Abstract
Research background
Sustainable development encompasses both environmental and social issues. Due to the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it will also be necessary to reduce the production and consumption of the most carbon-intensive products, which include meat.
Purpose
The aim of this study is to investigate the attitudes of students attending Poznań universities towards limiting meat consumption.
Research methodology
A survey was conducted in the form of an online questionnaire. A total of 873 respondents took part in the survey, including 575 (65.9%) women, 287 (32.9%) men and 11 (1.2%) others/did not wish to specify. Due to the overrepresentation of respondents from one of the universities, the results refer to the surveyed group and are not representative of students of Poznań. Correspondence Analysis (CA) was incorporated to enhance drawing conclusions from the obtained results and to visualize the relation between categorical variables.
Results
The survey showed that surveyed students limit their meat consumption to a greater extent (56.8%) than the national average (39%). Based on the correspondence analysis it was concluded that the size of the town of origin was not crucial in this respect. On the other hand, when CA was conducted on University affiliation it revealed two strong relations-University of Art’s students tend to abstain from meat consumption while those studying at Technical University declare high meat consumption more frequently than the study population. Large gender differences could also be observed – among women, as many as 66.4% of respondents limited their meat consumption, while among men it was only 31.9%. The most important reasons for limiting meat consumption were concern for the environment (52.7%) and the desire to reduce animal suffering (49.0%).
Novelty
Main novelty of the study encompasses surveying respondents on issues relating to both human health, the state of the environment and ethics, as well as taking into account their interests and predispositions, represented by their university choice.