In a global food system under immense pressure, the environmental, health, and social impacts of beef consumption are a pressing challenge. Beef serves as a powerful proxy for examining broader food system dynamics, as it encapsulates systemic tensions and trade-offs. With global population growth accelerating demand, beef production is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and land degradation.   

The BeTrue project will investigate how true pricing mechanisms for beef can be embedded in systemic policy and regulatory changes to reduce consumption and support plant-based alternatives.  

The project will be carried out by SEVEN together with a consortium consisting of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, the Free University of Bolzano, and the University of Copenhagen. 

True cost pricing  

True cost pricing, the instrument used in the BeTrue project, aims to internalise hidden costs by incorporating environmental and societal impacts into market prices, and is increasingly recognised as a promising lever for change. It has the potential to address systemic inefficiencies across the food system. However, there has been little research on how true cost pricing might impact the food system. While true pricing is often presented as a systemic alternative, there is a lack of empirical evidence on how it functions in practice.      

BeTrue aims to fill these knowledge gaps by investigating how true pricing mechanisms for beef can be embedded in systemic policy and regulatory changes to reduce consumption and support plant-based alternatives. It is grounded in systems change theory, which suggests that small, targeted interventions can create self-reinforcing feedback loops that lead to transformative change.