Abstract
Animal agriculture is implicated as a major cause of greenhouse gas emissions, animal suffering and public health problems. This survey asked 1000 UK meat-eaters about their beliefs about vegetarian and vegan diets, and their intended consumption of meat and animal products one month in the future. One in six intended to reduce their meat consumption in the next month, and 14% intended to reduce their consumption of animal products. The majority agreed that vegetarian and vegan diets are ethical, good for the environment and healthy. The majority also agreed that both vegetarianism and veganism were socially acceptable. However, there were three consistent negative beliefs about vegetarian and vegan diets: that they are difficult, that they are not enjoyable and that they are expensive. Moreover, perceptions of vegan diets were significantly more negative than perceptions of vegetarian diets on most aspects. Significant differences in perceptions of each diet were observed between genders and by age. It is argued that most meat-eaters agree with the ethical and environmental arguments in favour of vegetarianism/veganism but do not follow these diets because of practical reasons relating to taste, price and convenience. New alternatives to animal products are discussed as a possible way to address these practical barriers. Finally, the case is made for more research on developing high-quality, low-cost and widely available animal product alternatives.
Highlights
According to a survey published by Humane League Labs [36], whilst health and nutrition reasons for reducing animal product consumption are the most commonly cited by omnivores and semivegetarians, animal welfare is the most common reason given by vegetarians and vegans
In terms of the aspects relating to the social perspectives of each diet, the data overall suggest that meat-eaters on average think that vegetarianism and veganism are socially acceptable, but most stop short of calling them aspirational
The analyses demonstrated that veganism is rated as significantly less positive than vegetarianism on every aspect except for ethics and the environment, where no significant difference was observed
Summary
Global animal agriculture is a substantial contributor to environmental degradation, human health problems and animal suffering. The inefficiency of converting plant calories to animal calories means that animal rearing is resource-intensive, and this contributes to global food insecurity [5,6] This is especially concerning given that demand for animal products is forecast to increase dramatically as the global population grows and becomes more affluent [7]. There are several epidemiological studies which show a correlation between animal product consumption and various health problems, including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer and overall mortality [12,13,14,15,16] This has led to the view that a substantial reduction in animal product consumption is necessary for a global shift towards healthier diets [2]. Some data suggest that an increasing number of consumers in the UK are doing precisely that
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