Researchers receive USDA grant to study changing food spending patterns

Grant and Award Announcement

VIRGINIA TECH

 

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RESEARCHERS AT VIRGINIA TECH ARE STUDYING THE EFFECTS AND IMPLICATIONS OF THE CHANGING FOOD SPENDING PATTERNS ON THE PROFITABILITY AND WELFARE OF FARMERS, FOOD PROCESSORS, AND CONSUMERS.

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CREDIT: PHOTO BY SAM DEAN FOR VIRGINIA TECH.

After a long day, there’s the age-old question of do we eat out or stay in?

Over the last decade, that answer has increasingly shifted to eating out.

In that timeframe, households have increasingly spent more money on food outside of the home than what's spent on eating at home. In that same time, the farmer’s share of the food dollar eaten outside of the home has declined while the share of food eaten at home has increased.

With a more than $550,000 grant from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, researchers George Davis and Anubhab Gupta, in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics in Virginia Tech's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, are studying the effects of the changing food spending patterns on the profitability and welfare of farmers, food processors, and consumers, or welfare through the United States’ food supply chain.

“Our project aims to look at the changing profitability and welfare effects in the food supply chain while recognizing that the effects will depend on the underlying market structure and consumer socioeconomic, demographic, and environmental factors,” said George Davis, professor in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics and project lead.

The research team has four objectives:

• Look at how the difference between retail food prices and farm prices have changed over time as spending on food at home and food away from home has changed
• Determine to what extent consumers have benefitted from the change in eating food at home versus food away from home.
• Consider what role the degree of competition within the food supply chain has affected profitability and welfare for the farmer, processors, and consumers as food spending patterns have changed.
• Consider how alternative policies affecting food at home and food away from home spending will affect profitability and welfare throughout the food supply chain.

The project will combine well-established research areas that have not been joined before to understand important policy-relevant questions regarding price and quantity relationships, market structure, and welfare distribution throughout the associated market.

To achieve the objectives, the team will utilize public-use consumer expenditure survey microdata from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, NBER-CES Manufacturing Industry Database, and estimates from the literature.

“Our integrated framework will answer important policy and scenario questions related to socioeconomic and demographic profile of consumers, COVID-19, Ukraine war, etc. on welfare distribution throughout the food supply chain, while extending our knowledge on the four strands of literature and a unique way of integrating them,” Davis said.

 

Greener and feasible production: Enzymatic methods for mono- and diacylglycerol synthesis in the food industry

Peer-Reviewed Publication

HENAN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

 

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GRAPHIC ABSTRACT.

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CREDIT: THE AUTHORS

MAGs, predominantly in 1(3)-MAG form, and DAGs, with 1,3-DAGs as the more stable isomer, are crucial in food, cosmetic, and other industries. While MAGs are vital emulsifiers, comprising 75% of global production, DAGs are known as functional cooking oils that can reduce body fat and serum TAGs. However, their natural concentration in oils is low, prompting extensive research into their chemical and environmentally-friendly enzymatic production.
Recently, a review published in the Grain & Oil Science and Technology journal on 2 November 2023, has shed light on the advancements in enzymatic production methods with special efforts on practical and industrial technologies such as comprehensive discussions on system designs and patent evaluations. This study presents these methods as a sustainable and efficient alternative to conventional chemical processes, emphasizing their role in revolutionizing industry standards.
This review presents an in-depth review of the last 15 years in enzymatic production of monoacylglycerols (MAGs) and diacylglycerols (DAGs), focusing on the advancements and varied pathways like esterification, glycerolysis, and more. It emphasizes how enzyme choice, substrates, and conditions affect the efficiency and quality of MAGs and DAGs, highlighting the role of reaction media in enhancing reaction homogeneity and product yield. The review also explores the practicalities of scaling enzymatic processes for industrial use, discussing the challenges of maintaining enzyme activity and the economic implications of enzyme use. Additionally, it evaluates numerous patents, reflecting a growing interest in this eco-friendly technology. The review underlines the transformative potential of enzymatic production in delivering higher quality, more sustainable MAGs and DAGs while acknowledging the ongoing challenges and the need for further innovation in this field.
The review's lead authors, Jiawei Zheng and colleagues, underscore the industry's increasing shift towards enzymatic processes over the past two decades. They note, "Enzymatic methods are not just alternatives but are becoming the standard due to their specificity, lower energy requirements, and ability to preserve sensitive components."
Transitioning to enzymatic production has vast implications for the food industry, offering safer and more sustainable emulsifiers and cooking oils. The ability to control reaction specifics leads to higher quality products, meeting consumer demands for healthier and more natural food ingredients. From the discussion of the practical considerations of technologies and potential possibilities, the reasonable economy for the production in plants can be expected.
The review anticipates further industry adoption and innovation in enzyme technologies. However, it also calls for continued research to overcome challenges like reaction efficiency and large-scale application, ensuring that enzymatic methods can fully meet global demand.
Reference
Funding information
The National Natural Science Foundation of China (31772000).
DOI
10.1016/j.gaost.2023.10.002
Original Url
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gaost.2023.10.002
About Grain & Oil Science and Technology
Grain & Oil Science and Technology (GOST, https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/grain-and-oil-science-and-technology) is a peer-reviewed Open Access (OA) journal and upon acceptance all articles are permanently and freely available on ScienceDirect. GOST publishes innovative papers in the fields of grain engineering (processing and storage of staple food grain and cereals), food science and engineering (food chemistry, biochemistry, microbiology, nutrition, food safety), oil science and engineering (processing and storage of oils and fats, oil chemistry for food use). Contributions written in English in the form of critical reviews, research papers, short communications, short reviews are welcomed.

