Abstract
Widespread adoption of sustainable diets is vital if we are to feed a global population of 10 billion by 2050 while addressing climate change and nature loss. In the UK, sustainable diets are those that are lower in meat and dairy, higher in plant-based foods including vegetables, legumes, and pulses, and include foods that have been produced sustainably. ‘Less and better’ is a vision for meat and dairy production and consumption as part of a sustainable diet, but there is little clarity on what it means and how to deliver it. Food retailers hold significant influence over what people eat and how it is farmed. Their role in enabling more sustainable diets has received little attention to date. This thesis adopts an interdisciplinary, mixed methods approach to explore what is meant by ‘less and better’ meat and dairy (Part 1) and the role of retailers (Part 2) and policy (Part 3) in delivering it, resulting in six interlinked papers. Findings from Part 1 indicate that ‘less and better’ involves significant reductions in high-income countries accompanied by a transition to extensive production systems, although further research quantifying the impacts and benefits of these systems is needed. Part 2 illustrates that while retailers are implementing ‘better’ meat and dairy strategies, action on ‘less’ is limited. An in-store nudge intervention was successful at increasing sales of plant-based products but did not impact meat sales. Participants in a retail-led behaviour change campaign reported eating less meat and more plant-based foods, changes which were sustained three months after the campaign. To enable more sustainable consumer diets retailers should implement in-store interventions that explicitly target meat products in combination with targeted behaviour change campaigns. Retailers face external barriers that will require policy intervention on both ‘less’ and ‘better’ to drive change at national level.