies allowed to obtain narrated reconstructions of memories, daily experiences and beliefs with the participation of consumers categorized as reducetarians, vegetarians and vegans; these strategies also allowed to obtain narrated perceptions, projections and some experiences related to plant-based food of consumers that maintain their food practices according to the meat-centered standard. In integrated analyzes of these various qualitative data, including media evidences and field collection data of the context under study, used for illustration, it was possible to understand how some elements operate as barriers and facilitators. In these analyzes, food consumption behavior could be understood as social practices inserted in complex dynamics, involving not only individual aspects of cognitive and biophysical level, but also socio-cultural and material aspects — especially related to the market. It is intended to contribute theoretically and methodologically to studies on changes in consumption patterns in favor of more sustainable logics and to generate subsidies to organizations aligned to vegan transformations in the food market.

Esta dissertação se compõe, primeiro, de uma análise interdisciplinar e de macromarketing sobre o mercado alimentar com enfoque nos problemas da atual configuração centrada em carnes e lácteos. Levantando diversos estudos recentes e relatórios de áreas climática, ambiental, econômica, da saúde, da nutrição, da antropologia e da ética, apresenta-se vantagens de uma reconfiguração na ordem do mercado alimentar devido ao protagonismo dos produtos de origem animal na emissão de gases de efeito estufa, mudança no uso da terra, pressão pelo desmatamento, uso e poluição da água, perda da biodiversidade, ameaça à segurança alimentar global, inerente ineficiência econômica, reforço às desigualdades socioeconômicas, proliferação de novas doenças transmissíveis, impactos à saúde do consumidor, sustentação de altos índices de mortalidade humana e violação dos direitos dos animais. A partir dessa análise de macromarketing, se propõe uma reconfiguração vegana do mercado alimentar como importante alternativa para aliviar, de modo integrado, esse conjunto de problemas enfretandos pela sociedade contemporânea. Nesse sentido, uma reconfiguração sociotécnica para favorecer padrões alimentares veganos mostra-se como alternativa à sustentabilidade, especialmente em relação às mudanças climáticas, dado que essa transformação é indicada como relevante estratégia de mitigação e de adaptação, concomitantemente Diversas dificuldades para tal reconfiguração estão alinhadas à constante reiteração das práticas sociais através do habitus e outros dispositivos para a manutenção da atual estrutura e ordem socioecônomica. Por isso, transformações no mercado alimentar são complexas, dadas as relações de poder, relativas aos interesses dos diversos atores direta e indiretamente beneficiados economicamente, e das bases culturais e históricas que sustentam práticas envolvidas nesse consumo. Assim, compreender as influências sobre o comportamento do consumidor, entendendo-o como um agente inserido em estruturas e dinâmicas sociais, é essencial — embora não suficiente — para estudar a transformação de um mercado. Por isso, propõe-se um estudo, de certa forma amplo, com consumidores para compreender elementos que operam dificultando, e eventualmente facilitando, a transformação vegana de suas práticas de consumo alimentar. Através de uma coleta empírita, exploratória e de multimétodo, com ativa participação de 54 consumidores que mantêm diferentes padrões de consumo alimentar em relação à ingestão de produtos de origem animal, foi possível identificar e compreender elementos que operam como barreiras e como facilitadores à ruptura de hábitos alimentares baseados em carnes e derivados de animais e à manutenção de novos hábitos alimentares à base de plantas Para tanto, utilizou-se entrevistas em profundidade e questionários abertos aplicados online; estratégias de coleta essas em que se pôde obter reconstruções narrativas de memórias, experiências cotidianas e crenças com a participação de consumidores categorizados como reducetarianos, vegetarianos e veganos; e também se obteve percepções, projeções e algumas experiências de consumidores que mantêm suas práticas alimentares conforme o padrão centrado em carnes. Em análises integradas desses diversos dados qualitativos, incluindo também, para ilustração, evidências midiáticas e dados de