Including the unwilling and the unable in the Protein Transition

Abstract

Our current food system puts a lot of pressure on our planet, global health, animal welfare, and creates an unfair agricultural economy. One of the strategies to decrease this pressure while serving the growing population is the protein transition. As Weinricht (2018) states, “Shifting our collective diet from eating mainly animal proteins to focusing on more plant-based proteins”. Currently this transition does not resonate with everyone. Not everyone is willing or able to participate.

One of the stakeholders working in this context is the Voedingscentrum (the Netherlands Nutrition Centre). The Voedingscentrum aims to encourage consumers to eat less meat. Additionally, they are seeking interventions to reach people with a low socioeconomic position (or ‘SEP’). Due to more pressing concerns, this group often has limited capacity to make long-term changes, such as adopting a healthier and more sustainable diet.

The goal of this project is to design an intervention that addresses resistance in the protein transition and enables the Voedingscentrum to reach people with a low SEP who are unwilling or unable to embrace the protein transition.

To determine a fitting design direction, the project began with research into the protein transition, consumers with a low SEP, and behavior change theory related to resistance. This was accomplished through various research activities, including literature and field reserach. The collected insights led to ten clusters representing the factors that influence people’s behavior in this context. Structuring these clusters and evaluating the resulting social context led to the following design goal:

“To facilitate a healthy shift towards a more plant-based diet, we want to help consumers feel secure in such a change by stimulating them to joyfully follow others.”

The designed concept, ‘Spaar je vol’, is a savings campaign or ‘spaaractie’ that allows consumers to save stamps while grocery shopping. With a full card of stamps, these customers receive a healthy vegetarian meal box containing fresh ingredients for a meal for four persons. The meals are created by the Voedingscentrum and come with easy-to-follow instructions. This campaign offers the Voedingscentrum a practical way to influence what people consume without relying solely on their ability to obtain, understand, assess, and use health information for decision-making. The variety of meal boxes offers vegetarian options without explicitly stating it, promoting a shift towards a healthier protein consumption pattern and reinforcing the new norm.

To cater to consumers with limited financial resources, supermarket customers can also donate their stamps to the Voedselbank (Food Bank). The donated stamps will be converted into donated meal boxes and distributed through the Voedselbank.

The conducted evaluation sessions provided insights from the target audience and stakeholders, demonstrating that the concept was positively received. However, additional steps need to be taken regarding the (financial) feasibility of the project.

This project contains an in-depth case study that demonstrates how behavior change theory can be applied when on dealing with resistance during the design of interventions. It offers an intervention for consumers with a low SEP and provides multiple recommendations for further steps within this domain.