SUNY Potsdam Beef Consumption (2022)

Our research considers whether learning about beef consumption and its negative environmental consequences will influence SUNY Potsdam students’ frequency of beef consumption. We created a pre- and post-survey. The pre-survey includes demographic questions (hometown, college year, and current diet). Three professors granted us permission to address their courses: first, we administered the pre-survey to students; then we presented a ten-to-fifteen-minute review of the negative environmental consequences associated with beef consumption. One week later, we asked these professors to administer our post-survey to check for changes in response. We hypothesize that learning about the environmental consequences of beef consumption will decrease SUNY Potsdam student’s frequency of beef consumption. Understanding whether increased knowledge of beef’s negative effects on the environment reduces the frequency of someone’s beef consumption can help determine whether the impetus behind a lot of environmental change might be due to education, or a lack thereof.