Manuela APETREI1*, Ioan SURDU1, Carmen CĂTUNĂ BOCA1
1 Centre for Mountain Economy “CE-MONT” of the National Institute for Economic Research “Costin C. Kirițescu” – INCE, Romanian Academy, Str. Petreni, no. 49, Vatra Dornei, Romania
*Corresponding author: sincari_manuela@yahoo.com
Abstract
Food waste has become a major challenge both nationally and internationally. The constant promotion of abundance in the consumer society, combined with the cheapening of products and services, has generated the emergence of wasteful behavior. This trend can only be changed by educating and making people aware of the consequences of their actions and the benefits of redistributing, recycling or donating products, guided by the principles of ethical consumption. Preventing waste involves steps aimed at educating consumers on the one hand, and optimizing agricultural systems responsible for providing food on the other. Preventing food waste can only be achieved through a joint global effort, requiring consumer involvement, political will, propaganda, and understanding public policy instruments. The involvement of society and governments can also be achieved with the help of social marketing. Social marketing proves to be extremely useful in carrying out efforts to promote social causes, in our case the reduction of food waste through rational and sustainable consumption. Social marketing techniques are used to disseminate messages to different target groups. These messages aim to raise awareness of a specific behavior and are adapted according to the characteristics of the target group (age, socio-economic status). The final objective of the message transmitted with the help of social marketing is to mobilize, empower or inform the target audience. Basically, education is what produces awareness of the problems and this gives rise to a change in mentality, attitude and behavior, generating accountability.
Keywords:
food waste; social marketing; consumer behavior; consumerism; rational consumption