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, the research confirms suspicions that many European consumers are geographically and mentally removed from 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 pets rather than farm animals. But 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. Consumers show a high degree of overlap with the priorities championed by animal scientists working on Welfare Quality®. But there are also some significant differences, which are mainly about 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 for further research 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. More