Japan’s youth and climate change

Study highlights need to improve awareness of climate change’s effects and potential solutions amongst 12- to 14-year-olds

Peer-Reviewed Publication

University of Tokyo

 

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The questionnaire assessed students’ concepts of climate change based on three key areas: cognitive, affective and behavioral. This framework was partially based on UNESCO’s 2020 learning dimensions for education for sustainable development.

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Credit: Content 2024 Kelvin Tang / Graphic by Nicola Burghall using elements by Notion Pic via Canva.com

Students in Japan are more likely to be apathetic towards or confused by climate change than concerned or actively involved in the issue, according to research at the University of Tokyo. Based on a survey of Japanese junior high school students, the study found the participants could be divided into four main groups and indicating the most important factors influencing whether students engaged in meaningful action around climate change were their feelings of concern, hope and attitude towards finding solutions. This research highlights the importance of addressing not only students’ knowledge gaps, but also the emotional and attitudinal aspects of climate change education.

In 2021, the United Nations said that environmental education, including climate change education (CCE), should be part of the core school curriculum by 2025. To be effective, the research organization Sustainability and Education Policy Network proposed that students not only engage in learning to know (cognitive), but also learning to be (socio-emotional), learning to do (action-oriented) and learning to live together (justice-focused). 

In the recently published study, doctoral student Kelvin Tang from the University of Tokyo found that the emotional and attitudinal aspects of climate change education are indeed key for bridging the gap between students’ knowledge of climate change and these youth taking action on it.

“My research highlights the need for comprehensive CCE that nurtures positive attitudes and emotional engagement among students,” said Tang. “By fostering a deeper emotional connection to the issue, educators can inspire students to translate their knowledge into actions.”

Tang surveyed over 400 students, aged 12 to 14 years old, from three Japanese public junior high schools, in the Greater Tokyo area and the city of Oita in southwestern Japan. The surveys aimed to identify students’ knowledge and knowledge gaps; analyze their affects or socio-emotions (i.e., their attitudes, hopes and concerns) and behavior (i.e., their willingness to take action); and examine what led each student to their way of thinking. 

Analyzing the results, Tang could divide the students into four main categories: Apathetic (approximately 37%), Confused (approximately 31%), Concerned or Promising (approximately 19%), and Advocate (approximately 13%). While the Concerned and the Advocates, in total about 30% of the students surveyed, both showed high levels of cognition about climate change, the Advocates were most likely to take action. Amongst the Apathetic and the Confused, the latter had only slightly higher cognition of climate change, but dramatically higher affective and behavioral intentions. 

For Tang, the most surprising finding was the limited understanding of climate change mitigation. On a task where students had to rank a list of solutions from most to least effective, the most frequently chosen order placed less-effective solutions at the top and more effective near the bottom. For example, restoring tropical forests and recycling were ranked highly, while family planning and plant-based diets were rated lower. This was opposite to the correct order, according to the Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network education project. When students were asked from where they got most of their climate change-related information, the main source was television, very closely followed by school, and then the internet.

“In Japan, the correct order of effective climate actions is not sufficiently taught in schools, and the order in which respondents ranked the actions reflects the sociocultural context,” said Tang. “The declining population issue in Japan likely influenced adolescents' perceptions, making family planning less of a priority. Similarly, plant-based diets are less emphasized because Japan is among the top 10 countries for meat consumption per capita. Meanwhile, household recycling, restoring tropical forests and environmental protection are familiar concepts that have been ingrained in Japanese education and society from a young age.”

Tang hopes that by identifying these four different groups, policymakers and educators will be able to respond to different students’ needs with more tailored climate change communication and education strategies. 

“Students identified as Apathetic, with low levels of cognition, affect and behavioral intention, should first be engaged through creative and fun activities to spark their interest in the issue,” suggested Tang. “On the other hand, the Advocates, who exhibit high levels of cognition, affect, and behavioral intention, can be empowered through project-based learning that involves community engagement and practical climate action projects.”

