Towards Sustainable Food Consumption: Emerging Tensions Behind the Plate in a Colombian University Community

ABSTRACT

The study of sustainable food consumption is key in the transformation of current unsustainable food systems. We explore the tensions that emerge between individual motives and sustainability spheres when making food consumption choices in a university community in Bogotá, Colombia. This complex phenomenon is addressed through a qualitative methodology based on observations, visual diaries, and a game-based protocol, which allow us to delve into food consumption motives while trying to avoid social desirability bias. Our results show a plate that is high in cereals, roots, tubers, plantains, and animal-based protein, and low in vegetables, fruits, and plant-based proteins. Behind this plate, most tensions emerge between family traditions and other sustainability spheres. These tensions are related to socio-affective risks, animal suffering, time constraints, effort, and monetary costs. Integrating sociocultural elements such as family traditions in public policy becomes fundamental when promoting sustainable diets in similar contexts. This study contributes to the discussion about the sociocultural changes required in the transition toward sustainable food systems.

KEYWORDS:

• Sustainable food consumption
• food consumption motives
• paradoxical tensions
• sustainable diets
• eating plate
• family traditions

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Mónica Ramos-Mejía, Juan Moreno-Cruz, and the two anonymous reviewers of this paper for their valuable comments, which helped on its improvement. The first author would also like to thank Luisa M. Ramírez for inspiring this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s). This article is the result of a research project registered at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana under the ID PPTA 8835 entitled “Sustainable food consumption in Colombia: Knowledge and motives”, and received funds from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.