Emma Sheppard is a journalist specialising in business, technology, family and social affairs. As well as Canvas8, her work has appeared in The Guardian, Wired, BBC Worldwide, The Independent and more.

People expect brands to rise to society’s challenges

Shared Values

People are recognising the urgency of global environmental measures 

Sustainable Solutions

In May 2022, Minneapolis resident Annie Laurel went 

 for the tiny food magnets she has on her fridge. “I made these little magnets to help me keep track of what food I have,” she says, zooming in on the tiny BBQ sauce bottle, bagels, hummus, yoghurt, and strawberries. “When I run out of something I move it to the corner and then I know I need to get it next time I go grocery shopping… I’ve been so much less wasteful since doing this!” 

She Knows

 The video has been watched more than six million times, with viewers inspired to try it themselves. Laurel even does a follow-up video, which is just as popular, showing how people can make the mini magnets themselves at home.

The enormous popularity of this video attests to a broader shift at play in how people think about their diets: consumers are paying closer attention to the link between the food they eat and the wellbeing of the planet, and they’re keen for solutions that help them reduce the environmental impact of daily diets. Almost one in four Americans have cut back on eating meat, with 49% citing environmental concerns. 

Gallup

 Similarly, climatarianism – a diet focused on seasonal fruit and veg, local ingredients, and avoiding meat from factory farms – is growing in popularity. For example, when Just Salad added a climatarian menu option in September 2019, more than 10% of their salad sales came from that menu, according to the chain’s chief sustainability officer, Sandra Noonan. 

The New York Times

However, while we’re seeing a growing interest in climate-friendly diets, it remains difficult for many consumers to realise these aspirations, particularly in the context of systemic issues such as food insecurity. It’s estimated that in the US, 

 live in food deserts, defined as geo­graph­ic areas where res­i­dents have few to no con­ve­nient options for secur­ing afford­able and healthy foods – espe­cial­ly fresh fruits and veg­eta­bles. 

Social Policy Lab

 And as inflation rates continue to rise across the globe, more 

consumers are being priced out of sustainable food options

 – a reality that stands in the way of the type of consumer behaviour change needed to salvage a fast-warming planet.

Eve Turow-Paul, the founder and executive director of the non-profit Food for Climate League, is a believer in the potential of food to transform the wellbeing of the planet and its inhabitants. “It’s an incredible tool for improving wellbeing,” she says. “There are all kinds of magical things that come together if we can get more nutritious foods into people’s hands.” 

Interview with Eve Turow-Paul conducted by the author

 So, how can brands, NGOs, and campaigners help overcome barriers in access and education surrounding healthy, affordable, and climate-friendly diets? Canvas8 spoke to Turow-Paul to find out.

Turow-Paul started writing about food culture more than 10 years ago when she lived in Argentina. Her book, 

Hungry: Avocado Toast, Instagram Influencers and our Search for Connection and Meaning

 (2020), charts the profound impact of digital media on how we talk about and conceive of food today. “I became fascinated with the impact of the digital age [on food culture],” she says. In 2010, foodie culture was just getting going – Instagram had just been released, iPhones were becoming more common. “I found myself spending a disproportionate amount of my discretionary income and time on food and food media… I uncovered that my generation wasn’t just food-obsessed but that we were also experiencing higher rates of anxiety, depression, and loneliness.” 

Food content across social media platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram has exploded in recent years, fulfilling much more than a desire for culinary inspiration. The appeal of watching food content such as 

and ‘food porn’ videos, for example, lies in its sensory properties. 

The Guardian

 “We have all these senses that are going underutilised now because we’re not hunting and gathering, spending much time outside, or making things,” says Turow-Paul. “These are the things that make us human.” Food represents a way to connect with others, with content producers building entire communities online. Turow-Paul recalls an exchange with a 

 content creator in Seoul, who was horrified at the suggestion that she might one day stop producing content. “She really felt a deep, emotional connection to the people who were watching her,” she says. 

However, Turow-Paul highlights that in all our cultural fixation with food content, there’s an essential element of the conversation that’s flying under the radar: the huge environmental impact of food waste. Although 81% of citizens are worried about climate change, only 37% realise the connection with wasting food. 

Wrap

 This is in spite of the fact that eliminating food waste has been identified as the number-one solution for reversing global warming – ahead of driving electric vehicles, installing solar panels, and eating plant-rich diets, according to the book 

The Manufacturer

 In the UK, the average family throws away 22% of their weekly shop, costing an estimated £730 per year. In the US, food waste costs families $2,275 each per year. 

