Abstract
Meat production and consumption have several negative environmental externalities and health impacts. Using a stated preference survey, this study identifies main barriers to and drivers of switching to the following meat substitutes: a plant-based veggie burger, a meat-like burger, and a lab burger. About a third of those who prefer meat would consider switching to a meat substitute if the price were two-thirds or less of the price of the meat option. However, almost half of the respondents would not choose a lab meat burger even if they would get it for free. Male individuals without university education and older than 30 years show a stronger resistance to substitute meat hamburgers, in particular if the substitute is a plant-based veggie burger that neither looks nor tastes like meat. Environmental and health consciousness and being familiar with the substitute are correlated with the willingness to substitute. Older individuals are less familiar with and less likely to choose meat substitutes compared with younger individuals. We also find that taste is a prominent barrier for people who prefer meat, indicating that there is room for improvements in the taste of the different meat substitutes.
Highlights
On average, people in North America eat around 95 kg meat per person and year
Since the objective of this paper is to investigate at what price people are willing to substitute a meat burger with a meatless alternative, those who did not eat meat and hamburgers were dropped from the sample immediately after the screening question
The share who chose meat was somewhat larger when the substitute was a veggie burger (92 percent) and lowest when it consisted of lab meat (87 percent), but the differences in shares were small
Summary
People in North America eat around 95 kg meat per person and year. The corresponding number for an average European citizen is about 65 kg (OECD/FAO; 2019). Subsidies, and direct pricing to influence food prices have been recommended by the World Health Organization to encourage healthy eating (WHO, 2004). Another option is to use educational information campaigns (Laestadius et al, 2013) or informative labels on aspects such as climate impact (Grunert et al, 2014; Van Loo et al, 2014; Shewmake at al., 2015; Leach et al, 2016; Muller et al, 2019; Carlsson et al, 2020). Another is to use nudges to influence people’s purchasing and consumption behavior (Kurz, 2018)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