coleta de campo do contexto em estudo, pôde-se compreender como operam enquanto barreiras e facilitadores alguns elementos. Nessas análises, os comportamentos de consumo alimentar puderam ser compreendidos como práticas sociais inseridas em dinâmicas complexas, envolvendo não apenas aspectos individuais de nível cognitivo e biofísico, mas aspectos materiais e aspectos de ordem sociocultural — sobretudo da ordem de mercado. Intenciona-se contribuir teórica e metodológicamente para estudos sobre transformações nos padrões de consumo em favor de lógicas mais sustentáveis e gerar subsídios a organizações alinhadas a transformações veganas no mercado alimentar. / This master's thesis is composed, firstly, by an interdisciplinary and macromarketing analysis of the food market, focusing on the problems of the current configuration centered on meats and dairy products. Collecting several recent studies and reports of climate, environmental, economic, health, nutrition, anthropology and ethics areas, is presented problems due to the leading role of animal products in the greenhouse gas emissions, land use change, deforestation pressure, water use and pollution, biodiversity loss, threats to global food security, its inherent economic inefficiency, socio-economic inequalities, new communicable diseases, impacts on consumer health, high levels of human mortality and animal rights violations. From this macromarketing analysis, a vegan reconfiguration of the food market is proposed as an important alternative to alleviate, in an integrated way, this set of problems faced by contemporary society. In this sense, a socio-technical reconfiguration, to vegan food standards, is proposed as an alternative to sustainability, especially in relation to climate change, since this transformation is indicated as a relevant mitigation and adaptation strategy, concomitantly Several difficulties for such reconfiguration are supposed considering the constant reiteration of social practices through the habitus and other social and material devices operating for the maintenance of the current socioeconomic structure and order. Therefore, transformations in the food market are complex, given the power relations relative to the interests of the various actors directly and indirectly benefited economically, and the cultural and historical bases that sustain practices involved in food consumption. Thus, understanding the influences on consumer behavior, considering consumers as an agents embedded in social structures and dynamics, is essential — though not sufficient — to study a market transformation. Therefore, it is proposed a, somewhat broad, study with consumers to understand elements that operate by making difficult, and eventually facilitating, a vegan transformation of their food consumption practices. Through an empirical, exploratory and multi-method data collection, with active participation of 54 consumers that maintain different food consumption patterns in relation to the intake of products of animal origin, it was possible to identify and understand elements that act as barriers and as facilitators to the rupture of daily eating practices centered in animal products and the maintenance of new plant-based dietary consumption For that, long interviews and open questionnaires were applied online. These collection strategies allowed to obtain narrated reconstructions of memories, daily experiences and beliefs with the participation of consumers categorized as reducetarians, vegetarians and vegans; these strategies also allowed to obtain narrated perceptions, projections and some experiences related to plant-based food of consumers that maintain their food practices according to the meat-centered standard. In integrated analyzes of these various qualitative data, including media evidences and field collection data of the context under study, used for illustration, it was possible to understand how some elements operate as barriers and facilitators. In these analyzes, food consumption behavior could be understood as social practices inserted in complex dynamics, involving not only individual aspects of cognitive and biophysical level, but also socio-cultural and material aspects — especially related to the market. It is intended to contribute theoretically and methodologically to studies on changes in consumption patterns in favor of more sustainable logics and to generate subsidies to organizations aligned to vegan transformations in the food market.

