IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i9p5638-d809137.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Food Practice Lifestyles: Identification and Implications for Energy Sustainability

Author

Listed:
  • Leanne S. Giordono

    (School of Public Policy, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA)

  • June Flora

    (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA)

  • Chad Zanocco

    (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA)

  • Hilary Boudet

    (School of Public Policy, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA)

Abstract

Food systems, including production, acquisition, preparation, and consumption, feature importantly in environmental sustainability, energy consumption and climate change. With predicted increases in food and water shortages associated with climate change, food-related lifestyle and behavioral changes are advocated as important mitigation and adaptation measures. Yet, reducing emissions from food systems is predicted to be one of our greatest challenges now and in the future. Traditional theories of environmental behavioral change often assume that individuals make “reasoned choices” that incorporate cost–benefit assessment, moral and normative concerns and affect/symbolic motives, yielding behavioral interventions that are often designed as informational or structural strategies. In contrast, some researchers recommend moving toward an approach that systematically examines the temporal organization of society with an eye toward understanding the patterns of social practices to better understand behaviors and develop more targeted and effective interventions. Our study follows on these recommendations with a study of food consumption “lifestyles” in the United States, using extant time use diary data from a nationally representative sample of Americans ( n = 16,100) from 2014 to 2016. We use cluster analysis to identify unique groups based on temporal and locational eating patterns. We find evidence of six respondent clusters with distinct patterns of food consumption based on timing and location of eating, as well as individual and household characteristics. Factors associated with cluster membership include age, employment status, and marital status. We note the close connections between age and behaviors, suggesting that a life course scholarship approach may add valuable insight. Based on our findings, we identify opportunities for promoting sustainable energy use in the context of the transition to renewables, such as targeting energy-shifting and efficiency-improvement interventions based on group membership.