Tang next plans to work with schools both within and outside of Japan to effectively integrate CCE into their curricula. “The primary inspiration for this research stemmed from the recognition that the young generation will bear the brunt of climate change impacts,” said Tang. “It is crucial for their educators and guardians to empower them with the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes necessary to address these impacts and become agents of change.”

 

Conceptual framework for the survey.  

The questionnaire assessed students’ concepts of climate change based on three key areas: cognitive, affective and behavioral. This framework was partially based on UNESCO’s 2020 learning dimensions for education for sustainable development.

Credit

2024 Kelvin Tang

Paper

Kelvin Tang. Assessing conceptions of climate change: an exploratory study amongst Japanese early adolescents. 9 July 2024. International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/10382046.2024.2377028

 

Funding

There is no relevant funding for this research.

 

Declaration/ conflicts of interest:

Author has no conflict of interest.

 

Useful Links

Graduate School of Frontier Sciences: https://www.k.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/index.html

 

Research Contact:

Kelvin Tang

Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo

Kashiwa City, Chiba, Japan.

Tel: 04-7136-4877

Email: kelvin.tang@s.k.u-tokyo.ac.jp

 

Press contact:
Mrs. Nicola Burghall (she/her)
Public Relations Group, The University of Tokyo,
7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8654, Japan
press-releases.adm@gs.mail.u-tokyo.ac.jp

 

About the University of Tokyo
The University of Tokyo is Japan’s leading university and one of the world’s top research universities. The vast research output of some 6,000 researchers is published in the world’s top journals across the arts and sciences. Our vibrant student body of around 15,000 undergraduate and 15,000 graduate students includes over 4,000 international students. Find out more at www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/ or follow us on X (formerly Twitter) at @UTokyo_News_en.

 

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Journal

International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education

DOI

10.1080/10382046.2024.2377028 

Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Assessing conceptions of climate change: an exploratory study amongst Japanese early adolescents.

Towards smart cities: Predicting soil liquefaction risk using artificial intelligence

Researchers from Shibaura Institute of Technology, Japan, developed a predictive model that generates comprehensive soil liquefaction risk maps

Shibaura Institute of Technology

 

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This image shows a sample comparison between the risk map generated by the researchers using AI and the officially published risk map by the Yokohama authorities. The generated risk map incorporates more variables, thus making it more comprehensive than the officially published version.

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Credit: Professor Shinya Inazumi from Shibaura Institute of Technology, Japan

The development of human societies is concurrent with infrastructural changes, evidenced by rapid urbanization in recent years. We are moving towards the era of 'smart cities' powered by advanced technology—such as artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things, and big data analytics—for sustainable urban development. However, climate change has been hampering this growth—earthquakes and other natural hazards negatively impact buildings and other structures in their wake.

Soil liquefaction is an example of a natural hazard where saturated soil substantially loses strength and stiffness in response to stress, typically due to earthquake-related shaking or other rapid loading. This process causes the soil to behave like a liquid, reducing its ability to support infrastructure. Overcoming challenges such as soil liquefaction is, thus, the need of the hour.

Accordingly, researchers from the Shibaura Institute of Technology, Japan, developed a predictive model using AI capable of generating comprehensive soil liquefaction risk maps. The study was led by Professor Shinya Inazumi and involved Ms. Arisa Katsuumi and Ms. Yuxin Cong. Their findings were published on 17 July 2024 in the journal Smart Cities.

Regarding his motivation to pursue this research, Prof. Inazumi says, “We were motivated to pursue this research after we recognized the urgent need to improve urban resilience to earthquakes, especially in rapidly urbanizing areas prone to seismic activity—there are critical weaknesses in existing geotechnical risk assessments and urban planning strategies. Since traditional methods for predicting soil liquefaction are often limited by the scale of data integration and speed of analysis, resulting in gaps in emergency preparedness and risk management, we decided to leverage advanced technologies such as AI and machine learning to develop a more dynamic and accurate predictive model."

