The meat free spirit is willing but the grasp of the issue is weak. That’s the conclusion of a new report that looks not only at what we personally think about greener eating, but also what we think everyone else thinks about it – and it has wider implications than you might, er, think.
Because the 2025 Eating Better x Food Foundation Public Attitudes Survey – a collaboration between the meat reducing alliance backed by MFM and the sustainable food system charity – identifies a discrepancy: while two thirds of us say we would be happy to consider a move away from meat, public perception is actually that less than two fifths of us would be willing to consider it.
That misplaced belief – something social psychologists would call pluralistic ignorance: where most people reckon the majority think differently from them – has real-life implications. For example, policymakers might feel disinclined to encourage a greater take-up of nutritious, planet-friendly food because they worry the masses will turn up their noses. Companies might be unwilling to invest in plant-based products for the same reason, shops to sell them, restaurants to serve them … You see how it goes.
“Many people feel alone in their desire to eat less meat, but in fact the majority of the country are open to reducing the amount of meat they eat,” said Sarah Wakefield, executive director of Eating Better. “We all have our different reasons [but] lower environmental impact is key for many people.” Other reasons to cut back on meat included animal welfare, cost and health.
Having consulted 1,733 people, the polling company Savanta found that 66 per cent of them would be open to the idea of cutting back on the amount of meat they ate – up 5 percentage points on last year, “showing a clear public willingness to reduce meat consumption”, according to the report. It added: “The majority of people think that less than 40 per cent of the population are open to the idea of reducing their meat consumption.”
The report also found that since last year: 22 per cent of people are eating less meat; almost 50 per cent eat meat less than four times a week; just 10 per cent of the population have increased their meat consumption. Worryingly, there was a lack of knowledge about the health implications of meat eating: more meat eaters (30 per cent) believed that cutting back would harm their health than help it (26 per cent), while 44 per cent thought it would make no difference.
“These latest findings from Eating Better show that the public appetite is there for change – all of us working on food system transformation now need to seize the opportunity and deliver,” said Rebecca Tobi, senior business and investor engagement manager at the Food Foundation.