Brazilians' attitudes to meat consumption and production: Present and future challenges to the sustainability of the meat industry

Brazil is a main global producer, exporter, and consumer of farm animal products. Information about the knowledge and attitudes of Brazilian citizens and consumers towards the different dimensions of meat production sustainability can support policy discussions and guide the industry to adopt production systems compatible with societal expectations. Here we provide a historical, social, and economic overview of meat production and consumption in Brazil, review the scientific literature on Brazilian public attitudes towards meat production and consumption, and discuss some actions Brazil is taking to develop more sustainable production systems. We show that Brazilians expect affordable meat products with high organoleptic, sanitary, nutritional qualities and produced under high ethical standards. The pace of discussions and changes in policies and in meat production systems needs to accelerate to follow domestic and international demands and the changes in ethical expectations of society. Constructive dialogue between all interested stakeholders, including citizens and consumers, needs to be fostered to design more sustainable meat production systems.

Deep seabed mining and communities: A transdisciplinary approach to ecological risk assessment in the South Pacific

Deep-sea mineral extraction is a fledgling industry whose guiding principles, legislation, protocols, and regulations are still evolving. Responsible management of the industry is difficult when it is not clearly understood what biological and environmental diversity or ecosystem services may be at risk. But the industry's infancy provides an opportunity to address this challenge by stakeholder-led development and implementation of a multidisciplinary risk assessment framework. This article aims to present the findings of a workshop held in New Zealand that hosted stakeholders from a broad range of interests and regions in the South Pacific associated with the deep-sea mineral activity. The outputs provide stakeholder-informed ecological risk assessment approaches for deep-sea mining activities, identifying tools and techniques to improve the relevance of risk assessment of deep seabed mining projects to communities in the South Pacific. Discussions highlighted the importance of trust or respect among stakeholders, valuing the "life force" of the ocean, the importance of scientific data, and the complications associated with defining acceptable change. This research highlighted the need for a holistic transdisciplinary approach that connects science, management, industry, and community, an approach most likely to provide a "social license" to operate. There is also a need to revise traditional risk assessment methods to make them more relevant to stakeholders. The development of ecotoxicological tools and approaches is an example of how existing practices could be improved to better support deep-sea mineral management. A case study is provided that highlights the current challenges within the legislative framework of New Zealand. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:664-673. © 2021 SETAC.

The benefit of virtue signaling: Corporate sleight-of-hand positively influences consumers' judgments about "social license to operate"

When confronted with concerns or backlash as a result of their environmental or sustainability performance, companies may elect to address them head-on by directly correcting their real or perceived misdeeds. However, it is often the case that businesses are unwilling or unable to address their transgressions directly; in these cases, they may elect to draw attention to indirect substantiality benefits unfolding in areas unrelated to where the concerns or backlash initially arose. In this study, we sought to test the effect of these indirect and direct responses to sustainability challenges on two dependent variables: public perception of company reputation, and their willingness to grant a company "social license" for future business activities. Compared to a business-as-usual control condition, and across three company contexts, consumers provided favorable ratings of reputation, and were willing to grant social license, when companies responded indirectly to a sustainability challenge. These results highlight the powerful effect of indirect responses, which may be perceived as "greenwash", and the importance of intuitive judgmental heuristics and individual value orientations when consumers form impressions about corporate sustainability.

Personal health information in research: Perceived risk, trustworthiness and opinions from patients attending a tertiary healthcare facility

BACKGROUND

Personal health information is a valuable resource to the advancement of research. In order to achieve a comprehensive reform of data infrastructure in Australia, both public engagement and building social trust is vital. In light of this, we conducted a study to explore the opinions, perceived risks and trustworthiness regarding the use of personal health information for research, in a sample of the public attending a tertiary healthcare facility.

METHODS

The Consumer Opinions of Research Data Sharing (CORDS) study was a questionnaire-based design with 249 participants who were attending a public tertiary healthcare facility located on the Gold Coast, Australia. The questionnaire was designed to explore opinions and evaluate trust and perceived risk in research that uses personal health information. Concept analysis was used to identify key dimensions of perceived risk.

RESULTS

Overall participants were supportive of research, highly likely to participate and mostly willing to share their personal health information. However, where the perceived risk of data misuse was high and trust in others was low, participants expressed hesitation to share particular types of information. Performance, physical and privacy risks were identified as key dimensions of perceived risk.

CONCLUSION

This study highlights that while participant views on the use of personal health information in research is mostly positive, where there is perceived risk in an environment of low trust, support for research decreases. The three key findings of this research are that willingness to share data is contingent upon: (i) data type; (ii) risk perception; and (iii) trust in who is accessing the data. Understanding which factors play a key role in a person's decision to share their personal health information for research is vital to securing a social license.