Measuring Change in Diet for Animal Advocacy

Research in animal advocacy has mostly relied on asking people about changes in their diet resulting from advocacy. For example, a researcher might ask people how much meat they ate before and after receiving a leaflet promoting plant-based eating. The researcher would then compare the amounts of meat eaten before and after to determine if people changed their diets because of the leaflet. However, recent evidence from medical research shows even the best methods of asking people about their diet are highly inaccurate. Furthermore, people exaggerate changes in their diet, especially after receiving information about the harms of animal agriculture, creating more inaccuracy. As such, rather than asking people to self-report what they are eating, researchers should use more direct measurements of the food people are buying and eating. Several commercial sources as well as collaborative approaches are available to make more direct measurements of diet using food purchasing data. Lastly, future technologies for measuring diet and general issues of transparency in the food system are explored.

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