 The legal production of meat eatersLisa Heinzerling, Lisa Heinzerling and Lisa Heinzerling Chapter Chapter 9 in The Elgar Companion to Consumer Behaviour and the Sustainable Development Goals, 2025, pp 149-165 from Edward Elgar Publishing Abstract: In the literature on consumer behavior and sustainable development, the consumer often appears as an autonomous individual who will make more sustainable choices if only she is given good information about them. Many scholars have questioned this construct, pointing to its ideological origins and to the psychological, cognitive, and cultural limits on individual choice. To this list of limits this chapter adds the legal framework in which the choice occurs. Legal context can help us to see the limits of consumer sovereignty, and the continuing hegemony of the sovereign itself. Focusing on the United States context, this chapter surveys the many ways in which law channels and constrains consumer choices about meat eating, and concludes that the legal infrastructure surrounding decisions about consumption can, even if- or maybe especially if- it is invisible to consumers, effectively take consumption choices out of individual hands. Keywords: Sustainability; Consumers; Meat production; Meat consumption; Food; Slaughterhouses (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:22958_9 Ordering information: This item can be ordered from Access Statistics for this chapter More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing |
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