Food decarbonization: students’ perceptions of meat consumption reduction in a Portuguese university

• Autor(a) principal: Figueiredo, Catarina Rafaela Pais
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/30817
• topic: Higher education institutions; Sustainable education; Agri-food systems; Climate change

This dissertation presents the results of a research about meat consumption in universities targeting students at the University of Aveiro. This is a timely research topic addressed in a context of climate change and agri-food systems sustainability and the role of education for sustainable development. The motivation for this study is to understand the student’s perceptions and attitudes about meat consumption. In the last few years universities adopted climate change mitigation measures, dealing with topics such as recycling, water and energy consumption and cutting food-related carbon emissions by removing beef and lamb from dietary offer. In this context is important to perceive the students’ knowledge about sustainability action plans, mainly in the university niche. The results show PhD and male students with a low level of awareness to reduce meat consumption and thus stressing the importance of climate change education and climate literacy in Universities. Female students are usually more receptive to diet changes since eating meat is sometimes linked to male stereotypes. This dissertation results will support a participatory discussion in the university that should include stakeholders, students, teaching and non-teaching staff to better analyze the theme of decarbonization through dietary changes and reducing the carbon footprint.