Olio

 “Each and every one of us has immense power,” Turow-Paul says. “This is something I don’t think is appropriately addressed within climate conversations around the sustainability movement in general. Mitigating food waste is the number-one thing that we can do to combat the climate crisis.” 

The pandemic brought flour shortages as people made their own sourdough bread

Food behaviours and habits can take generations to change, but during the pandemic, it took just a matter of weeks. 

The Washington Post

 Faced with supply chain difficulties, long supermarket queues, and the closure of restaurants, many people shifted towards sustainable food behaviours out of necessity. In the UK, 41% of people wasted less food and 18% tried growing their own produce in 2020. 

Food Standards Authority

 Eight in ten Britons undertook additional food-management behaviours, such as freezing and defrosting surplus food, batch cooking, and using up leftovers. 

And with more time on their hands to dedicate to cooking, people also took to slower modes of food preparation. There were worldwide yeast and flour shortages, for instance, as people tried to make their own sourdough bread. 

“The slower and more considered food behaviours adopted during the pandemic weren’t really about saving money,” says Turow-Paul. “It was about having the visceral experience of digging your hands in the bowl and watching something that’s alive, and where each and every loaf is different. It was about building a new skillset… it was in direct antithesis to the white bread, industrialised food industry.” 

 With supply chains disrupted, the pandemic also led to relocalisation, with more consumers buying directly from their local farms or supporting independent restaurants. 

Eater

Plate

 For many, this was a moment of education, which acquainted people with the clear benefits of investing in local food ecosystems, as well as the joys that come with dedicating a little more time and thought to how they source and prepare food.

However, this shift to more climate- and community-friendly food behaviours was by no means universal. The pandemic highlighted deep injustices within our food system, with more affluent consumers able to stockpile and stay home, and those at the less-advantaged end of the spectrum too afraid to stay home in case they couldn’t put food on the table. In 2020, one in eight Americans were 

 – around 38 million people, including 12 million children. Many live in food deserts, faced with transportation challenges and a dearth of convenience stores and supermarkets, an issue that disproportionately affects Black, Latino, and low-income communities, who are more likely to live in areas without grocery stores than White people. 

The Annie E Casey Foundation

Turow-Paul highlights that what is in reality a lack of access to healthy and sustainable food, is often mistaken as a lack of interest on behalf of certain low-income consumers. “Many years ago, I was speaking to a large food company and I was told that low-income people don’t want organic food. But that’s just flat out wrong,” Turow-Paul says. “We all want to be eating food that is good for us, good for our children, and good for our environment. The food system, as it is now, simply makes it almost impossible for those who are working multiple jobs, who live in food deserts, or are on minimum wage to access a lot of these [healthy] foods.” 

 In order to promote climate-friendly diets, there’s an onus on brands to boost the accessibility of sustainable foods in terms of price and availability, as well as avoid perpetuating erroneous beliefs about who these foods are for.

The average family throws away just under a quarter of their weekly shop

“The most important thing you can do to fight climate change is talk about it,” says 

renowned climate scientist Dr. Katherine Hayhoe

, but many ‘climate stories’ as they’re known are missing the mark when it comes to driving real behavioural change. Turow-Paul’s work with Food for Climate League aims to tackle some of those communication challenges. “Talking about the climate crisis is extremely difficult and talking about food culture and food identity is also difficult,” Turow-Paul says. “A lot of it has to do with the way this topic is being talked about… It’s framed in the negative, people really feel like something’s being taken away from them, that this is a sacrifice. It’s also often framed as something that’s really White, really elitist, and really Western. But the vast majority of people are really concerned and alarmed about the climate crisis.” 

African Americans are much more likely to be vegan than their White counterparts – over the past 12 months, White people ate 10% less meat over the past 12 months, while people of colour ate 31% less. 

Washington Post

 Black entrepreneur Julia Collins, who recently launched the world’s first climate-friendly snack brand, Moonshot, says that people of colour often see themselves as outside the system. “When your lived experience is as someone who the system, by and large, is just not designed for, you fundamentally don’t feel an allegiance to the status quo,” she says. 

Forbes

 Over on TikTok, Alexis Nikole Nelson has more than 3.6 million followers who watch her foraging videos. ‘The Black forager’, as she’s known, says the practice taps into African American and indigenous food traditions that have largely been lost. “This really weird thing happened in the 20th century where everyone wanted to show off wealth. So foraging kind of became taboo, even if you did have the knowledge to do it,” she says. 

