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trongdatnguyen · 4 years ago

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Topic: do we need a climate label?

I. Introduction

The label is an important part of food products, which producers use to communicate their product’ characteristics to persuade consumers at a trading activity. The information on the product label often reflects and responds to the customers’ demands at a time. With the uprising consumers' concern about the environmental aspect of food products and production in recent years, the question of the need for a climate label is unavoidable. In this essay, reports and literature will be reviewed to answer and discuss the raising question.

II. Literature review

In the modern world, consumers are provided with a fruitful amount of food choices due to technological advancements and the free market. Their consumption behavior is no longer determined solely by the availability of food to serve basic nutritional needs1. A wide range of foodstuff options allows the customer to make purchasing decisions not only to satisfy fundamental demands but also to reflect their lifestyle and beliefs2. Consequently, policymakers and food producers need to understand population demands towards foodstuffs to perform corresponding strategic approaches at their challenging positions. Concurrently, policymakers need to keep benefiting their citizens, and producers to stay relevant in their business as society progresses.

Under the customer-centered market, food producers utilize product labels as a response to consumers' demands in trading activities without their preliminary consumptions3. Thereupon, packaging has dual functions of protecting the food inside as well as conveying information from producers to consumers. The information existed in the product label can be mandatory, as an obligation to the officials' regulations, or non-mandatory as a producers' endeavor to persuade consumers to buy a product. Consequently, despite differences in legal status, this information functions as a cue to help customers making purchasing decisions depending on their preferences with certainty and willingness. For example, from 2014, European food producers are obliged to list potential allergens that existed in their product in the product label4. This implementation indirectly clarifies consumers' questions about how their health preferences would react to food products without actually trying. In a different circumstance, the voluntary addition of an organic production label assures consumers the product is associated with organic production. As such, consumers could consume according to their opposition towards GMOs, or preference toward nature with certainty.

In the modernity theory frameworks of consumption and production, the modification and implementation of product labels mentioned above is a part of the producer's business restructure in correspondence to customers' demands. Therefore, new customers' demands - which are formed by new societal ideology at the time - indirectly require new product labels, either mandatory or voluntary. For example, genetically modified food was introduced to the European market as early as 1996. However, only until consumers' confidence in science and technology started to impose an uprising contradiction GMO, European Commission released their official regulation toward food producers on the issue in 20035. From then, European producers need to put GMO are required to put GMO labels onto their products if it is associated with genetic engineering technology to any extent.

Meanwhile, the environmental aspect in food and food production is gaining more recognition from the European public in the last decades. Consequently, this aspect would potentially become the determining factor of the customer in their consuming activities in the future6. Therefore it is inevitable to suggest the addition of climate labels to food products, based on a certified and quantitative system, in response to the uprising customers' demands from this time on. In fact, as of now, several food companies have already implemented different versions of climate labels to their products such as Oatly, Estrella, Quorn7. Together with marketing strategies, their business gained exponential growth in the last few years. This observation alone not only suggest the producers' need to adopt climate label for future business but also signify the needs of a mandatory one from policymakers to help their people avoid confusion while making a purchasing decision.

III. Discussions

The above reasoning suggests that the implementation of the mandatory climate label in the food industry is certain to happen. Two fundamental characteristics of this label can be predicted based on both current mandatory labels and voluntary climate labels. Firstly, it would be a quantification label like a nutrition label instead of an identification label like a GMO one. In reality, any production activity has its environmental impact, and more often, it is the most effective technology available for producers. Besides, laws and regulations are not higher and are conditioned by the development of technology as society progresses. Therefore, considering foodstuffs is environmentally good or bad may do more harm to the society than benefit them, which the purpose of the implementation. Secondly, it would cover the environmental impacts of a product in more than one aspect (figure 1). As such, different product from different production technologies which require different resources can be evaluated indifferently by the regulations.