Indeed, Prof. Inazumi and his research group integrated advanced machine learning techniques with geotechnical and geographical data to develop this predictive model. They then successfully applied this model to enhance urban planning and infrastructure development in Yokohama, Japan—an area particularly vulnerable to soil liquefaction due to its extensive reclaimed lands and frequent seismic activity.

Notably, the developed model used a combination of machine learning model—such as artificial neural networks and gradient-boosting decision trees—to improve the accuracy in predicting soil liquefaction risk. The researchers achieved high accuracy in predicting soil classifications and N-values (crucial for evaluating soil liquefaction risk). They validated the effectiveness of the model against extensive geotechnical survey data.

Prof. Inazumi says, “The real-world application of our research is the development of hazard maps which can help urban planners and engineers to visualize and identify areas at high risk for soil liquefaction and make informed decisions regarding the development of infrastructures.” He adds, “Apart from bolstering emergency response planning, this AI-driven approach can also facilitate community engagement and education by providing clear and accessible information about at-risk areas.”

The study, thus, highlights transformative developments in geotechnical engineering involving AI integration into soil liquefaction risk prediction. This novel approach bolsters the efforts for urban resilience and corresponding sustainability.

 

***

 

Reference

DOI: 10.3390/smartcities7040071

 

About Shibaura Institute of Technology (SIT), Japan
Shibaura Institute of Technology (SIT) is a private university with campuses in Tokyo and Saitama. Since the establishment of its predecessor, Tokyo Higher School of Industry and Commerce, in 1927, it has maintained “learning through practice” as its philosophy in the education of engineers. SIT was the only private science and engineering university selected for the Top Global University Project sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and had received support from the ministry for 10 years starting from the 2014 academic year. Its motto, “Nurturing engineers who learn from society and contribute to society,” reflects its mission of fostering scientists and engineers who can contribute to the sustainable growth of the world by exposing their over 9,500 students to culturally diverse environments, where they learn to cope, collaborate, and relate with fellow students from around the world.

Website: https://www.shibaura-it.ac.jp/en/

 

About Professor Shinya Inazumi from SIT, Japan
Dr. Shinya Inazumi is a professor at the Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Japan. He is a pioneering researcher in civil and geotechnical engineering, particularly in adaptive social infrastructure that can mitigate the effects of climate change. Accordingly, he has authored more than 250 research publications in national and international journals. Notably, he won the “ICE Publishing Awards 2020 (Environmental Geotechnics Prize)” from the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) in 2020 and the “MEXT Young Scientists’ Prize” from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) in 2015. 

 

Funding Information
This research received no external funding.

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Journal

Smart Cities

DOI

10.3390/smartcities7040071 

Method of Research

Computational simulation/modeling

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

AI-driven prediction and mapping of soil liquefaction risks for enhancing earthquake resilience in smart cities

 

Rice, DOE labs tackle knowledge gap in materials science research

Overlooked range between the nano- and microscale holds promise for energy and other applications

Rice University

 

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Lane Martin is the Robert A. Welch Professor, professor of materials science and nanoengineering and director of the Rice Advanced Materials Institute at Rice University.

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Credit: (Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

HOUSTON – (August 1, 2024) – Materials behave differently in different size regimes, and researchers tend to cluster their efforts either at the nanoscale, examining materials in atom-level detail, or at the microscale, looking at structures between three and five orders of magnitude greater.

However, less is known about what happens in the “in-between” realm spanning from 10 billionths to 1 millionth of a meter.

“We call this the mesoscale,” said Rice University materials scientist Lane Martin, who together with collaborators at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, focused on this overlooked interval for insight into how a piezoelectric material transforms a voltage into a change in shape and vice versa.

“We examined a piezoelectric material called a relaxor ferroelectric and uncovered an exciting connection between the nanoscale features of its atomic structure and its macroscopic material properties,” said Martin, who is a corresponding author on a study about the research published in Science. “Our insights into the mesoscale structures provide a new approach to the design of smaller electromechanical devices that work in ways not thought possible.”

