Photo: Shannon Mangerchine
Marc Gunther, contributing editor for Fortune, posted a fascinating blog about his experience of lunch choices at the 2009 Behavior, Energy and Climate Change Conference. As an experiment, organizers of the conference decided to offer a vegetarian entrée as the default choice for lunch, with the meat-based meal an option. It turned out that approximately 80% of the participants elected the default vegetarian choice. One of the comments following the piece noted that the results were skewed due to the failure of diners to remember the choice they had made. Some asked for the meat option as they were being served, so that others who originally chose meat did not receive what they requested. Even so, it would be interesting to conduct the experiment more scientifically and see how many people would be satisfied with a vegetarian option.
In a recent Newsnight interview of Al Gore by Jeremy Paxman, Gore acknowledged the significance of meat intensity in diet as a legitimate environmental concern and said that he had reduced meat in his diet, but would not become vegetarian. The Worldwatch Institute reported in early November that meat consumption continued to rise in 2008. It appears that, as much as the public supports the idea of green living, relatively few are willing to make a change that requires no financial investment and little inconvenience, but simply an alteration in choices.
So what does it take for people to make significant changes in their life? Our choices arise from all the environmental influences of our upbringing, beginning in infancy. Food choices are especially rooted in our early development and continue with us throughout economic and social changes in our lives. Some foods have even earned the label “comfort food” in recognition of their role in maintaining our emotional outlook. To break free of established patterns so tightly entwined with our norms, we are going to need to change what the default is.
Many people think of vegetarian diets as an assembly of three steamed vegetables laid out on a plate without ever conceiving the delightful culinary experiences of vegetarian ethnic dishes such as Thai, Afghan, or Indian. To demonstrate that plant-based diets are anything but boring, we need to induce them to try vegetarian meals. We need to create opportunities in which they actually need to opt out of the vegetarian choice. It would be a sign of true commitment if all those organizations dedicated to environmental causes would create a venue that contributed to the establishment of a new norm, with vegetarian as the default choice.