Is it godly to waste food? How understanding consumers' religion can help reduce consumer food waste

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/joca.12328
• Published date: 01 December 2020
• Date: 01 December 2020
• Author: Christopher Wharton,Elizabeth A. Minton,Maricarmen Vizcaino,Kathryn A. Johnson

ARTICLE

Is it godly to waste food? How understanding

consumers' religion can help reduce consumer

food waste

Elizabeth A. Minton

1

| Kathryn A. Johnson

2

|

Maricarmen Vizcaino

3

| Christopher Wharton

3

1

Department of Management &

Marketing, University of Wyoming,

Laramie, Wyoming

2

Department of Psychology, Arizona

State University, Tempe, Arizona

3

College of Health Solutions, Arizona

State University, Phoenix, Arizona

Correspondence

Elizabeth A. Minton, Department of

Management & Marketing, University of

Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071.

Email: eminton@uwyo.edu

Funding information

College of Health Sciences JumpStart

Award, Arizona State University

Abstract

Food waste is a problem worldwide, but solutions have

yet to adequately incorporate consumers' core values—

values which are often rooted in religion. Study 1 shows

that restrictive religious norms (e.g., rules about food

consumption, fasting) lead to greater food waste,

whereas supportive religious norms (e.g., sharing food)

lead to reduced food waste. Study 2 replicates prior find-

ings and rules out competing explanations. Study

3 manipulates marketing messaging to show that con-

sumers with higher (lower) levels of religiosity are more

likely to reduce food waste with a prevention (promo-

tion) framed message partnered with environmental rea-

soning or a promotion (prevention) framed message

partnered with people-based reasoning. Implications for

marketers, consumer advocacy groups, and policy

makers desiring to reduce food waste are provided.

KEYWORDS

food waste, religion, sustainability

INTRODUCTION

Food waste is an escalating concern as the rapidly growing human population places greater

demands on the food system and resources required for its sustained operation. Globally,

Received: 9 September 2019 Revised: 1 June 2020 Accepted: 9 June 2020

DOI: 10.1111/joca.12328

© 2020 American Council on Consumer Interests

1246 J Consum Aff. 2020;54:1246–1269.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/joca

wasted food amounts to one-third of all food that is grown (Royte, 2016). In the United States,

roughly 400 pounds of food is wasted per person per year, and consumer-level waste has

increased by 50% since the 1970s (Gunders et al., 2017). Food waste represents a substantial

problem not only in terms of lost resources and missed opportunities for healthier eating, but it

also results in serious impacts on the environment. Food rotting in landfills represents the third

greatest source of anthropogenic methane emissions in the United States, which is a major con-

tributor to climate change globally (EPA, 2016). This necessitates sustainably-minded food sys-

tem solutions (Helms, 2004) that can be initiated by public policy makers and consumer

advocacy groups (Shah and Hall-Phillips, 2018).

Most research focusing on food waste at the household or individual level has explored atti-

tudes, awareness, and determinants of food waste along with possible motivations for reducing

food waste (Qi and Roe, 2016; Stancu et al., 2016; Lusk and Ellison, 2017; Abdelradi, 2018). Less

research has examined solutions to food waste specifically at the individual level. The limited

research in this area has primarily occurred outside the United States. For example,

Schmidt (2016) evaluated a theoretically based educational intervention in Germany to increase

participation in household-level behaviors that might contribute to food waste reduction. After

a four-week intervention focused on actionable behaviors tailored to individual participants,

food waste reduction behaviors were greater in the experimental group compared to control

(Schmidt, 2016). Similarly, consumers' perceived ability to perform behaviors was positively cor-

related with food waste preventing behaviors (Schmidt, 2016). This, and other research, is sug-

gestive of the possibility that consumer-level impacts on food waste can be encouraged;

however, it is unlikely that education alone will elicit the greatest effects. Food waste reduction

initiatives need to incorporate values, specifically in relation to religion (Abdelradi, 2018).

As such, it may be important to consider how a consumer's core sense of values influence

food waste attitudes and behaviors so as to inform actions taken by policy makers and con-

sumer advocacy groups aimed to deter consumer food waste. We focus specifically on the exam-

ination of religious values given that religion serves as one of the deeper, more impactful core

value systems that a consumer can have (Minton and Kahle, 2014; Mathras et al., 2016). In fact,

80% of consumers worldwide follow some kind of religious belief (PEW, 2017). In addition, food

is also heavily integrated into religious traditions (Minton et al., 2019), both in terms of support-

ive social events (Dodson and Gilkes, 1995; Ramadurai et al., 2012; Vilaro et al., 2016) and mes-

saging related to restricting food intake (e.g., with fasting or avoiding certain foods) (Eliasi and

Dwyer, 2002; Sabate, 2004; Schmidt et al., 2014).

The relationship between religion and food waste is particularly interesting because reli-

gious consumers have been shown to be more altruistic and caring (for a review, see Midlarsky

et al., 2012). Additionally, food waste is often perceived as an issue closely linked with food

insecurity among underserved populations; as an exemplar of this, food waste is a key compo-

nent of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (FAO, 2019). From a different per-

spective, prior research has shown mixed findings on religion's influence on sustainability

concern, of which food waste is associated. Some research finds that religious people have lower

levels of sustainability concern because they have other more prominent concerns in life

(e.g., loving God, loving others, remaining pure) or view religious text as encouraging dominion

behaviors with ruling over the Earth and the animals within it (Wolkomir et al., 1997; Schultz

et al., 2000; Brandt and Reyna, 2011; Minton et al., 2015). However, competing research shows

just the opposite—that religious people have higher levels of sustainability concern than less or

non-religious consumers because of stewardship directives in religious text to care for God's cre-

ation as well as to treat every living human or animal with the same level of love and care

MINTON ET AL.1247