Suggested Citation

  • Leanne S. Giordono & June Flora & Chad Zanocco & Hilary Boudet, 2022. "Food Practice Lifestyles: Identification and Implications for Energy Sustainability," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-19, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:9:p:5638-:d:809137
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/9/5638/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/9/5638/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Charlene M. Kalenkoski & Karen S. Hamrick, 2013. "How Does Time Poverty Affect Behavior? A Look at Eating and Physical Activity," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 35(1), pages 89-105.
    2. Strengers, Yolande, 2012. "Peak electricity demand and social practice theories: Reframing the role of change agents in the energy sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 226-234.
    3. Stelmach, Greg & Zanocco, Chad & Flora, June & Rajagopal, Ram & Boudet, Hilary S., 2020. "Exploring household energy rules and activities during peak demand to better determine potential responsiveness to time-of-use pricing," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    4. Marc A. Rosen, 2009. "Energy Sustainability: A Pragmatic Approach and Illustrations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 1(1), pages 1-26, March.
    5. Elizabeth Shove, 2021. "Time to rethink energy research," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 6(2), pages 118-120, February.
    6. Zeballos, Eliana & Todd, Jessica E. & Restrepo, Brandon, "undated". "Frequency and Time of Day That Americans Eat: A Comparison of Data From the American Time Use Survey and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey," Technical Bulletins 292267, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    7. McLoughlin, Fintan & Duffy, Aidan & Conlon, Michael, 2015. "A clustering approach to domestic electricity load profile characterisation using smart metering data," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 190-199.
    8. Charlene Kalenkoski & Karen Hamrick & Margaret Andrews, 2011. "Time Poverty Thresholds and Rates for the US Population," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 104(1), pages 129-155, October.
    9. Hamermesh, Daniel S., 2010. "Incentives, time use and BMI: The roles of eating, grazing and goods," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 2-15, March.
    10. Felix Creutzig & Leila Niamir & Xuemei Bai & Max Callaghan & Jonathan Cullen & Julio Díaz-José & Maria Figueroa & Arnulf Grubler & William F. Lamb & Adrian Leip & Eric Masanet & Érika Mata & Linus Mat, 2022. "Demand-side solutions to climate change mitigation consistent with high levels of well-being," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 36-46, January.
    11. Sarah M. Flood & Rachelle Hill & Katie R. Genadek, 2018. "Daily Temporal Pathways: A Latent Class Approach to Time Diary Data," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 135(1), pages 117-142, January.
    12. Hager, Tiffany J. & Morawicki, Ruben, 2013. "Energy consumption during cooking in the residential sector of developed nations: A review," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 54-63.
    13. Marianne Bertrand & Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, 2009. "Time Use and Food Consumption," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(2), pages 170-176, May.
    14. Corinne Le Quéré & Robert B. Jackson & Matthew W. Jones & Adam J. P. Smith & Sam Abernethy & Robbie M. Andrew & Anthony J. De-Gol & David R. Willis & Yuli Shan & Josep G. Canadell & Pierre Friedlingst, 2020. "Temporary reduction in daily global CO2 emissions during the COVID-19 forced confinement," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 10(7), pages 647-653, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jason R. Williams & Yuta J. Masuda & Heather Tallis, 2016. "A Measure Whose Time has Come: Formalizing Time Poverty," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 128(1), pages 265-283, August.
    2. Mark C. Senia & Helen H. Jensen & Oleksandr Zhylyevskyy, 2017. "Time in eating and food preparation among single adults," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 399-432, June.
    3. Scharadin, Benjamin, 2022. "The efficacy of the dependent care deduction at maintaining diet quality," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    4. Fiorella Picchioni & Lukasz Aleksandrowicz & Mieghan Bruce & Soledad Cuevas & Paula Dominguez-Salas & Lili Jia & Mehroosh Tak, 2016. "Agri-health research: what have we learned and where do we go next?," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 8(1), pages 291-298, February.
    5. Lee, Ji Yong & Nayga Jr, Rodolfo M. & Jo, Young & Restrepo, Brandon J., 2022. "Time use and eating patterns of SNAP participants over the benefit month," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    6. Fiorella Picchioni & Lukasz Aleksandrowicz & Mieghan M. Bruce & Soledad Cuevas & Paula Dominguez-Salas & Lili Jia & Mehroosh Tak, 2016. "Agri-health research: what have we learned and where do we go next?," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 8(1), pages 291-298, February.
    7. Cieplinski, André & D'Alessandro, Simone & Dwarkasing, Chandni & Guarnieri, Pietro, 2023. "Narrowing women’s time and income gaps: An assessment of the synergies between working time reduction and universal income schemes," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    8. Asmaa Ezzat & Hanan Nazier, 2019. "Time poverty in Egypt and Tunisia: is there a gender gap?," International Journal of Development Issues, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 18(3), pages 261-289, August.
    9. Kılkış, Şiir, 2022. "Urban emissions and land use efficiency scenarios towards effective climate mitigation in urban systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    10. Alagsam, Fuad & Schieffer, Jack, 2016. "The Mindlessness and Mindfulness of Secondary Eating," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 235644, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    11. Brandon J. Restrepo & Eliana Zeballos, 2020. "The effect of working from home on major time allocations with a focus on food-related activities," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 1165-1187, December.
    12. Zanocco, C. & Flora, J. & Rajagopal, R. & Boudet, H., 2021. "Exploring the effects of California's COVID-19 shelter-in-place order on household energy practices and intention to adopt smart home technologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    13. Kunio Urakawa & Wei Wang & Masrul Alam, 2020. "Empirical Analysis of Time Poverty and Health-Related Activities in Japan," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 41(3), pages 520-529, September.
    14. Hamrick, Karen & Okrent, Abigail, 2014. "The Role of Time in Fast-Food Purchasing Behavior in the United States," Economic Research Report 191034, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    15. Hoolohan, Claire & McLachlan, Carly, 2015. "Consumers and energy demand in food supply chains: Synthesising insights from the social sciences," 143rd Joint EAAE/AAEA Seminar, March 25-27, 2015, Naples, Italy 202743, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    16. Benjamin Scharadin & Yang Yu & Edward C. Jaenicke, 2021. "Household time activities, food waste, and diet quality: the impact of non-marginal changes due to COVID-19," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 399-428, June.
    17. Wong, Pui Ting & Rau, Henrike, 2023. "Time of Use tariffs, childcare and everyday temporalities in the US and China: Evidence from time-use and sequence-network analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    18. Muttaqee, Mahmood & Stelmach, Greg & Zanocco, Chad & Flora, June & Rajagopal, Ram & Boudet, Hilary S., 2024. "Time of use pricing and likelihood of shifting energy activities, strategies, and timing," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    19. de Chalendar, Jacques A. & Benson, Sally M., 2021. "A physics-informed data reconciliation framework for real-time electricity and emissions tracking," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 304(C).
    20. Costa-Font, Joan & de Miera Juarez, Belen Saenz, 2018. "Working Times and Overweight: Tight Schedules, Weaker Fitness?," IZA Discussion Papers 11702, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:9:p:5638-:d:809137. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.