For customers, the implementation of such a climate label implies few foreseeable benefits. Firstly, it satisfies customers' demands for a more environmentally friendly way of food consumption by giving them a tool to compare between products. Concerns about how their consumption behavior would impact the environment are resolved, paving way for more certain and enjoyable trading activities. Though this resolution is not the ultimate one because any production activity has its environmental impact, it would be the most effective tactic available. Secondly, the implementation helps customers consume at ease by guiding them through a matrix of voluntary climate labels in the market in the present. More often, these voluntary climate labels consider environmental aspects from different perspectives - namely carbon dioxide emission versus food milage. They are incomparable to each other. Consequently, consumers have been left with confusion while shopping, though their needs are responded to by food producers. In contrast, the implementation also suggests an obvious drawback for consumers.

For producers, the implementation is both the opportunity and the challenge for their businesses. A study conducted for the Swedish market suggests that consumers would pay more for food products with less GHG emitting8. Concurrently, Oatly, who has gained exponential growth in the last few years, famously adopts carbon dioxide emission number per product on their units and publicly promotes every producer to follow their paths. Though these case studies do not represent the whole European market, it suggests that climate labels can be used as a critical selling point for consumers in the future. On the other hand, the implementation forces them into a new technology race towards the most environmentally friendly production technique - which might remove small-cap companies. Moreover, it would also impose a challenge to businesses whose exporting foodstuffs as explained in the above paragraph.

IV. Conclusions

To conclude, the need for a climate label in food products is inevitable and certain to happen in the future. It is because of the uprising importance of environmental aspects in consumers’ quality evaluation and the function of the product label is the producers’ responses to consumers’ needs. The future climate label would assemble fundamental characteristics of current mandatory product labels as well as voluntary climate labels circulating in the market. Furthermore, the implementation imposes more benefits than drawbacks to customers who consider the environmental aspect as the most determining factor in purchasing activities. Concurrently, producers would consider the implementation is both a challenge to their business structure and an opportunity to grow by new market demands.

V. Tables and diagrams

Figure 1: Example of climate label based on nutrition label and voluntary climate labels

VI. References

1. Troth J. Ethical and environmental labelling of foods and beverages. In: Advances in Food and Beverage Labelling. Elsevier; 2015:151-175. doi:10.1533/9781782420934.3.151

2. Wikström S, Jönsson H, Decosta PL. A clash of modernities: Developing a new value-based framework to understand the mismatch between production and consumption. J Consum Cult. 2016;16(3):824-851. doi:10.1177/1469540514528197

3. Wyrwa J, Barska A. Packaging as a Source of Information About Food Products. Procedia Eng. 2017;182:770-779. doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2017.03.199

4. European Parliament. Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2011. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft; 2011.

5. European Parliament. General Food Law. Published online 2002.

6. Dat N. Do the consumers take the environmental aspect into the evaluation of food quality? Published online 2021.

7. Carbon Cloud. Carbon Cloud Customer Lists.https://carboncloud.com. Published 2021.

8. Olof B. Different types of climate labels for food products. Published online 2009:71.

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trongdatnguyen · 4 years ago

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Thấy mình viết hay qúa nên post lên đây hihi:

Topic: consumer evaluation of food quality. Do the consumers take the environmental aspect into account?

I. Introduction

Since the 1970s, the culture of consumption has shifted from producer-central to consumer-central. Consumers no longer decide to buy a product solely due to its availability. They consider different aspects related to the product before a decision. These aspects reflect consumers' attitudes and worldviews, which are influenced by societal perception and behaviors at a time. As such, producers need to understand consumers' demands to stay in the business. In the present, climate change starts to impacts consumers daily life. Accordingly, people's perceptions about environmental impact of food and food production are prone to change. Therefore, to know if the environmental aspect is part of consumer evaluation of food quality is inevitable concerns for food producers or food policymakers to be relevant in the future. In this essay, reports and literature will be reviewed to discuss the raising concern, focusing on the European region.

