Focused Discussion (Asynchronous - Online Only)
Can a Change in Food Habits Contribute to Solving Some Global Issues?: Conserving Biodiversity View Digital Media
Focused Discussion Shweta Rana
We humans appreciate wide varieties of foods and tastes because of our omnivorous evolutionary history. In today's fast-paced life, preparing a wholesome supply of nutrients in all meals regularly is challenging. We mostly eat to fill our stomach. Such foods in our daily diet do not provide the complete nutrition to the body as the diversity of nutrients that different foods deliver is being compromised with. We have lost many fruits, vegetables, and grains in the last century because of multiple anthropogenic factors. Selective consumption is one of them. Just think of the kinds of fruits, vegetables and grains we are bringing into our kitchens. We prefer the same types of food again and again, increasing the homogeneity in the food demand and supply. This practice inadvertently impacts the local farmers and also our economy. Farmers do not get good price for the crops that are not in demand in the market. They are forced to switch to the agricultural products in demand, leading to the augmentation of monoculture. Could it be that eating variety of foods can save us from losing many native crops and hence crop diversity? Another related consideration is: with our present homogenous food consumption patterns, will we end up losing the genes required for the metabolism of those foods which are innocently getting ignored? Food is the ingredient that binds us humans. Eating right is important not only for the global health but also a crucial step to save crop diversity.
Environmental Privilege in Glass Orbs: A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis of Raw Water on Social Media View Digital Media
Focused Discussion Renee Barry
This research expands on the concept of environmental privilege through an analysis of the “raw water” trend’s visual and textual presence on social media. Raw water businesses, originating around 2017 in the Silicon Valley of California, recommend that consumers reject tap water for their expensive, untreated, and supposedly healthier “raw” spring water. Mass media was quick to satirize the trend; however, there is an absence of academic analyses of raw water discourse, particularly relating themes of privilege to environmental perception. This is consistent with a broader lack of scholarship on environmental privilege in the literature of environmental justice. Adopting a Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA), this study uses the Instagram and Facebook posts of the raw water company, Alive Waters, to unearth the trend’s underlying narratives and examine what they reveal about the relationships between environmental privilege and perception.
New Meat on the Block: Factors Influencing India’s Gen Z’s Decision to Purchase Plant-based Meat View Digital Media
Focused Discussion Nikita Dhawan, Kah Ying Choo
There have been increasing concerns regarding the meat industry due to its negative influence on the environment, such as freshwater pollution, biodiversity loss, and increased methane emissions. These concerns have sparked the public’s interest in plant-based meat, the demand for which is expected to reach USD 27.5 billion by 2025. This study evaluated the factors influencing the decision of India’s Gen Z (aged 15-25) to purchase plant-based meat by conducting an online survey using a mixed method research approach. Among the eight different factors examined, the study found environmental consciousness as one of the highest-rated factors in all the three categories of respondents—combined (vegetarians and non-vegetarians), vegetarians, and non-vegetarians—in influencing their decision to purchase plant-based meat. This finding mirrors the growing environmental awareness of Gen Z globally. Health/safety was another top-rated factor for all three groups, possibly due to the increasing concern of zoonotic diseases, such as COVID-19. Conversely, price, convenience, and food curiosity were the least influential, highlighting the Indian market's unique characteristics. As a significant majority of young Indian adults live with their parents, plant-based companies targeting Gen Zs need to consider India’s family-oriented culture and the parents’ dominant role in determining meal choices at home. While companies could incorporate plant-based meat products into traditional food and well-known dishes to appeal to parents, companies can also target the more independent Gen Zs by emphasizing plant-based meat as a sustainable alternative to traditional meat. Additional nuanced marketing strategies for vegetarians and non-vegetarians are also discussed.
