Browsing by Author "Rautakoski, Toni"

The climate effects of food, and especially meat, have been in the news for a long time, and are prone to raise heated debate among Finnish consumers. The purpose of this paper is to examine how young, meat-eating men have experienced the climate debate to affect their eating habits, and how they rationalize their meat eating. This research concerns the field of food studies in home economics sciences, by examining the effect of food on the climate, and the effect of these climate effects on the consumer. The material used in this study is from a survey conducted by Helsingin Sanomat in the spring of 2020, concerning the food choices of consumers. The survey collected 23 000 re-sponses. The focus of this study was the 404 men between the ages of 25 and 34, who did not follow any form of plant-based diet, and their answers to an open-ended question about the effects of the climate debate on their eating. The answers were examined qualitatively us-ing theory-led content analysis. As a result of the research, six content categories were composed, describing the respondents’ experiences: climate skepticism and indifference; Finnish, local and organic food; reduced consumption of animal products; price, quality, and preparation; health and other ecological choices. From the results we can conclude that many respondents had a highly skeptical attitude towards claims of the climate effects of food, especially meat, or felt generally frustrated with the food-related climate debate. Similarly, the respondents did generally not believe Finnish meat to be bad for the climate. On the other hand, many respondents had decreased their meat consumption, mostly due to external factors, like family member’s plant-based diet, or the vegetarian food served at their workplace cafeteria. The results also indicate that seeing meat eating as a normal part of one’s everyday diet combined with a lack of experience with high-quality vegetarian food can be a major hindrance in transitioning towards a more plant-based diet.