Welfare Quality® research yields fresh insight into consumer knowledge
Research conducted by social scientists working for the Welfare Quality® project has shed new light on consumers’ views and concerns about farm animal welfare. Based on the results of 48 focus group interviews with over 350 consumers across 7 European countries, a detailed picture of consumers’ understandings of farm animal welfare has emerged. On the one hand, this research confirms previous suspicions that many contemporary European consumers are spatially and psychologically distanced from the realities of modern farming, that they are poorly informed about specific issues of animal biology and farming practices, and that most of their knowledge is derived from their experience of companion animals (pets) rather than farm animals. However, this is by no means the whole picture, as the research also shows that many consumers possess detailed understandings of the ethical issues behind farm animal welfare. Furthermore, many consumers are able to articulate passionate, well-informed and relevant views about what constitutes good quality of life for farm animals and the types of welfare concerns that they believe should be taken into account when monitoring and assessing welfare.
The research also shows that consumers’ knowledge about farm animal welfare (and, more precisely, consumers’ ability to articulate their knowledge about farm animal welfare) is highly context dependent. That is to say, consumers draw on and express different types of knowledge in response to different stimuli. For example, within the focus group interviews, at least three different strategies were employed to gain insights into the extent of consumers’ knowledge about farm animal welfare. First, participants were asked a direct question about how much they knew about this issue; second, participants were asked how familiar they were with welfare-friendly foods and what they knew about these goods; third, participants were asked to write down individually, and then discuss as a group, what they believed to be the most important priorities for ensuring good farm animal welfare. The first, more general, question often drew blank expressions, and they gave the impression that there is a lack of consumer knowledge about farming practices and animal welfare and that the knowledge consumers do possess is to a large extent shaped by mass media. The second question, in relation to welfare-friendly foods, highlighted the types of knowledge that consumers have gained through their practical day-to-day interactions with food products. Finally, the third question/task revealed that many consumers are able to clearly articulate the specific issues that they consider to be important for farm animal welfare (such as good health, outdoor access, humane slaughter, comfort and security, etc.) and to give sound justifications for their choices. Indeed, when taken as a whole, the types of concerns spontaneously raised by consumers show a high degree of overlap with the priorities championed by animal scientists working on the project. However, there are also some significant differences, which revolve around the importance that consumers attribute to small-scale, extensive, high labour-input systems that attempt to recreate more ‘natural’ living conditions. As such, one of the key issues facing the project is how to take on board consumers’ (as well as other key stakeholders such as farmers) legitimate concerns in a way that might best serve the needs of farm animals.
Adrian Evans
Work package 1.1 : Consumer Concerns
More information: EvansA18@Cardiff.ac.uk
Hanne Torjusen and Laura Terragni (Welfare Quality® partner SIFO, Norway) conducting focus group research in Norway.