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JOURNAL

Grain & Oil Science and Technology

DOI

10.1016/j.gaost.2023.10.002 

ARTICLE TITLE

Enzymatic preparation of mono- and diacylglycerols: A review

Effect of ultrasound-assisted fermentation on physicochemical properties and volatile flavor compounds of Chinese rice wine

Peer-Reviewed Publication

KEAI COMMUNICATIONS CO., LTD.

 

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PULSED MULTI-FREQUENCY SCANNING ULTRASONIC EQUIPMENT. 1: COMPUTER CONTROL SYSTEM; 2: ULTRASONIC GENERATOR; 3: ULTRASONIC POOL; 4: SAMPLE TREATMENT VESSEL; 5: WATER; 6: ULTRASONIC TRANSDUCER.

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CREDIT: RONG ZHANG ET AL

Traditional Chinese rice wine (RW) has been popular in China for thousands of years. The brewing process involves simultaneous saccharification and solid-state fermentation using mixed saccharifying starters, such as wheat starter and distiller’s yeast. However, the brewing medium contains a diverse array of microorganisms, and the quality of starters varies across regions. This leads to an unpredictable fermentation process and inconsistent RW product quality. In addition, traditionally fermented RW has several limitations including thin taste, long brewing time, slow product conversion and limited application of high-technology. Although some progress has been made in addressing the limitations of traditional brewing, the need for further research and innovation remains.  

Ultrasound, as a new non-thermal physical processing technique, has extensively been utilized to overcome the drawbacks of conventional fermentation. Some studies have showed that the application of ultrasonic technology in brewing can enhance the fermentation efficiency and quality. To date, research on ultrasound-assisted fermentation has mainly focused on the pure culture fermentation process in the laboratory.

To that end, a new study published in the KeAi journal Food Physics, established an enzymatic brewing process for RW by simulating actual production. By adding α-amylase to liquefy the starch, it is hydrolyzed from long-chain starch to short-chain dextrin and oligosaccharides to assist saccharifying enzyme in converting starch into fermentable sugar.

The researchers, based in China, analyzed the impact of ultrasound on the physicochemical properties and volatile compounds during the fermentation process. They found that concentrations of isobutyl acetate, ethyl butyrate, ethyl hexanoate and phenethyl acetate exhibited significant increases of 58.03%, 107.70%, 31.84%, and 18.71%, respectively.

The findings suggest that the utilization of ultrasound in the brewing process could be feasible  for simplifying the procedure, reducing brewing time and enhancing the volatile flavor profile of RW.

###

Contact the author: Rong Zhang, School of Food and Biological Engineering,Jiangsu University,Zhenjiang 212013,China. Email:zhangrong1776@126.com

The publisher KeAi was established by Elsevier and China Science Publishing & Media Ltd to unfold quality research globally. In 2013, our focus shifted to open access publishing. We now proudly publish more than 100 world-class, open access, English language journals, spanning all scientific disciplines. Many of these are titles we publish in partnership with prestigious societies and academic institutions, such as the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).