The research could inform applications in high-efficiency energy storage and conversion, next-generation electronics, lasers and sensors.

The focus of the study is an oxide made of a complex mixture of lead, magnesium, niobium and titanium, and it is characterized by tiny pairs of positive and negative charges, or dipoles, that group into clusters called polar nanodomains. Under an electric field, these dipoles align in the same direction, causing the material to change shape, or strain. Similarly, applying a strain can alter the dipole direction, creating an electric voltage.

“If you analyze a material at the nanoscale, you only learn about the average atomic structure within an ultrasmall region,” said Yue Cao, an Argonne physicist who is also a corresponding author on the study. “But materials are not necessarily uniform and do not respond in the same way to an electric field in all parts. This is where the mesoscale can paint a more complete picture bridging the nano- to microscale.”

To test the material under operating conditions, Martin, Rice’s Robert A. Welch Professor, professor of materials science and nanoengineering and director of the Rice Advanced Materials Institute, developed a fully functional relaxor device composed of a thin film (55 nanometers) of the material sandwiched between nanoscale layers that served as electrodes used to apply a voltage and generate an electric field.

Using beamlines in sectors 26-ID and 33-ID of Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source (APS), Argonne team members mapped the mesoscale structures within the relaxor. Key to success was a specialized capability called coherent X-ray nano-diffraction, available through the Hard X-ray Nanoprobe (Sector 33-ID) operated by the Center for Nanoscale Materials at Argonne and the APS. Both are DOE Office of Science-user facilities.

The results showed that under an electric field, the nanodomains self-assemble into mesoscale structures consisting of dipoles that align in a complex tilelike pattern (see image). The team identified the strain locations along the borders of this pattern and the regions responding more strongly to the electric field.

“These submicroscale structures represent a new form of nanodomain self-assembly not known previously,” noted John Mitchell, an Argonne Distinguished Fellow. “Amazingly, we could trace their origin all the way back down to underlying nanoscale atomic motions; it’s fantastic!”

“The brighter and more coherent X-ray beams now possible with the recent APS upgrade will allow us to continue to improve our device,” said Hao Zheng, the lead author of the research and now a beamline scientist at the APS. “We can then assess whether it has application for energy-efficient microelectronics such as neuromorphic computing modeled on the human brain.”

Low-power microelectronics are essential for addressing the ever-growing power demands from electronic devices around the world, including cell phones, desktop computers and supercomputers.

The research was supported by the DOE (DE-AC02-06CH11357, DE-AC02-06CH11357, DE-SC-0012375), the Army Research Laboratory (W911NF-24-2-0100), the Army Research Office (W911NF-21-1-0118) and the National Science Foundation (2329111).

Content adapted from an article by Joseph E. Harmon, Argonne National Laboratory. The content in this press release is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the supporting institutions.

-30-

This news release can be found online at news.rice.edu.

Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.

Peer-reviewed paper:

“Heterogeneous field response of hierarchical polar laminates in relaxor ferroelectrics” | Science | DOI: 10.1126/science.ado4494

Authors: Hao Zheng, Tao Zhou, Dina Sheyfer, Jieun Kim, Travis Frazer, Zhonghou Cai, Martin Holt, Zhan Zhang, J.F. Mitchell, Lane Martin and Yue Cao

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ado4494

Image downloads:

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2024/08/LMartin.jpg
CAPTION: Lane Martin is the Robert A. Welch Professor, professor of materials science and nanoengineering and director of the Rice Advanced Materials Institute at Rice University.(Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2024/08/ferroelectric.jpg
CAPTION: Vector field (left) representing the spatial distribution of projected lattice tilt in the relaxor ferroelectric material, where different orientations of the lattice tilt are labeled with different colors. Alignments of dipole directions (right) in mesoscale structures within a zoomed in region of the material. (Image courtesy of Argonne National Laboratory)

About Rice:

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of architecture, business, continuing studies, engineering, humanities, music, natural sciences and social sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 4,574 undergraduates and 3,982 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction, No. 2 for best-run colleges and No. 12 for quality of life by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.