Esta dissertação se compõe, primeiro, de uma análise interdisciplinar e de macromarketing sobre o mercado alimentar com enfoque nos problemas da atual configuração centrada em carnes e lácteos. Levantando diversos estudos recentes e relatórios de áreas climática, ambiental, econômica, da saúde, da nutrição, da antropologia e da ética, apresenta-se vantagens de uma reconfiguração na ordem do mercado alimentar devido ao protagonismo dos produtos de origem animal na emissão de gases de efeito estufa, mudança no uso da terra, pressão pelo desmatamento, uso e poluição da água, perda da biodiversidade, ameaça à segurança alimentar global, inerente ineficiência econômica, reforço às desigualdades socioeconômicas, proliferação de novas doenças transmissíveis, impactos à saúde do consumidor, sustentação de altos índices de mortalidade humana e violação dos direitos dos animais. A partir dessa análise de macromarketing, se propõe uma reconfiguração vegana do mercado alimentar como importante alternativa para aliviar, de modo integrado, esse conjunto de problemas enfretandos pela sociedade contemporânea. Nesse sentido, uma reconfiguração sociotécnica para favorecer padrões alimentares veganos mostra-se como alternativa à sustentabilidade, especialmente em relação às mudanças climáticas, dado que essa transformação é indicada como relevante estratégia de mitigação e de adaptação, concomitantemente Diversas dificuldades para tal reconfiguração estão alinhadas à constante reiteração das práticas sociais através do habitus e outros dispositivos para a manutenção da atual estrutura e ordem socioecônomica. Por isso, transformações no mercado alimentar são complexas, dadas as relações de poder, relativas aos interesses dos diversos atores direta e indiretamente beneficiados economicamente, e das bases culturais e históricas que sustentam práticas envolvidas nesse consumo. Assim, compreender as influências sobre o comportamento do consumidor, entendendo-o como um agente inserido em estruturas e dinâmicas sociais, é essencial — embora não suficiente — para estudar a transformação de um mercado. Por isso, propõe-se um estudo, de certa forma amplo, com consumidores para compreender elementos que operam dificultando, e eventualmente facilitando, a transformação vegana de suas práticas de consumo alimentar. Através de uma coleta empírita, exploratória e de multimétodo, com ativa participação de 54 consumidores que mantêm diferentes padrões de consumo alimentar em relação à ingestão de produtos de origem animal, foi possível identificar e compreender elementos que operam como barreiras e como facilitadores à ruptura de hábitos alimentares baseados em carnes e derivados de animais e à manutenção de novos hábitos alimentares à base de plantas Para tanto, utilizou-se entrevistas em profundidade e questionários abertos aplicados online; estratégias de coleta essas em que se pôde obter reconstruções narrativas de memórias, experiências cotidianas e crenças com a participação de consumidores categorizados como reducetarianos, vegetarianos e veganos; e também se obteve percepções, projeções e algumas experiências de consumidores que mantêm suas práticas alimentares conforme o padrão centrado em carnes. Em análises integradas desses diversos dados qualitativos, incluindo também, para ilustração, evidências midiáticas e dados de coleta de campo do contexto em estudo, pôde-se compreender como operam enquanto barreiras e facilitadores alguns elementos. Nessas análises, os comportamentos de consumo alimentar puderam ser compreendidos como práticas sociais inseridas em dinâmicas complexas, envolvendo não apenas aspectos individuais de nível cognitivo e biofísico, mas aspectos materiais e aspectos de ordem sociocultural — sobretudo da ordem de mercado. Intenciona-se contribuir teórica e metodológicamente para estudos sobre transformações nos padrões de consumo em favor de lógicas mais sustentáveis e gerar subsídios a organizações alinhadas a transformações veganas no mercado alimentar. / This master's thesis is composed, firstly, by an interdisciplinary and macromarketing analysis of the food market, focusing on the problems of the current configuration centered on meats and dairy products. Collecting several recent studies and reports of climate, environmental, economic, health, nutrition, anthropology and ethics areas, is presented problems due to the leading role of animal products in the greenhouse gas emissions, land use change, deforestation pressure, water use and pollution, biodiversity loss, threats to global food security, its inherent economic inefficiency, socio-economic inequalities, new communicable diseases, impacts on consumer health, high levels of human mortality and animal rights violations. From this macromarketing analysis, a vegan reconfiguration of the food market is proposed as an important alternative to alleviate, in an integrated way, this set of problems faced by contemporary society. In this sense, a socio-technical reconfiguration, to vegan food standards, is proposed as an alternative to sustainability, especially in relation to climate change, since this transformation is indicated as a relevant mitigation and adaptation strategy, concomitantly Several difficulties for such reconfiguration are supposed considering the constant reiteration of social practices through the habitus and other social and material devices operating for the maintenance of the current socioeconomic structure and order. Therefore, transformations in the food market are complex, given the power relations relative to the interests of the various actors directly and indirectly benefited economically, and