Katie Major

PhD student - Sustainable food consumption and behaviour change: A focus on meat, dairy and palm oil commodities

01752 636700

major.k@pgr.marjon.ac.uk

Role Summary

My PhD project focuses on behaviour change and sustainable food consumption, with specific interest on palm oil, meat and dairy commodities. My research aims to: 1) examine what influences consumers’ purchasing behaviour of meat, dairy and palm oil and their sustainable alternatives; 2) explore stakeholders’ perceptions of the challenges of producing/consuming sustainable food products and the changes that are needed to increase sustainable practices in the meat, dairy and palm oil supply chains; and, 3) to assess which behaviour change interventions influence consumer purchasing of products containing sustainable palm oil in real-world settings.

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Tweets by Katie Major

Qualifications

MSc Primate Conservation, Oxford Brookes University
BSc (Hons) Psychology with Criminology and Criminal Justice Studies

Teaching

Katie teaches on the SSCD02 Qualitative Research Methods module at Marjon University.

Research

Sustainable food consumption and behaviour change: A focus on meat, dairy and palm oil commodities

Start date: October 2020

Supervisors: Dr Gregory Borne, Professor Debby Cotton and Laura Wallis

Publications

Major, K. & Smith, D. (submitted) Using rangers to deliver a behaviour change campaign on sustainable palm oil in a UK zoo. Environmental Education Research.

Doodson, P., Major, K., Smith, D. & Garrett, S. (2019) Investigating the impact of staff-facilitated educational activities on visitor experience and self-reported learning at Bristol Zoo Gardens, UK. IZE 55: 23-28

Smith, D., Dyble, M., Major, K., Page, A.E., Chaudhary, N., Salali, GD., Thompson, J., Vinicius, L., Migliano, A.B. & Mace, R. (2019) A friend in need is a friend indeed: Need-based sharing, rather than cooperative assortment, predicts experimental resource transfers among Agta hunter-gatherers. Evolution and Human Behavior 40 (1): 82-89

Major K., Smith D. & Migliano, AB. (2018) Co-managers or co-residents? Indigenous peoples’ participation in the management of protected areas: A case study of the Agta in the Philippines. Human Ecology 46 (4): 485-495

Smith, D., Schlaepfer, P., Major, K., Dyble, D., Page, A.E., Thompson, J., Chaudhary, N., Salali, GD., Mace, R., Astete, L., Ngales, M., Vinicius, L. & Migliano, A.B. (2017) Cooperation and the evolution of hunter-gatherer storytelling. Nature Communications 8: 1853

Smith, D., Dyble, M., Thompson, J., Major, K., Page, A.E., Chaudhary, N., Salali, DG., Vinicius, L., Migliano, A.B. & Mace, R. (2016) Camp stability predicts patterns of hunter-gatherer cooperation. Royal Society Open Science 3 (7): 160131

Other Interests

My research interests include:

Sustainable palm oil production and consumption
Sustainable agriculture and food systems
Conservation psychology
Behaviour change campaigns and interventions promoting pro-environmental behaviour
Indigenous peoples rights and role as co-managers of protected areas
The role of indigenous peoples in conservation efforts
Zoo-based conservation communication and research
Global wildlife conservation

I am a member of the Soil Association’s Deforestation and Palm Oil Task and Finish Group and the European Palm Oil Alliance’s Extended Family Group, and provide advice to organisations on their sustainable palm oil procurement, policy and messaging. Previously I was a member of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) Palm Oil Working Group. I am also a Student Leader Climate Commissioner and GuildHE representative for the Climate Commission for UK Higher and Further Education Students and Leaders.

Outside of academia my interests include travelling to exotic places, reading in the sun, and my big fluffy ginger cat Jack.