Abstract
This study empirically investigated the determinants of sustainable food consumption in Nigeria, with the objective to ascertain how well the four measures of sustainable foods—dietary/nutritional adequacy, economic, sociocultural, environmental—affect consumption behavior. For the study, 50 households were selected from five universities, one from each of the five South East states of Nigeria, for a sample total of 250. A well-structured questionnaire was employed to solicit the needed information from the respondents. Multiple regression (standard and hierarchical) was used to test for the significance of the model generated for the study. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Introduction
The issue of sustainability is of great environmental and economic concern in the face of a growing global population. Sustainability involves economic (profit), ecological (planet), and social (people) concerns. The current notion and goals of sustainability stem from the report released by the 1987 United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development, also known as the Brundtland Commission, entitled Our Common Future. The report defines sustainable development as, “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” 1
There is an urgent need to focus on sustainability issues arising from food systems. Nigeria currently has a total population of over 180 million people, which is expected to increase by 20 percent in the next few years. Due to the growing population of the world, there is an increasing need for greater food output, thus placing great stress on natural resources.
Sustainable consumption has been defined by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as “the production and use of services and related products, which respond to basic needs and bring a better quality of life while minimizing the use of natural resources and toxic materials as well as the emissions of waste and pollutants over the life cycle of the service or product so as not to jeopardize the needs of future generations.”(p.9) 2 Sustainable food consumption encompasses consuming nutrient-dense, affordable, and culturally acceptable foods while sparing the environment. 3 This is to say, the concept of sustainable foods can be seen from four domains: dietary, economic, sociocultural, and environmental. The dietary domain places emphasis on nutrients and energy levels; the economic domain is focused on food affordability; the sociocultural domain emphasizes socially acceptable food; and the environmental domain is centered on greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), which can be measured for specific domains and activities such as a carbon footprint.
Food is at the heart of many key environmental issues, including wastage, climate change, scarcity, overconsumption (which can lead to obesity), and underconsumption (which can lead to malnutrition), habitat and biodiversity loss, and even water wastage and loss. 4 The unsustainability of the present food system is the backdrop to this study. These unsustainable factors include the shift of consumption patterns toward increased dietary animal protein, emergence of heavily processed foods, growing gap between the rich and poor, the lack of food security amidst an abundance of food, and an increased rate of food waste.5–7 A sustainable food consumption system should minimize the effect of these factors and support conservation of biodiversity, reduction of water use, and decreased greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). The Committee on World Food Security, High Level Panel of Experts (HLPE) defined a sustainable food system as one “that ensures food security and nutrition for all in such a way that the economic, social, and environmental bases to generate food security and nutrition of future generation are not compromised.”(p.31) 8
There is an increasing recognition of the environmental impact of food consumption. Four of the 17 United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are focused on food, health, and sustainable consumption: SDG 2, Zero Hunger; SDG 3, Good Health and Well-Being; SDG 6, Clean Water and Sanitation; and SDG 12, Responsible Consumption and Production. 9
Methodology
The authors posed the following research question in a survey administered in South East Nigeria, starting in August 2018: How well do the four measures of sustainable foods (dietary, economic, sociocultural, environmental) affect consumption behavior?
The cohort for this survey study was culled from academic staff of selected universities in the southeastern part of Nigeria. The South East geopolitical zone of Nigeria is made up of five states: Anambra, Enugu, Imo, Abia, and Ebonyi. To form the study sample, 50 academic staff members from one university in each of the five states were selected (see Table 1).
Universities and Their Sample Size
The research instrument used was a structured questionnaire designed with a seven-point Likert scale, ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. (See Appendix.) The collected data was analyzed using multiple regression (standard and hierarchical) because this methodology indicates how much of the variance in the dependent variable can be explained by the independent variable. Also, multiple regression can help to determine the statistical significance of the results.
Data Analysis
Table 2 presents the demographic profile of the respondents. Table 3 shows the model summary. Figure 1 illustrates the relationship of the variables to consumption behavior. The independent variables (nutritional adequacy, economic factors, sociocultural factors, environmental factors) explain 37.9 percent of the variance in the dependent variable (consumption behavior).
Research Model
Profile of Respondents
Model Summary 1
Dependent variable: consumption behavior
Predictors (constant): environmental factors, sociocultural factors, nutritional adequacy, economic factors
Table 4 shows the independent variables in the model and the extent to which each contribute to changes in the dependent variable. The largest Beta value is .467(environmental factors), which means that environmental factors make the strongest unique contribution to explaining the dependent variable. This is followed by nutritional adequacy (.405), economic factors (.295), and sociocultural (.234) having the least. A closer look at the significance column shows a value .000 for all variables that are less than .005. This simply means that all variables are statistically significant.
Coefficients 1
Dependent variable: consumption behavior
As indicated by the data, nutritional adequacy, economic factors, sociocultural factors, and environmental factors all make a unique and statistically significant contribution to consumption behavior.
Conclusion
The primary human need for food implicates many social, cultural, economic, and environmental processes that necessitate specific behaviors. Issues surrounding food production, provision, and consumption need to be explored from a wider perspective. The largely implicit assumptions of sustainable consumption center on the notion of the rational individual and his or her needs and wants and neglect the determinants of consumption practices. This is an issue that needs to be re-addressed. Despite increasing awareness and acceptance of sustainable food consumption patterns, relatively little is known about the motivations, viewpoints, and experiences of people who choose to eat extremely sustainable foods. The findings of this study are in consonance with previous research.10–13 Finally, and of import, is that food affordability and food diversity are major economic factors that determine food consumption in Nigeria and in other developing countries.
Footnotes
Author Disclosure Statement
No competing financial interests exist.