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In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the subject

DSSD 608 Conflict Management and Organizational Effectiveness
In Philippine Womens University







The Theoretical Framework in Promoting Practices of Sustainable Food
Consumption



















Genevieve Nangit
Student No. 20132620
August 15, 2014


Course Professor: Dr. Emiliano Hudtohan
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1. The importance of practices in Sustainable Food Consumption (SFC)

According to the United Nations (Giovannucci, et al., 2012, p. 8), food security exists
when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and
nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and
healthy life.

A society can ensure the food security of its population if at least all individuals are
consuming according to their nutritional requirements. Therefore, I believe that we, as
consumers should be part of the food security programme even if we are not in agriculture
or fishing community. Our role is by practicing behaviors or habits that promote
sustainable food consumption (Etievant, 2010; Jackson, 2005).

The concept of sustainable food consumption involves three general context that
complement each other. These contexts are consumers, natural resources and
communities (Behjati & Kumar, 2012; Reisch, nd; Lefin, nd). My theoretical framework
focuses on the consumers, in other words, the role of the consumers for SFC so that they
consume food and drinks that are safe, healthy, nutritious, and meeting their needs. As
for the remaining contexts, which are natural resources and communities, it will serve as
the mediating variables that must assist the consumers in consuming the right kind of
food.

My theoretical framework is designed to promote the practices of SFC among the citizens
of a country so that it can be truly said that the government is serious in ensuring food
security. Because even if the government exert all efforts in enabling the agriculture and
fishery communities in producing food but ignored changing the behavior of the
consumers in relation to food security, then surely there will come a time that an
imbalance will occur. Obviously it is happening as indicated by the incidence of
malnourished (Fernandez-San Valentin & Berja, 2012; UNICEF, nd) and obese
population (Giovannucci, et al., 2012), households that are not eating sufficient amount
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of food, and more are the individuals who does not consume the required amount of
nutrients (Fernandez-San Valentin & Berja, 2012).


2. The pathway to promote practices of sustainable food consumption

The practices of humans are not a sole product of their cognition or instinct. Rather,
practices are developed as the individual interact and participate in the social system that
he or she belongs (Jackson, 2005; Etievant, 2010; Power, 2010). Practices of individuals
are cyclic in pattern and multi-dimensional in perspective (Gruber, nd; Warde &
Southerton, 2012; Helledie, 2014; Wilhite, 2012; Gronow, 2012), and because of these
characteristics, changing certain practices toward a sustainable food consumption
requires a multi-level and multi-lateral approach (McNulty, 2013; Flay, Snyder, & Petraitis,
2009; Southerton, McMeekin, & Evans, 2011; Rivera, 2012).

The theoretical framework of my thesis is primarily grounded on the theories of causation
(Gerring, 2005) and supported by the different models of behavior change (Jackson,
2005). If this kind of theoretical framework focused on the theory of triadic influence, then
it requires a combination of multilevel analysis (Hoox, 2010, p. 1) and path analysis
(Lleras, 2005; Wuensch, 2012; van den Berg & Timmermans, 2012).

Figure 1 is a diagram that in general illustrates the pathway of individual practice for
sustainable food consumption. Before I proceed on describing the processes represented
by this diagram, let me define first SFC in the individual-level context because it is the
focal point of my thesis. Individual SFC is when the consumers, either well-off or less well-
off, avail safe, healthy, nutritious food and drinks that meet their needs that are made
available in the shops, restaurants, schools, hospitals and other places through means
that are socially and environmentally sustainable (Behjati & Kumar, 2012, p. 102; Reisch,
nd, p. 1; Lefin, nd, p. 2).


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Figure 1. The pathway of practice of an individual to a SFC.


















Referring to the circle labeled as Individual 1 and there you can see a line coming from
this circle and passes into the Social Systems 1 and 2 then ends with an arrow pointed
to the box Sustainable food consumption practices. The factors age and gender are
included in the circle because these are non-modifiable but affect the cognition of the
individual by influencing the kind of interaction the person engage to. The line symbolizes
the action of the individual and as it passes through the social systems, the action then
includes interaction. The interaction has different forms which can be a mere presence to
an active participation in a certain social system (Parsons, Shills, & Olds, 1962). The
social system 1 can be the household, school or work and the social system 2 can be the
community where the household, school or work is located. The coverage of the
community can be as small as a town or as large as a province and because of this, it
can include the social system 1. The interaction of an individual in these social systems
Age
Individual 1
Gender
Individual 2
Age
Gender
Individual 3
Age
Gender
Level 2 social system
Level 1 social system
Sustainable food
consumption practices
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introduces her on certain practices which she can include in her personal system of
practices. Suppose that the social system that she regularly engages to promotes SFC
practices, then it is possible that she will also practice such practices (Tolmon, 1962).

Beside the line coming from the circle pointed to the box, there is also a line coming from
the box and points to the circle. This direction of the arrow indicates that the SFC practices
of a certain social system can influence the individual who interacts on that social system.
There are another 2 lines from the box that are pointed to circles labeled as Individual 2
and Individual 3. These arrows are representative of sharing of practices, in other words,
practices of SFC may come from each individuals participating in the social system and
when these practices are in collective form can be dispersed to the same individuals.
This sharing of SFC practices is only feasible if they interact on the same social system.

In summary, the exchange of practices has a cyclic pattern because the individual gain
and modify the practices by being part of the social system and multi-dimensional
because the practices are sustained depending on the perspective of the individuals
interacting in the social systems.














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