Doing food without meat: The role of meat substitutes in the food practices of meat lovers, meat reducers, and meat avoiders

Keywords: meat substitution, food practices, sustainable consumption, alternative proteins, plant-based meat analogs, novel foods
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Friday
Session Start / End Time: 2/25/2022 11:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/25/2022 12:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 58

Abstract

Although the market share for plant-based meat substitutes is growing, little is known about exactly how these novel protein foods are implemented in consumers’ diets and food practices. This paper explores the role of plant-based substitutes in shifting consumption away from animal protein in Norwegian consumers’ diets and food practices. Through interviews with householders in four geographical regions (N=50) and groups out grilling in parks (N=21), the paper investigates how substitution is embedded into the food practices of a diverse group of consumers – from meat lovers to meat avoiders – and their geographies. In this pursuit, the paper draws on previous works that have theorized how meat reduction and meat alternatives become embedded in food and eating practices (e.g., Twine 2014, 2015, 2018; Jallinoja et al. 2016; Mylan 2018) and how novel foods become constructed as ‘edible’ and potentially desirable (e.g., Sexton 2016, 2018). By framing ‘meat substitution’ as a social practice involving several elements beyond the changing materiality of foodstuffs, this paper shows how the process of shifting consumption from animal- to plant-based proteins requires broad changes in habits, traditions, social relations, and geographies surrounding food and eating practices.