II. Literature Review

To begin with, Wikstrom et al addresses the mismatch between values assigned to a product by consumers and producers through modernity frameworks1. In which, producer's assignments are based on the belief that social progress is important and dependent on science and technology advancement. This belief is inevitable to resolve societal issues in the past. In the food industry, when food security was not concrete, mass production is expected. Nevertheless, producers rely on their know-how and deliver refined food of longer shelf-life with the idea that consumption of food is for nutrition. Accordingly, consumers were left with less choice. They then purchase due to the availability of products in the market with the assumption that food quality is predetermined.

However, as time changes, previous societal issues are no longer relevant, sharing space and time for a new problem to arise. In which, customers recognize that they are not merely consumers, they also create their images and increasingly strive to feel good through trading activities. The change in consumer perception and behaviors happens gradually overdecades and eventually impacts all industries. For example, consumers' confidence in science and technology imposes a contradiction to GMO and addictives usage in food production while striving for the product with natural and organic origins. This example alone causes producers to be more transparent or even change their production routines. Nevertheless, policymakers also need to apply new regulations to fulfill the needs of the population. Understanding this shift in the culture of consumption is more important than ever for the food business to stay relevant in the present time. Moreover, understanding the exact demands of consumers from the product might help food producers move forward with potential profits.

Consumers' demands become quality evaluation factors before they buy food products. The number of and the extent of these demands differs from time to place. These demands are influenced by societal changes around consumers universally and locally. An excerpt from European Commission Public Opinion Reports in 2010 presents common trends in European consumers' needs in the last decades2. Consumers' needs were evaluated and positioned fresh and tasty food with implication on pleasure by consumption to nutritional needs as the priority. It was followed by affordable prices, and safety. After ten years, the ranking for European consumers' future needs remains the same in their 2020 report3.However, a new expectation for future food products appears, which is "impact on the environment and climate". This expectation from European consumers is reasonable because climate change has a profound yet negative impact on their life across the region. The expectation is further amplified by an increasing number of internet content based on present food production culture presenting the unbecoming future. Consumers are not only urged to change their consumption behavior but also demand food producers react before the unfavorable future arrives. Hereby, public concerns are partly resolved by the directions given by United Nations in their Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and implemented by governments.

To evaluate if consumer's demand for environmental aspects is more truthful than just survey results, Wikstrom works were reconsidered. The study discusses that new consumers' demands can initiate the re-organization of traditional food producers or the birth of new producers to fulfill those needs1. In the food industry, where rising demands of less environmental impacts from traditional production are becoming popular, an alternative to traditional foods is created. Oatly and Impossible Foods are two companies selling traditional food alternatives that are gaining notable success in recent years. In which, Impossible Food was founded in 2011 stating its aim is to give people the taste and nutritional benefits of meat without the negative health and environmental impacts associated with livestock products. This statement aims directly at public concerns found in the listed surveys. After nearly ten years of development, their value is estimated to be 10 billion $ in 2021 and still accelerate their international growth. On top of this, Oatly shares a similar idea to Impossible Food but in a different context. They are founded early in the 1990s and starts to gain recognition and success in the last decades. To recap their exponential growth, even during the Covid-19 pandemic, Oatly's North American President Mike Messersmith said that a big part of their success derived from consumer preferences evolving toward sustainability and health4.

