Labels placed on fast food items stressing their high climate impact may influence consumers to make more sustainable (可持续的) choices, new study results show.
Food accounts for around one-third of all human-made greenhouse gas emissions, while animal-based foods like red meat and dairy products make up a large part of these emissions.
Researchers carried out a randomized clinical trial with more than 5,000 participants to determine whether calling attention to red meat’s climate impact could change consumer menu selections.
Individuals were shown a simple online fast food menu and asked to select an item for dinner. A control group received a menu with a quick response code label on all items and no climate labels. Another group received a menu with green low-climate impact labels, positively framing choices like fish, chicken, or vegetarian choices. The third group received a menu with red high-climate labels on items containing red meat, negatively framing the choices.
Results showed 23 percent more participants in the high climate label group ordered a sustainable, non-red meat choice, and 10 percent more in the low-climate group ordered a sustainable choice, compared with controls.
“In the United States, meat consumption, red meat consumption in particular, often exceeds (超过) recommended levels based on national dietary guidelines,” researchers wrote in the study. “Shifting current dietary patterns toward more sustainable diets with lower amounts of red meat consumed could reduce diet-related greenhouse gas emissions by up to 55 percent.”
Extra red meat consumption can also be harmful to human health and has been linked with increased risks of diabetes and certain cancers. Fast food restaurants are a key source of red meat in many Americans’ diets, authors noted, adding more than one-third of U.S. individuals consume fast food on a given day.
“These results suggest that menu labeling, particularly labels warning that an item has high climate impact, can be an effective strategy for encouraging more sustainable food choices in a fast food setting,” said lead study author Julia Wolfson, an associate professor from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.
【小题1】What does paragraph 4 mainly talk about?| A．The research objects. | B．The research findings. |
| C．The research purpose. | D．The research process. |
| A．Changing. | B．Removing. | C．Gathering. | D．Searching. |
| A．Consumers prefer labeled menus. | B．Red meat can result in many diseases. |
| C．Menu labeling helps reduce climate impact. | D．Two-thirds of Americans like to eat fast food. |
| A．Fast Food and Climate Change | B．Menu Labeling for Greener Choices |
| C．Increasingly Popular Menu Labeling | D．Red Meat Consumption and Health Risks |
