Check out our virtual exibition

MORE MEAT LESS MEAT...

Find out more

The first article of our doctoral student Vilde Johannessen is published!

Out now in the German journal for applied organisational psychology Gruppe. Interaction. Organisation. Vilde Johannessen, along with Fay Giæver, Sophia Efstathiou and Sally Russell, discuss strategies for «Emotion regulation of sustainability professionals facing adversity». The study focused on regenerative livestock farmers working in Norway.

 

The article shares the results of Johannessen’s qualitative study, based on participant observation and interviews, which found that regenerative farmers reported emotions such as guilt, pride, frustration, joy, sadness, and loneliness in their work. Farmers regulated their emotions by a) redefining and accepting problems as challenges; b) creating meaning from their work; c) seeking community through exchange of knowledge and care; and d) protecting their philosophy and practice. The importance of supporting sustainability professionals in their work, as emotionally demanding work, is illustrated through this study.

 — Read the full article here!

NEW #MEATmeets + GO-JuST webinar collab!

In Spring and Fall 2024 MEATigation are collaborating with the research project GO-JuST: Governing Just Sociotechnical Transitions on a new webinar series on justice issues around agri-food systems transitions.

GO-JuST is hosted by the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, funded by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (2023-2027). You can follow the webinar series on the Go-JuST or our #MEATmeets page.

Guest hosted by Stathis Arapostathis, Sophia Efstathiou and Emmanuella Dousis —Check out the series here!

New Guest-Edited Journal Issues out!

MEATigation have guest-edited two Special Issues on meat reduction and climate mitigation!

Out in April 2024, in Frontiers in Sustainability, we take a look at a broader systems perspective in the Topic How to Achieve a Planetary Health Diet through System and Paradigm change?

Guest Edited by Minna Kanerva, Sophia Efstathiou, Christophe Béné, Samara Brock and Michael Clarke. The issue explores modes for building policy alliances, supporting economic solutions like levelling the pricing playing field for meat alternatives, and looking into modes for transFARMation, moving away from livestock farming, as some of the strategies that can work. —Check out the editorial!

Out in September 2023, in Consumption and Society, Volume 2: Issue 2: Towards Less Meat-intensive Diets? Exploring Everyday Practices of Meat Consumption, Reduction and Substitution

Guest Edited by Arve Hansen, Ulrikke Wethal, Johannes Volden and Sophia Efstathiou. The issue collects a range of empirical and theoretical works on the challenges of meat-reduction and possibilities for plantifying our diets. Check out the editorial!

Oslo folk! Do you want a glimpse of MEATigation and the #MOREMEATLESSMEAT exhibition?

Join us June 19th from 9am VippaOslo for Matsymposium 2023 – UNIVERSET ER LOKALT –with a range of exciting talks and performances by people in the Norwegian and international food scene and above all the room to reflect together about the future and changes we need for a sustainable food future in Norway and beyond — organised by an amazing team of food practitioners and activists and including Center for Genomic Gastronomy Chicks on Speed and Sophia Efstathiou from the MEATigation team!

— including a showing of several artworks from the #MOREMEATLESSMEAT exhibition created for Trondheim kunstmuseum

Check out our Exhibition MORE MEAT LESS MEAT… at Trondheim Kunstmuseum Gråmølna, 15 Feb to 1 May 2023!

WHAT OR WHO is MEAT? HOW / SHOULD WE EAT MEAT?

MORE MEAT LESS MEAT… explores meat as culture and as multispecies entanglements through multisensorial artworks by: Chicks On Speed & The Center for Genomic Gastronomy. It was created in conversation with our Norwegian Research Council climate research project, MEATigation. 

— Listed as the #1 exhibition to visit in Norway in 2023 by Mona Pahle at NRK and the #5 exhibition to visit in the Nordics in 2023 by Vogue Scandinavia! —

To find out more click here

Looking forward to Veganuary? Join our diet experiments!

New food research led by MEATigation is happening in January and February 2023.

We are looking for some food-curious households to join us, in Oslo, Trondheim, or anywhere else in the country!

We will ask you to try one week of vegan, plant-based food, and then, to choose from a set of two meat-reducing alternatives. — Our only requirement is that you are not already vegan!

The diets you can choose from are:

  • One week of EAT Planetary Health Diet: This diet was launched by the EAT Foundation in 2019, and updated recently. Approximately half of the food in this diet is vegetables, fruits and nuts. You will follow this principle with lots of raw materials as a basis.

  • One week of Eat Like your Grandparents or ELG diet: Based on Norwegian traditional diets, the MEATigation-team have put together a weekly menu with known and new dishes from Norwegian food history that are also meat-reducing.

