Consumers' Perception and Attitudes Towards Farm Animal Welfare
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FACULTY OF BIO-ENGINEERING Academic year 2009-2010 Consumers’ Perception and Attitudes towards Farm Animal Welfare Shanshan Chen A master dissertation submitted to Ghent University, Belgium, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Human Nutrition Promoter: Prof. dr. ir. Wim Verbeke Co-promoter: Ir. Filiep Vanhonacker 1 ABSTRACT ABSTRACT In developed societies, food supply has largely exceeded food demand and turned markets from product-driven into demand-driven economies, which leads marketing to better meet consumers’ needs, demands and preference. In the same time, the intensification in livestock production triggered by the blind pursuit of maximum profit has affected the sustainable development of animal husbandry in a negative sense. Thus concern for animal welfare among citizens as a public issue and among consumers as a product attribute is increasing. And animal welfare has become a public concern which influences the consumers, food products producers, researchers, policy makers, etc. On the contrary, animal welfare is rather a new issue and even a total new concept in most of the developing countries. The aim of this master thesis is to investigate the consumers’ perceptions and attitudes towards animal welfare, as well as how this attitude differs in societies and countries. Generally speaking, this thesis is based on two consumer studies. The first study consists of secondary data collected via consumer questionnaires in the context of a large European project (Q-PORKCHAINS). This project included five EU countries (Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Poland, and Greece), which allows to compare attitudes towards animal welfare cross-country. Further, attitudes towards animal welfare is related to different socio-demographic characteristics, food related lifestyle, inner characteristics (Schwartz Pictorial Value), different attitudes towards environment and nature, industrial food production technological progress and ethnocentrism, familiarity with livestock production and animal-based production and meat consumption. In the second study, an additional survey was performed in China by a new questionnaire. In this questionnaire, more basic questions were used since animal welfare is a rather new issue in China. This study could provide a balanced picture on the knowledge of animal welfare and the evaluation of it among consumers in China. It allows relating the concern for animal welfare to socio-demographics, familiarity with livestock production and animal-based production and meat i ABSTRACT consumption. Furthermore, conclusions from both studies will provide insights in similarities and dissimilarities between China and Europe in terms of attitudes and perceptions towards farm animal welfare, which is an issue that has not been profoundly researched yet. Resulting from Study 1, we found higher concern for animal welfare among consumers from the Northern oriented European countries when buying food, as compared to Southern and Eastern European countries. Regarding differences within societies, a higher concern for animal welfare was found among consumers who pay more attention to quality aspects, who enjoy shopping, who more frequently do shopping in special shops or buy organic foods, who planned what to buy in advanced, who are not care the price of the products, who like to search information of the products. Individuals with more benevolence and higher sense of being in security, and those who advocate hedonism, self-direction, universalism and more stimulation in their lives have a higher concern for animal welfare. Furthermore, people who worry about environment and nature and have negative attitudes towards industry food production are also associated with a higher concern about animal welfare. On the other hand, higher concern about animal welfare is found among female consumers, young people, people living in urban areas, people in higher financial state, and small household size. Based on Study 2, we found the level of knowledge about animal welfare is very low in China. Most Chinese consumers think higher animal welfare is an indicator for other more important attributes of the products such as food quality and safety. Furthermore, we found a very poor evaluation of farm animal welfare in China. Cattle are associated with the highest welfare while pigs and chicken have the lowest. Moreover, the conception of animal welfare among Chinese respondents bears more resemblance to the functional approach than mental and natural approaches. Most consumers think information about animal welfare is too little available, and they are willing to know more about animal welfare. They prefer to getting these kinds of information mainly through internet, animal welfare labels and food labels. ii ABSTRACT With respect to the impact of socio-demographic characteristics on consumers’ attitudes and perceptions towards farm animal welfare, we found there is a higher concern about animal welfare among consumers who are familiar with the livestock production in China which is contrary to that among European consumers. On the other hand, we did not find a big difference in the attitude towards animal welfare among male and female consumers, people who have children and those who have not, as well as in people who keeping a pet and those who have not. Finally, a higher concern for animal welfare is associated with a lower consumption of animal food products. iii DEDICATION Dedication This thesis is dedicated to my parents who have supported me form the beginning of my study. Aslo this thesis is dedicated to all thoes people who participated in the questionnairs. I would like to thank my promoter Prof. Dr. Ir. Wim Verbeke, for providing me an opportunity to do my master dissertation from where I learnt a lot. I would like express my gratitude to my supervisor ir. Filiep Vanhonacker for his patience and valuable supervision through the whole writing. I would like to thank Mie Remaut, the couse coordinator, and Marian, the course coordinator assistant, for their supports for my study and life in Belgium. Finally, I would like to thank my friend Yi Qiang, who give me great help in my study and thesis writing. i TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents 1. INTRODUCTION................................................................................................1 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ...................................................................................4 2.1. THE CONCEPT OF ANIMAL WELFARE ..............................................................4 2.2. PUBLIC ATTITUDE TOWARDS ANIMAL WELFARE............................................6 2.2.1. Animal attributes as attitude modifiers......................................................6 2.2.2. Individual human attributes as attitude modifiers.....................................7 2.2.2.1. Social structure positions...................................................................7 2.2.2.2. Individuals’ unique animal-related experience .................................9 2.2.3. Culture factors as attitude modifiers .........................................................9 2.2.4. Science as attitude modifiers ...................................................................10 2.3. CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR RELATED TO ANIMAL WELFARE ............................11 2.3.1. Food choice with animal welfare.............................................................11 2.3.2. People’s willingness to pay for animal welfare.......................................12 2.4. SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES ...............................................................................13 3. RESEARCH MATERIALS AND METHODOLOGY ..................................14 STUEY 1 ....................................................................................................................14 3.1. QUESTIONNAIRE AND SCALE..............................................................................14 3.2. DATA COLLECTION AND PROCEDURE ................................................................15 3.2.1. Data Collection..........................................................................................15 3.2.2. Dependent Variables..................................................................................15 3.2.3. Independent Variables ...............................................................................16 3.2.3.1. Food Related Lifestyle........................................................................16 3.2.3.2. Schwartz Pictorial Value.....................................................................17 3.2.3.3. Environment and Nature, Industrial Food Production and Technological Progress....................................................................................17 3.2.3.4. Ethnocentrism .....................................................................................17 3.2.3.5. Others..................................................................................................18 3.2.4. Procedure of analyzing..............................................................................18 i TABLE OF CONTENTS STUDY 2....................................................................................................................18 3.0. BACKGROUND OF CHINA....................................................................................18 3.1. QUESTIONNAIRE AND SCALE..............................................................................19 3.2. DATA COLLECTION AND METHOD .....................................................................20