Sistema de marketing alimentar: uma análise da consideração ética do produto de origem animal

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze how the assumption of balance in the food marketing system is biased by practices of animal products consumption. In this regard, we discuss, in Chapter 2, the construction of the equilibrium concept, starting by conceptualizing exchange as the object of the marketing system activities, highlighting the role performed by each one of its stakeholders in means of fulfilling their interests, and the generation of imbalance within the system. Later in this chapter, we adopt the product as an element that is liable of moral consideration within the food marketing system, to the extent that we develop a classification of product that takes life as a differentiator for products of animal origin. For Chapter 3, the main goal was to define the characterization of imbalance in the food marketing system concerning the use of animals as its raw material, taking into account both the meat industry and the food performance directed to human beings. As such, we have turned to theories regarding environmental ethics and animal ethics in order to refute meat industry practices, emphasizing the need for moral consideration of animals involved in the food marketing system. In Chapter 4, we chose the epistemological path of Macromarketing to define three theoretical/empirical propositions, which constitute an alternative to the moral consideration of animals within the food marketing system. Specifically, we have adopted the consumer-citizen and the alternative hedonism perspectives to define strategies for moral consideration of animals via consumption, while we include the nutritional and the industrial perspectives to the analysis of consumption alternatives that exclude animal products. In these means, Proposition 1 refers to the surmountable hedonism in meat consumption, empirically observed through content analysis of interviews with meat consumers, and vegetarians and vegans. Proposition 2 indicates that the consumption of meat is nutritionally unnecessary, with proof given through content analysis of interviews with nutritionists. Proposition 3 concerns the analysis of industrially replacing the consumption of meat, which is based both on theoretical investigation of manufacturing possibilities, and on interviews with professionals from the food industry. Finally, we bring into discussion levels of moralization that enable moral consideration of animals by changing consumer behavior.