Nature connectedness may be more important than species knowledge for biodiversity-friendly food choices

Intensive agricultural land use threatens biodiversity worldwide. In Europe, agricultural policy promises to support farmers in using practices that not only avoid reducing biodiversity but actively sustain it throughout agricultural landscapes. Farmers often lament, however, that policy is inadequate and that they are left on their own with the responsibility of conserving biodiversity. Thinking across the biodiversity and food nexus may better support farmers. Specifically, citizens can support the shared effort to conserve biodiversity through the food that they eat, and more broadly, through their interactions with their landscape. However, given the increasing disconnection of people from nature in industrialized countries, like those in Europe, it is unclear in how far people are aware of their local biodiversity and perceive their food choice as a wider part of shaping landscapes. Here, our aim was to explore the causal chain from human-nature connection (cognitive and emotional) to felt responsibility and to food choice in two small towns located in a German agricultural landscape. We conducted short interviews with over 450 people in the streets of those towns to capture their knowledge of plant and bird species, emotional connectedness to nature, their perceived responsibility for conservation, food choices and demographic characteristics. Citizens’ biodiversity knowledge was limited, while they still felt emotionally related to nature. Structural equation models revealed that rather than knowledge of local species, emotional relatedness determined citizen’s felt responsibility for local biodiversity, which in turn positively affected the preference for local and organic food. Findings more specifically show that older people are more emotionally connected to nature, feel responsible for conservation, and prefer seasonal and regional food. Male participants felt less responsible for biodiversity conservation than their female counterparts. Higher income of citizens was positively related to organic food choices. Our study shows that fostering nature connectedness, particularly in young people, can promote biodiversity-friendly food choices and contribute to integrated landscape approaches. Thinking of biodiversity conservation and diet shifts together via “response-able” citizenship may support human well-being and health in the face of climate change. Such nexus-thinking could therefore complement policy-centered approaches to farmland biodiversity conservation.