Anticonsumption in Brazil: Investigating the Perception of Red Meat Anticonsumers

Abstract

Contemporary society is called the consumption-driven society or Consumer Society (Baudrillard, 1995; Bauman, 2008; Rochefort, 1995). One of the premises of this culture based on consumption is the accumulation of material goods as a source of fulfillment and happiness. However, several studies suggest that, once people meet their essential needs, the growth of consumption levels does not raise the feeling of happiness (Bauman, 2008; Shankar et al., 2006). One reaction to this dissatisfaction with the unreached promises of consumer-driven culture is the consumption resistance. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the studies on anti-consumption, shedding light to a specific group: the red meat anti-consumption group. The research was based on in-depth interviews with people who do not consume red meat.  The results identified two anti-consumer subgroups. The first one obeys personal motivations and rejects the taste of meat or avoids it for medical reasons. These people made the individual choice not to consume meat for taste or medical reasons. People who belong to the second group have varied motivations that range from health issues to philosophical and religious issues, as well as social and environmental concerns. Several people reported adopting other practices of consumption constraint facing the planet and animals. This result suggests that there is a relationship between resistance to meat consumption and the anti-consumption focused on planet preservation.