III. Discussion and comments

From the above, it would seem that the environmental aspect in food and food production is gaining more recognition from the public. Consequently, it would become the determining factor before a consumer purchases food products in the future. However, it could be claimed that the argument is based on the modernity frameworks - which is originated from the West and not suitable to adapt to the rest. Modernity and postmodernity ideologies took place within the advanced capitalist and postindustrial computerized societies5. Since different countries have different political beliefs and development conditions, we can not apply directly the study framework from one country to another. In this case, as all European countries are developed, the argument can be oversimplified as societal trends in consumption and production from developed countries is inapplicable to developing countries. For example, in Vietnam, people tend to go to a nearby market to shop for food products supplied directly by farmers instead of going to the supermarket like European consumers. In this case, if we apply the modernity framework as reasoning above, consumers' demands are met but to a very different extent. The "local" values in developed countries are derived as opposed to mass production caused by their negative impact. However, "local" values in developing countries like Vietnam are derived from tradition, convenience, and affordable prices. Moreover, as if the "local" factor in consumers' evaluation is achieved, the food safety and quality are not usually predetermined. It is because farmers don't need to have any certifications to sell their products in the local marketplace.

Though consumption behaviors are different in developing countries, environmental aspects in food product evaluation still exist but to a different extent than in developed countries. Both share similar origins from customer's perception transformation due to environmental changes in their local and global surroundings. These changes can be amplified both physically by governmental policies and virtually by internet campaigns, influences. However, perception transformations do not necessarily correlate with transformation in consumption behaviors. As mentioned earlier, the alternative to traditional food is one of the direct approaches to resolve environmental impacts by food production. However, this approach requires not only large capital investment but also advanced science and technology - which are both not readily available in developing countries. As such, even though there is a demanding market and the needs of society are undeniable, consumption behaviors cannot change without the possibilities provided by developing science. Some might argue that developing might import environmental-friendly food products from developed countries to fulfill the tangible needs. I would say that action only satisfies the guilty of wealthy consumers while ignoring the environmental impact of transportation in their calculations.

IV. Conclusion

To conclude, there is an uprising trend in the culture of consumption that environmental aspects are considered upon purchase of food products. This trend is inevitable due to the profound effects of climate change and international and governmental attempts to promote, especially in developed countries, such as European regions. Though there are also changes in the perception of consumers in developing, consumption behaviors there are not yet transformed mainly due to the possibilities provided by developing science to make affordable products for the population.

V. References

1. Wikström S, Jönsson H, Decosta PL. A clash of modernities: Developing a new value-based framework to understand the mismatch between production and consumption. J Consum Cult. 2016;16(3):824-851. doi:10.1177/1469540514528197

2. Eurobarometer 389. European’s Attitudes Towards Food Security, Food Quality and the Country Side. Published online 2010.

3. Eurobarometer 505. Making our food fit for the future – Citizens’ expectations.pdf. Published online 2020.

4. How Oatly accelerated growth during the pandemic. 2020. https://www.fooddive.com/news/how-oatly-accelerated-growth-during-the-pandemic/589004/.

5. Radhakrishnan R, ed. Theory in an Uneven World. Blackwell Publishing Ltd; 2003. doi:10.1002/9780470775660

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trongdatnguyen · 4 years ago

