Sustainable Consumption of Food: Framing the Concept through Turkish Expert Opinions

Feyza Tekinbaş Özkaya, Mustafa Gürol Durak, Onur Doğan, Zeki Atıl Bulut and Rainer Haas
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Feyza Tekinbaş Özkaya: Department of Marketing and Foreign Trade, Izmir Vocational School, Dokuz Eylul University, 35380 Izmir, Turkey
Mustafa Gürol Durak: Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Business, Yaşar University, 35100 Izmir, Turkey
Onur Doğan: Department of Management and Organization, Izmir Vocational School, Dokuz Eylul University, 35380 Izmir, Turkey
Zeki Atıl Bulut: Department of Marketing and Foreign Trade, Izmir Vocational School, Dokuz Eylul University, 35380 Izmir, Turkey
Rainer Haas: Department of Economic and Social Sciences, Institute of Marketing and Innovation, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, 1180 Vienna, Austria

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 7, 1-25

Abstract: The scarcity of natural resources together with the exponentially increasing world population has made the sustainable consumption of food (SCF) a crucial issue, as it has impacts on a variety of environmental, health, economic, and social dimensions. Considering the rarity of a holistic view in previous studies, this study aims to assess the current situation in sustainable food consumption and develop suggestions from all aspects, depending on the opinions of experts. In this direction, semi-structured interviews are conducted with 25 experts from Turkey to frame the concept of SCF, reveal the level of consumers’ awareness, and provide suggestions to support SCF implications. Experts have considered SCF from ecologic, social, economic, and health perspectives; ecologic aspects being the most important, followed by economic and social perspectives. Deficits on the consumer side are lack of awareness, unplanned shopping, and mistakes in post-consumption behavior. Lack of awareness about the consequences of meat production, difficulties in changing lifestyles and lack of motivation of adults were identified barriers to SCF. Finally, suggestions of the experts for achieving sustainability are mostly relevant to raising awareness on balanced nutrition and food waste, with the help of training programs and the efficient use of communication channels, such as social media.

Keywords: sustainable food consumption; food waste; consumer behavior; theoretical framework; sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:7:p:3946-:d:528955

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