Religion, Religiosity, Lifestyles and Food Consumption

The traditional literature on food demand has been based on the premise that consumers gain direct benefits from consumption of goods purchased at the market and has estimated the effect of prices, income and quality indicators on food purchases. However, for the most part, traditional demand studies that use prices and income as explanatory variables explain less than 50 percent of the variation in the data, and there is a place to increase the factors considered in demand analysis. Following Nobel Laureate Gary Becker’s introduction of the concepts of human capital and family production functions, new considerations have added to food demand theory. He argued that consumers derive benefits from commodities produced within the household using processes that utilize both market goods and family members’ time and skills. Another Nobel Laureate, George Akerlof, suggests that people consider the impact of their choices on family reputation within the context of social norms. The writings of Becker and Akerlof allow the inclusion of factors such as religion and gender in explaining consumer choices. This article presents research results that aim to explain the factors that determine the properties of purchased food products. In particular, we analyze how factors such as religion, religiosity, gender, and joy of cooking, in addition to the usual variables (product price and income), affect purchasing of food products with differentiated characteristics. We analyze consumer choices of various poultry products, in particular, the choices of cut versus whole and fresh versus frozen chicken. We also consider the choice of ready-to-eat chicken. Cut chicken requires less time to prepare than whole chicken, and frozen chicken requires less purchasing time relative to fresh chicken. Frozen chicken is also perceived as a convenience good with an element of “modernity.” Our empirical analysis is based on survey data collected in Israel in 1999, which has significant diversity both in terms of religious affiliation and adherence. The majority of Israelis are Jewish, but it has large Muslim and Christian minorities, and members of all three religions vary in the extent to which they observe religious mores. We concentrated on chicken since both Judaism and Islam forbid their followers to consume pork, and chicken is the major meat consumed in Israel. We also present results on the choice between chicken and other meats, and attitudes towards food modification, and how they demonstrate the importance of lifestyle and religious beliefs within a larger context. In preparing for our study, we searched but did not find studies on the impact of religion on the properties of consumed foods. However, we did find a study documenting that Pope Paul VI’s 1966 apostolic decree, which relaxed the Catholic Church’s rules demanding abstinence from meat consumption on Fridays, led to a significant decline in the demand for fish, threatening the viability of the fishing industry in the northeastern United States.