Sustainable Food Production, Consumption, and the Generation of

have implications for environmental policy. Policies aimed at changing consumer awareness of
and attitudes towards the environmental impact of consumption are becoming more prevalent in
Canada’s waste management goals.
The current over-consumption patterns in many industrialized countries coupled with
industry’s production of one way packaging has created an urgency to adopt more ecologically
conscious consumerism. In 1988, a model of ecologically conscious consumer behaviour was
developed in which personality variables and environmental attitudes were used to predict
ecologically responsible consumption patterns (Schwepker & Cornwall, 1991). Ebrero et al.
(1999) have defined this model as the purchase of products that benefit or cause less harm to the
environment than do more conventional consumer goods. The analysis of consumption patterns
that focus on packaging is a particularly important issue in the recent literature. Biswas et al.
(2000) found that waste recycling behaviour as well as ‘recycling shopping behaviour’
(purchasing products that have limited or recyclable packaging) were significantly affected by
attitudes towards recycling. This study also revealed the significance of the path from waste
recycling behaviour to recycling shopping behaviour demonstrating a potential affect of
recycling behaviour on other related behaviours such as shopping for recyclables. These
behaviours are directly related, in that consumers purchase the product because it has a particular
environmental benefit (e.g., the products packaging is recyclable) and can later choose to recycle
the package (Ebrero et al., 1999). As Berger (1997) suggests, recycling may be an initial step in
adopting other related behaviours.
Attempts have also been made to predict environmentally friendly behaviour and in
particular recycling behaviour from socio-demographic variables (Ebrero & Vining, 1990; Bratt,
1999; Ebrero & Vining, 2001). This research however, has produced conflicting results. In
some studies, socio-demographic variables have not been shown to be related to recycling
behaviour (Derkson & Gartrell, 1993); whereas in others pro recycling behaviour has been
associated with being young, female, liberal, highly educated, wealthy and from urban residence
(Mohai, 1991; Steel, 1996; Bratt, 1999; Ebrero et al., 1999). Despite some consistency within
the research, marketing researchers have found that to identify or predict environmentally
friendly behaviour from demographic variables was unreliable (Minton & Rose, 1997).
Consumers can contribute to waste prevention by prolonging the use of products and by
demanding products and packaging that are recyclable and/or have a low waste and a high
recycling content (Thogersen, 1997). Consumers can also contribute to waste minimization in a
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