Editing IPCC:AR6/WGII/Chapter-5 (section)

=== 5.12.6 Changing Dietary Patterns ===

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Dietary change in regions with excess consumption of calories and animal-sourced foods to a higher share of plant-based foods with greater dietary diversity and reduced consumption of animal-sourced foods and unhealthy foods (as defined by scientific panels such as EAT-Lancet) has both mitigation and adaptation benefits along with reduced mortality from diet related non-communicable diseases, health, biodiversity and other environmental co-benefits ( ''high confidence'' ) ( [[#Springmann--2016|Springmann et al., 2016]] ; [[#Springmann--2018|Springmann et al., 2018]] ; [[#Branca--2019|Branca et al., 2019]] ; [[#Henry--2019|Henry et al., 2019]] ; [[#Searchinger--2019|Searchinger et al., 2019]] ; [[#Swinburn--2019|Swinburn et al., 2019]] ; [[#Willett--2019|Willett et al., 2019]] ; [[#Rosenzweig--2020|Rosenzweig et al., 2020]] ; Chapter 7.4.2.1.3 and WGIII Chapter 12). Reducing food waste, especially of environment- and climate-costly foods would further extend these benefits ( [[#Rosenzweig--2020|Rosenzweig et al., 2020]] and see [[#5.11|Section 5.11]] ).

Dietary behaviour is complex: shaped by the broader food system ( [[#HLPE--2017a|HLPE, 2017a]] ), the food environment ( [[#Herforth--2015|Herforth and Ahmed, 2015]] ; [[#Turner--2018|Turner et al., 2018]] ) and socio-cultural factors ( [[#Fischler--1988|Fischler, 1988]] ). Since most food-related decisions are made at a subconscious level ( [[#Marteau--2012|Marteau et al., 2012]] ), achieving dietary change for personal health reasons has proven difficult; it seems unlikely that dietary change for climate will be achieved without careful attention to the factors that shape dietary choice and behaviour. Food environments, defined as ‘the physical, economic, political and socio-cultural context in which consumers engage with the food system to make their decisions about acquiring, preparing and consuming food’ ( [[#HLPE--2017a|HLPE, 2017a]] ): 28), include food availability, accessibility, price/ affordability, food characteristics, desirability, convenience and marketing.

There are a range of options to change dietary patterns, but more research is needed in this area, adjusted to the regional, socioeconomic and cultural context. Studies of policy instruments to change diets include changes in subsidies, taxes, marketing regulation and efforts to change the retail physical environment. Subsidies directed at staple foods and animal sourced foods could be shifted towards diversified production of plant-based foods in order to change the relative price of foods and, thus, dietary choice ( [[#Franck--2013|Franck et al., 2013]] ; [[#Harris--2021|Harris et al., 2021]] ). Taxes on animal-sourced foods that are climate-costly and unhealthy, as defined by scientific panels such as the EAT-Lancet report, could similarly impact relative price ( [[#Mbow--2019|Mbow et al., 2019]] ; [[#Willett--2019|Willett et al., 2019]] ). Regulation of marketing could change desirability of climate-unfriendly and unhealthy foods ( [[#Willett--2019|Willett et al., 2019]] ). Many of the same strategies used to increase sales by conventional food marketing efforts hold potential to change the desirability and people’s preferences for plant foods which are strongly shaped by social–cultural norms. Studies have shown that changes to the number, placing or prevalence of vegetarian options on a menu ( [[#Bacon--2018|Bacon and Krpan, 2018]] ; [[#Kurz--2018|Kurz, 2018]] ; [[#Garnett--2019|Garnett et al., 2019]] ; [[#Gravert--2019|Gravert and Kurz, 2019]] ), the relative price of vegetarian options ( [[#Garnett--2021|Garnett et al., 2021]] ) and the ‘access’ (order and distance) to vegetarian options in the retail physical environment ( [[#Garnett--2020|Garnett et al., 2020]] ) can all increase consumption of plant-based foods and decrease meat consumption ( [[#Bianchi--2018|Bianchi et al., 2018]] ). Studies on food environment ‘nudging’ methods found that making the vegetarian meal option the default during conference registration or on a meal plan significantly reduced meat consumption ( [[#Campbell-Arvai--2012|Campbell-Arvai et al., 2012]] ; [[#Hansen--2019b|Hansen et al., 2019b]] ). Studies simply educating people about the negative health and environmental/climate outcomes of meat consumption have been found to have very little impact ( [[#Byerly--2018|Byerly et al., 2018]] ). More research is needed to understand the potential for motivational crowding in shaping pro-climate dietary choice, as has been demonstrated in development ( [[#Agrawal--2015|Agrawal et al., 2015]] ) and conservation interventions ( [[#Rode--2015|Rode et al., 2015]] ).

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