People are used to seeing stark warnings on tobacco products alerting them about the potentially deadly risks to health. Now a study suggests similar labelling on food could help them make wiser choices about not just their health, but the health of the planet.
The research, by academics at Durham University, found that warning labels including a graphic image – similar to those warning of impotence, heart disease or lung cancer on cigarette packets – could reduce selections of meals containing meat by 7-10%.
It is a change that could have a material impact on the future of the planet. According to a recent YouGov poll, 72% of the UK population classify themselves as meat-eaters. But the Climate Change Committee (CCC), which advises the government on its net zero goals, has said the UK needs to slash its meat consumption by 20% by 2030, and 50% by 2050, in order to meet them.
Can’t say I disagree with most (almost all, even) of that and would even say “educating” people to those things (well, mainly pointing it out to them and letting people think about it for themselves) is my main approach nowadays.
I do disagree on one point: I think that by the point we are alert and alerting others to the subtle manipulation going on, we’re not acting as “consumers” but more like “citizens” or just “people”, since that goes beyond merelly adjusting our purchasing choices and into actually examining and challenging the framework shaping people’s choices in general.
Maybe it’s just me, but my understanding of a “consumer” is just somebody that purchases things and people who are activelly trying to reduce the effectiveness of the mechanisms shapping people’s purchasing choices not just on themselves but also on others, are acting at a level which is more than a mere “purchaser of things”.
Hence I don’t think such observation of and alerting others about mechanisms used to shape people’s “consumer choices” is “acting as consumers to improve things” but is rather a more political level of “acting”, more like “citizens”.
That probably makes our “disagreement” mainly grammatical :)