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Journal

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.ado4494 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Heterogeneous field response of hierarchical polar laminates in relaxor ferroelectrics

Barriers complicate exercise for disability community

More resources and outreach necessary to encourage continued physical activity

Peer-Reviewed Publication

University of Texas at Arlington

 

image: 

An exergame is type of accessible exercise equipment with a video game component that keeps users engaged while monitoring their activity

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Credit: Photo courtesy UT Arlington

An estimated 16% of people worldwide live with a significant disability that impacts their daily life. Of this population, only about 40% engage in aerobic activity. Due to this lack of exercise, people with disabilities (PWD) are more likely to suffer from chronic conditions such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, or cancer and are at higher risk of mental illnesses like depression and anxiety.

“Many PWD struggle with psychological issues such as low self-esteem and negative body image, which can further reduce their motivation to participate in exercise activities, especially in public places like gyms,” said Alexandra Jamieson, research scientist at The University of Texas at Arlington Research Institute (UTARI) and lead author of a new peer-reviewed study on adaptive exercise technologies for PWD. Former UTARI student researcher Helara D. Wijesundara is also an author on the paper.

Even PWD who are interested in exercising face challenges, as most commercial gyms lack adaptive equipment and properly trained staff to ensure their safety. Jamieson found that although some nonprofit organizations aim to promote fitness for PWD, there are few commercial efforts to reach the wider community to encourage exercise.

“The biggest barriers to fitness are accessibility and cost,” said Jamieson. “Standard gyms are not legally required to have adaptive machines for users of differing abilities. Plus, there is generally a lack of data about the demand for these adaptive machines that would help gyms justify the higher costs of adding them.”

She also noted that transportation to and from the gym can be an issue for PWD. Although ride-sharing and disabled transit options exist, they are not always reliable, and many are not equipped for PWD.

Home gyms are a popular option for PWD, but a lot of adaptative exercise equipment is produced by smaller manufacturers and has higher production costs, making it cost-prohibitive for individuals to purchase it. Jamieson suggests expanding government assistance programs around acquiring adaptative exercise machines for home use.

“Medicaid does have purchasing assistance programs for PWD to buy assistive technology, but they are not well known and only cover exercise machines that are deemed medically necessary by an individual’s doctor,” she said. Raising public awareness among physicians and PWD about how to apply for assistance to acquire adaptive exercise equipment could be a way to help.

To improve adaptive exercise options, Jamieson is working with colleagues from UTARI, the Department of Kinesiology, and the Department of Art to create an adaptive exergame machine, a type of accessible exercise equipment with a video game component that keeps users engaged while monitoring their activity. The team is currently recruiting individuals to participate in a pilot study of the technology. Please contact Jamieson if you would like additional information.

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An exergame is type of accessible exercise equipment with a video game component that keeps users such as people with disabilities engaged while monitoring their activity

Credit

photo courtesy UT Arlington

Alexandra Jamieson, research scientist at The University of Texas at Arlington Research Institute (UTARI) and lead author of a new peer-reviewed study on adaptive exercise technologies for PWD

Credit

Photo courtesy UT Arlington

DOI

10.1080/17483107.2024.2372323 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

A review of adaptive equipment and technology for exercise and sports activities for people with disabilities

Venezuelan crisis has negatively affected country’s Internet

‘Modern services cannot run properly,’ researcher says

Northwestern University

As the Venezuelan crisis intensifies, researchers and policy experts have worked to understand its ramifications on the country’s politics, economics, health services, water security, infrastructure and more.

Now, Northwestern University computer scientists have comprehensively examined the effects of the crisis on a previously unexplored area: the Internet.