Every participating household will get to try two out of three types of diet -accompanied by a recipe book for each. The diets have been developed with the help of nutrition scientist Sílvia Coutinho, and can be modified as required in the case of allergies.

No prior knowledge or skill is necessary to join.  We will share with you recipes and ideas for the whole duration of our research with you. Participants will be interviewed and invited to hold a digital food diary and take photos of their new daily foodscapes!

More information på Norsk here!

Are you interested to join us? 

Get in touch with lead researcher Martin Loeng!
Email martin.loeng@ntnu.no with the title «Jeg vil delta/I want to join» or «Jeg har spørsmål/I have questions», or ring Martin on +47 45399278.

 

Open panel on Found Problems and Found Practices in Science — CFP deadline 31st. October 2022

STS Hub 2023 March 15-17, Aachen, Germany 

Organizers: Robert Meunier (University of Lüebeck) and Sophia Efstathiou (NTNU)

Scholars studying Science, Technology and Society have developed conceptual tools to address situations where scientific research interfaces with other areas of practice, i.e. other scientific fields or other areas of human activity like medicine, agriculture, industries, trades, public services, arts, etc. 

This open panel invites contributions reflecting on the framework of found science (Efstathiou 2012, 2016; Efstathiou et al. 2019, Lee et al. 2021) inspired by an analogy to found art (Below an image of ‘Fountain’, one of the first objects trouvées or readymade art pieces).

Found science emphasises a particular trajectory where elements are found by scientists outside of their own context, noted as interesting, transfigured following implicit and explicit norms of the scientific context of interest and progressively founded as constituents of the science in question.

We are particularly interested to develop these ideas further by looking beyond founded concepts and objects to include problems and practices as elements that circulate between scientific and non-scientific domains and also between scientific fields. In biomedicine, for instance, the problems of patients living with a chronic disease become problems to be solved by research in precision medicine or in psychology: founded problems. When agricultural research studies tilling techniques, farming practices become founded in the context of this science. The finding and founding of problems and practices can also happen across disciplines: e.g., Thorén and Persson (2013) speak of problem-feeding in sustainability science.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

  • How is founding enabled and constrained by social, material, economic, environmental, disciplinary, and other infrastructures?

  • How are the meanings, norms, and values of the contexts of origin carried into the science where problems and practices become founded?

  • How does the process of founding a problem or practice in science affect the contexts of its origin?

  • What is the role of power and of power relations in shaping possibilities and directions of founding?

—  Read the full call here!

Abstracts should be 250-300 words. The deadline for submission is October 31, 2022Please send your abstract to robert.meunier@uni-luebeck.de

Transforming MEAT: Climate, Culture, Animals

19-20 September 2022, Tøyen Hovedgård (Tøyen Manor House), Oslo

More information

What is the future of meat? Can we find inspiration in the past? Can meat-replacement products help reduce meat consumption, or is scaling down production through regenerative farming a better way forward? How do animals and people matter in making and transforming meat?

Meat reduction is flagged as a key measure that all individuals can take to lower the impact of our diets on the planet and on biodiversity and to help mitigate a looming climate catastrophe. But how practicable are changes in food culture and in meat culture specifically? How do we do it and why?

Join us for a two-day open meeting of the NFR project MEATigation: Towards sustainable meat-use in Norwegian food practices for climate mitigation. With keynotes from Jamie Lorimer, Paula Varela, Rob Burton and Clemens Driessen, and invited talks from business and farming actors including Live Skinnes, Sven-Arne Lie, Kenneth Skauge (MENY),  Olav Kjørven (EAT) as well as MEATigation’s own researchers and artists’ team.

 

 

How can we produce sustainable food in mid-Norway?  — Join MEATigation for this multi-stakeholder discussion in Trondheim this July!

27 July 2022 13:00-16:30, Britannia Hall, Trondheim

Seminar will be ledd by journalist Frode Stang, the voice you know from BBCs nature series on NRK TV.

Ordfører Rita Ottervik (AP), Trondheim kommune

Næringsliv, finans og bærekraft: Daglig leder Aslaug Rustad, Oi! Bransjeansvarlig landbruk Anja Gotvasli, SpareBank 1 SMN; Regiondirektør Tord Lien, NHO Trøndelag

Kjøkkenet og bærekraft: Hotelier & CEO Mikael Forselius, Britannia Hotel sammen med Speilsalen Head Chef, Christopher W. Davidsen.

