A Scoping Review of Consumer Perceptions of Meat Sustainability: A Focus on Animal Welfare and Environmental Impact

Abstract

BackgroundRecent increases in meat production have marked the supply of relatively affordable meat, yet it has also heightened consumer scrutiny over environmental sustainability and animal welfare. Although there are a wealth of individual studies examining consumer concerns about the environmental and welfare impacts of meat production, a systematic mapping of the geographic distribution, methodological approaches, and conceptual dimensions of these studies has not been thoroughly conducted across the disciplines contributing to this research. To address this gap, this thesis conducted a scoping review of peer-reviewed literature spanning from 2010 to 2022 to systematically identify and characterize over a decade of research on consumer perceptions of meat sustainability. MethodsThis scoping review followed guidelines from Arksey and O’Malley and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). Systematic searches were conducted in five databases spanning business and the biomedical, social, environmental, and agricultural sciences. The process included dual and multi-stage screening by two reviewers, a systematic data extraction process, structured content analysis of open-ended data to identify and organize emergent categories, and quantitative characterization of the included studies. ResultsAnalysis of the 512 peer-reviewed articles included in the final set revealed a marked increase in studies on consumer perceptions of meat sustainability between 2010 and 2022. Across all global regions, more studies focused on consumer perceptions of animal welfare than environmental impact with research predominantly concentrated in Europe and Central Asia (n=288), followed by North America (n=87), East Asia, and the Pacific (n=71), and Latin America and the Caribbean (n=31). Studies assessing consumer perceptions of environmental impact commonly addressed broad issues like environmental degradation and general environmental sustainability, with specific environmental challenges such as climate impacts (n=108), pollution (n=46), resource use (n=45), and land use (n=44) more common in the research. In terms of animal welfare, topics such as housing (n=172) animal feed (n=108), mental and psychological well-being (n=106), animal ethics (n=176), as well as ethical slaughter (n=76) received the most attention after publications examining general animal welfare. The review also highlighted that consumer perceptions of meat sustainability have been studied alongside other social and economic sustainability concerns through varied perceptions and study designs including general survey research, preference elicitation methods, qualitative research, and behavior change research. DiscussionThis review highlighted that studies commonly address environmental impacts and animal welfare as part of broader sustainability discussions, with significant geographic variation reflecting regional influences on environmental and animal sustainability discourse. Furthermore, researchers explored consumer perceptions through a spectrum of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, using diverse methodologies to assess how these elements influence what consumers care about animal welfare and the environmental impacts of meat production. To address these complexities, the review advocates for a nuanced, multidisciplinary approach to refine data collection and enhance the accuracy of consumer insights. On a practical level, these findings guide targeted strategies to improve policy and interventions, stressing the importance of local adaptability within global sustainability efforts. Additionally, the research calls for a cautious interpretation of consumer data to prevent overgeneralization and inefficacy in sustainability practices, emphasizing the urgent need for more comprehensive research in underrepresented regions to develop truly inclusive global strategies.