Learning What Works: A Mixed-Methods Study of American Self-identified Food Conservers

Abstract

Objective: Identify psychosocial factors influencing food waste mitigation and explore motivations and strategies for successful conservation among self-identified food conservers.

Methods: Mixed-methods study consisting of an online survey estimating food waste production and psychosocial factors and a focus group to explore waste mitigation strategies and motivations.

Results: Sampled 27 self-identified conservers (female, aged 18-30 years, White/Asian). Mean household food waste was 6.6 cups/wk (range, 0.0-97.9 cups/wk; median 1.3 cups). Reported waste mitigation strategies include proactive mitigation and adaptive recovery measures in each phase of the food management continuum. Conservers reported various intrinsic and extrinsic motivations to reduce food waste and viewed barriers as manageable.

Conclusions and implications: Food conservers act on high intentions to reduce waste by consistently employing both proactive waste mitigation and adaptive food recovery measures. Future research is needed to determine if these findings hold in larger, more diverse samples and link specific behaviors to waste volume.

Keywords: food resource management; household food waste; nutrition security; positive deviance; self-determination theory.