Is eating meat the new smoking? Exploring the dynamics between meat consumption and education in Switzerland

Purpose - This study aims to test Singer’s suggestion that ‘over the next 20 years meat could follow smoking into disrepute” using the findings of the recent literature on meat consumption, education and smoking and data from consumers in Switzerland in 1990–2017. Design/methodology/approach - We hypothesise that meat consumption in developed countries has increasingly shifted to people with less education, as has been observed for smoking in previous studies. Using trend analysis by regressions, we describe the consumption dynamics of nine sorts of meat in Switzerland and estimate meat consumption trends for populations with and without university education separately. Findings - Our results partly confirm the hypothesis. Less educated households consume more non-fish meat per person than households with at least one member educating or having finished education at university. For most categories of meat, the relative decline in consumption has been significantly higher for households in which at least one person holds a university education. Originality/value - Our study contributes to the studies on sociology of meat eating and suggests paying more attention to risks related to meat consumption and to awareness of the population about these risks. Peer review - The peer review history for this article is available at:https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-05-2023-0335