Barriers to a sustainability transformation of meat production practices - An industry actor perspective

The negative impacts caused by current industrial meat production challenge industry actors to transform meat production towards more sustainable practices. However, despite the necessity for change and the availability of various sustainability solutions, transformational shifts have failed to materialize, so far. This study applies and extends the Kollmuss-Agyeman model of pro-environmental behavior to the context of producers and analyzes their perceived barriers to the transformation of meat production practices. The qualitative empirical study is based on 23 interviews with actors along the meat production chain. The analysis reveals that industry actors’ perceived barriers are highly complex. This complexity results from (1) multiple interactions among and between internal and external influencing factors and (2) the simultaneous existence of barriers that reinforce the status quo on the one hand and restrain the pursuit of sustainable production practices on the other hand. Based on these findings, opportunities for overcoming barriers are discussed in today's context. This study's contributions are twofold: First, the analysis complements previous research on barriers to sustainable meat production practices by detailing barriers and their interactions for actors along the entire meat production chain. Second, this investigation extends the Kollmuss-Agyeman model by specifying interactions of external influencing factors and by differentiating reinforcement and restraint barriers relevant for producers.