2nd Stakeholder Conference 3-4 May 2007
On 3 and 4 May in Berlin - Germany, a conference “Assuring animal welfare: from societal concerns to implementation”, reflecting the social and economic importance of animal welfare in the food quality chain in Europe, has taken place.
The research project WELFARE QUALITY (Integration of Animal Welfare in the Food Quality Chain) which is co-financed by the EU’s Sixth Research Framework Programme, discussed the results generated during the second and third year of the project.
The conference was especially relevant for Producer or animal breeding organisations, European and national politicians, retailer organisations, veterinarians, interest groups and policymakers.
More information in our press release/diary note: diary note fp6 welfare quality - final-rev2.doc

Consumer’ concerns about animal welfare when shopping vary widely between European countries. 
Results from a Welfare Quality^® survey
Considerable attention is being given to what consumers can do to improve farm animal welfare. Linking improvements of farm animal welfare to what people do as food consumers is essential to realise better animal welfare in Europe. This recent study shows that such linkages vary considerably across Europe.
In Europe, a large majority of consumers say that farm animal welfare is important. This ranged from 69% of respondents in the Netherlands, 73% in the UK, 75% in France to 83% in Hungary and Sweden. Norway and Italy scored the highest, with 84% and 87% respectively.
There is still concern among consumers, first of all related to conditions in poultry production, but also to conditions of pigs. Compared to these, people tend to see the treatment of dairy cows as least worrisome. People are concerned about conditions on the farm; transportation and slaughtering are also met with concern.
Public opinions differ considerably across the seven countries. Italian and French respondents are quite worried about welfare conditions in their own country; concerns are often associated with food purchasing, and trust in actors in the food sector is relatively low. Hungarians do worry about the issue and they are also more pessimistic about current trends, but animal welfare is of less relevance when shopping.
The Dutch display lower general interest, but many worry. Many do think of welfare conditions when shopping for eggs and beef. Trust in actors is high. The British show similar patterns, but trust in authorities, market actors and organisations is much lower. Finally, the Swedes and the Norwegians are engaged with the issue; they are trusting and not worried. Particularly in Norway, animal welfare is rarely associated with the consumer role.
Read more in the press release (Word documents in Dutch, German, English, Italian, Spanish and French) below.