There are four key phases to the project.

Phase One focuses on institutional and cultural drivers of sustainable food consumption. It analyses policy and media reports, business strategies, codes, campaigns and initiatives in the policy and popular domain. Key informant interviews will be conducted with government departments responsible for food procurement and standards, campaigners, and leading food retailers, wholesalers and restaurateurs. This will begin soon and is planned to be completed by December 2018.

In Phase Two, we focus on consumer habits and everyday trends, and will undertake ethnographic research in middle-class residential areas of Guangzhou, Rio de Janeiro and Johannesburg. Interviews will address household food consumption practices, judgments about 'good' food, and popular influences on food ethics and environmental values. Digital ethnographies will examine the online practices of consumers, including how they collect information, shop or review online, and the influence of social media on ethical judgment and creating markets for sustainable foods. Accompanied shopping interviews and co-cooking sessions will capture the nuances of food choices, moral judgments, engagement with government and corporate ethical initiatives, and the ordinary ethics of food purchase and use. This will begin December 2018 and should last around six months.

In Phase Three, we turn to fashion and trends, uses text mining of social media to trace lines of influence in sustainable food consumption.

Finally, Phase Four gathers quantitative data through a web-based survey of the drivers of sustainable food consumption and the behavioural intentions arising from these. This is important in both widening the reach of the research, and providing material with traction with policy and commercial actors.

Phases Three and Four will be completed from June 2019.