Same, same – but different: on increasing meat consumption in the Global South

Consumer research has gained in momentum during the last two decades in its quest for ways to achieve a more sustainable future. Exploring the dynamics of food consumption is one of its most interesting areas of study, with a special issue of Sustainability: Science, Practice, & Policy (Sedlacko et al. 2013) providing an instructive overview of the scope and many dimensions of this field. Reisch et al. also indicate a substantial shortcoming: ‘although the discussions aim to reflect global trends related to sustainable food, the main geographic focus of both empirical data and policies presented is the European Union (EU)’ (2013: 8). Non-sustainable food consumption in the Global South is an issue of sustainability-centred concern often voiced in the Western media by linking criticism of excessive levels of consumption and the new middle classes (hereafter NMCs)1 as the collective bad guys of consumption. There is also an insufficient yet growing body of research on these groups with a focus on case studies.