{"id":166780,"date":"2024-08-30T08:00:27","date_gmt":"2024-08-30T06:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/avocadoer-faar-skylden-naar-koedspisere-forsvarer-deres-forbrug\/"},"modified":"2024-08-30T11:54:50","modified_gmt":"2024-08-30T09:54:50","slug":"avocados-get-the-blame-when-meat-eaters-defend-their-eating-habits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/avocados-get-the-blame-when-meat-eaters-defend-their-eating-habits\/","title":{"rendered":"Avocados get the blame when meat-eaters defend their eating habits"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most people know it already. It is not good for the climate when we continue to eat as much meat as we do. It is still difficult to accept that it is the individual’s responsibility to change their diets to reduce our carbon footprint.<\/p>\n

This is according to associate professor and sociologist Kia Ditlevsen from the Department of Food and Resource Economics at the University of Copenhagen (UCPH).<\/p>\n

She has done a sociological research project which had 35 Danes in six groups attempting to reach agreement on the most effective way to reduce our dietary CO2 footprint.<\/p>\n

First the participants had to answer what changes are needed if we want to make our diet as climate-friendly as possible.<\/p>\n

There was overwhelming agreement among participants that becoming vegan or vegetarian were among the most effective measures.<\/p>\n

\u00bbBut when they got the next question, then their answers got more interesting,\u00ab says Ditlevsen.<\/p>\n

The next question was: What would you rather change yourself? Most participants now began to come up with excuses to defend their position as meat-eaters.<\/p>\n

\n

The study is published here<\/p>\n

The project has been published in the Journal of Consumer Culture: Bad avocados, culinary standards, and knowable knowledge: Culturally appropriate rejections of meat reduction.<\/a><\/p>\n

It is a qualitative, focus group study carried out as a collaboration between Kia Ditlevsen and co-author Thomas A.M. Skelly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u00bbAs most of the participants ate meat, and at the same time pointed to meat as a climate problem, we could see many examples in the subsequent discussion of how consumers ‘defended’ their continued meat eating practices. They did it by, for example, pointing to other climate problems, or they did it by judging other people \u2013 especially vegans,\u00ab says Ditlevsen.<\/p>\n

And here there was ingenuity:<\/p>\n

\u00bbThey turned it into a ridiculous position to be vegan and portrayed the vegan as a climate hypocrite who eats highly processed substitutes that require a lot of energy to produce. They considered vegan products to be just as harmful to the climate as meat,\u00ab says Kia Ditlevsen.<\/p>\n

A majority of the participants tried by means of these excuses to uphold a self-image as a moral person that thinks logically and coherent \u2013 even when the arguments are wrong, she says:<\/p>\n

\u00bbBecause you could then argue that very few vegans only live on highly processed products, or that meat is more damaging to the climate than the processed products that they pointed to.\u00ab<\/p>\n

The ridiculed avocado<\/h3>\n

The excuse then, was that it was not only meat-eaters who did something wrong. The others did also.<\/p>\n

As an example of the use of excuses in connection with extreme positions, Kia Ditlevsen mentions the groups’ discussions about avocado eating.<\/p>\n

\u00bbWhen we talked about avocados, the grey areas disappeared again, and some of the participants said: \u00bbIt is hypocritical to eat avocado when you at the same time say you want to do something good for the climate.\u00ab The avocado became a symbol for people who say they are doing something good for the climate and yet not doing it,\u00ab says Ditlevsen.<\/p>\n

\n

Part of a larger, green food project<\/p>\n

Kia Ditlevsen\u2019s and Thomas A.M. Skelly’s focus group study is part of a larger research project, SO-FOOD, which is examining consumers’ perceptions of the interaction between organic food and sustainability.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The sociologist finds the ridicule interesting, because the arguments are invalid.<\/p>\n

\u00bbWhile it’s true that avocados in some places are associated with social and environmental problems, when we talk about climate footprint, they have a lower impact than meat,\u00ab says Ditlevsen.<\/p>\n

The participants would generally prefer to talk about anything else than how they can actually eat less meat.<\/p>\n

\u00bbInstead of reducing meat consumption, they would rather talk about how to avoid wasting food and packaging. Even though this is also an important topic, it is a secondary issue in relation to meat consumption when we are talking about reducing the climate footprint,\u00ab says Kia Ditlevsen.<\/p>\n