In a new study, the researchers found the crisis has significantly — and negatively — affected Venezuela’s Internet infrastructure and connectivity. Compared to the average Internet service in peer Latin American countries, Venezuelan Internet speeds are excruciatingly slow, and network growth is stagnant.

“Venezuela has seen no investment in infrastructure across all critical components of the Internet,” said Northwestern’s Esteban Carisimo, the study’s first author. “As a result, the country’s Internet speeds trail behind the entire region, with median speeds at about 10% of the regional average. Under these conditions, modern services cannot run properly, and user experience is extremely degraded.”

Carisimo will present the research next week at the Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Data Communications Conference (SIGCOMM) in Sydney, Australia. “Ten Years of the Venezuelan Crisis: An Internet Perspective” will take place at 11:05 a.m. (AEST) on Tuesday (August 6), as a part of the session “Making Networks Safe and Secure.”

Carisimo is a postdoctoral scholar at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering, where he is advised by Fabian E. Bustamante. Bustamante is a professor of computer science at McCormick and the study’s corresponding author.

To conduct the study, Carisimo, Bustamante and their collaborators examined Venezuela’s full connectivity landscape throughout the past 10 years. This included studying the core infrastructure to access networks, bandwidth measurements, the submarine cable network and routes to Domain Name System (DNS) servers.

While the region has added numerous submarine cables, Venezuela has established only one new connection to Cuba. Argentina and Brazil also created multiple Internet exchange points, which expanded interdomain connectivity and increased Internet speeds.

“While the rest of Latin America has seen substantial growth in network infrastructure, such as an increasing number of submarine cables and peering facilities, Venezuela has been left behind,” said Bustamante, who directs the AquaLab, a research group that investigates large-scale networks and distributed systems.

“Venezuela has seen no such expansion, leaving its state-owned Internet provider, CANTV, without U.S.-based transit routes and increasing its reliance on domestic markets,” Carisimo said. “The consequences of these discrepancies are stark. For instance, while global download speeds have improved significantly, Venezuela’s average download speed has stagnated below 1 megabyte per second for over a decade, lagging far behind the rest of Latin America, where median speeds are around 20 megabytes per second.”

The research team also found clear signs of decline in Venezuela’s DNS infrastructure. Efficient DNS servers should be in proximity to users to minimize response time and ensure resilience, but the researchers found the exact opposite, Carisimo said. Venezuela predominantly relies on overseas resources for DNS services, with most of these servers located in the United States, Great Britain, Germany, France and the Netherlands.

“Users relying on Google's popular public DNS service face latencies twice as high as the regional average,” Bustamante said. “As networks constantly evolve to support increasing traffic and the demand for a better quality of experience, Venezuela’s crisis likely impedes capital investments to match the pace of growth seen in its Latin American peers.”

Without stable, reliable Internet access, Venezuelan citizens cannot access educational resources, entertainment, government services or financial institutions. Perhaps even worse, they cannot reach family members and friends who have migrated across the continent.

“Personal communications are especially important for Venezuela, a country that has experienced a diaspora of approximately 25% of its population,” Carisimo said. “Without reliable and affordable Internet, many families are left with little chance of communication, exacerbating the sense of separation.”

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Article Title

Ten Years of the Venezuelan Crisis: An Internet Perspective

Article Publication Date

6-Aug-2024

 

New England Journal of Medicine letter shows plant protein beats animal protein

New findings show plants contain all essential amino acids, in contrast to mistaken long-held belief

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

BOSTON—Plant-based proteins have major health advantages over animal-based proteins, according to a New England Journal of Medicine letter to the editor by Neal D. Barnard, MD, published Aug. 1, 2024. New findings show that all plants contain all essential amino acids, in contrast to the common but mistaken belief that plants lack one or more amino acids. Of the 20 amino acids that are the building blocks of protein, nine cannot be produced by the human body. All are found in plant sources.