the cultural and historical bases that sustain practices involved in food consumption. Thus, understanding the influences on consumer behavior, considering consumers as an agents embedded in social structures and dynamics, is essential — though not sufficient — to study a market transformation. Therefore, it is proposed a, somewhat broad, study with consumers to understand elements that operate by making difficult, and eventually facilitating, a vegan transformation of their food consumption practices. Through an empirical, exploratory and multi-method data collection, with active participation of 54 consumers that maintain different food consumption patterns in relation to the intake of products of animal origin, it was possible to identify and understand elements that act as barriers and as facilitators to the rupture of daily eating practices centered in animal products and the maintenance of new plant-based dietary consumption For that, long interviews and open questionnaires were applied online. These collection strategies allowed to obtain narrated reconstructions of memories, daily experiences and beliefs with the participation of consumers categorized as reducetarians, vegetarians and vegans; these strategies also allowed to obtain narrated perceptions, projections and some experiences related to plant-based food of consumers that maintain their food practices according to the meat-centered standard. In integrated analyzes of these various qualitative data, including media evidences and field collection data of the context under study, used for illustration, it was possible to understand how some elements operate as barriers and facilitators. In these analyzes, food consumption behavior could be understood as social practices inserted in complex dynamics, involving not only individual aspects of cognitive and biophysical level, but also socio-cultural and material aspects — especially related to the market. It is intended to contribute theoretically and methodologically to studies on changes in consumption patterns in favor of more sustainable logics and to generate subsidies to organizations aligned to vegan transformations in the food market.

Plant-based food has recently been a frequently addressed topic for scientific research, mainly because of its benefits for the environmental sustainability, human health and animal welfare. Nonetheless, there is limited research on how people maintain a plant-based diet, as well as research gaps on the topic in relation to media and communication studies. The purpose of this research is to provide new empirical data on how social media can inspire and/or influence a person to maintain a plant-based lifestyle. Using a qualitative method of in-depth interviews, the aim is to understand how content on social media motivates people to make sustainable movements in their real life. In other words, the research will provide insights on how a lifestyle can be upheld with the help of social media. As a theoretical basis for the study, the following theories have been applied: The uses and gratification theory, cultivation analysis theory and social cognitive theory. The findings suggest that social media is a useful tool for a person that wants to maintain a plant-based diet. Facebook, YouTube and Instagram are preferred online platforms for seeking and sharing information about the lifestyle and the most interesting contents for upholding a plant-based diet are food pictures, personal blogs and vlogs, documentaries about the environment and animal welfare, as well as product news and different discussions in virtual groups. The result also shows that people are most likely to change a behaviour after seeing content on social media that makes them emotional, in a positive or negative way.

The food industry is one of the main contributors to anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases. The greatest impact is caused by production of animal-sourced foods. To reduce the planetary burden, a dietary shift from animal-based to more plant-based foods is necessary. Policy interventions are tools to achieve such a shift. For policies to be successful, acceptability is a crucial component. Several variables such as age, gender, education level, and geographical residence have previously been identified as decisive for policy acceptability. The aim of the present research is to go beyond these findings and obtain a deeper understanding of acceptability of policy proposals for reduced consumption of animal-sourced foods. Qualitative interviews with Swedish citizens were conducted to investigate which factors influence high respective low policy acceptability. Results indicate that environmental concern, exposure to plant-based foods, perceptions of others’ views, and environmental norms are crucial factors shaping policy acceptability, as these mediate several other critical factors. The discussion pointed out beliefs about the sufficiency of plant-based foods and the necessity of meat, ideas about consumers of plant-based foods as radical, and perceived effectiveness and fairness of the policies to be entry points for increasing policy acceptability, as these beliefs are theoretically established to be susceptible to change. Insights from the research can be used for policy design and communication efforts. The study offers recommendations to communicate the sufficiency and healthiness of plant-based foods, to frame its consumers in a more inclusive and appealing way for meat and dairy consumers to identify with, and to expose the policy tradeoffs by contrasting them with the environmental cause. / Mistra Food Futures WP7