Hva innebærer et bærekraftig matsystem?
ERGs innovasjonsteam ved leder Eva Falch, NTNU Food Forum og ass. daglig leder Anita Rennemo, Galåvolden Gård

Hvordan kan lokalprodusert mat bidra til god folkehelse og kvalitet på maten?
Klyngeleder Kristian Henriksen, NCE Aquatech Cluster
Visekonsernsjef Sunniva Nicolaisen, MOEN-Gruppen
Dr. Sophia Efstathiou, NTNU
Daglig leder Gustav Myraune, RÅGO
Administrerende direktør Nina Sundqvist, Stiftelsen Norsk Mat

Innlegg ved landbruks- og matminister Sandra Borch

Hvorfor resirkulere og utnytte alle ressurser?
Leder Kari Åker, Midtnorsk Landbruksråd/Agritech Cluster
Global Solutions Manager Merete Gisvold Sandberg, AKVA-group
Controller Lindis R. Aune, HitraMat
Regionsjef Vidar Andersen, REMA 1000
Seniorforsker Maitri Thakur,  SINTEF Ocean

 

MEATigation contribution to the Society for Philosophy of Science in Practice bi-annual conference in Ghent, 3 July, 2022

PI Sophia Efstathiou is presenting on «The found science of meat alternatives: How food biotech is creating new meat concepts» in the upcoming SPSP meeting in Ghent!

The paper explores how emerging food biotech is transforming concepts of meat. Research going into second-generation meat analogues or, cultured meat companies is founding everyday ideas of meat into novel plant- or cell-based food biotechnology contexts creating new founded, meat concepts. This happens through activities ranging from imitating the molecular properties of (animal-based) meat or growing tissue in a lab, to vision-statements and marketing matching the “good stuffs” of meat (Sexton 2016).

It is exciting to share our work with the community of philosophers of science, and discuss food science and food biotech in this context.

 

MEATigation double session in the American Association of Geographers Meeting, February 25, 2022

A double session on Geographies of Meatigation and the Stubbornness of Food Practices was co-organised by Arve Hansen (UiO) and Sophia Efstathiou (NTNU) as part of the AAG annual meeting in New York (taking place virtually). Our papers chart work within MEATigation’s study of household food practices, meat-reduction policies and meat-replacement products. Videos of the talks are available online for AAG members — but do let us know if you are interested in accessing these. 

Martin Loeng, ; Norwegian Meat Reduction Policy and Rural Counter-Culture: Balancing Matters of Concern in Sustainability Transition
Marius Korsnes, ; How have animals become embedded in Norwegian foodways?
Arve Hansen, ; The geographies of everyday meat consumption: Foodscapes and the stubbornness of food practices
Ulrikke Wethal, ; The Norwegian hot-dog: Exploring meaning and materiality in convenient meat consumption
Øyvind Sundet, ; Performing meat reduction: exploring the experiences, approaches, and challenges of Norwegian meat reducers.
Johannes Volden, ; Doing food without meat: The role of meat substitutes in the food practices of meat lovers, meat reducers, and meat avoiders
Sophia Efstathiou, ; Meat without meat – The found science of meat and contemporary vegan biotech

Matens meglere: Kontroll, kvalitet og kunnskap i den industrielle matens tid

New open-access book publication for MEATigation member Terje Finstad!

«How can we be sure that the food we buy in grocery stores won’t make us sick? The institutions, laws and regulatory systems put in place to safeguard that food is safe to consume are the result of a long and complex process. This book takes a close look at that process and at how various actors and institutions – we call them ‘food’s facilitators’ – have worked to ensure that the food we eat is fresh, healthy and safe.»

The book is co-edited by Finstad with  Stig Kvaal, Håkon B. Stokland and Per Østby and takes a close look at the development of modern food production and provision systems through different case-studies, from cookbooks and refrigeration to industrialised salmon aquaculture.

We had our first IN PERSON research meeting 4-5th November 2021 in Trondheim!

The MEATigation team from UiO, Ruralis, NTNU and artistic research partners met at Trondjems Kunstforening for a one and a half-day meeting on our current research. We got to meet each other in person, discuss preliminary findings from our empirical research with Norwegian households (WP2), find out about the Eat Like your Grandparents or ELG diet designed in WP1, hear from farm experiences and interviews with sustainability change agents in retail (WP3)! We had a lovely vegan dinner -partly  inspired by ELG- at our partner’s site Stammen Café og Bar. Organised by improvisation theater group Gibberish, we had different ice-breaker and reflection activities. But perhaps one of the highlights of achievement was that -despite some of us never having met before- we managed to improvise singing together for the MEATigation jingle produced by Chicks on Speed -the chorus- inspired by a contribution of Johannes Volden- was «lots of meat in the discount counter».

MEATigation explores meat as culture through artistic research.

The spoken word improvisation ‘Meet me over Meat’ was part of the Artistic Research Autumn Forum 2021 in Trondheim #ARF2021 #meatigation in the Chicks on Speed session Uploading the Human, October 19th 2021 9-10PM CET, Dokkhuset, Trondheim.