“In addition, plant-based proteins are associated with reduced mortality compared with animal proteins,” says Dr. Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a nonprofit public health advocacy organization, and adjunct professor of medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, D.C. “A major Harvard study showed that when plant-based proteins are consumed instead of protein from beef, poultry, fish, dairy products, or eggs, mortality is reduced.”

People drawing their nutrition from plant-based diets enjoy a reduced risk of diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and cancer. Even so, people on any diet should pay attention to their need for vitamin B12 and other nutrients.

The letter was published in response to a New England Journal of Medicine article introducing a new series on nutrition. “Many people are now shifting to plant-based diets, and their nutrition improves in the process,” Dr. Barnard says. 

Media Contact

Leslie Raabe

202-527-7319

lraabe@pcrm.org

Founded in 1985, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is a nonprofit organization that promotes preventive medicine, conducts clinical research, and encourages higher standards for ethics and effectiveness in education and research.

Cheese of the future: Consumers open to animal-free alternatives

Researchers at the University of Göttingen investigate consumer acceptance

Peer-Reviewed Publication

University of Göttingen

Companies and institutes are currently working on biotechnological processes for the production of dairy products without the use of cows: In so-called precision fermentation, egg and milk proteins are produced with the help of bacteria, yeasts or other fungi. This results in foods such as milk or cheese with a familiar flavour and texture. Supporters hope that this will lead to more sustainable food production, as nutrient-rich proteins can be produced using fewer resources. But will consumers accept such products? Researchers at the University of Göttingen have found that a large proportion of German consumers are willing to try and buy cheese produced in this way. The results of the study have been published in the international journal Future Foods.

 

The study, which was conducted in collaboration with LI Food – Landesinitiative Ernährungswirtschaft Niedersachsen and the German Institute of Food Technologies (DIL), is based on a representative online survey with around 2,000 participants. The researchers analysed how various aspects of information affect the acceptance of cheese produced in this way. They analysed the potential opportunities and risks of the technology, including its relation to sustainability, impact on agriculture and product quality.

 

In general, information has only a minor influence on whether consumers would try or buy cheese from precision fermentation. Only the reference to the technological genetic modification of the microorganisms required for the production process leads to a slightly significantly lower willingness to try the product.

 

Respondents were also confronted with the potential advantages and disadvantages of this technology. It was found that emphasising the consistently high quality of the products and advantages in terms of the environment and animal welfare in particular increased the willingness to try such cheese. The situation is different when consumers are informed about possible risks, for example that farmers could lose their source of income due to the new technology or that large companies could exert too much power on the market. These aspects reduced the willingness to buy and pay for such cheese the most.

 

“Our study shows that consumers in Germany are open to cheese from precision fermentation if they are informed about the benefits and high quality of the product. However, it is important to design the communication carefully to address concerns about the impact on traditional agriculture”, explains first author Dr Sarah Kühl, Chair for Marketing for Food and Agricultural Products at the University of Göttingen.

 

Corresponding products are already on the market in the USA; authorisation in Germany and the European Union is still pending. The technology as such is not new – it is already used in the production of medicines such as insulin.

 

Original publication: Kühl, S.; Schäfer, A.; Kircher, C.; Mehlhose, C (2024): Beyond the Cow: Consumer Perceptions and Information Impact on Acceptance of Precision Fermentation-produced Cheese in Germany. Future Foods, 10, 100411. DOI: 10.1016/j.fufo.2024.100411

 

Contact:
Dr Sarah Kühl
University of Göttingen
Faculty of Agricultural Sciences
Marketing for Food and Agricultural Products
Platz der Göttinger Sieben 5, 37073 Göttingen
Phone: +49 (0)551 39-26245
Mail: sarah.kuehl@uni-goettingen.de
Web: www.uni-goettingen.de/en/443621.html

 

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Journal

Future Foods

DOI

10.1016/j.fufo.2024.100411 

Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Beyond the Cow: Consumer Perceptions and Information Impact on Acceptance of Precision Fermentation-produced Cheese in Germany.