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JOURNAL

Food Physics

DOI

10.1016/j.foodp.2023.100006 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Cells

ARTICLE TITLE

Effect of ultrasound-assisted fermentation on physicochemical properties and volatile flavor compounds of Chinese rice wine

COI STATEMENT

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Using electricity, scientists find promising new method of boosting chemical reactions

UChicago chemists hope to lay foundation for greener chemistry

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

As the world moves away from gas towards electricity as a greener power source, the to-do list goes beyond cars. The vast global manufacturing network that makes everything from our batteries to our fertilizers needs to flip the switch, too.

A study from UChicago chemists found a way to use electricity to boost a type of chemical reaction often used in synthesizing new candidates for pharmaceutical drugs.

Published Jan. 2 in Nature Catalysis, the research is an advance in the field of electrochemistry and shows a path forward to designing and controlling reactions—and making them more sustainable.

“What we want to do is understand what’s happening at the fundamental level at the electrode interface, and use that to predict and design more efficient chemical reactions,” said Anna Wuttig, UChicago Neubauer Family Assistant Professor and the senior author on the paper. “This is a step towards that eventual goal.”

 

Chemical complexity

In certain chemical reactions, electricity can boost the output—and because you can get the needed electricity from renewable sources, it could be part of making the worldwide chemical industry greener.

But electrochemistry, as the field is known, is especially complex. There is much scientists don’t know about the molecular interactions, especially because you have to insert a conductive solid (an electrode) into the mix to provide the electricity, which means the molecules interact with that electrode as well as with each other. To a scientist trying to untangle the roles each molecule is playing and in what order, this makes an already complicated process even more complicated.

Wuttig, however, wants to turn this into an advantage. “What if you think about it as electrochemistry providing us with a unique design lever that’s not possible in any other system?” she said.

In this case, she and her team focused on the surface of the electrode that provides the electricity to the reaction.

“There were hints that the surface itself is catalytic, that it plays a role,” Wuttig said, “but we don’t know how to systematically control those interactions at the molecular level.”

They tinkered with a type of reaction that is commonly used in manufacturing chemicals for medicine, to form a bond between two carbon atoms.

According to theoretical predictions, when this reaction is performed using electricity, the yield from the reaction should be 100%—that is, all the molecules that went in are made into a single new substance. But when you actually run the reaction in the lab, the yield is lower.

The team thought the presence of the electrode was tempting some of the molecules away from where they were needed during the reaction. They found that adding a key ingredient could help: a chemical known as a Lewis acid added to the liquid solution redirected those molecules.

 “You get a near-clean reaction,” Wuttig said.

 

Catalyzing change

Moreover, the team was able to use special imaging techniques to watch the reactions unfold at the molecular level. “You can see that the presence of the modulator has a profound effect on the interfacial structure,” she said. “This allows us to visualize and understand what’s happening, rather than regard it as a black box.” 

This is a crucial step, Wuttig said, because it shows a path forward towards being able to not only use the electrode in chemistry, but also to predict and control its effects.

Another benefit is that the electrode can be re-used for more reactions. (In most reactions, the catalyst is dissolved in the liquid and is drained away during the purification process to get the final product).

“This is a step towards sustainable synthesis,” she said. “Moving forward, my group is very excited to use these types of concepts and strategies to map out and address other synthetic challenges.”

 

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JOURNAL

Nature Catalysis

DOI

10.1038/s41929-023-01073-5 

ARTICLE TITLE

Interfacial tuning of electrocatalytic Ag surfaces for fragment-based electrophile coupling

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

2-Jan-2024

 

Cultivated kelp can now be as good as wild kelp

You may not know much about alginates, but you have probably used them or eaten them. Cultivating kelp can help expand the market for this useful product

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

 

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THERE’S A LOT OF MONEY TO BE MADE BY CULTIVATING KELP. KATHARINA NØKLING-EIDE, A PHD CANDIDATE AT THE NORWEGIAN SEAWEED BIOREFINERY PLATFORM, IS HELPING MAKE IT HAPPEN.

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CREDIT: PHOTO: ALEKSANDER STOKKE BÅTNES, NTNU

Norway’s exports products derived from from tangle kelp (Laminoria hyperborea) and knotted kelp (Ascophyllum nodosu) to the tune of more than NOK 1 billion a year. The industry mainly extracts alginate from kelp, which is used in over 600 different products as diverse as paint, soft serve ice cream, sauces, bandages, nappies, acid reflux medicine and material for encapsulating cells and medicine. However, the market is far from saturated.

“Alginate is becoming a scarce commodity on the global market. There are great opportunities here if we could cultivate more kelp that yielded alginate of good enough quality,” says Finn Aachmann, a professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) who heads the Norwegian Seaweed Biorefinery Platform.

