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Meat market failure

Nature Food volume 2, page 67 (2021)Cite this article

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To the Editor — The theory of market failure and externalities can add clarity to the meat and livestock consumption and production debate.

In Nature Food, Resare Sahlin and colleagues1 have drawn attention to the importance of moderating meat consumption as a significant part of the effort to reduce global health and environmental burdens. Their call for clarification of the heuristic of consuming ‘less and better’ aimed to disentangle the different sustainability criteria that consumers face at the point of purchase, with the overall objective of moving the sector towards some optimal level of consumption. Further consideration of the role of markets in mediating less and better consumption decisions is however warranted.

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Acknowledgements

The author acknowledges support under the project ‘Resilience of the UK food system to Global Shocks’ (project no. BB/N020545/2) funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.

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  1. Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Security, University of Edinburgh, The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies and The Roslin Institute, Easter Bush Campus, Midlothian, UK

    Dominic Moran

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  1. Dominic Moran
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Correspondence to Dominic Moran.

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The author declares no competing interests.

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Peer review information Nature Food thanks Jayson Lusk for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Moran, D. Meat market failure. Nat Food 2, 67 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00223-x

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