Sustainable food consumption: behavioural drivers and barriers

Meike Janssen, Wencke Gwozdz, Meike Janssen, Wencke Gwozdz, Meike Janssen and Wencke Gwozdz

Chapter Chapter 15 in The Elgar Companion to Consumer Behaviour and the Sustainable Development Goals, 2025, pp 237-259 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Current food systems are unsustainable, especially in the Global North where food consumption has profound adverse impacts on human health and the environment, with implications for several Sustainable Development Goals. The transition to sustainable food consumption represents a major challenge. Understanding the drivers and barriers is critical for achieving successful behavioural change through effective interventions. This chapter unfolds the complexity of behavioural drivers and barriers that foster or hinder the transition to sustainable food systems and discusses the implications for behaviour change interventions. Drawing on the COM-B framework, we unveil the reciprocal nature of internal psychological processes and external factors from the food environments in the context of (un)sustainable food consumption. Fostering sustainable food consumption calls for a multifaceted and collaborative response with a policy mix- including all food system actors- of ‘traditional’ interventions and interventions that recognize that food-related behaviours are largely semi-automatic or affective and highly context-specific.

Keywords: Behaviour change; COM-B framework; Food consumption; Food environments; Dietary change; Interventions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035325054
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