The climate shame of meat-eaters<\/h3>\n

She is aware that eating habits are difficult to change. They are about social relationships and what we humans do on a daily basis in our everyday lives. And this is a challenge.<\/p>\n

\u00bbI’m interested in people’s daily lives and in the social dynamics that take place here. I’m primarily focused on food. But it’s just as much the social context that influences what people do that has my research interest,\u00ab says Kia Ditlevsen.<\/p>\n

She has carried out the project together with Thomas A.M. Skelly. According to Kia Ditlevsen, they both see themselves as food sociologists and sociologists of everyday life. It has affected their way of working that they were surprised by what they discovered along the way.<\/p>\n

\u00bbWe both thought that the most interesting group to study was the large group of Danes who eat meat. Our interest wasn’t really in the vegans,\u00ab says Kia Ditlevsen.
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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Det afsl\u00f8rer nogle af de forsvarsmekanismer, folk tager i brug, n\u00e5r de ikke vil g\u00e5 p\u00e5 kompromis med k\u00f8det.","name":"dsc_1493_dxo_web","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":165815,"date":"2024-07-31 08:50:03","modified":"2025-10-16 08:51:28","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":2400,"height":1600,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/dsc_1493_dxo_web-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/dsc_1493_dxo_web-480x320.jpg","medium-width":480,"medium-height":320,"medium_large":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/dsc_1493_dxo_web-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/dsc_1493_dxo_web-1280x853.jpg","large-width":1280,"large-height":853,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/dsc_1493_dxo_web-1536x1024.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/dsc_1493_dxo_web-2048x1365.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1365,"featured-soft":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/dsc_1493_dxo_web-290x193.jpg","featured-soft-width":290,"featured-soft-height":193,"featured-hard":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/dsc_1493_dxo_web-290x180.jpg","featured-hard-width":290,"featured-hard-height":180,"narrow":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/dsc_1493_dxo_web-700x467.jpg","narrow-width":700,"narrow-height":467,"extended":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/dsc_1493_dxo_web-990x660.jpg","extended-width":990,"extended-height":660}},"style":"full","text_placement":"metadata-below","image_link_url":"","image_link_title":"","caption_prefix":"","enable_alternative_caption":true,"alternative_caption":"Associate Professor Kia Ditlevsen has contributed to a focus group study on Danes\u2019 dietary habits. It reveals the defence mechanisms used by people when they don't want to reduce their meat intake."},{"acf_fc_layout":"Standfirst","subject":"Climate shaming","text":"Madsociologien afsl\u00f8rer de undskyldninger, vi bruger for at undg\u00e5 at sk\u00e6re ned p\u00e5 k\u00f8det i kosten. Selv den sagesl\u00f8se avocado kan bruges til form\u00e5let. ","use_post_excerpt":true},{"acf_fc_layout":"Byline","is_author":true,"contributors":false},{"acf_fc_layout":"Content","content":"<p>Most people know it already. It is not good for the climate when we continue to eat as much meat as we do. It is still difficult to accept that it is the individual’s responsibility to change their diets to reduce our carbon footprint.<\/p>\n<p>This is according to associate professor and sociologist Kia Ditlevsen from the Department of Food and Resource Economics at the University of Copenhagen (UCPH).<\/p>\n<p>She has done a sociological research project which had 35 Danes in six groups attempting to reach agreement on the most effective way to reduce our dietary CO2 footprint.<\/p>\n<p>First the participants had to answer what changes are needed if we want to make our diet as climate-friendly as possible.<\/p>\n<p>There was overwhelming agreement among participants that becoming vegan or vegetarian were among the most effective measures.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbBut when they got the next question, then their answers got more interesting,\u00ab says Ditlevsen.<\/p>\n<p>The next question was: What would you rather change yourself? Most participants now began to come up with excuses to defend their position as meat-eaters.<\/p>\n<div class=\"factbox\">\n<p class=\"factbox-header feature-color\">The study is published here<\/p>\n<p>The project has been published in the Journal of Consumer Culture: <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.1177\/14695405241243199\">Bad avocados, culinary standards, and knowable knowledge: Culturally appropriate rejections of meat reduction.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>It is a qualitative, focus group study carried out as a collaboration between Kia Ditlevsen and co-author Thomas A.M. Skelly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u00bbAs most of the participants ate meat, and at the same time pointed to meat as a climate problem, we could see many examples in the subsequent discussion of how consumers ‘defended’ their continued meat eating practices. They did it by, for example, pointing to other climate problems, or they did it by judging other people \u2013 especially vegans,\u00ab says Ditlevsen.