Sustainable Diets

The Lempert Report
August 18, 2022

Phil: So, Joanne Trewern, sustainable diets manager at the world wildlife foundation in the UK, did a study and she wrote about it in food weekly, and basically, worked with two different supermarket chains. She also says in her column that we make over 200 food decisions a day. A lot of them, you know, are subconscious if you would, but what she found is during veganuary, which is a big deal in the UK, they were able to increase dramatically. The foods that people ate that were plant-based, by just doing some very simple things, putting them at eye level in the shelf, putting better signage, putting it at the end of the aisle, having some price, promotions, loyalty card incentives. And the interesting thing to me, not only did sales go up 58% during veganuary, but also maintain that three months after, at 15% higher, it didn't affect the sales of meat. So what it really proves to me is you can have more plant-based foods in your diet. And that doesn't mean that the meat industry, you know, is gonna go outta business and, you know, people just have more of a balance to it. So I really applaud what she's doing. And what do you think about, you know, veganuary? For a while you were a vegan.

Sally: Yes. Three years. I was. And then I switched, back to flexitarian. But I love the veganuary concept and, you know, it would be great if we could practice something like that here in the United States, particularly in January as a time when people are focused on, "okay, I've gotta eat healthier. I need to change some of my habits." But what I really liked about this research on these two supermarkets was, you know, that they really found that engaging with the consumers and helping them learn how to prepare and use these new items that they weren't accustomed to buying really made a difference in them adding that to their basket. 

Phil: Yeah. We need more studies like this that are more realistic and also show these kind of results.