A Value-Basis Framework for Promoting Plant-Based Diets

Abstract

Plant-based diets have the lowest environmental footprint and improve human health dramatically. The current research presents a systematic review of the academic literature from marketing and other fields that examine effective ways to encourage consumers to shift towards environmentally sustainable and healthy plant-based diets. The authors synthesize insights from this review and develop a conceptual framework relying on Stern & Dietz's (1994) value-basis theory for environmental concern to advance understanding of the routes to a transition to a more plant-based diet. Two categories of value orientations (i.e., self-enhancement and self-transcendence) and three environmental (i.e., egoistic, altruistic, and biospheric) concerns are integral factors of the framework to spur greater consumption of plant-based foods. This review of plant-based diets in consumer research and the proposed framework add to our understanding by bringing attention to diet as an environmentally sustainable and healthful consumption practice and formulating novel theoretical propositions and directions for future research that focuses on promoting and adopting more plant-based diets.