<\/p>\n<p>And here there was ingenuity:<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbThey turned it into a ridiculous position to be vegan and portrayed the vegan as a climate hypocrite who eats highly processed substitutes that require a lot of energy to produce. They considered vegan products to be just as harmful to the climate as meat,\u00ab says Kia Ditlevsen.<\/p>\n<p>A majority of the participants tried by means of these excuses to uphold a self-image as a moral person that thinks logically and coherent \u2013 even when the arguments are wrong, she says:<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbBecause you could then argue that very few vegans only live on highly processed products, or that meat is more damaging to the climate than the processed products that they pointed to.\u00ab<\/p>\n<h3>The ridiculed avocado<\/h3>\n<p>The excuse then, was that it was not only meat-eaters who did something wrong. The others did also.<\/p>\n<p>As an example of the use of excuses in connection with extreme positions, Kia Ditlevsen mentions the groups’ discussions about avocado eating.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbWhen we talked about avocados, the grey areas disappeared again, and some of the participants said: \u00bbIt is hypocritical to eat avocado when you at the same time say you want to do something good for the climate.\u00ab The avocado became a symbol for people who say they are doing something good for the climate and yet not doing it,\u00ab says Ditlevsen.<\/p>\n<div class=\"factbox\">\n<p class=\"factbox-header feature-color\">Part of a larger, green food project<\/p>\n<p>Kia Ditlevsen\u2019s and Thomas A.M. Skelly’s focus group study is part of a larger research project,<a href=\"https:\/\/icrofs.dk\/en\/research\/danish-research\/organic-rdd-6\/translate-to-english-so-food\"> SO-FOOD, which is examining consumers’ perceptions of the interaction between organic food and sustainability.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The sociologist finds the ridicule interesting, because the arguments are invalid.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbWhile it’s true that avocados in some places are associated with social and environmental problems, when we talk about climate footprint, they have a lower impact than meat,\u00ab says Ditlevsen.<\/p>\n<p>The participants would generally prefer to talk about anything else than how they can actually eat less meat.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbInstead of reducing meat consumption, they would rather talk about how to avoid wasting food and packaging. Even though this is also an important topic, it is a secondary issue in relation to meat consumption when we are talking about reducing the climate footprint,\u00ab says Kia Ditlevsen.<\/p>\n<h3>The climate shame of meat-eaters<\/h3>\n<p>She is aware that eating habits are difficult to change. They are about social relationships and what we humans do on a daily basis in our everyday lives. And this is a challenge.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbI’m interested in people’s daily lives and in the social dynamics that take place here. I’m primarily focused on food. But it’s just as much the social context that influences what people do that has my research interest,\u00ab says Kia Ditlevsen.<\/p>\n<p>She has carried out the project together with Thomas A.M. Skelly. According to Kia Ditlevsen, they both see themselves as food sociologists and sociologists of everyday life. It has affected their way of working that they were surprised by what they discovered along the way.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbWe both thought that the most interesting group to study was the large group of Danes who eat meat. Our interest wasn’t really in the vegans,\u00ab says Kia Ditlevsen.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"ArticleEnd"},{"acf_fc_layout":"Newsletter","lang_select":"en","identifier":"Newsletter","headline":"Get an email with our top stories","button_text":"Sign up here","class":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"OtherStories","headline":"","hand_picked_posts":false,"references":false,"category":false,"theme":false,"number_of_posts":"4","style":"default"}]},"taxonomyData":{"category":[{"term_id":46,"name":"Science","slug":"science","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":46,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":831,"filter":"raw"}],"post_tag":[],"post_format":[],"expression":[{"term_id":15,"name":"News Article","slug":"news_article","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":15,"taxonomy":"expression","description":"","parent":0,"count":11489,"filter":"raw"}],"translation_priority":[{"term_id":5468,"name":"Optional","slug":"optional-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5468,"taxonomy":"translation_priority","description":"","parent":0,"count":672,"filter":"raw"}]},"featured_media_url":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/dsc_1493_dxo_facebook-1280x563.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166780"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":166813,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166780\/revisions\/166813"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}