From promotional offers to supermarket layouts, our eating habits are influenced by countless factors outside of our control and, often, our awareness. This happens because food choices are shaped by so-called “food environments” — the broad context in which consumers make food-related decisions. Food environments include elements such as pricing, availability, advertising, and marketing that have a subtle yet effective influence on what we buy, prepare, and eat.

Research shows that what we eat has huge repercussions on our health, the environment, and the lives of billions of non-human animals. At the same time, an increasing number of studies recommend shifting to a mostly plant-based diet. Currently, however, food environments tend to support the opposite, pushing consumers towards unhealthy and unsustainable diets high in red and processed meat and highly processed foods and drinks.

Given the health and environmental impact of these diets, in 2020, the European Commission designed the Farm to Fork Strategy to transition to food systems that are sustainable, healthy, and inclusive.

The Strategy recognizes that Europeans consume too much red and processed meat, sugars, salt, and fats and not enough whole-grain cereals, fruit, vegetables, nuts, and legumes. However, it fails to directly address the impact of food environments and focuses on increasing consumers’ information through labeling instead. Unfortunately, information — albeit important — is not enough to steer consumers towards better food choices. This is particularly true when convenience is a determinant factor in purchasing decisions.

To fill this gap, the organizations Eurogroup for Animals, the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC), and the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) have created the “Put a Change on the Menu” project. This project aims to stir debate around the impact of food environments by contrasting examples of favorable environments that promote sustainable healthy diets — diets that “have low environmental pressure and impact” and “are accessible, affordable, safe and equitable and are culturally acceptable” — with examples of unhealthy and unsustainable environments across Europe. Their report proposes concrete steps that the European Union (E.U.) and individual E.U. countries can take to transform food environments and improve the availability, affordability, and desirability of healthy and sustainable foods.

• Healthy and sustainable foods must be the most affordable option.
  For example, retailers should price and promote their products accordingly; governments should use subsidies and other fiscal measures to support healthy and sustainable foods.
• Healthy and sustainable foods must be easy to find.
  Retailers should improve the availability and appeal of healthier and more sustainable foods.
• Marketing should promote healthy and sustainable foods.
  For example, unhealthy food should not be marketed to children under 18 and the promotion of agricultural products should follow healthy dietary guidelines.
• Choosing healthy and sustainable food must be easy when eating out or ordering food delivery.
  This can be achieved by offering healthier choices and providing calorie information on menus.
• Healthy and sustainable food should be the default choice in public settings.
  Cafeterias in schools, hospitals, government offices, nursing homes, and childcare centers should offer healthy and sustainable options by default and reduce the availability of unhealthy and unsustainable dishes.
• Food should be healthy and sustainable by design.
  Food manufacturers should reformulate their recipes to limit unhealthy components and maximize healthy ingredients. Animal welfare standards should be improved and also applied to imported foods.

As the report shows, when it comes to food choices, there is no free consumer choice, but rather a web of influences that affect eating habits. With this in mind, governments, organizations, and advocates can do a lot to reduce the availability, convenience, and appeal of unhealthy and unsustainable foods and steer consumers towards healthier and more sustainable options. In particular, animal advocates, potentially allied with environmental protection, climate, and health activists, can use the insights presented in this report to raise awareness with consumers and pressure institutions to move towards more beneficial food environments.