Reconnecting with this history also has environmental benefits, taps into that need for community, and is inclusive for those dealing with food insecurity. “There’s an exciting movement in terms of food sovereignty – the right to eat foods that are appropriate to your culture and heritage, but also your right to access the foods that are good for you and your family,” she says. “There’s potential to come back to people’s roots, to basic ingredients: rice, beans, greens, seasonal vegetables, to create a sustainable food system that’s accessible to people of a lower income.” 

 After all, she says, 75% of the world’s food is generated from only 12 plants and five animal species. “There are up to 300,000 edible plants and we eat less than 200 of them.” 

 “If each of us can learn how to use parts of fruits and veg that we’re currently not using, if we can create habits around shopping differently, we’re going to save money,” she says. “We’re going to start eating delicious new things. And we can have a massive impact on mitigating the climate crisis.” 

People are becoming increasingly aware of food’s environmental impact

Two-thirds of US citizens are worried about the climate crisis, with 74% of people struggling with feelings of guilt over their amount of food waste and 35% saying they felt too much pressure to be perfect. 

Yale Climate Opinion Maps

Interesting Engineering

 “The way that a lot of these interventions are being framed makes people feel either attacked, uninterested, or upset,” Turow-Paul says. “There’s all of these negative emotions that climate communications trigger instead of making people feel like there are culinary adventures we could be going on. They could be cooking in a way their grandmother cooked, and we could have a greater diversity of ingredients and traditions showing up on the plate, which is culturally relevant to families.” 

 Brands have an opportunity to reframe their messaging around climate-friendly behaviours to excite people about the possibilities that come with changing their daily habits. Organisations such as 

 are showing how it’s possible to engage people’s senses and imaginations in encouraging positive change.

Nine out of 10 consumers believe the pandemic will result in a more sustainable, ethical, and healthier era of food consumption. 

Build Back Better

 But expectations need to be realistic. “If you’re asking someone to take on a new behaviour that’s outside their current one, they’re not going to do it. Could you be designing this intervention differently to get greater engagement?” says Turow-Paul. The good news is, campaigns can work – In the UK, 76% of those Brits who’d seen messaging from the anti-food waste charity, Wrap, did something differently as a result. 

 are introducing carbon labels to demystify sustainable decision making, while the Co-op announced it would remove best-before dates from its own-brand yoghurt, and Morrisons has done the same for its milk. 

 “Addressing food waste is the most crucial from a climate perspective, but it’s also the most equitable,” Turow-Paul says. “Everyone can participate. This is about saving money, developing new skills, and eating a diversity of foods.” 

“A lot of these sustainability initiatives are so targeted to the ‘three Ws’ – white, Western, and wealthy individuals,” Turow-Paul says. “Not everybody has the time to look up recipes, and hunt down these individual ingredients.” 

Medium

 There’s a need for educational initiatives that meet people where they are, showing them that a climate-friendly diet can take many different forms and involve ingredients that are accessible, affordable, and culturally relevant to different communities, regardless of their income or background. Inform people about climate-friendly diets that incorporate these ingredients, wherever they are coming from. Initiatives that include recipes, substitution ideas, and seasonal advice will all be beneficial to those trying to make more healthy, sustainable choices for their families. Ruby Tandoh’s 

 offers a lesson in how to diversify and create greater equity within sustainable food choices.

 of Britons are worried about climate change, only 

 realise the connection with wasting food

The pandemic caused many people to learn the benefits of investing in local food ecosystems, but this continues to be a privilege that not all can afford

Reducing food waste is the leading solution for tackling climate change, ahead of driving electric vehicles, installing solar panels, or eating less meat

Messaging around climate-friendly food behaviours is more likely to resonate if it’s positive, empowering, and inclusive – not just doom and gloom

Eve Turow-Paul is a world-leading expert on Gen Y and Z global food culture and founder and executive director of the non-profit Food for Climate League. Her latest book is 

Hungry: Avocado Toast, Instagram Influencers, and Our Search for Connection and Meaning

. Through her writing, consultancy, and non-profit leadership, she helps companies and organisations connect the dots between culture, human behaviour, wellbeing, sustainability, and the food system to develop strategic products and campaigns that meet people's core human needs.

Global

Eating and Drinking

Citizenship

Health and Fitness

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Community and grassroots

Diets, vitamins, and supplements

Behavioural changes around food can take generations to embed, but action is needed now to mitigate the climate crisis. Canvas8 spoke to Eve Turow-Paul, the founder of the Food for Climate League, about how brands can make healthy and climate-friendly diets more accessible.

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