Animal Welfare and Eggs - Cheap Talk or Money on the Counter?

International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, 2018

In this research, a dichotomous choice contingent valuation survey was conducted to investigate consumers’ willingness to pay for animal welfare eggs in Taiwan. A double-bounded interval-data model is used to estimate willingness to pay for animal welfare eggs. The estimation results showed that the average willingness to pay is 14.4259 NTD per egg. The results of this research also showed that demographic variables such as age, income, education degree, occupation, and religion had an impact on willingness to pay for animal welfare eggs. The respondents associate with traditional religions such as Buddhism and Taoism were willing to pay more than those who were unassociated. The empirical results also revealed that respondents were willing to pay for animal welfare products partly because of their food safety concerns.

2007

Increasing animal welfare standards requires changes along the supply chain which involve several stakeholders: scientists, farmers and people involved in transportation and slaughtering. The majority of researchers agree that compliance with these standards increases costs along the livestock value chain, especially for monitoring and certifying animal-friendly products. Knowledge of consumer willingness to pay (WTP) in such a decision context is paramount to understanding the magnitude of market incentives necessary to compensate all involved stakeholders. The market outcome of certification programs is dependent on consumer trust. Particularly, there is a need to understand to what extent consumers believe that stakeholders operating in the animal-friendly supply chain will respect certification standards. We examine these issues using a contingent valuation survey administered in five economically dominant EU countries. The implied WTP estimates are found to be sensitive to robust measures of consumer trust for certified animal-friendly products. Significant differences across countries are discussed.

Proceedings of The 1st International Electronic Conference on Animals—Global Sustainability and Animals: Science, Ethics and Policy

We investigated the current knowledge of animal welfare issues, the perception of current welfare of laying hens, and the willingness-to-pay in consumers in Santiago, the main city and capital of Chile. Most people were well educated in animal welfare concepts, and declared that the welfare of laying hens is very important and should be protected, and were willing to pay between 5% and 10% of current value for eggs produced in welfare-friendly systems. Our results show a clear predisposition for choosing products derived from animal production systems that respect animal welfare, which should be considered for the sustainability of egg production in Chile.

Sustainability, 2019

We conducted a labelled discrete choice experiment (DCE) to assess consumers’ preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for fresh hens’ eggs produced via different production systems (caged, barn, free range, or organic). We estimated purchase intentions and WTP for different possible reductions (0%, 10%, 20%, and 30%) of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and water use in the egg production systems. Data were collected using an online open-ended questionnaire completed by a representative sample of 1045 Spanish egg consumers. The results of a random parameter logit (RPL) model showed heterogeneous preferences for different types of eggs with higher marginal utility and WTP for a production system ensuring higher animal welfare level, such as free-range eggs. However, consumers showed a lower preference for organic eggs at the actual market prices since they were unwilling to pay for this category of eggs. Moreover, there were positive marginal WTPs for reductions in GHG emissions and wa...

Food Ethics

There is widespread and growing concern among U.S. consumers about the treatment of farmed animals, and consumers are consequently paying attention to food product labels that indicate humane production practices. However, labels vary in their standards for animal welfare, and prior research suggests that consumers are confused by welfare-related labels: many shoppers cannot differentiate between labels that indicate changes in the way animals are raised and those that do not. We administered a survey to 1,000 American grocery shoppers to better understand the extent to which consumers purchase and pay more for food with certain labels based on an assumption of welfare improvement. Results showed that 86% of shoppers reported purchasing at least one product with the following labels in the last year: “cage or crate-free”, “free-range”, “pasture-raised”, “natural”, “organic”, “no hormone”, “no antibiotic”, “no rBST”, “humane”, “vegetarian-fed”, “grass-fed”, “farm-raised”. Of those wh...

Animal Welfare, 2023

Consumer concern about farmed animal welfare is growing but does not always translate into real-world purchasing behaviour of welfare-friendly animal products for human consumption. Possible reasons for this include unfamiliarity with farming practices and economic sensitivity. In contrast, the number and role of pets in the United States have grown measurably, and spending on pets is strong. The pet food market has many opportunity niches as pet owners navigate strong marketing trends and nutrition philosophies. We hypothesised that pet owners in the US would be willing to pay a premium for pet food containing welfare-friendly animal ingredients. Eight hundred and thirty-eight pet owners completed an online survey asking questions that measured their knowledge of and interest in farm animal welfare, and their willingness-to-pay for pet food labelled as farm animal welfare-friendly. Respondents overall displayed relatively low knowledge about farm animal welfare, but poor self-assessment of their own knowledge. They displayed interest in farm animal welfare and an overall positive mean willingness-to-pay (WTP) for welfare-friendly pet food. Younger respondents, women and cat owners displayed a higher WTP than older respondents, men and dog owners. Income level was not correlated to WTP. Creating pet food products that contain animal ingredients produced using welfare-friendly practices may enhance farm animal welfare via two primary avenues: by providing a sustainable and value-added outlet for the by-products of welfare-friendly human food products, and by providing an educational opportunity about farm animal production via pet food packaging and other advertising.

Journal of Dairy Science, 2008

This study aimed to verify whether consumers con- firm their willingness to pay extra costs for higher animalwelfarestandardsinasituationwhereapoten- tial purchase performed by consumers, such as the Vickrey auction, is used. A 104-member consumer panelwasaskedtorateitswillingnesstopay(WTP)for plain and low-fat yogurts in 3 information conditions: tasting without information (blind WTP), information about animal welfare without tasting (expected WTP), tasting with information about animal

2006

Producing according to enhanced farm animal welfare (FAW) standards increases costs along the livestock value chain, especially for monitoring certified animal friendly products. In the choice between public or private bodies for carrying out and monitoring certification, consumer preferences and trust play a role. We explore this issue by applying logit analysis involving socio-economic and psychometric variables to survey data from Italy. Results identify marked consumer preferences for public bodies and trust in stakeholders a key determinant.

2015

In developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, policy makers have been reluctant to formulate animal welfare policies. This is despite potential benefits of such policies including increased domestic and global consumers' demand for products that are compliant with humane treatment of animals. This study employed a choice experiment method to establish consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for animal welfare attributes in chicken. Data were drawn from 200 chicken consumers in Nairobi, Kenya and estimated using a random parameter logit model. The results indicate that consumers were willing to pay a premium for humanely-treated chicken. The consumers had a positive and significant preference for use of certified transportation means, humanely slaughtered chicken and animal welfare labelling. However, the consumers showed a negative preference for use of antibiotics in chicken production. These findings are vital for formulation of product differentiation strategies in the...

Trends in Food Science & …, 2010

Consumers currently tend to rely more and more on extrinsic cues and credence characteristics, including process characteristics (e.g. the way animals are raised), to form their expectations about animal-based food products. This review shows that if expectations are negatively disconfirmed, the hedonic ratings and consumer willingness to pay move towards the expectations induced by information on animal welfare according to the sensitivity of different groups of consumers. The combination of reliable animal welfare monitoring and effective labelling of animal-based products may then help meeting the increasing demand for animal welfare-friendly products while sustaining the welfare of the animals.