Meet me over Meat is performed with Mary Ocher, in Berlin, on piano, Michael Francis Duch on double bass, Melissa E. Logan on saxophone, and Sophia Efstathiou on voice and text.
Watch it here ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KJ4qJJjDgE )

Don’t miss the performance of our collaborators, Center for Genomic Gastronomy, at the Smak Ås festival this 16th of October 2021!

The performance is titled “NorVegan National Dish”, inspired by the former Norwegian Minister of Agriculture (Sylvi Listhaug)’s polling in 2014 when she proposed that there be a new National dish for Norway. In NorVegan National Dish Center for Genomic Gastronomy explore what a national dish made only from plants grown in Norway might taste like. For Smak Ås CGG conducted a historical re-enactment of the focus groups and polling that Listhaug hosted in 2014. This project also explores the uncomfortable space between a desire to re-localise food systems and the tendancy across Europe for increasing extreme nationalistic rhetoric. Meat eating (or not) is political, and CGG’s project aims to bring that dialogue to the foreground through food.

MEATigation is presenting its outcomes!

PI Sophia Efstathiou is holding an invited lecture on her latest chapter «Meat we don’t Greet -How ‘sausages’ can save pigs or how effacing livestock makes room for emancipation«. The talk is held as part of the University of Oslo Science Studies Colloquium series on October 27th, 2.15pm at Blindern Campus. Georg Sverdrups Hus, Undervisningsrom 1

See more details here

The MEATigation team is growing! Meet Johannes Volden,  Doctoral Research Fellow at Centre for Development and the Environment (SUM), University of Oslo.

Johannes will be working with MEATigation WP2 leader Dr. Arve Hansen on «Meating the Anthropocene: Barriers and opportunities for alternative proteins in Norway«. Johannes studied Human Geography and Sociology at Durham University and has a master’s degree in interdisciplinary environment and development studies from SUM. Johannes‘s research interests revolve around (un)sustainable consumption, particularly related to food and mobility. While his master’s thesis dealt with consumer air-travel, his PhD project focuses on the potentials and pitfalls of alternative proteins in households’ food practices and in the food system more broadly.

Johannes‘s project will inform MEATigation by investigating what role emerging meat alternatives – including plant-based protein, edible insects, and lab-grown meat – can play in transforming Norwegian food practices.

Fun facts about Johannes: he likes to play the guitar and is extremely terrified of jellyfish. 

MEATigation are recruiting households to participate in our study of how meat matters in Norwegian food practices, focusing on Oslo, Trondheim, and Ottadalen.

Vi er no i gang med å samle inn data på kjøtforbruk til MEATigation prosjektet. Vi ser etter alle typar folk, både dei som et mykje og dei som et lite/ingenting av kjøt. Det hadde vore strålande om de kan hjelpe til med å spre ordet.

For meir informasjon og for påmelding, sjå her: https://www.sum.uio.no/…/delta-i-forskningsprosjekt.html

‘Our’ PhD student: Vilde Johannessen participated in the Youth’s Climate Meeting in Trøndelag this March 2020.

The meeting’s proceedings are available here (på norsk).

MEATigation activities started, like many things in the spring of 2020, online.

We had our KICKOFF meeting in May 19-20, including keynotes from three amazing scholars: Karen Lykke Syse (UiO), on «Buying meat in Norway 1920-2020: Environmental impacts and cultural change»; Marthe Hårvik Austgulen (Centre for Welfare and Labour Research SIFO, Oslo Met), on «Environmentally sustainable meat consumption: the role of the citizen-consumer as part of the solution» and from New Zealand (she had to stay up that night!), Annie Potts (University of Canterbury, New Zealand) on «Meat Culture and its Alternatives». We learned a lot and got to hear about each other’s favourite animals (not only species, but individual animals), and laugh online with the ice-breaker activities prepared by the Gibberish improv group. Ours is a team of 25 people from different disciplines, countries and sectors and it is coming together! Watch the keynote lectures on our youtube channel!

Inderøyningen reporting on MEATigation

Our regular work activities are structured through in-group monthly meetings. Our first ON SITE meeting took place in our partner’s site Snerting Ranch, in June 17-20 2020. –You can MEET some of the human and non-human animals here. The weather gods were kind to us. We got to learn from Jon Leira about his practices of organic, low-intensity, grass-grazed cattle farming. We saw baby calf suckling their moms, and found out about the mostly off-hands way of managing the animals. Providing shelter, water and food when needed and otherwise allowing them to graze free. We were honoured that our project was featured in the local news, in a piece for Inderøyningen, by Reidar Sundal.