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Năm đầu tiên sau khi trở thành một người có tâm linh, mình đối mặt gần như hằng ngày với cảm giác bất định trong cuộc đời thế tục. Quãng ấy rồi cũng qua. Đến giờ, dù đôi lúc vẫn thấy chân mình chưa bám đất chắc như người bình thường, nhưng có một điều luôn khiến mình yên lòng mỗi khi nghĩ đến: đó là mỗi ngày, mình lại đến gần cái Thật hơn. Trưởng thành về tâm linh là một hành trình (dẫu biết rằng đúng đắn, nhưng đôi lúc) không hề dễ dàng. Mình đã từng cảm nghiệm nhiều kiểu cô đơn, nhưng không có một nỗi cô đơn nào sâu sắc như thứ mà một hành trình tâm linh mang lại. Thỉnh thoảng, nó khiến mình hoảng loạn. Thỉnh thoảng mình cảm thấy rất đồng cảm với những người điên khi họ cố gắng nói với mọi người về một “thứ gì đó bên trong đầu tôi”. Thỉnh thoảng, khi yếu nhược, mình cũng ước giá có thể “tắt” được thứ đó đi, trở lại mù lòa mà chung sống hạnh phúc với tất thảy loài người. Vô minh cũng được, dẫu sao cũng vô minh cả lũ với nhau, mà như thế thì đỡ sợ hơn là làm một người tỉnh thức - trong đêm tối bỗng dưng tỉnh dậy, đốt đuốc đi khỏi bầy đàn… Đi đến đâu thì chưa thật biết, nhưng “thứ gì đó trong đầu” đấy bảo là phải đi. Tất nhiên, trên đường cũng sẽ nhác thấy vài ba đứa lọ mọ cầm đuốc đi như mình. Một vài đứa bảo, “đi đường này”, vài đứa lại chỉ về hướng khác. Một vài đứa tỏ ra rất quả quyết, như thể vừa từ đích trở về. Có tin được không? Tốt nhất là không nên tin. Mình đã phải trả một cái giá quá đắt vì đã tin một người cầm đuốc như thế. Hành trình tâm linh đẹp hay xấu, cái đó không ai có thể nói chắc. Nhưng có duy nhất một điều đúng: đó là con đường phải đi. Sớm hay muộn cũng phải đi. Trì hoãn trong kiếp này, thì phải đi vào kiếp khác. Thậm chí, có những người muốn đi sớm cũng không được, muốn trì hoãn cũng không xong. Cái giây phút “thứ gì đó trong đầu” ấy được bật lên, một người sẽ tự biết rằng “chính là lúc này”, và rằng mình đã không thể quay về được nữa. “Thế nếu mình bị biến thành một người hoàn toàn khác, nhưng mình không thích con người đó - dù biết đấy là tốt - thì sao?”, hôm nọ anh H hỏi mình như thế. “Thì anh có thể quay về”, mình trả lời. “Nhưng không quay về được nữa thì sao? Như đi qua cầu xong thì cầu đổ ấy?”, anh H hỏi. Đấy chính xác là sự tỉnh thức. Qua cầu thì cầu đổ. Đổ rồi thì có muốn về cũng không được nữa. “Anh không cần sợ ngày đấy. Nó chưa xảy ra với anh được đâu. Tâm thức của anh vẫn chưa vận động đến chỗ một sự kiện như thế có thể xảy ra. Nó xảy ra khi đã hội tủ đủ nhân duyên, mà “nhân duyên”, thì còn bao hàm sự sẵn sàng của anh nữa”. Người sợ tu thì việc tu không đến. Chẳng sao hết, không tu đời vẫn vui. Nhưng mình. Mình là một người đã qua cầu. Từ khoảnh khắc đó trở đi, mình không còn có thể hạnh phúc hay đau khổ như một người bình thường được nữa. Mọi thứ đều quá thật. Càng ngày, mình càng đến gần cái thật hơn. Càng nhìn ngắm cái thật, mình càng cảm thấy khó khăn trong việc trình bày nó với mọi người. Bạn làm sao miêu tả được vị ngọt của một quả cam cho một người suốt đời chỉ ăn kẹo dẻo hương cam? Chúng quá giống nhau để phân biệt bằng ngôn từ, nhưng chúng là hai bờ của cái giả và cái thật. Điều duy nhất bạn có thể làm, là bảo với người kia về sự tồn tại của “cái thật”. Rằng ngoài kia có một quả cam, bạn hãy đi tìm nó đi, vì viên kẹo dẻo hương cam này không mang đến điều gì ngoài một ảo giác. Còn quả cam, nó là cái Thật. Bên trong nó là dinh dưỡng, để bạn trở nên lành mạnh hơn. Đấy. Đấy là tất cả nỗ lực mà một người ăn cam có thể làm. Phần còn lại, chỉ là sống: tiếp tục ăn cam, và tồn tại giữa một thế giới những người ăn kẹo dẻo - một cách ung dung tự tại - như một thị phạm về cái Thật, và cách mà nó tạo nên chất lượng một con người.

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