Reshaping Food Choice at University of Michigan

Study Summary

Nearly a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions originate from agriculture. Consumer demand for food, especially carbon-intensive red meats, largely underlies these emissions. Therefore, reducing consumption of red meat has the potential for transformative impacts on climate change. Our interdisciplinary team of researchers and dining staff aims to determine the carbon impact of evidence-based behavior change interventions to reduce red meat consumption at University of Michigan dining halls. Using an experimental design, we will evaluate the impacts of three "nudge" interventions (i.e., modifying environmental cues and incentives) to reduce red meat consumption in three randomly assigned treatment dining halls vis-à-vis three paired control dining halls. Nudges will include changing default food items and altering food labels. We will: 1) collect data on meals served during each intervention periods to assess the separate and combined effects of the interventions on red meat consumption; 2) conduct e-mail interviews with students to understand treatment effect heterogeneity and sociodemographic determinants of food choice; and, 3) conduct focus group discussions and interviews, respectively, with students and dining staff to assess implementation feasibility. We expect that this research will generate scalable, replicable solutions for reducing greenhouse gas emissions through dietary change at universities and similar institutions, will significantly advance the food choice literature, and will influence sustainability strategies at university dining operations nationally given the proposed team's close partnership with regional and national dining programs.

Primary Outcome

We will assess the amount of red meat served across project dining halls from the the pre-intervention to the intervention period using "post-cost" data collected by operations staff (i.e., the amount of each dish prepared prior to the start of a meal period as well as the amount of each dish remaining at the end of the meal period with units of measure standardized to kg. We will assess the average weight of red meat served in each dining hall during the pre-intervention baseline period compare

Interventions

• OTHER Taste-focused labels
• OTHER Carbon impact labels
• OTHER Changing default menu options