Today, wild tangle kelp is harvested from the large kelp forests that grow naturally along the Norwegian coast, but there are limits on the amount that can be harvested. We need new resources if we want to expand the Norwegian kelp market. Cultivated kelp is a good alternative.

The kelp industry is expanding

Tangle kelp grows so slowly that its cultivation is simply not worthwhile. Over the past decade, the cultivation of more fast-growing kelp species has developed into a thriving industry.

“This year, between 600 and 700 tonnes of sugar kelp and winged kelp were grown on ropes in the sea,” says Katharina Nøkling-Eide, a PhD candidate at the Norwegian Seaweed Biorefinery Platform.

However, alginate comes in many forms, and cultivated sugar kelp and winged kelp don't produce alginate of the same high quality as wild tangle kelp does. Cultivated kelp is currently so expensive that it is only used in food production.

“This is a shame because production could be scaled up significantly through the development of new, high-quality products from cultivated kelp. Alginate could be one of these products,” says Nøkling-Eide.

Fortunately, new findings may help us be able to extract better alginate from the cultivated kelp. This research has been undertaken under the auspices of the Norwegian Seaweed Biorefinery Platform and Industrial Biotechnology (SFI-IB), a Norwegian Centre for Research-based Innovation.

Cultivated species can be just as good

“We have developed a new method for efficiently upgrading alginates from cultivated kelp,” says Aachmann.

The solution involves enzymes called epimerases. Enzymes promote chemical reactions between different substances without the enzymes themselves being used up.

“These epimerases convert mannuronic acid into guluronic acid in the alginate chain, so that the alginates are more similar to the tangle kelp alginates than they originally were, making them more industrially viable,” says the professor.

Researchers isolated these enzymes for the first time from an alginate-producing bacterium in Trondheim more than 50 years ago, so this research goes back a long way. However, it is not until now that the seaweed industry has embraced the solution.

Required additional time and resources – until now

“Over the past 30 years, several studies have shown that we can use these epimerases to upgrade alginates from seaweed and kelp, but the kelp industry has not yet started using them,” says Aachmann.

Upgrading alginates after they have been extracted and purified from the kelp biomass takes additional time and resources. So, the industry hasn’t really been tempted to use the method.

However, what if you could add these enzymes at the same time as extracting the alginate from kelp – so you wouldn’t have to spend extra time and money doing it afterwards?

This is exactly what researchers from SINTEF and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) have managed to do. They carried out the study in a joint laboratory for kelp in Trondheim.

Improves alginate during extraction

“We have shown that it is possible to epimerise alginates from sugar kelp, winged kelp and the lamina fraction, which is the leaf -like section at the top of the stalk, during the actual alginate extraction process,” says Nøkling-Eide.

In other words, the alginate is refined at the same time as it is being extracted from kelp. This saves time and is cost-effective.

“In large-scale trials, we managed to get an alginate from cultivated sugar kelp that was just as good as the industry would normally get from wild-harvested tangle kelp,” says Nøkling-Eide.

The researchers also believe that it is possible to achieve similar results with cultivated winged kelp.

Good news for kelp farmers

“The findings of this study are encouraging. In the future, Norwegian alginate may also come from cultivated kelp,” says Aachmann.

Kelp farmers are also dependent on established kelp markets, because they need someone to sell all their kelp to. This will help kelp farmers further increase their production.

“The alginate market is an established market that can help secure the livelihoods of kelp farmers in the future. In that sense, it is a win–win situation,” says Nøkling-Eide.

New products from kelp are important for SFI Industrial Biotechnology. The centre's partners are SINTEF, NTNU, NMBU and NORCE and 16 industrial companies.

Reference: Katharina Nøkling-Eide, Finn Lillelund Aachmann, Anne Tøndervik, Øystein Arlov, Håvard Sletta, In-process epimerisation of alginates from Saccharina latissima, Alaria esculenta and Laminaria hyperborean, Carbohydrate Polymers. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carbpol.2023.121557

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JOURNAL

Carbohydrate Polymers

DOI

10.1016/j.carbpol.2023.121557 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

In-process epimerisation of alginates from Saccharina latissima, Alaria esculenta and Laminaria hyperborea

 

CHINA

Monetized evaluation of landscape resources of national parks based on the willingness to pay of multiple interest groups

Peer-Reviewed Publication

HIGHER EDUCATION PRESS

 

