The social drivers of a sustainable diet for Global South and Global North; a system dynamics analysis
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2022-07-21
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en
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Animal agriculture contributes for 18% to greenhouse gas emissions. Our dietary choices, for meat consumption, impact the emission of greenhouse gasses, which impact global warming negatively. A reduction of 96% can be accomplished if plant-based alternatives are chosen for meat in our diets. However, before being able to reduce global warming, we need to understand what drives us to change diets. Economic well-being, cultural values, age, gender, and education influence choices and behaviour. A global integrated assessment system dynamics model with dietary components is re-quantified based on the interest in vegetarianism retrieved from Facebook for two different global regions, based on economic well-being (Global North and Global South) to behaviour more accurately. The results show that female self-efficacy drives the behaviour to shift diets in both regions. The interplay with the other re-quantified variables, response efficacy and social norm, reduces the number of people shifting to a plant-rich diet. The re-calibration of an existing model leads to a higher percentage of vegetarians compared to calibrating the model globally. A higher percentage means fewer greenhouse gas emissions. To allow a decrease of greenhouse gas emissions and a further increase of the percentage of vegetarians, future research should examine the impact of implementing policies.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen