Six dilemmas – part 6: How to steer consumer behaviour?

How can we ensure that the world’s population has access to sustainable, healthy, affordable and culturally acceptable food? Not an easy task, as the true societal costs of food products are frequently not included in the price, robbing chain parties and consumers of the correct cost incentives. We want to transition towards a food system in which sustainably produced food is cheaper and more profitable than less sustainable and unhealthier food.

Influencing and freedom of choice

But leading consumption is a sensitive issue. In the Netherlands, we value the consumers’ individual freedom of choice. We may try to steer consumption through labels and quality assurances, but this has a limited impact. Far-reaching interference, through, for example, a meat tax, is met with objections and resistance. At the same time, we are aware that our consumer behaviour is steered by advertisements, sales and the way shops are designed. Putting meat on sale has been a proven strategy in supermarkets for years.

What instruments are there to change our consumer behaviour? With minimal nudging, we expect the consumer to make their own sensible choices, but in practice, consumers choose products that are cheap and convenient rather than those that are better for the climate, biodiversity and their health. Minimal nudging is, thus, insufficient. The range of options increases when we opt for more influence. Targeted taxes, such as a meat tax or sugar tax, are effective but controversial.

Targeted taxes, however, ignore the food environment and economic incentives. Truly changing consumer patterns requires incentives to which market parties will respond, such as including undesired external effects in the price and sector-wide sustainability agreements. Technology may also play a role, for example, through individual food programmes based on biometry (data about our body) that include advice on sustainable and healthy food options.

Part of the food system

Whatever the options we choose, we cannot consider them as separated from the food system. Given the fact that food systems are often international and complex and a part of the food produced in the Netherlands is destined for export, we must take the global perspective into account and consider whether our consumption and production contribute to unsustainable behaviour abroad.

In the Netherlands, there is little political backing to intervene in our food consumption. The reluctance to steer our food choices contrasts sharply with the generally accepted use of pricing incentives to discourage the use of fossil fuels, tobacco and alcohol.

Link: the six dilemmas we have discussed are linked in numerous ways. Hence, it is essential to consider the dilemmas in conjunction with each other, as every choice within a dilemma affects another.