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Ethics-Sociology-Philosophy

Animal welfare attributes in dairy production in Europe: Lessons learned from representative German consumer panel data and discrete choice analysis

By June 23rd, 2019May 25th, 2020No Comments

Document type: paper from proceedings of the 2019 Annual Meeting, July 21-23, Atlanta, Georgia held by the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association

Authors: Yascha Lena Koik, Holger D. Thiele, Ullrich Enneking

 

Summary: In recent years, the animal welfare debate in livestock farming has continued to grow, including dairy cattle farming. Germany is a good example for this animal welfare debate, as the discussion about animal friendly housing systems started earlier. Growing parts of consumers wish for products from more animal friendly housing systems. The high proportion of very sensitive consumers increases the pressure on the retail food industry to actively and earlier than in other regions serve the demand for animal welfare in milk production. As a result, consumers' interest in sustainable dairy products appears to have been reflected in product innovation. Numerous studies also show a willingness to pay (WTP) for products from animal-friendly production. To answer [remaining] questions, a Discrete Choice Experiment was carried out with the aim to empirically examine the acceptance and valuation of German consumers regarding animal welfare in dairy production.

Housing systems. The high proportion of very sensitive consumers increases the pressure on the retail food industry to actively and earlier than in other regions serve the demand for animal welfare in milk production. As a result, consumers’ interest in sustainable dairy products appears to have been reflected in product innovation. […] Numerous studies also show a willingness to pay (WTP) for products from animal-friendly production. […] To answer [remaining] questions, a Discrete Choice Experiment was carried out with the aim to empirically examine the acceptance and valuation of German consumers regarding animal welfare in dairy production.

Results revealed that a large share (44%) of respondents was unsure if dairy cows in Germany in general are doing well. In addition, only 23 % agreed to feel well informed about animal welfare in dairy production. From this it can be concluded that there is an information gap among German consumers regarding animal welfare in dairy production. One third of respondents stated to orientate themselves at certain seals or labels when shopping. Only 23 % agreed that milk with special animal welfare requirements is generally easy to recognize. The unawareness of labels or seals could be one indicator for the relatively low share of 33 % of respondents in this study that agreed to orientate at certain seals or labels. This study revealed that women have a higher willingness to pay for animal welfare milk than men. Grazing has a very positive effect on the intention to buy. The fact that grazing ranked first among all mentions to cow comfort-increasing measures shows that consumers consider grazing to be a great animal-welfare-enhancing factor. Although over 70% of respondents in the survey said they perceived dehorning of cows and calves as cruelty to animals, the "waiving of dehorning" attribute had no significant impact on the consumers decision.

Copyright 2019 by Yascha Lena Koik, Holger D. Thiele, Ullrich Enneking. All rights reserved. Readers may make verbatim copies of this document for non-commercial purposes by any means, provided that this copyright notice appears on all such copies.

From the AAEA website