Industrial meat production is at the heart of many debates: animal suffering, ecological impact, working conditions in slaughterhouses. So many good reasons which should push us to review our eating habits. However, meat consumption continues to grow, particularly in the United States, and awareness campaigns seem to have little effect. A recent Canadian study, however, qualifies this observation, suggesting that it remains possible to change mentalities.
Researchers from the University of Toronto conducted an experiment with 1,149 students, divided into two groups, reports the online media Vox. The first watched a 16-minute extract from the shocking documentary Dominion (be careful, the images may offend the sensibilities of young people… as well as those not so young) on the treatment of animals in industrial farms. The control group watched a video about forest mushrooms. Before and after viewing, then a week later, participants had to choose a protein to add to their meal between bacon, chicken, steak, tofu or nothing.
Result: before the video, 90.1% of students opted for meat; a week later, they were only 77.9%, a drop of 12.2%. Demand for pork fell even more sharply. What distinguishes this study is the quality and evocative power of the documentary broadcast: high definition images, careful editing, sober narration and absence of explicit call to reduce meat consumption. Participants were left free to draw their own conclusions.
Why persuasion campaigns struggle to convince
Despite decades of efforts to convince the public to become vegetarian, vegan, or at least reduce their meat intake, consumption has continued to increase in the United States. Faced with this observation, major animal rights organizations have changed strategy since 2015, focusing on political and industrial campaigns to ban the cruelest practices and promote plant-based alternatives.
This approach has enabled concrete progress, but some worry that it will run out of steam if society does not change so profoundly.
Today, messages encouraging people to consume less meat are rarer, while advertising and social networks massively promote this type of food. Consumers are little exposed to the realities of factory farming, while companies maintain the illusion of generalized animal welfare. However, the study suggests that a brief but significant exposure to the reality of farms could be enough to change certain behaviors.
Persuasion remains a difficult but essential art to hope for lasting change. While the results of the Toronto study are encouraging, they also show that the impact depends on the quality of the message and repetition. In a world saturated with information, capturing the public’s attention is a challenge, but it is not in vain. Sometimes it only takes 16 minutes to sow doubt and raise awareness.
In France, the results are more mixed than in the United States: meat consumption has been slowly reducing for 20 years, and despite a rebound in 2021 and 2022, the trend is downward again. Factors such as inflation and the contraction in purchasing power mainly explain this trend, rather than ecological or ethical awareness.