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FUNCTION ZONING AND CURRENT LAND USE OF QIANJIANGYUAN NATIONAL PARK SYSTEM PILOT ZONE

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CREDIT: PENG WANG

In China, national parks represent the country’s most unique natural landscapes. Scientific evaluation of landscape resources is significant for preserving the authenticity and integrity of national parks. Taking Qianjiangyuan National Park System Pilot Zone as an example, this research investigated the willingness of internal group (residents and administrative staff) and external group (tourists) to pay for a hypothetical market project based on the pilot zone via Contingent Valuation Method to acquire the monetized value of landscape resources in the national park, and applied Logistic Regression to analyze the influencing factors. The results show that the payment rate of external group is higher than that of internal group, and people with different demographics have different payment rates. Both internal and external groups are willing to pay to improve ecological environment, but there are significant differences on reasons for refusal—having a low income is the main reason for the internal group, and the external respondents refuse mainly because of the belief that the payment is owed to government finance. The total monetized value of the research area is 135 million yuan, of which the external value is much higher than internal value. The attitude factors influence landscape resource value more significantly than demographic and environmental factors. The assessment of landscape resource value of national parks is affected by perceptions and demands of multiple interest groups. This research suggests accelerating the construction of a standardized assessment technical system to support the establishment of national park system in China.

 

The work entitled “Monetized Evaluation of Landscape Resources of National Parks Based on the Willingness to Pay of Multiple Interest Groups” was published on the journal of Landscape Architecture Frontiers.

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JOURNAL

Landscape Architecture Frontiers

DOI

10.15302/J-LAF-1-020079 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Monetized Evaluation of Landscape Resources of National Parks Based on the Willingness to Pay of Multiple Interest Groups

 

How tomato plants use their roots to ration water during drought

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - DAVIS

 

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NEW WORK BY PROF. SIOBHAN BRADY AND ALEX CANTÓ-PASTOR AT THE UC DAVIS COLLEGE OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES SHOWS HOW TOMATO PLANTS CAN MAKE THEMSELVES MORE DROUGHT-TOLERANT BY PRODUCING A WAXY SUBSTANCE, SUBERIN, IN THEIR ROOTS. 

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CREDIT: TJ USHING/UC DAVIS COLLEGE OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Plants have to be flexible to survive environmental changes, and the adaptive methods they deploy must often be as changeable as the shifts in climate and condition to which they adapt. To cope with drought, plant roots produce a water-repellent polymer called suberin that blocks water from flowing up towards the leaves, where it would quickly evaporate. Without suberin, the resulting water loss would be like leaving the tap running.

In some plants, suberin is produced by endodermal cells that line the vessels inside the roots. But in others, like tomatoes, suberin is produced in exodermal cells that sit just below the skin of the root.

The role of exodermal suberin has long been unknown, but a new study by researchers at the University of California, Davis, published Jan. 2 in Nature Plants shows that it serves the same function as endodermal suberin, and that without it, tomato plants are less able to cope with water stress. This information could help scientists design drought-resistant crops.

“This adds exodermal suberin to our toolbox of ways to help plants survive for longer and cope with drought,” said Siobhan Brady, professor in the UC Davis Department of Plant Biology and Genome Center, and senior author on the paper. “It’s almost like a jigsaw puzzle—if you can figure out which cells have modifications that protect the plant during difficult environmental conditions, you can start to ask questions like, if you build those defenses up one upon the other, does it make the plant stronger?”

In the new study, postdoctoral scholar Alex Cantó-Pastor worked with Brady and an international team of collaborators to uncover the role of exodermal suberin and map the genetic pathways that regulate its production.

Combining new and classical methods

“It's really the merging of classical and cutting-edge methodology that lets us look at both the process that's happening in an individual cell and what you see in the whole plant,” said Brady. “So going from super small to really, really big.”

Brady, Cantó-Pastor and colleagues started by identifying all of the genes that are actively used by root exodermal cells. Then they performed gene editing to create mutant strains of tomato plant that lacked functional versions of several genes they suspected might be involved in suberin production. They discovered seven genes that were necessary for suberin deposition.  

Next, the researchers tested exodermal suberin's role in drought tolerance by exposing some of the mutant tomato plants to a ten-day drought. For these experiments, the researchers focused on two genes: SIASFT, an enzyme involved in suberin production and SlMYB92, a transcription factor that controls the expression of other genes involved in suberin production.

