Animal Source Foods and Sustainable Funds. A Discursive Approach to Investments in the Animal Food Business

Abstract: Animal source foods have been targeted in a wide range of literature, highlighting the business as a major driver of climate change and biodiversity loss. This study shows how actors involved in sustainable funds approach animal source foods and how they regard the business as a potential selection criterion. Drawn on Maarten Hajers argumentative discourse analysis storylines where identified. In addition, the storylines were interpreted through the theory of ecocentrism. From the material 13 storylines were identified with different arguments towards investments in the animal food business, such as “No negative view per definition”, “The overall financial strategy makes specific criteria less required” and “New approaches may come in the future”. The storylines clearly show that there is no single, coherent, approach taken by the actors. Instead, the storylines provide different arguments, such as highlighting the search of win-win investments from an economic- and environmental perspective, giving a manifold of views on how to address the animal food business. This corresponds with earlier research stressing the lack of common practices and what to include in the sustainability concept. The analysis shows, thereby, that actors involved in sustainable funds don’t clearly and profoundly avoid investments in the animal food business, instead rather address specific practices within the business. To set the animal food business as a selection criterion for exclusion, wasn’t put forward in any great sense. This due to views such as the least sustainable investments (in animal source foods or not) already being filtered away by present financial strategies and criteria. However, the potential of such criteria to be set in the future, for example if stakeholders’ attitudes towards the business change, was highlighted. Interpreting the storylines from an ecocentric perspective gave few correlations between such values and the approaches taken by the funds towards the animal food business.