The experiments confirmed that both genes are necessary for suberin production and that without them, tomato plants are less able to cope with water stress. The mutant plants grew as well as normal plants when they were well-watered but became significantly more wilted after ten days with no water.

“In both of those cases where you have mutations in those genes, the plants are more stressed and they're not able to respond to drought conditions,” Brady said.

Having shown suberin’s worth in a greenhouse setting, the researchers now plan to test suberin’s drought-proofing potential in the field.

“We’ve been working on taking this finding and putting it into the field to try and make tomatoes more drought tolerant,” Brady said.

Additional authors on the paper are: at UC Davis, Lidor Shaar-Moshe, Concepción Manzano, Sharon Gray, He Yang, Sana Mohammad, Niba Nirmal, G. Alex Mason, Mona Gouran, Kaisa Kajala, Kenneth A. Shackel, Donnelly A. West and Neelima Sinha; Prakash Timilsena and Song Li, Virginia Tech; Damien De Bellis, Robertas Ursache and Niko Geldner, University of Lausanne, Switzerland; Julia Holbein, Kiran Suresh and Rochus Benni Franke, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University of Bonn, Germany; Alexander T. Borowsky and Julia Bailey-Serres, UC Riverside.,

The work was supported by the National Science Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

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JOURNAL

Nature Plants

DOI

10.1038/s41477-023-01567-x 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

A suberized exodermis is required for tomato drought tolerance.

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

2-Jan-2024

 

Reducing inequality is essential in tackling climate crisis, researchers argue

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

In a report just published in the journal Nature Climate Change, researchers argue that tackling inequality is vital in moving the world towards Net-Zero – because inequality constrains who can feasibly adopt low-carbon behaviours.

They say that changes are needed across society if we are to mitigate climate change effectively. Although wealthy people have very large carbon footprints, they often have the means to reduce their carbon footprint more easily than those on lower incomes.

The researchers say there is lack of political recognition of the barriers that can make it difficult for people to change to more climate-friendly behaviours.

They suggest that policymakers provide equal opportunities for low-carbon behaviours across all income brackets of society.

The report defines inequality in various ways: in terms of wealth and income, political influence, free time, and access to low-carbon options such as public transport and housing insulation subsidies.

“It’s increasingly acknowledged that there’s inequality in terms of who causes climate change and who suffers the consequences, but there’s far less attention being paid to the effect of inequality in changing behaviours to reduce carbon emissions,” said Dr Charlotte Kukowski, a postdoctoral researcher in the University of Cambridge Departments of Psychology and Zoology, and first author of the report.

She added: “People on lower incomes can be more restricted in the things they can do to help reduce their carbon footprint, in terms of the cost and time associated with doing things differently.”

The researchers found that deep-rooted inequalities can restrict people’s capacity to switch to lower-carbon behaviours in many ways. For example:

• Insulating a house in the UK can be costly, and government subsidies are generally only available for homeowners; renters have little control over the houses they live in.

The UK has large numbers of old, badly insulated houses that require more energy to heat than new-build homes. The researchers call for appropriate government schemes that make it more feasible for people in lower income groups to reduce the carbon emissions of their home.

• Cooking more meat-free meals: plant-based meat alternatives currently tend to be less affordable than the animal products they are trying to replace.

Eating more plant-based foods instead of meat and animal-derived products is one of the most effective changes an individual can make in reducing their carbon footprint.

• Buying an electric car or an electric bike is a substantial upfront cost, and people who aren’t in permanent employment often can’t benefit from tax breaks or financing available through employer schemes.

Other low-carbon transport options - such as using public transport instead of a private car - are made less feasible for many due to poor services, particularly in rural areas.

Sometimes the lower-carbon options are more expensive - and this makes them less accessible to people on lower incomes.

“If you have more money you're likely to cause more carbon emissions, but you're also more likely to have greater ability to change the things you do and reduce those emissions,” said Dr Emma Garnett, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford and second author of the report.

She added: “Interventions targeting high-emitting individuals are urgently needed, but also many areas where there are lower-carbon choices - like food and transport - need everyone to be involved.”

The researchers say that campaigns to encourage people to switch to lower-carbon behaviours have tended to focus on providing information. While this is important in helping people understand the issues, there can still be many barriers to making changes.

They suggest a range of policy interventions, such as urban planning to include bus and bike lanes and pedestrian-friendly routes, progressive taxation rates on wealth and income, and employer-subsidised low-carbon meal options.

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DOI

10.1038/s41558-023-01900-4 

ARTICLE TITLE

Nature Climate Change